Whatcha Readin'?

[Typhoid]

I'm currently reading a book about the origins and evolution of the English language, to the current, and future progression.

Highly interesting book [stuff like this fascinates me].


Like for example, one of the main reasons English has so many words for one thing, and is therefore so hard for other people to learn, is because we've assimilated so many other languages and meshed them into our own to incorporate them over hundreds and hundreds of years. During the Renaissance 10,000-12,000 new words were created. Shakespeare created many of the phrases that we still use today [the only one I remember right now] like "I'm in a pickle." Pickle at the time being a relish-type of thing, therefore the statement making no absolute sense, but people would quote it constantly as people did with "Wazzap".

What fascinated me the most was the evolution of 'ebonics', and the explanation behind it. The slaves picked up 'pidgin' [not a real language, but a basic type of english to get a point across] from people who spoke English as a second language. Which is why things such as "is" and "are" are omitted from 'ebonic speech'. They served no purpose in pidgin English. And explains why "th" and "t" is pronounced like a hard "d" sound.

Also, if two people who speak pidgin English have a child, that child cannot speak Pidgin English, because it doesn't exist - that child now speaks Creole.


Fascinating.