A bit on Language; and a New Anime.
So before I cam home for the summer a friend loaned me a book entitled A History of the English Language. I'm in "The Renaissance, 1500-1650" right now, but having just come out of "Middle English" thought I'd share a few things I've learned thus far:
Looking at samples of Old English text, it looks a lot more like Modern German than it does Modern English. Which makes enough sense, because German and English (as well as languages such as Dutch and Swedish) are all Germanic languages. English became considerably less Germanic-looking after the Norman Conquest, which opened the door for a lot of French infiltration into the language. According to the book, some 10,000 words spoken in the English language today are of French origin. But a lot of those were introduced into English fairly early, and after that introduction underwent transformation in structure/pronunciation/whatever in their native language, which is why, for example, a word of French origin spoken in English may be pronounced "c", while in French today it would be "ch." So, Old English is to Modern German as Old French is to Modern English, sort of.
Or, as put by some printer named Caxton:
"And certaynly our language now used varyeth ferre from that whiche was used and spoken whan I was borne. For we englysshe men ben borne under the domynacyon of the mone, whiche is never stedfaste, but ever waverynge, wexynge one season, and waneth & dyscreaseth another season. And that comyn englysshe that is spoken in one shyre varyeth from a nother."
Just thought that was kind of interesting.
Speaking of French, I checked out the first volume of the anime Le Chevalier D'Eon from the library and finished watching it (the disk) today. It's about the French Revolution, or at least events leading up to it. I know that Robespierre appears as a character later on, though I haven't made it to that point yet (there was a booklet that came with the DVD that gave some background to the show). Also there's a group of alchemist-type people who can make other people into "gargoyles," which appear to be sort of like zombies, except without being killed first, who appear to be on the Revolutionary side. I think, going from the opening credits, that Robespierre may be one of them.
But I'm digressing. It's not really a show about Robespierre, I think, it's about D'Eon, the titular character. And I've gotta say, I checked it out mainly from boredom and because the cover looked sort of interesting, but it's actually fairly good. I'm only disappointed that the library's such a tease and has just the first volume, which I suppose makes little difference to me right now because I'm heading out to the duplex on Saturday, but still. I'll be searching on the Internet to see if there's some place I can watch the rest of the series.
Here's a video containing the opening theme, "Born" by Miwaka Okuda, and the closing theme, "Overnight" by Aya Kamiki, courtesy of DarkOtaku94 on YouTube:
Looking at samples of Old English text, it looks a lot more like Modern German than it does Modern English. Which makes enough sense, because German and English (as well as languages such as Dutch and Swedish) are all Germanic languages. English became considerably less Germanic-looking after the Norman Conquest, which opened the door for a lot of French infiltration into the language. According to the book, some 10,000 words spoken in the English language today are of French origin. But a lot of those were introduced into English fairly early, and after that introduction underwent transformation in structure/pronunciation/whatever in their native language, which is why, for example, a word of French origin spoken in English may be pronounced "c", while in French today it would be "ch." So, Old English is to Modern German as Old French is to Modern English, sort of.
Or, as put by some printer named Caxton:
"And certaynly our language now used varyeth ferre from that whiche was used and spoken whan I was borne. For we englysshe men ben borne under the domynacyon of the mone, whiche is never stedfaste, but ever waverynge, wexynge one season, and waneth & dyscreaseth another season. And that comyn englysshe that is spoken in one shyre varyeth from a nother."
Just thought that was kind of interesting.
Speaking of French, I checked out the first volume of the anime Le Chevalier D'Eon from the library and finished watching it (the disk) today. It's about the French Revolution, or at least events leading up to it. I know that Robespierre appears as a character later on, though I haven't made it to that point yet (there was a booklet that came with the DVD that gave some background to the show). Also there's a group of alchemist-type people who can make other people into "gargoyles," which appear to be sort of like zombies, except without being killed first, who appear to be on the Revolutionary side. I think, going from the opening credits, that Robespierre may be one of them.
But I'm digressing. It's not really a show about Robespierre, I think, it's about D'Eon, the titular character. And I've gotta say, I checked it out mainly from boredom and because the cover looked sort of interesting, but it's actually fairly good. I'm only disappointed that the library's such a tease and has just the first volume, which I suppose makes little difference to me right now because I'm heading out to the duplex on Saturday, but still. I'll be searching on the Internet to see if there's some place I can watch the rest of the series.
Here's a video containing the opening theme, "Born" by Miwaka Okuda, and the closing theme, "Overnight" by Aya Kamiki, courtesy of DarkOtaku94 on YouTube:
Click to view