Re: "Inside English" BBC Radio 4


Julian Richards wrote:
On 5 May 2006 14:01:08 -0700, "St.Cuthbert's Host" <rainulf@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:


Vaughan Sanders wrote:
"Julian Richards" <see@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:5him52hrt5riu33a1i2ket3pb29jjgqoqp@xxxxxxxxxx
On Fri, 05 May 2006 10:29:43 +0100, Julian Richards <see@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

"Melvyn Bragg explores the latest revelations that computing and
science are bringing to the way we use our language: using the latest
computer-assisted research he discovers hitherto unrealised patterns
in the way we use our language, both literary and spoken.

Some forty years ago great hopes were raised in the literary community
that the sort of routine mechanical analysis of literary texts (e.g.
word counts and frequency of use of particular terms) that the advent
of the computer and its ability to crunch large amounts of detail
quickly and accurately could deliver were going to revolutionise
study. Today, there's a certain degree of scepticism. Some of the
claims - like the computer-aided study that suggested that Sylvia
Plath's verse foreshadowed her suicide - have been greeted with
ridicule in some quarters. Yet slowly but surely as the software
becomes more sophisticated, major advances are being made.

For 'Inside English', Melvyn goes inside the differences between
spoken and written English to find out the way science is being roped
in to analyse and then potentially change the way we use it. "

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio4_aod.shtml?radio4/knowwhatyouresaying

This is the "Listen Again" link. BBC Radio 4's resident clever clogs,
Melvyn Bragg, a favourite shm on-topic radio presenter, analyses how
much Anglo Saxon is in modern English and shows that we speak
principally Anglo Saxon with a little Norse and not that much Norman.
I'm sure that there will be those here that will disagree.

Kathryn A. Lowe featured in the program explains the history of our language
very well Julian.
It's the every day OE of the Danelaw market towns like Peterborough that we
speak today not the literary language of the Abbey.

The figures for the Norman occupation were interesting, 20,000 French
speakers compared to one and a half million English speakers, even today's
legal language has virtually no French influence.
These figures are close to what I have seen quoted as all that's needed for
the Anglo-Saxon tongue to completely wipe out the Celtic language.

Jamie

I read in "Our marvellous Native Tongue" by Claibourne that the
frequency of use of words is something like 80 or 90 % English (i.e.
derived from old english). It is kind of amazing.

That's the sort of figure the programme gave, with Norse giving about
9%.

As an aside - Peterborough is my home town, glad you picked it to cite
as an example!

The village of Dane End is just to the south of me. I would imagine my
local pubs were rougher then than even nowadays.


--

Julian Richards
medieval "at" richardsuk.f9.co.uk

My local used to be the Lord Westwood - the boozer at the center of
Westwood Estate but it got closed down after the rowdies on a New Years
punch up had to be tear gassed to break it up.

Haven't been back there to visit for 5 years, alas.

The cloister/garden on the east side of the Cathedral is still (I hope)
one of the most peaceful places on earth.

.

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