Changes We Encounter

Do you want to be here?
I'm not sure if I do, so we'll make this quick.

There were a bunch of thinkers/writers throughout history. "No ship, Sherlock," you might say, and I would retort by saying "touche."

Swift didn't like the changes in the English language. Ha. If he were alive now, he wouldn't be, considering all the LOLs, ROFLs, TTYLs, and PBYOBOBs.

Samuel Johnson liked dictionaries, and I guess he wasn't too much here nor there. He put all kinds of words in them dictionaries.

William Cobbett thought English was key to moving up the social ranks.

Wordsworth thought a language widely in use (English!) should be used. This is reflected in his poetry, which unsurprisingly, are in English.

Finally, Jane Austen used "proper English" and tried very hard to not sprinkle her writings with supposed "vulgar" words and such.

The problem here, as I see, is that many were not happy with the changes, the changes that were inevitable, especially in a language such as English. I'm fine with the use of "proper English," although not allowing for the use of nonstandard or informal English would not be right. Today, if people who have ever used an "informal" English term in their entire lives were to be executed, we'd be left with a smaller population consisting of non-English speakers and babies.

I guess we are more liberal with these things now...
But who are "we"?

American English

"America."
"I'm from America."

Whenever someone says that, we are to understand that they are from the United States, despite America being a continent rather than a country. You're still American if you're Colombian, Brazilian, Mexican, or any of that jazz.

You know what else is in America?

Canada.

Canada is one of those countries in America in which English is spoken, and no doubt, there are connections between its English with the English in the United States. For starters, they're both English.

Now, Canada is a constant source of jokes and stuff, firstly due to the accent, and secondly (and usually) due to the people who head out of their houses casually on a cold day with just a pair of boxers and a t-shirt on. This is comparable to the Russians who wear nothing but a swimsuit on a day with temperatures close to absolute zero, but that's irrelevant, considering the Russians don't speak English.

This is Canada, by the way.

As English came and was sort of separated through the creation of the border between Canada and "America", things started to differ in these two countries, such as the about (or aboot in Canada, apparently) as well as the "ey" at the end of every independent clause.

So is Canadian English a dialect? Is American English a dialect of British English?
Bla bla bla.

This really made me want to explore Australian English.

"Pioneers! O Pioneers!." The Story of English. Writ. Robert McCrum and Robert MacNeil. Dir. Vivian Ducat, Howard Reid, William Cran. BBC MCML XXXVI. YouTube. 

Black to Gray

I googled "black accent" and this car came out. I guess I'm going with it.


This time, The Story of English will be talking about the influences and roots of Black English. I'm not quite sure if the title "Black on White" is a good title, but whatever. Anyways, back then, black people spoke quite differently from what white people did. The dialects rose, and surprisingly enough, it can still be glimpsed at through some of the remaining traditions and stuff.

Someone in the comments states that "This is all being wiped off the face of the land. Instead of hearing and experiencing unique culture you can party with the wealthy who have built their resorts and golf courses." I'm going to say that this is mostly true, since I'm assuming these "odd" versions of English was discouraged in an age of increasing globalization and standardized English tests. Seeing that this documentary was made at least twenty years ago, I'm almost sure that a lot of this older-root-diversity stuff has disappeared and gone away. This is even more so since most of these people with odd accents were some of the older people, and the younger would have probably grown up in an environment with more of the "real" English.

Now, there was one specific comment that really got me thinking. A dude said, "Even though I'm Nigerian, I can understand the pidgin. It sounds so much like Nigerian pidgin." Not only was this interesting due to the use of the word "pidgin", which I have only discovered recently through the discussions about earlier episodes of the same series, but this shows that stuff have come from Nigeria and actually impacted the form of language in the United States. If this is how languages are formed, by having many different influences coming together and merging together, then it may be hard to trace the one and only root and "story" of English.

According to the narrator, black people have taken there rightful place in society now. This has contributed to the disappearance of the "black English" since the way you speak can affect the way you live. However, we must ask: should the "black English" be preserved? You decide.

"Black on White." The Story of English. Writ. Robert McCrum and Robert MacNeil. Dir. Vivian Ducat, Howard Reid. BBC MCML XXXVI. YouTube.

Ah Gab Pure Weird

Ah gab loch a scottish chiel.

Somethin' abit listenin' tae th' scottish bark gart me hink abit whit other a bampot accents an' dialects ay sassenach thaur ur it thaur. oan a huir uv a similar note, Ah woods loch tae ken hoo these sentences ur gonnae be translated. hopefully, they will be left relatively untooched sic' 'at Ah can still kin it. 

I'm nae in quite th' reit situation tae laugh at th' odd scottish vocabulary, since Ah can still kin it, unlike in most ay th' cases in korea. at leest Ah can sort ay teel whit these troaps ur sayin', althoogh 'at main be purely due tae th' generoos addition ay subtitles. 

So sassenach can be traced back a wee tae scootlund, whaur it is still recognizable as a f'rm ay sassenach. if we gang a bit mair back, we'd arrife at a leid 'at is recognizably similar tae th' scottish sassenach, an' if we gang e'en further, a body 'at is similar tae said leid. whaur woods we end up? Ah main be jist havin' a mid-necht deep thooght abit languages, but hink abit it: if we keep gonnae back, thaur woods hae probably bin a point at which aw languages merged, whaur thaur was but a body f'rm ay verbal communication, th' most primitife f'rm ay sassenach. we coods technically trace th' origins ay sassenach back tae africa ur th' babel tower ur somethin' bla bla bla. 


