Carol's questions for New Steve Was: Tempest in a teapot/cup/kettle

[Geoff Bannister]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Cabal" <md at ...> wrote:
>
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com
> [mailto:HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Geoff Bannister
> Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2009 4:01 PM
> To: HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Carol's questions for New Steve Was: Tempest
> in a teapot/cup/kettle
> 
> 
> Geoff:
> Strictly speaking, that isn't accurate. At the time of the Norman Conquest, 
> the general language of Britain was Anglo-Saxon. German and English are 
> closely related languages. During the early years of the Normans, French 
> was the official language and Anglo-Saxon was left in the hands of the 
> yeomans and peasants and in the intervening period, they did interesting 
> things like largely demolishing gender and annihilating most of the case 
> structure and inflection, the combination of the two ending up by giving 
> us possibly one of the most expressive languages in the world.
> 
> :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
> 
> It is accurate, because you are speaking of a much latter period, after the
> Anglos and Saxons arrived. But long, long before the Anglo/Saxon period the
> inhabitant of the area where people that migrated from Germany. No matter
> how you look at it, the Germans where there first, before the Anglo/Saxon,
> before the Norman invasion and French rule. You are correct, except you and
> I are not talking about the same part of history. 

Geoff:
You've just created a paradox because I said that strictly speaking, that wasn't 
accurate and you said it was but then said that I was correct.
:-)

I didn't say we were talking about the same period of history. I was 
pointing out that the expansion of the English vocabulary began its 
take-off in the mid-11th century after the Norman invasion at a time 
when the official language of England was Anglo-Saxon. Whether 
Anglo-Saxon had developed from Old High German or other sources 
at an earlier date is not germane to my comments.

md:
> I just spent an entire semester studding origins of the English Language,
> it's pretty damn fresh in my mind -- it was also covered in several Brit-Lit
> courses from a time ago.

Geoff:
That must have been a fascinating term's course. I considered going 
into linguistics instead of Maths when I left school but couldn't see 
it as the most rewarding career path.