What’s so good about English?

[thefoxaroo]

I’ve never professed to be well educated. Coming from a family who by today’s standards would be considered poor, so too was my schooling. Hampered further by impatient, domineering parents and by a learning difficulty that back then I didn’t know the name of

Comments

[dewhitton]

I love that series; it's brilliant! I really like the Bible translation episode.

English is a dynamic and evolving language, not afraid to steel words from other languages. No one tries to keep it "pure," unlike the French Government who has a department to keep the French Language uncontaminated by foreign words.

[dhlawrence]

They try, but it never happens. French has assimilated a lot of English expressions, especially from the Internet.

[r_caton]

Welsh does that... with "welshed" spelling
"gofi" for example. Wanna guess what that's bean?

[thefoxaroo]

No idea. What's "Gofi" mean?

On the subject of Welsh... Play from 2:18 to 2:30.

[r_caton]

Gofi = Coffee

[thefoxaroo]

...and here I need one of Old Wolf's icons in foxaroo form to show a pair of rolling eyes.

Mai Jones (Welsh accent): Who's that?
Seagoon: I just brought your saucepan bach. Ha ha ha.
Mai Jones: Oh, it's Harry son back from the pit bach. You're back early from the pit bach?
Seagoon: Yes, I found a piece of coal so they sent me home.
Milligan: Meiouw.
Seagoon: Puss, puss, come here, puss bach.
Milligan: Meiouw, meiouw bach.
Seagoon: [Dry] That's the first time I've heard a cat bark.

(Cat barking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP3gzee1cps)

[thefoxaroo]

(Rose Quoll avatar, yay!)

Thanks Den, I'll be keeping an eye open for that chapter. :)

Steeling words as in reinforcing them, or stealing them as in pilfering? ;)

This is why I'd like to learn another language, and French could be a candidate if I do ever move to Canada.

[dewhitton]

Both! Good old English words like Bungalow and Verandah came from India.

We Aussies are just as bad (good?) at this. Our word for cheap wine "plonk" was brought back from France by the WW1 Diggers, from the French blanc (white wine.)

The Bible episode is excellent. It covers the language shift from Middle English of Chaucer to Early Modern English of The Tudors. Also, Wycliffe, Tyndale and the King James translations of the bible from Latin to English.

[thefoxaroo]

(Was drawing attention to the difference between "steel" and "steal" because I suspect you had the two confused back there).

I heard that the French name for that wine was "pleh'onk." I don't think it's truly Aussie though; the word was used in the movie "Educating Rita" set in Liverpool, England (filmed in Dublin).

[r_caton]

There were Enlish soldiers too who brought the term "plonk" from blanc

It's not so much the location that counts as the date....
but would a Tommy be drinking wine pre-1914? Wine isn't a working class drink, never was and as such not the sort of thing a poor bloody infrantryman would be acquainted with.
If you have an interest in colloquial English take a look at the work of Eric Partridge; there is another book called "Hobson Jobson" that reveals the crossovers from the Indian sub continent.