Can Parent and Daughter co-exist?

[Steven A. Gustafson]

JoatSimeon at aol.com wrote:

>> Looked at with the proper mental squint, written English is as much a dead
>> language as Latin is.

> -- this is a gross exaggeration.  The _spelling_ of written English is
> archaic (non-phonetic) because it became standardized during a massive
> sound-shift, but using modern pronunciation it can be read aloud and
> understood by any native speaker of the language.

It may be an exaggeration, but I would suggest that it isn't as
far-fetched as you might think.  First, a fluent English reader needs to
internalize etymological data, which she applies as she goes along.
Coming across an unfamiliar written word, she must first attempt to
determine whether it is a native Germanic word, or a Norman word, or a
later French word, or a learned Greco-Latin word, or something else
entirely, before she knows what set of rules to apply to attempt to
pronounce it.

At the time of the Counter-Reformation there was a great deal of fuss
being made about standardizing the pronunciation of Latin in the Roman
Church liturgy.  This suggests that Latin was pronounced very
differently from one region to another before.  From our vantage point,
it is hard to say how much people understood back then when they heard
Latin being spoken aloud in the local pronunciation; but I suspect they
understood quite a bit of it --- depending, again, on how much
etymological data they had internalized, the better to internally
reconstruct more familiar structures out of the Latin words and syntax.

Similarly, contemporary English speakers may be able to follow familiar
texts read from the Declaration of Independence or the King James Bible;
but new texts in similar styles may be much harder for them to grasp.  I
know that when I sit down to watch Shakespeare performed, it takes me
about fifteen minutes or so before I am able to follow what is being
said.  Before I have readjusted my set, spoken Shakespeare sounds like
gibberish.  Still, I can -read- the Shakespeare without a problem.

--
Steven A. Gustafson, attorney at law
Fox & Cotner:  PHONE (812) 945 9600   FAX (812) 945 9615
http://www.foxcotner.com

Ecce domina quae fidet omnia micantia aurea esse, et scalam in
caelos emit.  Adveniente novit ipsa, etiamsi clausae sint portae
cauponum, propositum assequitur verbo.