The Beauty of English

[MelissaBaby]

While I wish nothing but the best for the residents of California on this terrible day, I am delighted that the coincidence of an earthquake occurring during a tropical storm has allowed for the creation of the portmanteau, Hurriquake.

English is a wonderful language.

 

[lovecraft68]

While I wish nothing but the best for the residents of California on this terrible day, I am delighted that the coincidence of an earthquake occurring during a tropical storm has allowed for the creation of the portmanteau, Hurriquake.

English is a wonderful language.

I heard "Sharkquakecano" is already in the works.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Well, that's not good!

 

[MelissaBaby]

I heard "Sharkquakecano" is already in the works.

"Hurriquake" is actually trending right now on Xitter.

 

[lovecraft68]

"Hurriquake" is actually trending right now on Xitter.

I'm talking a sci fi special movie to keep the franchise going.

Xitter...I have to tell you, I'm glad they got rid of the little blue bird and the word tweet because that cute bird and that sound doesn't need to be associated with that festering pile of hate and fearmongering any more.

I'm surprised the political factions there aren't blaming each other for the quake.

 

[Voboy]

I love English.

I especially love that there are no fussy "academie Francaise" type people gatekeeping the language. We can gleefully add in anything we want.

 

[MrPixel]

What is frightening to me about this is I was joking at breakfast today about wildfires there earlier this year, now the hurricane/tropical storm, and in a couple of months it'll be earthquake season. My wife looked at me with a blank expression for a few seconds, and then "There's no such thing!" (She grew up in the SF Bay area.)

The 5.1 quake occurred about 60 miles from my home town, which is also in the direct path of the tropical storm. 5.1 that close knocks stuff off of bookshelves. Like I mentioned in the coffee shop, the storm is going to cut L.A. off from the rest of the world, at least by land. It would be nice to be home again, but: 1) you can't go back; 2) it won't be what you remember; and 3) I'm glad I'm 2000 miles away.

 

[Altissimus]

Verily, I fain cherish the tongue; mark the circumstance that exceedingly ancient words endure as lawful, and wherefore may be wielded rightfully. Forsooth, as the language doth live and flourish, it doth hold fast to all its virtuous recordation. Thus, blithely thine mirthful alacrity towards ostentation may capriciously comport, and tarry not eftsoons lest wot, haply, henceforth peradventure thee remembrance is false.

 

[Voboy]

Verily, I fain cherish the tongue; mark the circumstance that exceedingly ancient words endure as lawful, and wherefore therefore may be wielded rightfully. Forsooth, as the language doth live and flourish, it doth hold fast to all its virtuous recordation. Thus, blithely thine mirthful alacrity towards ostentation may capriciously comport, and tarry not eftsoons lest wot, haply, henceforth peradventure thee remembrance is false.

FIFY.

"Wherefore" means "why."

 

[Bamagan]

I'm surprised the political factions there aren't blaming each other for the quake.

Both sides know it's the mole people who are to blame!

 

[Altissimus]

FIFY.

"Wherefore" means "why."

It's my new quill. It corrects things by itself.

 

[Bamagan]

It's my new quill. It corrects things by itself.

-- Quote from Roonil Wazlib

 

[Bramblethorn]

I'm surprised the political factions there aren't blaming each other for the quake.

Give it time. Earthquake conspiracy theories are a thing: https://www.popularmechanics.com/sc...42/turkey-earthquake-haarp-conspiracy-theory/

 

[TarnishedPenny]

We can gleefully add in anything we want.

Or drop - we’re constantly losing words, eg. ‘olden’. Who uses ‘olden’ anymore? Or ‘fain’. Or ‘defenestrate’ or (read it carefully) ‘defalcate’.

And not it’s not just words; English keeps dropping letters. No, I’m not talking about the take-my-bat-and-ball-and-go-home dropping of the ‘u’ in words like ‘colour’ or ‘ardour’. Instead, I refer to letters which have been entirely pink-slipped. I remember being puzzled by the letters ‘æ’ and ‘œ’ as a child. Both are gone from English now and there are an handful of others. The letter Tharn (ϸ) was a soft ‘th’ long since dropped and effectively replaced by ‘y’ as in, eg. ‘Ye olde inn’.

