Making English Pure Again (1 Viewer)

[Steve R.]

Recently ran across an interesting YouTube video concerning Anglish. Considering the hysteria surrounding cultural appropriation (or is it the forced supplanting of English words with French words as a consquence of the Norman invasion?), it is time to restore English to its pure form by exorcising all foreign words!!

Anglish is a kind of English which prefers native words over those borrowed from foreign languages. Anglish is linguistic purism applied to English.

Below is one text example that has been purified.

Using the example that YouTuber Rob Words used, here is the preamble to the US Constitution in modern English vs Anglish.

English "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

Anglish "We the Folk of the Foroned Riches, to make a more flawless oneship, build rightness, bring frith and stillness to our land, shield one another, uphold the overall welfare, and hold fast the Blessings of Freedom to ourselves and our offspring, do foresay and lay down this lawbook for the foroned riches of Americksland."

The Anglish translator

 

[JonXL]

When these folks start learning and using OE noun declensions and the full system of verb conjugation, I'll maybe start taken them a little more seriously.

Until then, this is mostly just an inside joke to make a few people feel clever about knowing made-up words used in otherwise fully-modern English sentences.

Beware the jabberwock!

 

[Pat Hartman]

English has a tendency to adopt foreign words. We may massacre the pronunciation, especially of French words though. German just makes new words by concatenating a string of old words. The French make up new words out of air rather than import those crude English words.

 

[Isaac]

We would be better off if we could revive an appreciation for and reading of older literature so that the new generations knew "there's actually a word for that", and they don't have to make up all of these silly new phrases. And we would all be better off for increased vocabulary, myself included.

 

[JonXL]

German just makes new words by concatenating a string of old words.

English does the same - and quite frequently. It just often keeps the component words separate in spelling.

(Baseball = one word; White House = one word. But white house = two words.)

 

[Steve R.]

English has a tendency to adopt foreign words. We may massacre the pronunciation, especially of French words though. German just makes new words by concatenating a string of old words. The French make up new words out of air rather than import those crude English words.

Well the French want to eliminate English words that have snuck into French!!!
Shouldn't we, as matter of equal pride, ban French words polluting English?

Why Does France Hate English Loanwords? - Dictionary.com

Why does France hate English loanwords? France has a très rich literary and linguistic culture. So, it’s not surprising that their government takes a dim view to any intrusions made to it by, er, outside influences. As an article in The Guardian notes, “France’s identity has long been bound up...

www.dictionary.com

As an article in The Guardian notes, “France’s identity has long been bound up with its language, more so possibly than anywhere else.” They also add that “France is haunted by its lost American future. Had the US fallen under Gallic domination, French would probably be the world’s lingua franca today. Think of that. French as the dominant global language. Ma bonté!

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Regular English was one of George Carlin's favorite targets. One of his observations about the oddities of English that still makes me smile:

Have you ever noticed that we drive on a parkway but park in a driveway?

 

[Thales750]

English is the most dynamic language on earth. Unlike the French, English embraces evolution. There are somewhere in the range of a millions words. English contains so many shades.
Certainly, it will continue to be the world most important language. Even until it is unrecognizable by our standards. Not to worry, the AI translators are standing by to help you with all of your translation needs.

and the GPT Version
English is indeed a dynamic and constantly evolving language, which has helped it to become one of the most widely used languages in the world. With a vast vocabulary and many nuances, it is well equipped to adapt to changing circumstances and to incorporate new ideas and expressions. It is likely that English will continue to play a prominent role in global communication, although it may evolve in ways that are difficult to predict. The use of AI-powered translation tools is becoming increasingly common, helping people to communicate effectively across linguistic and cultural barriers.

GPT French
El inglés es el idioma más dinámico de la tierra. A diferencia del francés, el inglés abraza la evolución. Hay alrededor de un millón de palabras. El inglés contiene tantas matices. Ciertamente, seguirá siendo el idioma más importante del mundo. Incluso hasta que sea irreconocible por nuestros estándares. No se preocupe, los traductores de IA están a su disposición para ayudarlo con todas sus necesidades de traducción.

