Welcome to the Street Prophets Coffee Hour. This is an open thread where we can share our thoughts and comments about the day. I thought it might be interesting to start today’s conversation by looking at language.
Disclosure: I’m currently involved in an Honors seminar entitled the Origins of Language and Religion. Hence, I’ve been spending a lot of time both thinking about language and talking about it with both the students and the other faculty member.
The history of the English language begins with the initial emergence of the Indo-European language family north of the Black Sea about 8000 years ago. Next comes the emergence of the Germanic language family about 3000 years ago in northern Europe near the Elbe River, the division of German about the second century BCE, and its division into North Germanic (which evolved into Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Icelandic) and West Germanic (which evolved into German, Dutch, Flemish, Frisian, and English). English is, of course, also impacted of Norman Invasion in 1066.
English has changed a lot since 1066. Part of this change has involved the borrowing of words from other language. Native American languages, for example, have enriched English with words such as chocolate, moose, canoe, hurricane, and many others.
The meanings of words has also changed through time. The word “fizzle”, for example, originally meant “to fart silently or unobtrusively.” A “geezer” was originally “someone who went around in disguise.”
Enough words out of me. It’s your turn. Do you have any favorite words? What about words you hate?
This is an open thread. Feel free to change the subject. It’s now your turn to put down some words.