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What Is Anglish?

anglish.org

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Re: What Is Anglish?

#161

Post by fsckboy »

epicureanideal wrote: post #28
triyambakam wrote: post #20

I have had a lot of fun with Anglish in the past, composing poetry and even attempting to write school assignments in it. However as I've grown as a linguist, I now disagree with the direction that they've taken it, but I understand why. That is, the Anglish project uses cognates and sometimes inventions from Old English, Dutch and German because most linguists (and people) consider English a West Germanic language,…

Do you have any examples of an English / Scandinavian hybrid? Also, I wonder if such a thing might actually arise in the Scandinavian countries in the future?

>Do you have any examples of an English / Scandinavian hybrid?

the idea being floated is that English is that Anglo-Saxon / Scandinavian hybrid.

Re: What Is Anglish?

#162

Post by permo-w »

simonh wrote: post #75
OnlyMortal wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yorkshuhman here… we say “ta” (tak) for thanks. We also say “cheers” (tschuss) for goodbye. Going a bit deeper, “dale” (daal - Dutch), “beck” (beek - Dutch). Having learnt (not learned) in Amsterdam, it’s very, very like the dialects of the north east of Yorkshuh. So much so, it’s rather a surprise.

Norwegians speaking their native tongue to me sound like they’re speaking German with a Geordie accent.

if you’re only half-listening to a Scouser, it could easily be Dutch

Re: What Is Anglish?

#163

Post by hinkley »

paganel wrote: post #102
squiffsquiff wrote: post #7

"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary." --James D. Nicoll

Related to that, it's interesting how many European languages have heavily borrowed from French in the last 2-3 centuries, especially what I would call "technical" terms. I was watching the subtitled video of a speech made by a Hungarian minister recently and the few words that I could make sense of were all similar to the their French counter-parts (or how I would think a French technical word loaned into Hungarian…

Rome first, the descendants of Charlemagne second, and William the Conqueror. “English” didn’t have a chance.

Re: What Is Anglish?

#164

Post by permo-w »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #147
triyambakam wrote: post #20

I have had a lot of fun with Anglish in the past, composing poetry and even attempting to write school assignments in it. However as I've grown as a linguist, I now disagree with the direction that they've taken it, but I understand why. That is, the Anglish project uses cognates and sometimes inventions from Old English, Dutch and German because most linguists (and people) consider English a West Germanic language,…

> But I'm convinced that Faarlund is correct [1]; that Old English is not the only ancestor of Modern English, and that actually Modern English is more like a creole of Old English and Old Norse. But your link says the opposite of that: > In the book, we show that both synchronically and historically, Middle (and Modern) English is unmistakably North Germanic and not West Germanic. (Uncontroversially, Old English, ju…

>> … English is unmistakably North Germanic and not West Germanic …

that’s exactly what they were saying. English is traditionally described as West Germanic with German, Frisian and Dutch, but as a creole with Old Norse it could be instead described as North Germanic

Re: What Is Anglish?

#166

Post by hcayless »

squiffsquiff wrote: post #7

"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary." --James D. Nicoll

It’s interesting to me how comparatively impoverished Anglish seems. Here’s to promiscuity!

Re: What Is Anglish?

#167

Post by Octokiddie »

> The term "Anglish" was made up by Paul Jennings in 1966, however the desire to remove foreign influence from the English language is a tradition that goes back all the way to 1066 when the Norman invasion brought in the majority of foreign vocabulary to English.

It's worth noting that Paul Jennings is described as a "humourist."

> Paul Francis Jennings (20 June 1918 – 26 December 1989) was an English humourist and author.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Jennings_(British_author)

Re: What Is Anglish?

#168

Post by tomxor »

hcayless wrote: post #166
squiffsquiff wrote: post #7

"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary." --James D. Nicoll

It’s interesting to me how comparatively impoverished Anglish seems. Here’s to promiscuity!

Is that mainly due to it being based upon a historical snapshot of English? that by definition never evolved further. If it had the same huge population of English speakers over hundreds of years (i.e was a living language) then it may also have evolved a diverse range of words without the need to absorb other languages - not that I care for it.

On a slight tangent, I've noticed when translating from English to Chinese (mandarin) many of the equivalent literal translations do not have a unique single purpose word where English does. So it can sound much like this Anglish e.g the literal translation of "thigh" is just "big leg", and this is not a one off. I have no idea why this is.

Re: What Is Anglish?

#169

Post by sublinear »

calvinmorrison wrote: post #137
gerdesj wrote: post #134

Anglish can go and fuck itself, as a wise person once never said. English cannot and will not and never will be perfect, nor pure or whatevs but it will get a message across. It is rather more flexible than your average language and that is probably a complete accident. There are loads of pidgins of English and a phenomenal number of dialects. This is just for "modern" English. You can fiddle with word order and igno…

I guess the premise of Anglish can be summed up as: No, we don't need latin, or greek roots, to enjoy our language, and there's just as much if not more of a reason to use roots natural to our language, and no you aren't smarter or wiser, more scholarly or intellectual, because you use big long fancy sounding latin or greek based words. maybe the reason a lot of english doesn't make sense (in contrast to german) is b…

> there still exists a true English core to English, the most important everyday words which no sentence or uttering could manage without.

I want to agree with this, but the handful of Anglish examples I've heard with old English equivalents seem awkward. Reducing the borrowed words really helps with comprehension though.

Re: What Is Anglish?

#170

Post by adolph »

triyambakam wrote: post #54
epicureanideal wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any examples of an English / Scandinavian hybrid? Also, I wonder if such a thing might actually arise in the Scandinavian countries in the future?

I'm not aware of any natural or constructed English/Scandinavian pidgins/creoles, but that sure would be fun. The conventional wisdom is that it's easier for an English speaker to learn Swedish than it is to learn German. Regarding if that would arise in the Scandinavian countries in the future - it actually seems more likely in German speaking countries. There is actually a word for it now - Denglisch (Deutsch Engli…

I wonder where the b in sein conjugation came from?

  are (v.)
  present plural indicative of be (q.v.), from Old English earun (Mercian), aron (Northumbrian), from Proto-Germanic *ar-, probably a variant of PIE *es- "to be" (see am). Also from Old Norse cognates.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/are
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