English on the Edge?
Imagine if fifty or a hundred years from now those living in your hometown spoke a tongue alien to yours. It is, in my estimation, something extremely possible in the United States.
I think back to the language my distant ancestors must have spoken. Anglo-Saxon is as alien to me as perhaps American might be someday. It is not until well after the Norman invasion that the dialect of well connected London (which was absorbing the Normans' Latin-based French) that things start to be readable. For instance, I can understand:Whan that aprill with his shoures soote The droghte of march hath perced toBut I cannot process this nearly as easily, although I can assemble the meaning, despite it being written approximately the same time:
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour…
— You Know the Source, Don't ya?
SIÞEN þe sege and þe assaut watz sesed at Troye, Þe bor brittened and brent to bronde and askez,
Þe tulk þat þe trammes of tresoun þer wrot
Watz tried for his tricherie, þe trewest on erthe….
— 10 Points to the Person who knows what this is.
While I'm taking the long way around here, it is all aimed at a simple point: presently, we have a massive immigration into this country from Mexico. Unlike the Anglo-Saxons, we are not being “invaded,” but we are having a major influx of people who speak a Latinate language come into this country. These days, it isn't unusual to be walking around a store and hear people some speaking Spanish rather than English.
I suspect it will soon be hard to do business without knowing some Spanish (something I really should learn one of these days). Eventually, one of two things could happen: (1) Spanish could supersede English completely or at least among the lower and lower-middle classes; or (2) we could end up with a hybrid language. I tend to think the latter is the most likely, considering that English speakers who learn Spanish for the sake of communicating with the increasingly large non-English speaking minority would take English syntax and phrases with them and mix them in common dialogue.
This could be a good thing, considering that English has been rather stagnate in the last 500 years compared to the 500 prior to that, although as a whole I think it is a sad scenario to consider (with no offense intended to my Spanish speaking friends). English is — I admit bias here — beautiful partially because of its simple, mostly inflection free system of grammar. It is something different. It is not, by any means, the most technically elegant language, but none the less, it serves its purpose well. It is odd to think that someday not that far from now people might have trouble reading this message, much less any of the classical English works.
Is the US alone in this? No, not at all. Consider the massive immigration of Muslims to Europe. At the rate it is going, the day is not far away when the continent, and likely the UK as well, will have more Middle Eastern Muslims (the majority of which would probably prefer their native Semetic and Iranian languages over the Romantic and Germanic ones) than Europeans. I'll lay off on bets as to the longevity of languages in Europe, but I tend to think we are on the cusp of a massive change.
Alas poor English, I knew it, Horatio.
At the Library Today
I was at the library today looking for some books when I ran across an early history of the United Church of Christ (from 1962, if I recall correctly). That being just five years after the merger of the E&R and Congregational Christian Churches, I doubt the author had any idea just what the organization he was so pleased to see come about would amount to. Despite being outside the UCC for six years now, I still feel connected to it and saddened by its decent into heresy. The UCC is the decedent of the very churches of the Pilgrims (literally) and some of the very earliest Evangelical Germans to come into the United States.
It could have tapped this rich heritage to do great things for God in the U.S., but instead it continues to sink in the theological swamp it willingly entered. I wonder if that author ever would have imagined the UCC would become most closely aligned with the Unitarians or if he thought it would promote goddess worship. I doubt it. I doubt most of its founders would have guessed that.
QOTW #17: Christmas or Not to Christmas
I'm trying the QOTW meme again — answer for yourself below or post a link to your answer, if you post it on your blog.
Are you ready for Christmas? Why or why not?
Mostly, I'd say I am not ready — with Advent just a week away, it seems like I should be (normally, I'm ready for Christmas decorations and carols and Advent services by the beginning of November)… but I think with my busyness this year and the warm weather, I just haven't “noticed” the that its almost that time of year. Where did fall go?
I'm not just a card, I'm a wild card.
Post your result below (remember the comments do not handle HTML, so just post the text of your answer).
[Thanks (or lack thereof, depending on your view of this quiz) go to Christopher.]
Christian Spammer Blacklist: Were Did It Go?
You may remember my announcement in July about a Christian Spammer Blacklist (CSB). The project is not dead, I just have not had the chance to take the submissions I received and put them online in a nice format. I'm hoping to do that in the next few weeks.
Just thought I'd let y'all know.
Hrmf.
Well, this week is deconstructing itself in a polite fashion. Nothing bad has happened, but I'm about three days behind on projects. sigh One of these days, I will be on schedule!
A glimpse into the future, in 2044: Well, this year is deconstructing itself in a polite fashion. Nothing bad has happened, but I'm about three years behind on projects. sigh One of these decades, I will be on schedule!
Sounds about right, right?
The Question of God
I started watching PBS's special the Question of God tonight. It aired here in St. Louis at 2:00 A.M. on two Fridays in September since KETC was running a pledge drive. I obviously didn't watch it live, so now I'm watching a recording of it. So far, its pretty good, although mostly biographical information on the two key people of the special — Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis.
I'll post more on it when I get farther along in it.
Getting Stuff Done
Windows, Windows, Windows. Well, I got the final computer taken care (mostly — I need to check into where the Microsoft Office CD for it went), no thanks to Windows XP which formatted over itself once mid-way through the setup process. Now I just need to call Microsoft's friendly operators to get permission to keep using this $180 product after the end of the next 30 days. Did I ever mention that I don't like Windows?
Invoicing. I'm still waiting to get that invoicing problem fixed. The owner of the company that makes WHMAP is personally working on it for me, which is nice. Clients seem to be getting invoices, which is another big plus — afterall, if that doesn't happen, invoicing software isn't too useful, now is it?
Paper trail. In other news, I also have almost finished a piece dealing with philosopher John Hick's view of the multiplicity of religions. For anyone bored and looking for a way to kill a few minutes, I might just post it online. One paper down, one half-way done, two a quarter of the way done, one not started and three weeks to go. Not too bad.
Two Dells Down, One to Go
Well, concerning the computers I mentioned awhile back, I've finished up with two of them and I have one to go. The two new laptops have been configured, save for Microsoft Office on one (I need to go get the license key from the church office). Now, I just need to get the old desktop refreshed with a new copy of Windows XP and all will be as well as it can be with Windows.
The laptops are nice. Frankly, I think they over-ordered, but hey, who am I?
