LL-L "Lexicon" 2009.11.15 (04) [EN]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 15 November 2009 - Volume 04
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From: Mark Dreyer <mrdreyer at lantic.net>
Subject: LL-L "Lexicon" 2009.11.12 (01) [EN]

 Dear David & All:

Subject: LL-L "Lexicon"

"So what if the Normans had never come?"

A fine string but long. Before Our Ron cuts it short let me say this:

English is an old tongue among those still spoken. Furthermore, throughout
that time wise men have worked it hard. It now has the biggest word hoard of
any tongue, & the least used. I believe any man may now so speak his
mind that his hearers will follow. I say not one new word need be made, nor
any drawn from the store of those borrowed from the Romance tongues. You
will find the word in English, & for the few things or thoughts where one
will not serve, use two or at the most three for better understanding.

Forgive me for harking back so on Afrikaans - let another Lowlander do the
same as freely. However, from my early schooldays on, sometimes we would
play with English in Afrikaans, such as with words coming forth in both.
Read this: "Let us foregather. We shall hold a foregathering with the family
by the house over the household goods."

This sort of thing can be done another way for fun, & sound wilfully stupid.
This way is to make as much sense as you can, & you can, isn't that so? Even
so it is fun in its own way. By the same token one can use English with
Anglo-Saxon roots & do without 'borrowings'.

I say again, do not make one more new word. There is no need, they have all
been made. Furthermore it will astonish you how little craftsmanly jargon of
any kidney really has to use borrowings. Ron might pick up a 'Latinism' in
this rant that I have missed, apart from twice & these were deliberate.

Although it is not wholly clean of borrowings an old bookof Wisdom, "The
Cloud of Unknowing" spans the threshold of late Old English & Early Middle
English. To read it aloud makes my hair stand on end. Tell me, Ron, if you
know it, that this is not a work of the English Tongue at its best!

I dare any Lowlander to do the same (that is to write a letter using no
borrowed words), & I will take up any challenge to do the same on any
subject.

Yrs,
Mark

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Lexicon

Mark,

How darst thou inpudent felowe calle myne loueli laboures of discours by the
newe fangled word "rant"?

Although it is not wholly clean of borrowings an old bookof Wisdom, "The
Cloud of Unknowing" spans the threshold of late Old English & Early Middle
English. To read it aloud makes my hair stand on end. Tell me, Ron, if you
know it, that this is not a work of the English Tongue at its best!

Let people make up their own minds about it:
http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/cloufrm.htm

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA

•

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