HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Citizens News, 1969-10-09, Page 2PAGE TWO
ZURICH CITIZENS NEWS
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1969
The International Scene
(by
(by Raymond Canon)
THE ORIGINS OF ENGLISH
It uiay be surprising to you,
but a great many people do not
know about the origins of our
language. About all they can
say is that English came from
England, and if they study
French or German in school they
may notice that quite a few
words in our language are sim-
ilar to those in the other two,
but that is about as far as it goes.
For this reason I will now attempt
to reveal once and for all the
mysteries of the English language,
where it came from and why it
is as it is today.
Actually our langtfa a does
come from England, but it has
been so modified along the way
that the early English people
wouldn't recognize it or under-
stand it if theywere to come
back today. arly English, or
Anglo-Saxon as it was called,
was completely a Germanic
language, and so had declen-
sions just as they did in Latin.
It was very similar to the lang-
uage that was spoken in Germany
and Scandanavia at the time,
and the earliest record we have
of the language is a long poem
called Beowulf (750 A ,D) which
is a collection of folk legends
probably put together by one man
Here are a couple of lines just
to let you see what it looked
like: Hwaet, we Gar Dena in
geardagum theodcyninge thrym
gefrunon, hu tha aethelingas
ellen frenredon: Just look at how
this translates into modern Eng -
Raymond Canon)
lish: Lo, we have heard of the
strength of the Spear -Danes,
kings of people in days of yore,
how the wafflers did deeds of
valour.
You can see how different the
language was then, and it didn't
really change too much until
William the Conquerer brought
his Norman knights across the
Channel with him, defeated the
English and set up his court in
London. Here we have a French
court right in the middle of
England, and people being what
they are, it wasn't long before
the French and English started to
mix for both business and pleas-
ure. When this started in earnest,
so did the French and English
languages start to mix, and it
wasn't very long before there
were a whole lot of French words
mixed in with the Anglo-Saxon
language.
The interesting thing about
this mixture is that most often
the French word became a more
literary equivalent of the com-
mon Anglo-Saxon word.
We can see this even today where
for example the expression man-
ual labour, both words of which
are of French origin, is a more
educated way of saying hand
work, which is Germanic or
Anglo-Saxon in origin.
By the time of Chaucer, the
famous poet of the fourteenth
century, you can see the effect
of the mixture of the two lan-
guages. Let's have a look at
some of his writings. '-When
that Aprill with his shoures soote
the droghte of March hath per-
ced to the roote. As you can see,
English is a lot easier to under-
stand than it was a few centuries
previously. As a matter of fact
English was undergoing as rapid
a change as any language ever
has. It got s'id of almost all its
declensions so that the only
remains of this complicated
system is the 's in the possessive
(eg. the girl's dress) and an in-
ternal vowel change, to show the
plural (mouse -mice). Strange
enough, German clic.. not prog-
ress nearly as rapidly along the
same path, and still retains
I most of the complicated system
of declensions it had centuries
ago.
By the time of Shakespeare the
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Thankoffering
Meeting of Unit 4
The autumn thankoffering meet-
ing of Unit 4 U , C , W. was held
in Fellowship Hall, Thursday
afternoon, October 2, with an
attendance of 36, Mrs, James
McAllister was in the chair and
opened with invocation. Mrs.
Harry Horton had charge of the
Devotional.
The study of the Bible on the
sins that preceeded the coming
ofJesuswas ably taken by Mrs
Eric Luther who had several la-
dies read passages of God's word
which was history in advance
"Feed your faith and your doubts
will starve to death". "The hope
of this sinful corrupt world is
Jesus".
Visitation reported totalled 71
calls. The general U , C , W, meet
Ing will be on Monday evening,
October 20. with Unit 1 in
charge,
Mrs. McAllister thanked all
who had helped with a recent
wedding, and who had helped
with flowers and the nursery for
the month of September,
Mrs. E. Chipchase read letters
of thanks from the Overseas
Relief Depot, Toronto, and Dr.
Whiting, of Hazelton, B, C, for
bales of clothing received. It
was agreed that a fall bale should
be packed after the Kinnettes'
rummage sale and the members
to start sorting and saving suit-
able clothing.
It was decided to start custom
quilting on Tuesday October 14.
Mrs. Currie closed the meeting
with prayer.
Mrs. W.H. Weeks conducted a
contest and the social committ-
ee served a cup of Tea.
changes were virtually complete
and tie language became re-
latively uncomplicated as far as
languages go. The only draw-
back, in my opinion, is the
clumsy and irregular way of
spelling many of the words in our
language for English has about as
unplionetic an alphabet as it can
*get, all of which makes it very
hard for anyone learning the
language. Remember that the
next time you see an immigrant
having Trouble with English. His
language is probably a lot easier
to learn to spell correctly than
ours is.
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HENSALL NEWS
Mr. and Mrs. Anthony 'I'. Van
Dyke of the province of Quebec,
who have keen house guests
with Mr. and Mrs. Sim Roobol
for two weeks, returned to their
home this week.
Unit 4 Hensal1 United Church
Women will convene in Fellow-
ship Hall in the United Church
Thursday, October 2, 2:30 p.m.
for their thank -offering meeting.
Guests with Mr. and Mrs. Sim
Roobol last Friday were Mrs.
M. deMaree, Mrs. M. Manneke,
Mathew Manneke of Riclgetown.
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