Written English - Evolving or Corrupting?

[Ivan...]

I think it's ok to start a sentence with whatever you want, on a forum, especially if it's a subject of interest to you, i tend to type as i talk(only no where near as well!) We are not all masters of the queens english, and although we all have moments where we cringe at some spelling and grammar, i am one of the worst! It comes out of my head down to my fingers and onto the thread!

I will agree i don't like teenage or mobile speak, but am always forgiving of any mistakes or lack of attention to detail, closet dyslexia etc.

There is a slight danger, that this thread may put some folk off posting, really valuable and interesting stuff, for fear of ridicule.

Anyway, i don't mind if anyone, at any point wants to pull me up on my written foibles, as i can take it on the chin.

Good thread nunthelesss

Ivan...

 

[John Fenna]

I use a Thesaurus a lot more John.

Roget gets to sit in my wife's lap more often than I do!
She is the Crossword buff in our house!

 

[sandbender]

Older 'versions' of English.

For the curious, here are a few examples....

Old English

The opening lines of Beowulf. (1000 - 1100?)

Middle English

The prologue to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. (1380-ish)

Elizabethan English

Mark Rylance giving his "we're all going to die" version of Henry V's St Crispin day speech. (1599)

Restoration 'era' English

Samuel Pepys witnesses the Great Fire of London. (1666)



The last two should be easy enough for most to follow, Chaucer isn't so hard to get to grips with either.

 

[Balloonatic]

Excellent performance of Beowulf and a really interesting interpretation of Henry V, thanks for posting Sandbender!

 

[boatman]

Funny that unlike the "Battle of Maldon" and other earlier English works "Beowulf " is unknown until 1563. Assuming it is genuine is it really the great Anglo-Saxon epic or a quite boring treatise for young Athelings and the like on how to behave, written in the approved court literary language?