The ways in which the English language has changed.

Quote from Splinter

I'm probably a self-confessed grammar Nazi and cringe when the language is abused.

You must cringe when you read my posts then.

Has the English language not always changed through time? I'm fae Glesga anyway.

Now that really is interesting. It always seems to me that your language disproportionately migrates in our direction. The one that currently drives me bonkers is “It’s early days.”

Not to mention "specialty."

The first time my English landlady said "speciality," I nearly bust a gut laughing!

Don't you mean Estate Agents?

All of this reminds me that, as we are now in season 16 of Midsomer Murders, we have learned that the characters with the dreadful flat accents meant to be Americans may not always be the the murderers, but they WILL always be crass, money-driven, awful people.

I wonder if American series return the favor? Not just the stereotyping, but the really bad accents as well?

Never knew the grim origin of “on the wagon,” either!

Very good.

Used most of them apart from the Percy ones.

Lost letters of the English alphabet - thorn & wynn!

From dictionary.com:

English was first written in the Anglo-Saxonfuthorc runic alphabet, also known as Anglo-Saxon. The Angles and Saxons came from Germany and settled in Britain in the fifth century. The region they inhabited became known as “Angle-land,” or England.

Eventually, Christian missionaries introduced the Latin alphabet, which began to take ahold around the sixth century, and ultimately replaced Anglo-Saxon. But for some time, the alphabet included the letters of the Latin alphabet, some symbols (like the ampersand), and some letters of Old English.

As Modern English evolved, the Old English letters were dropped or replaced.

What is the letter thorn?

Here’s an example: in Old English, a letter called thorn (þ) represented the th sound (as in that) in Modern English. In the Latin alphabet, the Y was the symbol that most closely resembled the character that represented thorn. So, thorn was dropped and Y took its place. (As you may know, Y can be a vowel.)

That is why the word ye, as in “Ye Olde Booke Shoppe,” is an archaic spelling of the.

What is the letter wynn?

The Old English letter wynn (ƿ) was replaced by UU, which eventually developed into the modern W. (It really is a double U.)

I would like to know which was the language of England at the time of the Roman Empire. Of course, for official reasons surely Latin, but perhaps they spoke some

celtic variety. At least is what I suspect. (Romans conquered England from I Century BC to 5th century AD.)

My guess is that nothing but Latin was tolerated. After a couple of centuries had passed by, everyone forgot their wild barbarian roots and barbaric languages, and they all went around saying “Veni, vidi, vici,” “Cave canem,” Et tu, Brute?” “Alea jacta est,” and “Caveat emptor.” Not to mention “In vino veritas.”

Mirabile dictu!

I would add "E pluribus unum" inside the USA escutcheon.

Yes indeed. I wish it were still appropriate in our sadly divided country.

This reminds me of a novelist named Lindsey Davis, whose mystery stories are set in Ancient Rome. Quite entertaining.