What did Modern English sound like 400 years ago? For contrast, how do you feel about recent English such as, "Cool idea"? As language is degraded our interconnectedness unravels and previously unimaginable violence is unleashed.
I'm having trouble remembering a few scraps of language from an epic poem written in the late 1600's. In the process of writing what I could remember from a single author course in which we were required to memorize twenty lines from the same epic poem, I discovered how intricate and expressive was the author's language. (If there are still errors I apologize.)
"Earth felt the wound and Nature from her seat
Sighing through all her works gave signs of woe
That all was lost."
and from the same work.........an autobiographical tidbit from the blind writer who was dictating to his daughter:
"Thus with the year seasons return, but not
To me returns day, or the sweet approach
Of even or morn, or sight of vernal bloom
Or summer's rose, but cloud instead and ever
During dark surrounds me, from the cheerful
Ways of men cut off, and wisdom at one
Entrance quite shut out."
Both snippets from Paradise Lost, 1600's
Forgive me if the lines aren't divided accurately. I'll look them up and make corrections, maybe. The first couple of lines follow Eve snatching the apple. <g> (Don't worry, Adam was co-conspirator.)
It's hard enough to communicate with language, and even harder with written language, so what's going to happen when attitudinal language is our only currency? Cool, no? No.
Barry
.....the scold.....<g>
3 comments:
Attitudinal language ... Interesting. Even though lack of communication IS communication, in a wordless society, I'd have trouble deciphering truth.
Nothing cool about that.
Lynn
First of all, language is going to change. You point that out yourself. Makes no sense groaning about it or scolding about it. You come off as some old dude, afraid of change. English is the most flexible language on Earth and that's a good thing. Second of all, it's context that matters. Certain contexts it's perfectly fine to say "cool." Fifty years from now? Who knows? Words fall in and out of the language all the time. I for one don't like the idea of word police. Third, your fear is losing the ability to communicate through language isn't going to happen. Always there will be people who love language and elevate it to the status of clarity and beauty. While I'm at it, consider your use of <g>--what kind of communication is that? What kind of currency? Chill, dude.
Laurement's comment defends "cool" while seeming to miss that I was commenting not on one word but the phrase, "cool idea." Lautrement,
dear reader, is an alter for someone who knows me, and struggles to 'get even.'
For a college professor to lose her 'cool' discussing language is a shame. -Barry.
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