{"id":355,"date":"2013-10-14T10:22:03","date_gmt":"2013-10-14T09:22:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jesusromerotrillo.es\/?p=355"},"modified":"2013-10-14T10:22:03","modified_gmt":"2013-10-14T09:22:03","slug":"unlikely-parallels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jesusromerotrillo.es\/?p=355","title":{"rendered":"Unlikely parallels"},"content":{"rendered":"

IF FORCED to pick my favourite part of the history of English, I\u2019d be torn. There are so many to choose from. Would I pick the Great Vowel Shift, the mid-millennium change in pronunciation that largely explains English\u2019s inconsistent spelling? Perhaps I\u2019d turn to colonial times, when English vocabulary ballooned. I do like Noah Webster\u2019s attempts to change American English spelling in the name of efficiency, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

But my favourite must be the Norman invasion of 1066. When the Normans, who spoke a dialect of Old French, ruled over England, they changed the face of English. Over the ensuing two centuries, thousands of Old French words entered English. Because the ruling class spoke Old French, that set of vocabulary became synonymous with the elite. Everyone else used Old English. During this period, England’s society was diglossic: one community, two language sets with distinct social spheres. Today, English-speakers pick and choose from the different word sets\u2014Latinate (largely Old French borrowings) and Germanic (mostly Old English-derived words)\u2014depending on the occasion. Although English is no longer in a diglossic relationship with another language, the Norman-era diglossia remains reflected in the way we choose and mix vocabulary. In informal chat, for example, we might <\/span>go on<\/em> to…Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n

via Johnson http:\/\/www.economist.com\/node\/21576924?fsrc=rss<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IF FORCED to pick my favourite part of the history of English, I\u2019d be torn. There are so many to choose from. Would I pick the Great Vowel Shift, the mid-millennium change in pronunciation that largely explains English\u2019s inconsistent spelling? Perhaps I\u2019d turn to colonial times, when English vocabulary ballooned. I do like Noah Webster\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[75],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t