Why? I'm not entirely sure. I stumbled across the link in a discussion thread on digg.com.
There were a few sections I couldn't understand without some familiarity with linguistics (which I don't have), but I found the article fascinating. I've always been amazed by other languages--and seeing the roots of my own language laid out is amazing to see.
For those of you who won't read the article--which I suspect is all of you--here a couple interesting tidbits:
- Since Old English was considered to be a language of the common man, very little was recorded in it--if records or stories were kept, they were written in Latin or of the language of whoever had most recently conquered the region. Because of this, many of the English words were being written down for the first time, and were written phonetically in the dialect of the scribe.
Thus, many of the unusual and horrific spellings in Modern English can be traced back to Old and Middle English. Letters that have become silent in Modern English were actually pronounced in Old English.
For example, cniht, the old English equivalent of knight, was pronounced with a hard c sound. The pronunciations of the words changed over time, but the spellings eventually became static and ceased to reflect these changes. - Old English contained a concept known as dual plurals, where there is a separate plural form indicating exactly two of something. To give an example, say that the suffix a is added to a word to indicate the dual plural.
man = One man
mana = Two men
men = Any number greater than two men.
This concept survives in many of the languages that also share Germanic roots, such as modern Icelandic.
What really surprised me was the last, seemingly tacked-on section of the article: the Lord's Prayer in Old English. The similarities between Modern English and Old English are striking. Many of the same pronouns are still in use, and it's easy to see earlier forms of common words in the text.
Fæder ure þu þe eart on heofonum,
Si þin nama gehalgod.
To becume þin rice,
gewurþe ðin willa, on eorðan swa swa on heofonum.
urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us todæg,
and forgyf us ure gyltas, swa swa we forgyfað urum gyltendum.
and ne gelæd þu us on costnunge, ac alys us of yfele. soþlice.
Our father who art in heaven,
Hallowed by thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done, on earth as it as in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who have trespassed against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
If any of you actually do read the article, you'll find that some of what I've mentioned isn't in it. I've drawn from my memory of high school English and other research for some of the info.
