Anglo-Saxon monosyllables

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Geoff Bannister"
<gbannister10 at ...> wrote:

> Looking at the etymology involved may help to explain why these 
> 
> Not only was grammar simplified but many words which had been 
> everyday words in Anglo-Saxon became slang words, or swear 
> words or derogatory terms. And many of the words involved were 
> those referring to bodily functions.

I am SO GLAD that English went through a phase when it was taken away
from schoolteachers, snobs, and purists, and left to ordinary people,
thus sparing us many complicated and useless conjugations. I wish
French had gone through a similar phase -- how wonderful if there were
no temps literaire! I can't even do the *ordinary* subjunctive!

(I admit that the above principle means that not only should Tim learn
to tolerate people saying 'irregardless' and Lee should learn to
tolerate people saying 'laying around' and my ex should learn to
tolerate people using 'they' as singular and 'everyone' as plural, but
*I* should learn to tolerate people saying 'flaunt' when they mean
'flout'. Ugh.)

I currently don't agree with you about *when* the 'vulgar words' (fair
enough, I guess, as 'vulgar' means the common people, as the Bible
translated from educated Hebrew and Greek to the common Latin of
working class people in Rome is called the 'Vulgate') moved from being
informal to carrying a whole load of negativity. I can't speak ancient
dialects of English well enough to time travel back to listen to
people quarrelling to hear what words they used, and I don't really
know what written sources we have.