yil707
This user hasn't shared any biographical information
Alexei Muzyka Many English words are directly borrowed from, or take influence from many other languages. Loanwords can fill lexical gaps, increase the ways people can say what they want to, and increase the precision of communication in a language. English has borrowed so many foreign words that it might seem impossible that the complex […]
Jamie Maclean “Hey what classes are you taking this year?” “A course in Old English.” “You mean like Shakespeare?” “No, from way before that.”
Stephanie Ruiz https://giphy.com/gifs/FUyLnYYpV38ze While Monty Python’s “Dead Parrot Sketch” exploits the potential for humour in euphemistic language, it also signals the potential for euphemisms to blur the perception of reality. When the client attempts to return a dead parrot, the pet shop owner uses the euphemism for death “to be at rest” hoping to confuse […]
Jake Decker While both originating from the language family of Proto-Germanic, Dutch and English have evolved in close proximity to one another for hundreds of years. A surprising amount of loan words exist in the English language originating from Dutch but most of this lexical change happened during the period of Middle-English.
Nathaniel Wingerak While sitting on the team bus during a three-hour road trip to Wilcox, amidst the expletives and insults I hear someone yell out the ridiculous phrase “Hey sauce me my sandy!” A teammate then proceeds to hand him his sandwich. This type of chatter was everywhere in hockey; on the road, in the […]
Quinnton Weiman After spending the past few months with my nose in books about the topic, and shlepping them all over between the Murray library and student coffee klatches around town, I’ve decided to finally quit my kvetching and get this blog post written. It is no small task to sift through the storied, thousand-year-old […]
Delane Just So, you want to use “old-fashioned” English in your fantasy or historical fiction novel? Or maybe you want to use it in your next Dungeons & Dragons campaign? Well, there is more to it than adding the letter E to everything, spelling everything wrong, and throwing in a few “thou”s and “huzzah”s every […]
April Anderson Following the Norman Conquest of 1066, the English language underwent a drastic change. It was at this time that the shift from Old English to Middle English began to occur. The Middle English period saw many new linguistic phenomena take hold around 1150, and continue to shape this new form of English until […]
Sam Campling Throughout my childhood, I was a competitive figure skater, and as with most other competitive athletes, I fought to be the winner at every competition. However, there was always someone who was better than me, hence why I am not presently a competitive skater. When someone beat me, I found myself wondering; are […]
Jordana Lalonde Picture this: A family of four sits at a restaurant. The daughter pours over the menu and pauses at the words “yam fries”, scanning for the option to add a delicious dipping sauce. She sees no such condiments and announces, “I’m literally jumping off a bridge if this restaurant doesn’t have garlic aioli.” […]