GPT Mandarin
英语是地球上最具活力的语言。与法语不同，英语拥抱演变。大约有一百万个单词。英语有着诸多色彩。 当然，它将继续是世界上最重要的语言。甚至直到我们的标准无法识别。不用担心，人工智能翻译员随时准备帮助您解决翻译需求。

GPT Spanglish and Spanish were Identical

El inglés es el idioma más dinámico en la tierra. A diferencia del francés, el inglés abraza la evolución. Hay alrededor de un millón de palabras. El inglés tiene muchas sombras. Sin duda, seguirá siendo el idioma más importante del mundo, incluso hasta que sea irreconocible por nuestros estándares. No te preocupes, los traductores AI están listos para ayudarte con todas tus necesidades de traducción.

 

[Pat Hartman]

English has a lot of idioms. Has anyone played with GPT using idioms? Do you get a literal translation, which will of course make no sense in context or the actual meaning?

A dozen years ago when I was organizing monthly programs for my local Access User's Group, I asked an on line friend to give a talk on a subject he had recently posted about. He replied by telling me he was deaf and dumb which of course I didn't know. So, he explained the free on line translating service he uses when he needs to "talk" to people who don't sign. He connects to the service using his computer or a video phone so he has a visual link to the person who will be translating his sign language to words for us. Then the translator calls the other party. Since I'd never done this before, I wanted to give it a try first with just me before using it at a monthly meeting. it's a little strange at first but once we got into the presentation, it moved along pretty well. So, we did a second short presentation just to make sure I got my end working well and scheduled for the big night. We had a small window where we could see Ben signing and the presentation as full screen. One of the things about the service is that you don't get to pick your translator. You get whoever is on duty. I was really looking forward to this because not only was the presentation interesting, the technology that made it possible was a fabulous tool. Well, turns out that the group presentation wasn't as smooth as the two trials. Apparently, the first two people had a better technical background than the one at the monthly meeting so some of the translation turned out to be quite funny and I was translating for the translator. I was really happy we'd gone through it twice so I knew the right words. The translation (with my help here and there) was clear enough that the group got the gist of the presentation and everyone was impressed with the technology even the funny translations of technical words

 

[Galaxiom]

When these folks start learning and using OE noun declensions and the full system of verb conjugation, I'll maybe start taken them a little more seriously.

English dropped this as a result of a merger with Scandanavian languages during the Viking colonisation.

Both languages had evolved from Old German but the conjugations diverged before they met again. Users of the languages noticed they shared many of the verb roots but the conjugations were confusingly different so they simply dropped them.

It was one of the pivotal changes that simplified English. The other great move was dropping the ridiculous notion of inanimate objects having gender. Perhaps this was due to mergers where the gender of the same words had diverged to be opposite and it finally occurred to them that it was utterly pointless.

Too bad about the decision to continue with the non-phonetic spelling that was the inevitable result of adopting words from some many diverse languages.

 

[JonXL]

Grammatical gender has nothing to do with biological gender. The notion of inanimate objects having grammatical gender is not ridiculous in the least.

 

[Thales750]

Boats and Ships, Cars, and Airplanes, all have genders. Of course, they are hardly inanimate. lol.

 

[AccessBlaster]

 

[moke123]

I have access to a "Language Line." When I'm out in the field and I encounter someone I can't communicate with due to language barriers I can call in and they transfer me to an interpreter who speaks the language. Pop my phone into speaker mode and I'm good.

One trick of the trade I used to use often was keeping an empty envelope in my breast pocket. When I'd knock on a door looking for someone and the person who answered feigned not understanding due to a language barrier, I would reach in and show them the envelope and say "Tell them I came by with their check" Magically that language barrier would disappear.

 

[AccessBlaster]

And just like that they were speaking the kings English!

Too funny.

 

[Pat Hartman]

Money talks, nobody walks