Search results for 'tag:English vocabulary tag:Dialects' matching tags 'English vocabulary' and 'Dialects'

Re: How to learn a new vocab!

Jack LIU — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 15:07:56 GMT

Anonymous wrote:

First of all, I would like to introduce myself as a native born American of native born American parents. I would like to comment in regard to my observation of foreign born people and their use of English. Of those people I have known from other countries, even those who have lived in the United States for decades, I have always been able to detect some type of accent, even if it is slight. However, more commonly, the accent continues to be pronounced. The only exception is among those who moved to the United States as very young children and, for all practical purposes, are native speakers. This is true even among highly educated immigrants. There are subtle differences in pronunciation that seem to be resistant to change.

My second comment pertains to American versus British English. I find speakers of Standard British English to be just as easy to understand as speakers of Standard American English. I agree that there is so much in common and differences are not significant between these two forms of English. The differences lie primarily among the various regional dialects in both countries. For example, I find the speech of the British Prime Minister to be much easier to listen to, as well as much closer to my style of speaking, than that of Americans in various areas of the United States.

I am going to US next July. I badly need your help with my English vocabulary. Could you be my friend through MSN? I really appreciate your help.

Re: "Franglo-Saxon"

Forbes — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 00:09:42 GMT

I repeat what I said elswhere:

The notion that there is something such as the purity of a language (English or any other) that can be preserved is entirely misconceived.

Let's go back roughly 1500 years to when Germanic tribes started to settle in Britain. They are believed to have come from different parts of what is now Denmark, Germany and Holland. It seems highly likely that the different groups spoke different varieties or dialects of the same language. This appears to be confirmed by the different dialects of Old English that can be seen from the texts that began to appear a few centuries later.

The next stage was the invasion of the Vikings. By the time they came the varieties of language that the invaders spoke had become differentiated from the varieties of language spoken by the Angles, Saxons, Frisians and Jutes who had settled a few centuries earlier. We can probably talk about the invaders and the "English" speaking different languages, but with a high degree of mutual intelligibilty. Many Scandinavian words entered the English language, most notably they, them and their and are.

The Norman Conquest did of course lead eventually to huge changes in English vocabulary. After that borrowings form Latin and Greek continued to enrich the language and we must not forget the influx of words from all over the world more or less starting with European colonialisation.

The position is now such that no one, however clever they are, can understand Old English without learning it as if it were a foreign language.

So, if you want to restore the "purity" of the English language how far back do you want to go? Even if you go as far back as the time when it could be said that "English" was a separate language from what was spoken on the continent, you still have the problem of which variety to choose.

And I add:

The "cultural invasion" to which you refer is after all by a variety of English. To the extent that there is Standard American and Standard British English the differences between them are very small. The new vocabulary of popular culture is for the most part ephemeral.

All languages are to a greater or less degree fragmented into dialects, but this does not threaten the dialect accepted as the standard form of the language.

Re: Poll: The purity of englsih language

Forbes — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 12:43:31 GMT

The notion that there is something such as the purity of a language (English or any other) that can be preserved is entirely misconceived.

The position is now such that no one, however clever they are, can understand Old English without learning it as if it were a foreign language.

Re: Unliable

paco2004 — Tue, 29 Mar 2005 23:16:56 GMT

Hello Mav

My understanding about the historical development of the English language is like this:

English basically belongs to Teutonic languages along with German, Dutch, and Scandinavian languages. The oldest form of English (Old English/Anglo-Saxon) had been quite similar to present day German. The Old English had a complicated grammar system like noun cases such as present day German has. But during 9-11 centuries many Scandinavians came to Britain as invaders and got inter-married with the native Anglo-Saxons. The language (Old Norse) the invading Scandinavians spoke had also a complicated grammar system somehow different from Old English. The children born between Old Norse speaking fathers and Old English speaking mothers got puzzled at a question; which language should they speak, father's language or mother's language? Their choice was the easiest way: mix the two languages and simplify the grammar, just like making a kind of pidgin language. This pidginized mixture of Old English and Old Norse developed into Middle English in 10-14 centuries, the time when England was ruled by French nobles who were utterly unconcerned about what language the people of lower classes were speaking. I think the main frame of present day English has its origin in this Middle English, The English vocabulary has been increased by borrowing the words from French and Latin. But most of the words English speakers are using in everyday speech are either Old English or Old Norse in origin.

If you learn Swedish (one of the present day form of Old Norse), you will be surprised at the close similarities between English and Swedish in vocabulary, above all in grammar. To my ears English and Swedish are like two regional dialects of one language.

paco