Is there a place for the English language in the emerging multipolar world? Or should it be discarded as a neocolonial artifact and instrument of domination?
I posted the link on a social media site and got this wonderful reply:
> I see no reason to worry over English as some historical quirk. It is a mongrel language with layers of platdeutsch, german, scandinavian, a few hints of the erased Brythonic Welsh mixed with the French latin of the Normans, imports of classical Greek and Latin and then all the Empire and American borrowings included while everywhere it's spoken it has its own local idiosyncrasies and contributions e.g. what gaelic structure brings. But it's all fine. We long ago ditched gendered noun encumbrance and more recently formal/informal you. The syntax has rules but is flexible. English can sometimes have 50% more words than some other languages. Verbs can be adjectivised, nouns can be verbised. Many other languages could not parse what I've just written. Words can have several meanings, are altered prepositionally in very flexible ways, including between concrete and abstract senses. Metaphor is a universe of its own. Not all these things are unique to English but the combination is wonderfully unique, a polyvalent, promiscuous, malleable, ever-expanding gift to the world. No inter-bank transfer system or internet protocol needed.
Colin thanks - I love this (your writings and 'being'), and I've thought for a while about the yin-yang of English language and how it's been an instrument of ambiguous control, especially in the context of Nick Duffell's work on Wounded Leaders and the Making of Them, and his co-authoring of the latest Simpol.org book with Simpol (Simultaneous Policy, global) founder John Bunzl. Alex Renton and Joy Schaverein are two other writers/educationalists on the boarding school problem. Duffell is a profound therapist also. Tolstoy's Kreutzer Sonata explains a lot to me about what's gone wrong since the end of the hunter-gatherer civilisations. Re language, I think part of this is the difficulty in remembering the names of non-English wise good people, and their works, notably Kazimierz Dabrowski' Theory of Positive Disintegration, which is immensely powerful in explaining the power of traumatic growth and sensitivity ('over-excitability' and giftedness - which tends to be diagnosed as mental illness and prescribed murderous pharma medication). Politicians such as Johnson, Cameron, Blair, etc were taught to use language to intimidate and bully of course. And English in the hands of psyops and advertising experts (Nudge and NLP, and leveraging of Transactional Analysis, etc) seems an extremely potent brainwashing weapon. I prefer the ancient notions of show and music and dance and nature rather than attempt to use a language that's been so distorted and controlled for so long, although that's moving into territory of zeitgeist and quantum IMHO, and what reality actually is at all :) Anyway thanks for your brilliance and beauty, etc., Alan
P.S. I suppose that everything is flexible, depending on what universes we each choose to make in our heads, which IMHO is arguably the only reality that there is :)
Many thanks for the kinds words! Always good to find a kindred spirit. I loathe this surreptitious social engineering through language; it's just so dishonest and manipulating. Perhaps that's why I too have to seek refuge from time to time in music and dance in various forms. I love Tolstoy but never read Kreutzer Sonata; going to add to to my To Read list.
I also enjoyed your comments re. foraging. Did my share today while walking in the countryside; the blackberries are starting to ripen in a big way. Spending a few weeks in the gorgeous Dutch countryside, where sadly the farmers are fighting for their existence. We live in a world gone insane; however, nothing lasts, everything is in motion. We do what we can to survive.
I posted the link on a social media site and got this wonderful reply:
> I see no reason to worry over English as some historical quirk. It is a mongrel language with layers of platdeutsch, german, scandinavian, a few hints of the erased Brythonic Welsh mixed with the French latin of the Normans, imports of classical Greek and Latin and then all the Empire and American borrowings included while everywhere it's spoken it has its own local idiosyncrasies and contributions e.g. what gaelic structure brings. But it's all fine. We long ago ditched gendered noun encumbrance and more recently formal/informal you. The syntax has rules but is flexible. English can sometimes have 50% more words than some other languages. Verbs can be adjectivised, nouns can be verbised. Many other languages could not parse what I've just written. Words can have several meanings, are altered prepositionally in very flexible ways, including between concrete and abstract senses. Metaphor is a universe of its own. Not all these things are unique to English but the combination is wonderfully unique, a polyvalent, promiscuous, malleable, ever-expanding gift to the world. No inter-bank transfer system or internet protocol needed.
Colin thanks - I love this (your writings and 'being'), and I've thought for a while about the yin-yang of English language and how it's been an instrument of ambiguous control, especially in the context of Nick Duffell's work on Wounded Leaders and the Making of Them, and his co-authoring of the latest Simpol.org book with Simpol (Simultaneous Policy, global) founder John Bunzl. Alex Renton and Joy Schaverein are two other writers/educationalists on the boarding school problem. Duffell is a profound therapist also. Tolstoy's Kreutzer Sonata explains a lot to me about what's gone wrong since the end of the hunter-gatherer civilisations. Re language, I think part of this is the difficulty in remembering the names of non-English wise good people, and their works, notably Kazimierz Dabrowski' Theory of Positive Disintegration, which is immensely powerful in explaining the power of traumatic growth and sensitivity ('over-excitability' and giftedness - which tends to be diagnosed as mental illness and prescribed murderous pharma medication). Politicians such as Johnson, Cameron, Blair, etc were taught to use language to intimidate and bully of course. And English in the hands of psyops and advertising experts (Nudge and NLP, and leveraging of Transactional Analysis, etc) seems an extremely potent brainwashing weapon. I prefer the ancient notions of show and music and dance and nature rather than attempt to use a language that's been so distorted and controlled for so long, although that's moving into territory of zeitgeist and quantum IMHO, and what reality actually is at all :) Anyway thanks for your brilliance and beauty, etc., Alan
P.S. I suppose that everything is flexible, depending on what universes we each choose to make in our heads, which IMHO is arguably the only reality that there is :)
Many thanks for the kinds words! Always good to find a kindred spirit. I loathe this surreptitious social engineering through language; it's just so dishonest and manipulating. Perhaps that's why I too have to seek refuge from time to time in music and dance in various forms. I love Tolstoy but never read Kreutzer Sonata; going to add to to my To Read list.
I also enjoyed your comments re. foraging. Did my share today while walking in the countryside; the blackberries are starting to ripen in a big way. Spending a few weeks in the gorgeous Dutch countryside, where sadly the farmers are fighting for their existence. We live in a world gone insane; however, nothing lasts, everything is in motion. We do what we can to survive.
Tam's article is very good.
I thought so too! His page was a nice discovery.