Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What Is Anglish?

anglish.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 363 posts

Re: What Is Anglish?

#31

Post by axlee »

bloppe wrote: post #14

This is a fun way to speak English, but this notion of "native" vs. "borrowed" words is incredibly slippery. For instance, the example replaces "union" with "oneship", but these words share a common Proto-Indo-European root and can reasonably be interpreted as the same word; the same goes for most other Norman words "borrowed" into English after the conquest. The page advocates the use of "Old English words ... reviv…

I see it as a fun way to see how english would work when it is delatinized / degallicized. Most other influences are a detail.

Re: What Is Anglish?

#32

Post by bryanlarsen »

cmh89 wrote: post #12
jacooper wrote: post #4

Wait, computer isn't English native?

'Compute(er)' is a French word

Compter is a verb in french, the noun would be comptoir, I believe. But they use ordinateur for computer, because IBM wanted a fancier word to better sell their fancy machine. https://blogs.transparent.com/french/the-origin-of-lordinate...

Re: What Is Anglish?

#33

Post by martynr »

It seems relevant to me that the English themselves are actually a good mix of Vikings, Romans, French, Germans and Celts (and some other stuff no doubt) - so to advocate for just one of these inheritances as opposed to the mixture seems a bit of a nonsense, even if one chooses to ignore the richness of interactions with other languages in Britains history as an international nation - “Global Britain” indeed.

Re: What Is Anglish?

#35

Post by bryanlarsen »

G3rn0ti wrote: post #29
cmh89 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'Compute(er)' is a French word

Ironically, the French „Académie française“ banned the term „computer“ and established „l‘ordinateur“ instead to keep the language pure. :)

I had a comment written up to say the same thing, but then I found this: https://blogs.transparent.com/french/the-origin-of-lordinate...

Turns out that ordinateur wasn't chosen for French purity but because IBM wanted a fancy word to sell their fancy machine by.

Re: What Is Anglish?

#36

Post by bee_rider »

> “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.”

This sort of reads like an attempt at coming up with like a “English, 100 years after the apocalypse, in some super insular community” language. I expect there will be too much world building and some heavy handed social commentary.

Anyway, it is probably a fun exercise for the people engaging in it.

Of course English in actuality is the totally ownerless language that can customized however it needs to be. Let’s be honest about it, just messing with the language is pretty mild revenge, considering all the trouble the British Empire got up to historically.

Re: What Is Anglish?

#37

Post by triyambakam »

vitno wrote: post #19

Before anyone gets too worried, the Anglish community in my (limited) experience has been incredibly anti-racism/Nazi/etc. They are just a bunch of linguistics nerds who are having fun imagining what English would have been without a Norman invasion. In the same spirit, I'd recommend checking out the Uncleftish Beholding. Although I think it predates the modern Anglish community, it's an attempt to describe Quantum M…

Yes, every time I've brought up Anglish to someone they think it must be some white-supremacist project. I've never come across that in the nearly 20 years I've known about Anglish. It is, as you say, a project from linguists and language nerds.

Re: What Is Anglish?

#38

Post by MarkusWandel »

triyambakam wrote: post #27
MarkusWandel wrote: post #24

This has the same feel as avoiding "immigrant German". My family is ESL, and communicating in our original language/dialect has devolved into a free mix of German and English words. It takes a conscious effort to keep it all German when talking with relatives from the old country! But I agree with others, trying to keep English "pure" is a lost cause; it's a glorious hodgepodge of influences from all over, and I love…

This project isn't ideologically motivated, which I think many people immediately jump to that conclusion. It is a fun project to explore. If you have never come across the conlang (constructed language) community it might not make sense, but it's more so linguists and linguistic hobbyists having fun.

Sure. Reminds me of "Up Goer Five" but these language experiments don't stay interesting for long.

Re: What Is Anglish?

#39

Post by triyambakam »

MarkusWandel wrote: post #38
triyambakam wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This project isn't ideologically motivated, which I think many people immediately jump to that conclusion. It is a fun project to explore. If you have never come across the conlang (constructed language) community it might not make sense, but it's more so linguists and linguistic hobbyists having fun.

Sure. Reminds me of "Up Goer Five" but these language experiments don't stay interesting for long.

Maybe not interesting to you... but I've been interested in Anglish for almost 20 years :)

Re: What Is Anglish?

#40

Post by SeanLuke »

bee_rider wrote: post #36

> “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.” This sort of reads like an attempt at coming up with like a “English, 100 years after the apocal…

This sort of reads like an attempt at coming up with like a “English, 100 years after the apocalypse, in some super insular community” language.

It sounded to me like English as spoken in Firefly.

Post reply on HN