[Ads-l] on the origins of the English language

[Dave Wilton]

This article gets it right on the major points, but many of the specific
examples McWhorter provides here are just wrong. It's sloppy research, and
uncharacteristic of him. Not his best work by far.


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Geoffrey Steven Nathan
Sent: Wednesday, November 18, 2015 11:04 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: on the origins of the English language

McWhorter is a genuine linguist, and his historical and linguistic facts are
all right on. He knows a lot about a lot of languages, including the ones
referenced in the article.

There are those who argue (vehemently) with his views about linguistic
simplicity, and I won't start a fire here by opining myself, but there's
nothing in his discussion I would disagree with. But John's a (distant)
friend, so you may consider me somewhat biased.

Geoff

Geoffrey S. Nathan
Faculty Liaison, C&IT
and Professor, Linguistics Program
http://blogs.wayne.edu/proftech/
+1 (313) 577-1259 (C&IT)

Nobody at Wayne State will EVER ask you for your password. Never send it to
anyone in an email, no matter how authentic the email looks.

________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Bill
Mullins <amcombill at HOTMAIL.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, November 18, 2015 10:19 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: on the origins of the English language

---------------------- Information from the mail header
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Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Poster:       Bill Mullins <amcombill at HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject:      on the origins of the English language
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I don't know how much to trust this article=2C but it was fascinating:
https://aeon.co/essays/why-is-english-so-weirdly-different-from-other-langu=
ages

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