Yoo main hae noticed 'at Ah am wabbit. 

accordin' tae sairrr daniel (a random bodie Ah foond in th' comment section ay th' foorth episode ay th' story ay sassenach fa happened tae be huggin' a huir uv a attractife piece ay cubical metal wi' a cardiac organ embedded intae its center), sassenach becam sae accessible coz th' leid has "elements frae selic, germanic (dutch), an' norman (french)."

However, thes isnae aw poaps an' giggles, as natife cultures ur disappearin'. jist as we discussed in class an' jist as th' documentary brushed upon, a lot ay th' auld scottish cultures hae disappeared, mostly left only as folk songs. 

The loch ness monster woods be disappointed.




Something about listening to the Scottish news made me think about what other crazy accents and dialects of English (or pre-English) there are out there. On a very similar note, I would like to know how these sentences are going to be translated. Hopefully, they will be left relatively untouched such that I can still understand it.

I'm not in quite the right situation to laugh at the odd Scottish vocabulary, since I can still understand it, unlike in most of the cases in Korea. At least I can sort of tell what these guys are saying, although that may be purely due to the generous addition of subtitles.

So English can be traced back a little to Scotland, where it is still recognizable as a form of English. If we go a bit more back, we'd arrive at a language that is recognizably similar to the Scottish English, and if we go even further, one that is similar to said language. Where would we end up? I may be just having a mid-night deep thought about languages, but think about it: if we keep going back, there would have probably been a point at which all languages merged, where there was but one form of verbal communication, the most primitive form of English. We could technically trace the origins of English back to Africa or the Babel Tower or something bla bla bla.

You may have noticed that I am tired.

According to Sir Daniel (a random person I found in the comment section of the fourth episode of the Story of English who happened to be hugging a very attractive piece of cubical metal with a cardiac organ embedded into its center), English became so accessible because the language has "elements from Celtic, Germanic (Dutch), and Norman (French)."

However, this isn't all poops and giggles, as native cultures are disappearing. Just as we discussed in class and just as the documentary brushed upon, a lot of the old Scottish cultures have disappeared, mostly left only as folk songs.

The Loch Ness Monster would be disappointed.

"The Guid Scots Tongue." The Story of English. Writ. Robert McCrum and Robert MacNeil. Dir. Vivian Ducat, Howard Reid. BBC MCML XXXVI. YouTube.

The Journey of a Language

I'm not much of a documentary person, so it wasn't easy to get to watch the second episode of The Story of English after having watched the first. It didn't help that my internet connection was horrible and had speed comparable to a snail accelerating backwards at a constant rate of I-don't-give-a-crap. This resulted in frequent buffering, turning the video into more of an elaborate game of Snake rather than a full-fledged documentary. Moreover, Morgan Freeman isn't narrating it.

However, that's neither here nor there.

"Where did the English language come from?" is the obvious question to ask, as the title of this episode is called The Mother Tongue. Now, I've always wondered why a lot of words were similar all across the world, no matter how weird it seemed. Using this, people were able to track back the history of the language. Or something.

Anglo-Saxons. Freesians. Celts.
India. Denmark. Ireland.

As far as I can tell, English has been around in a bunch of places and not just the British Isles. This is pretty interesting, since languages keep changing. Through these different places English has come through, we can sometimes see glimpses of how English used to be and how it came to be. If I were to go back a couple hundred years and talk to various people, I would probably be made fun of for talking like their standard exotic dancers. I'm thinking so much has changed since then, and I'm pretty sure the language will continue to change. That's another thing. At what point in the past was English not English?

Anyway, seeing all the plastic wrappers English has scattered and littered all around the world, it isn't surprising to see all the different influences all over and the bacteria the candy itself has collected. I'm not saying that the bacteria is bad though. I just couldn't think of a better metaphor. Don't judge.

Oh, and just as a random thought, I found a reason for which English shouldn't become de-globalized:

The Story of English. Dir. Robert MacNeil, Robert McCrum, and William Cran. BBC, 1986. 27 Aug. 2009. Web. 13 Jan. 2013.

English Everywhere

English has been widely popularized, mostly through the influence of the United States. Or, at least, so I believe. Despite this, the English language was mostly developed in England and its vicinity (or so I believe), which makes it British and automatically some of the greatest things to happen to mankind.

But seriously, what's up with English? Everything's in English these days. The first episode of the documentary The Story of English starts by showing how some Russian music has English "boogie-woogie." Similarly, it's hard to see any Korean songs these days without any English stuff, though the language skills vary among "never say goodbye", "every day I shock", and "you know what I'm saying?"

Now, the documentary mentions some of the words or phrases that have been adapted into other languages such as "rock music". This is impressive considering the documentary was made, like, 30 years ago. Again, I'll bring up Korea because nowadays, everything is in English. EVERYTHING. They think it makes them look cool and more modern, which I suppose isn't completely untrue (although it makes me cringe when doors say "full" instead of "pull").

Seeing that the title of the first episode is An English Speaking World, we can see how what I've said so far relates to the documentary. Sort of. Everything was becoming English back then, and it's more so now. As it got easy for people to communicate with other people in other countries with other cultures, English rose naturally as the main way to communicate. So far in my life, I've used English well (although I'm not entirely sure if this blogpost is an example of good usage) and love the language. I'm just bugged a bit about its relative lack of onomatopoeias compared with Korea.

I guess this is just an introduction to the other episodes. This episode mostly boasts the universality of the English language. Something about English going out to space.


The Story of English. Dir. Robert MacNeil, Robert McCrum, and William Cran. BBC, 1986. 27 Aug. 2009. Web. 13 Jan. 2013.