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November 27 , 2007
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The flattening of underwear with pleasure
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Posted at 10:00 EST
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It didn't take me as long as I thought to learn to use the journals I just wasn't paying attention. I found this little round pink thing on the nightstand by my bed. I thought it was something Loki was trying to trick me with so I ignored it. Well I decided to just pop it in my mouth. I heard it slide in a plop into the middle space in my head. Damn thing seems to be working! I can't believe it! Hope it last a little longer than the last one. Anyway now that I see I have been using the journals wrongly now I have all this space to use them rightly. : )
Plus A THANK YOU TO Senex Caecilius for his coming to my rescue and explaining the use of the journals to me!
The Beauty of the English Languages
I've read that more than 300 million people on this earth speak English, a very prolific Germanic type language. The rest who don't. Seem to try to and the results are rather mixed.
Consider this hearty announcement in a Yugoslavian hotel. "The flattening of underwear with pleasure is the job of the chambermaid." Turn to her straightaway." Or this warning to motorists in Tokyo "When a passenger of the foot heave in sight, tootle the horn. Trumpet melodiously at him at first, but if he still obstacles your path, then tootle him with vigor. Or instructions on a package of convenience food from Italy: Besmear a backing pan, previously buttered with a good tomato sauce and after dispose the cannelloni, lightly distanced between them in only a couch.
Clearly the writer of that message was not about to let a little ignorance of English get in the way of a good meal. In fact, it would appear that one of the beauties of the English language is that even with the most tenuous grasp you can speak volumes if you show enough enthusiasm.
Resourses: Bill Bryson THE MOTHER TONGUE: English and how it got that way
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September 18 , 2007
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English is Born
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Posted at 09:00 EST
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The English Language was born around 500 AD when tribes of Germanic speaking peoples invaded Roman Britain. These peoples, tribes of Angles, Saxons, and Jutes spoke a language distantly related to modern Dutch, German and Danish. The moment these invaders set foot on British soil their languages became collectively known as "Old English",a Germanic language that can be considered the grandfather of modern English.
When the Germanic Franks invaded Roman Gaul also around 500 AD they assimilated the dialect of the defeated inhabitants, the language mixture later known as French. The reason English predominated in Britain and not in Gaul is mainly due to the fact of the overwhelming retreat from the island by the Roman Britons. Most of the Roman British either sailed to Gaul or retreated to the western uplands such as Wales where their Celtic element is still preserved today in traditional Welsh language.
Bibliography
Sacks, David
Language Visible, Unraveling the Mystery of the Alphabet A to Z
Broadway Books New York
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