The English Language Has Made Tremendous Strides

by Larry 5 Replies latest jw friends

  • Larry
    Larry

    Based on the book "In The Beginning - The Story of the King James Bible..." by Alsiter McGrath".. it took the English generations to love, respect, and use their own language."

    "In the early Middle Ages, literacy was rare, and often limited to the clergy...The ability to read had once been the exclusive preserve of the clergy. By the beginning of the 15th century, this literary monopoly was in the process of being decisively overthrown."

    "English was seen as a language of peasants, incapable of expressing anything other than the crudest and most basic of matters. English was just fine when dealing with spreading dung on fields. But how could such a barbaric language do justice to such sophisticated matters as philosophy or religion? To translate the Bible from its noble and ancient languages into English was seen as a pointless act of debasement."

    "The English upper class spoke Anglo-French as a matter of principle, to distinguish themselves from the lower class, who spoke Middle English, in much the same way as the Russian nobility in the nineteenth century preferred French to their native Russian."

    ""Opposition to translating the Bible into English rested on the fears that the English peasantry might be encourage to rise against their maters... English thus became the language of the religious underground."

    "One of the most remarkable facts of the English history during the middle ages is that the ruling elite chose not to use their native language of English, except when dealing with social inferiors, Yet it took the English generations to love, respect, and use their own language."

  • myauntfanny
    myauntfanny

    Maybe you ought to post this on the Bill Cosby thread. It seems relevant. But you probably had a whole different point, and I just missed it.

  • Satanus
    Satanus

    The english language came out of the roman empire's territory in and around the area of france. It has grown to be called the universal language. But, it is not the language that is spoken by the most people (i believe chinese is). If the west should fall, english use will likely go down.

    The killing of learning and the spreading of ignorance was originally caused by the roman empire's defeat of the greek empire. The romans weren't into learning, but rather control, conformity and organisation. As a tool to this end, it adopted christianity as the state religion. Christianity, along w the roman mentality managed to spread itself dramatically, expunging other cultures and learning on it's way, until it reached it's lowest point in the midieval period.

    It was the reimportation of new ideas and greek classics from the arabs that turned the tide, reigniting the light. The moorish move into spain, and the returning knights templar were instrumental in this. It has been a long, hard climb towards a better civilization. Will civilization keep growing, or crash again?

    SS

  • SixofNine
    SixofNine
    To translate the Bible from its noble and ancient languages into English was seen as a pointless act of debasement.

    And so it was!

    lol, who knew it would turn out to be the English language that was debased by having that vile god-nography translated?

  • Carmel
    Carmel

    yeah, returning soldiers from Iraq will bring Arabic phrases back with them creating a western renasianse (sp?)!!

  • Satanus
    Satanus

    Carmel

    yeah, returning soldiers from Iraq will bring Arabic phrases back with them creating a western renasianse (sp?)!!

    No, no, it should read

    yeah, returning soldiers from Iraq will bring cheap Arabic oil back with them creating a western renasianse (sp?)!!

    SS

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