Re: So long and thanks for all the fish.

In article <4ece38096fjohn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, John
Cartmell <john@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In article <4ece3159dbsee.sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Russell Hafter News <see.sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

In article <4ece2ed718john@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, John
Cartmell <john@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

There is a language within our own that is hidden
from many people who speak English. It consists of
words that approximate to Latin. There is a grammar
used in English that is not English grammar but is
based on Latin grammar. That grammar is also hidden
from many speakers of English.

And who actually speaks this hidden language? The
freemasons??

IIRC the name for the little bones in the ear in German
translate literally as 'little bones in the ear'. What is
the name in 'English'?

I was both taught, and told to teach, 'hammer', 'anvil' and
'stirrup'.

I have seen one textbook that used the latin translations of
the above. No idea why.

Without teaching Latin it is possible to acquaint
children with this 'hidden' language but it is
necessary to add specific modules to teaching -
otherwise those aspects of English remain hidden. In
the past the teaching of Latin opened up the hidden
aspects of English. Today, despite successful
experiments in Wigan LEA in the 80s, no one appears
to be teaching what needs to replace the teaching of
Latin.

What is needed is the teaching of three or four
*modern* languages, from different groups.

I'd add BSL.

Which is?

They could all be indo-european, so people could learn
a romance language (French, Spanish, Italian...), a
teutonic one (German would be the most useful), a
slavonic one (Russian, Polish, Czech...), or modern
Greek, Farsi, one of the languages of the Indian
sub-continent.

Or you could range further afield and learn a Chinese
language, or a Turkic one.

The point is that these are all languages used by
millions of people to conduct their everyday lives.

That still leaves the problem of the Latin words and
Latin grammar that contaminate English.

Why do say 'contaminate'? They are English words, imported
from Latin, in the same way as English has, over the
centuries, imported words from very many languages.

Why are the Latin words a 'problem', while words such as
'ketchup' and 'bungalow' (from Sri Lanka and India I
believe) not a 'problem'?

Mary Mason produced a scheme that taught those as English
sufficient to significantly improve pupils' scores in a
range of GCSE subjects (not just English). But no one
seems to be doing it these days. Just as they aren't
teaching Latin. And both gaps lead to increased ignorance.

If I understand you correctly, you are are saying that GCSE
boards gave extra credit to pupils who used words of Latin
derivation, rather than words of Anglo-Saxon or Norse
derivation. On what grounds was this?

--
Russell
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