Diacritics are almost gone, too, although I still insist on using a few like ‘rôle’, ‘fiancée’ or (a personal double-points favourite) ‘naïveté’. I found them fun and still do, but that’ ‘Oldespeak’ talking.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Or drop - we’re constantly losing words, eg. ‘olden’. Who uses ‘olden’ anymore? Or ‘fain’. Or ‘defenestrate’ or (read it carefully) ‘defalcate’.

Vladimir Putin has single handedly kept "defenestrate" alive.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Vladimir Putin has single handedly kept "defenestrate" alive.

True. Were I a Russian oligarch, I’d live in a one-story ranch house with no basement or stairs.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Vladimir Putin has single handedly kept "defenestrate" alive.

Only thing he has kept alive, it'd seem.

 

[lovecraft68]

Give it time. Earthquake conspiracy theories are a thing: https://www.popularmechanics.com/sc...42/turkey-earthquake-haarp-conspiracy-theory/

Preposterous, everyone knows if we had that kind of weapon we'd turn it on our own people first (Only half kidding)

 

[SimonDoom]

It's been a while since I've lived in Southern California, but I was there for the Northridge quake (near one of the spots of maximum shaking), the Rodney King riots, and the OJ murders, along with various other quakes, floods, and fires that beset the area during my time there. As an Angeleno you get used to the idea of the city teetering on the knife's edge of paradise and ruin. The dire forecast of West's Day of the Locust is always simmering near the surface.

I no longer live there but am crossing my fingers and wishing them well.

 

[MetaBob]

True. Were I a Russian oligarch, I’d live in a one-story ranch house with no basement or stairs.

With a taster and a Geiger counter.

 

[Voboy]

It's been a while since I've lived in Southern California, but I was there for the Northridge quake (near one of the spots of maximum shaking), the Rodney King riots, and the OJ murders, along with various other quakes, floods, and fires that beset the area during my time there. As an Angeleno you get used to the idea of the city teetering on the knife's edge of paradise and ruin. The dire forecast of West's Day of the Locust is always simmering near the surface.

I no longer live there but am crossing my fingers and wishing them well.

Yeah, I grew up there and left in 1993. For a long time, it surprised me that not everyone, everywhere, lives in existential dread all the time. It was even worse when I was a kid in the '80s; the whole place was targeted by a bunch of nukes. We used to laugh during our nuclear and earthquake drills at school.

People now ask me how I didn't get a childhood ulcer; it was all I knew. It was just life. No big deal.

 

[MetaBob]

I remember being puzzled by the letters ‘æ’ and ‘œ’ as a child. Both are gone from English now and there are an handful of others. The letter Tharn (ϸ) was a soft ‘th’ long since dropped and effectively replaced by ‘y’ as in, eg. ‘Ye olde inn’.

I've only ever seen "ϸ" referred to as "thorn" rather than "tharn", but they sound similar enough that neither needs to be wrong.

I use æ sometimes in stories here: areolæ (plural of areola, not to be confused with aureolæ). One also sees it in the plural of "alumna".

Here's an entertaining and enormously informational vid on the subject:

His other vids are also wonderful, and at least to me, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny.

"Ye" is just "The", and always was. One less letter to pay the sign-painter for.
(But maybe that's just me talking from something other than my mouth.)

 

[TarnishedPenny]

And antennæ! I had forgotten those! But for all practical purposes they’re all ancient history these days, food for the olde and the pedant.

 

[Bramblethorn]

"Ye" is just "The", and always was. One less letter to pay the sign-painter for.
(But maybe that's just me talking from something other than my mouth.)

Yep, people reduced the size of the ascender on the thorn, abbreviating "the" like this (via Wiki):


But when movable type came into use, Britain got its type from countries that didn't have the thorn. So it fell out of use in English, and to people unfamiliar with it, the thorn above is easy to mistake for a Y.

For fans of obscure letters: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Palaeographic_letters

 

[MrPixel]

Oh, but like I said somewhere else around here, "fæces" is so much more elegant than "shit" or its little brother, "poop".

I've seen "orthopædic" frequently in current use in the US, as well as pædophile and similar in British sources such as BBC News.