<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">L O W L A N D S - L - 21 November 2007 - Volume 01
</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Song Contest: <a href="http://lowlands-l.net/contest/">lowlands-l.net/contest/</a> (- 31 Dec. 2007)</span>
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">=========================================================================</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="HcCDpe"><span class="EP8xU" style="color: rgb(121, 6, 25);">
Paul Finlow-Bates</span> <span class="lDACoc"><<a href="mailto:wolf_thunder51@yahoo.co.uk">wolf_thunder51@yahoo.co.uk</a>></span></span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Subject: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="HcCDpe">LL-L "Lexicon" 2007.11.20 (02) [E]<br><br></span><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
Ron, Mark and all;</div> <div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">I realised there was a
tongue-in-cheek element. I also know it is impossible to separate
non-Germanic (I include Norse) absolutely - my example took several
tries, and sounds rather contrived.</div> <div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> </div> <div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">On
another site I belong to, a member is trying to promote what he calls
"Ednew English", and several have tried similar things in the past. A
few alternatives ("linkstrand" for "isthmus") are great, many sound
plain silly. The 19th C suggestion of "folkswain" for "omnibus" made
sense, but everybody says "bus" these days anyway.</div> <div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> </div> <div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">But
I still believe that in most cases, you clear the fog if you keep it
Anglo-Norse wherever you can. Of course for many people clearing the
fog is the last thing they want, and over-latinising is very much the
hallmark of the lawyer and the politician for that very reason!</div><font style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" color="#888888"> <div> </div> <div>Paul Finlow-Bates<br><br></div></font><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
----------</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From: R. F. Hahn <</span><a style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank">
sassisch@yahoo.com</a><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">> </span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Subject: Lexicon<br><br>
Thanks, Paul.<br><br>The use of jargon for the purpose of exclusion is very common practice the world round, going far beyond the use of Latin and Greek. Among the most extreme examples are the development of what amounts to separate languages for the priest (or shaman) class, for initiated men, and separate languages for men and women of the same group in addition to a common language.
<br><br>The cases you mentioned are just not as extreme and clearcut in that separation is "softer": "You get access if you're educated enough." Also, the individual speaker cannot be accused of having instigated this since he or she merely follows a guild tradition that was developed over quite some time and has its roots in the use of Latin as an international lingua franca of the learned. It is the
<i>deliberate </i>use of less common Latin-based choices in addressing the general public where things become "interesting."<br><br>There are or were other such guild languages in European cultures, for instance terminologies of artisan's guilds that you could only fully acquire through apprenticeship to the degree of journeyman. Such terminologies tend to be native-based rather than foreign-based.
<br><br>And then there are the so-called "jargons" of the social periphery, people that are excluded or exclude themselves from mainstream society. However, as I see it, here one must be careful to differentiate between the use of jargon for deliberate exclusion from the use of "jargon" of necessity or convenience. A case of deliberate exclusion is, I believe, Rotwelsch ("gang gobbledigook"), a German-based "underworld" jargon peppered mainly with words from Romance languages, Romany and Yiddish, most of them with a twist or two so even speakers of the donor languages can't understand them. (Rotwelsch is now extinct, but many imported terms are now well established in German.) Another such case may be Traveller's Cant. In my opinion, cases such as Polari and the earliest versions of Jewish languages represent the other extreme, cases of necessity. Polari began as a type of international pidgin once used among theater and circus people, originally fringe societies of international origin, and the transition to Polari as a Gay jargon developed from that. Beginnings of Jewish languages as jargons arose from the need to augment the lexicons of the mainstream languages to accommodate Jewish belief, philosophy and traditions for "inside use." The transition from jargon to language is mostly due to isolation (including relocation) at later points in time (Judeo-German > Yiddish, Judeo-Italian > Italkian, Judeo-Portuguese > Lusitanic, Judeo-Spanish > Ladino, Judeo-Catalan > Catalanic, Judeo-Provençal > Shuadit, Judeo-French > Zarphatic, Judeo-Czech > Knaanic, Judeo-Greek > Yevanic, Judeo-Georgian > Gruzinic, Judeo-Farsi > Dzhidi etc., Judeo-Tajik > Bukhori, Judeo-Kushitic > Kayla, and so forth). Some of them remain jargons in that they don't develop their own structure, such as English-based Yinglish, Yeshivish and what you might call "General Judeo-English." A couple of my Jewish friends began to use the last of these with me once they knew I understand the terminology and the culture behind it, and thus they don't need to explain or paraphrase. The same goes for Muslim friends and their use of Arabic-derived terminology. So in my opinion there is no intent to exclude others.
</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">I am glad we agree that a lot of Latinate English words are so established and generally understood that there is no need and no way to avoid them. It is when people attempt to replace these that things become a bit silly in my opinion. It tends to give Germans a bad taste in the mouth, because during the Nazi period there was just such a campaign to "purify" German, and many of the proposals are highly amusing (in large part due to ignorance) if they weren't so preposterous and the philosophy behind it so sinister.
</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Regards,</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Reinhard/Ron</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span>