History of the English Language

at 07/03/09 1:47AM
I'm learning so much in college. It takes up way too much time, but I'm learning ever so much. I love to learn. I just don't like being forced to prove that I did actually learn.
This past month, I took a summer course entitled: History of the English Language. I have been dying to take this course since my first semester at UNA. It wasn't offered until now. It lived up to the expectations. I love History (when we don't beat it to death... again.), I love speaking English (it's easy for me), and I love Language: I think I'd like to be a linguist... or just an amateur linguist. The study of languages is so fascinating. Anyway. I wanted to give you all a sample of what I learned.


Toode Ai wint swimin. Ai jis jumt en thet watr end koold maiself awf. So, et this poynt ken inywun undrstend mi. Yoo si, en mai clas wi lernd thet ef wi rot laik wi talk than no wun wood undrstend et. Wi hev ben trend too falo e standrdaizd spelin fer hundrds uv yerz. Izt thes amezen? No wundr wi dont rekugnaiz Old Inglesh. The rot laik the talkd.



So, if reading that was as hard for you as writing it was for me, you get the picture. Imagine reading that, but not having all the same letters and words as you do and not pronouncing things as you do. = reading Old English. Which, surprisingly, is mostly Germanic in origin. According to linguists (who are human and therefore fallable), English, as a language structure, is actually distantly related to Hittite (or the language they found in the Hittite region that they attribute to the Hittites since they lived there). There are similarities in the sentence structure, the pronunciation, and other linguistical aspects that make the languages (not the people) related. I found that fascinating. and so much more.

Ok.

I'm going to bed. No, I wasn't falling asleep while writing this. I intended to write what looks like gibberish.

Jennie
  • two
    Actually, I read it fairly easily! The only word that threw me was "rot", which I assumed the first time was "write" instead of "wrote", and it made me wonder what your accent is like :-)

    I really think that spelling would be much easier if they would teach diction in first grade. We formalized spelling two hundred years ago, but didn't freeze pronunciation at that point. That's why people seem to think that "our" and "are" are homonyms. (Yes, I've seen people write "are" when they meant "our"!)

    And hey, the new comment box allows multiple lines!
    by two at 07/03/09 9:17AM
  • the_mom
    I love the new picture!
    by the_mom at 07/04/09 9:43PM
  • dr_corndog
    I have to wonder about your pronunciation, too, especially since I've heard you talk. Maybe you just know more about phonetic spelling than I.
    by dr_corndog at 07/05/09 8:48AM
  • bzyabsma
    I love linguistics and etymology. My kids don't enjoy playing word games (Scrabble, Boggle, etc) with me. ha ha
    by bzyabsma at 07/11/09 9:45AM
  • age_six_racer
    oh man... history of the english language was probably the hardest class i had in college! you'll have to let me know how it goes!~
    by age_six_racer at 07/19/09 12:25AM
  • quack
    had that with Dr. Foster many years ago...so much fun!
    by quack at 07/21/09 11:10AM
  • quack
    Actually, I take that back. I actually took Linguistics, but he talked about his HoIL class a lot in there, so I feel like I got the benefit of both. Oh, the thrill of the labial stop...
    by quack at 07/21/09 11:11AM
  • the_mom
    Happy Birthday a couple of days early!!
    by the_mom at 07/24/09 6:02PM
  • bzyabsma
    I take that back, I have actually just recently played Boggle and Scrabble with my middle son (and he always wants to drag the dictionary out to make sure his word is 'real'). I have never played Upwords but always thought it looked like fun.
    by bzyabsma at 07/25/09 9:00AM
  • bzyabsma
    I take that back, I have actually just recently played Boggle and Scrabble with my middle son (and he always wants to drag the dictionary out to make sure his word is 'real'). I have never played Upwords but always thought it looked like fun.
    by bzyabsma at 07/25/09 9:00AM
  • quack
    He was actually one of the most awesome teachers I have ever experienced, and also an excellent boss and a very cool musician to boot! And Dumbledore's beard always reminds me of him...
    by quack at 08/01/09 11:52PM
  • quack
    He was pretty tough, though!
    by quack at 08/01/09 11:53PM