The term “Judeo–Christianvalues“ in an an civilizational and ethical sense was not common until almost the middle of the 20th century. Even during WWII Churchill and Roosevelt usually spoke of Christian Civilization. George Orwell used the phrase in a 1939 essay. I believe “Judeo-Christian” became popular as anodyne to discourage anti-Semitism after the horrors of the Holocaust. Of course, Western Civilization or Judeo-Christian Civilization has always mean Greco-Roman/Christian or Greco-Roman-Judeo-Christian heritage. In older books and essays I recall the word Bible or Bible-based culture being used instead of “Judeo-Christian” but usually the ethical sense is the same. And there can be no question we, in the USA, in the West, have a “splendid ancient heritage” of faith and freedom. Lincoln believed so. Roosevelt believed so. John F. Kennedy believed so. Kennedy said, confidently,
“And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe—the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.
We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans— born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage—and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.”
What is this but a defense of Judeo-Christian heritage and natural law? We should be proud of “our ancient heritage” of freedom and faith. Faith in the individual. Faith in limited government. Faith in rule of law. Faith in the free exercise of religion (or faith in the right to not exercise or participate in any religion or be force to support it. Faith in our Republic and Constitution, “under God.” That is what Judeo-Christian heritage is. And it is indeed a proud and splendid ancient heritage.
Chapter One: Old English or the “Right-true Saxon tongue”
English -or the “right-true Saxon tongue”[1] as it was once known- is a Germanic language, related at its heart to Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and German. English is a not an ancient language, only coming into prominence in the last five hundred years. In the early 17th century barely one hundred individuals spoke English in all the Americas and in the British Isles only about five million people (80% of the population) spoke English[2]. English was not the languages of the schools or higher education at that time; George Washington –born in 1732-was among the first generation of educated English-speaking peoples to be educated almost entirely in the English medium. Prior to 1700 most learned books in Britain and Western Europe were written in Latin and educated people learned French and Latin. How did English rise from an insignificant, unwritten regional Germanic dialect to one of the great culture languages of the world?
Languages have always been instruments of great empires, great cultures and great religions. I once asked my Scottish grandfather why we spoke English if we weren’t English; he answered simply: “English is the language of the banks and the long-range guns. That’s why everyone speaks English including the English.” In other words, the winners write history.
(The terms “England” Ireland, “Scotland”, and “Wales” are used purely to indicate geographic location relative to modern boundaries. Roman Britain was a united province but in this time period the other nations did not exist as independent entities. )
The three big winners in English history were the Romans, the Normans and the English themselves. Jorge Luis Borges said:
You will say that it’s easier for a Dane to study English than for a Spanish-speaking person to learn English or an Englishman Spanish; but I don’t think this is true, because English is a Latin language as well as a Germanic one. At least half the English vocabulary is Latin. Remember that in English there are two words for every idea: one Saxon and one Latin. You can say ‘Holy Ghost’ or ‘Holy Spirit,’ ‘sacred’ or ‘holy.’ There’s always a slight difference, but one that’s very important for poetry, the difference between ‘dark’ and ‘obscure’ for instance, or ‘regal’ and ‘kingly,’ or ‘fraternal’ and ‘brotherly.’ In the English language almost all words representing abstract ideas come from Latin, and those for concrete ideas from Saxon, but there aren’t so many concrete ideas.[4]
We still use a Roman alphabet; many of our everyday words and expressions are French and we speak English because the English-speaking homeland has not been successfully invaded since the Norman Conquest in 1066 and because the English-speaking peoples and their Allies triumphed in all the major wars of the last three centuries most recently against Hitler and the Kaiser. The story of the English language will explain why the English language (or tongue) is so complex, multifaceted, difficult to spell and pronounce and to tell the truth at times strange, weird and inexplicable.
Figure 5 Indo-European roots of “tongue”
English belongs to the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. The European and many Indian languages go back to a common ancestor called “Indo-European”. Indo-European was spoken about 4500 BC to 2500 BC and all modern Indo-European languages are descended from this single language.[5]
For comparison we can compare several well-known Indo-European languages.
English &
GERMAN
Latin
Greek
mother (OE mōdorMutter
māter “mother”
mḗtēr”
mother”
father (OE fæder)
Vater
pater “father”
patḗr ”
father”
brother (OE brōþor)
Bruder
frāter “brother
phrā́tēr”
member of a phratry (brotherhood)
sister (OEsweostor, influenced by ON systir) Schwester
soror “sister”
éor “relative”
daughter(< OE dohtor) Tochter
x
thugátēr“daughter”
son (OE sunu)
Sohn
x
huiús
“son”
Neve*(OBSOLETE) “nephew” (OE nefa) Neffe
Nepōs (nepōtis)“grandson, nephew”
népodes“ descendants”
It is obvious from the above list that English is closely related to German and, indeed, English is a Germanic tongue. But English is the least purely Germanic language because it is truly a hybrid. “English is a baptized Anglo-Saxon barbarian with a fancy French makeover a little Latin and less Greek” is how a teacher once put it to me somewhat tongue in cheek. Nonetheless, is it true that English is unusual in that it is a language composed of basically three strata:
1. The Germanic or “Anglo-Saxon”[1]
one, which is the basis of English. Many
irregular verbs are “Anglo-Saxon” (Germanic)
2. A classical
strata mainly French, Latin (Romance)
3. A classic philosophical, technical and
academic strata of more sophisticated words and ideas (Greek).
The “Anglo-Saxon words “are short, everyday words. They are stronger sometimes vulgar. The classical words are a more learned, more polite in tone, “colder”; they form more sophisticated stratum.
Speech, tongue, land, understand, stand, sit, eat, head, foot, to mean, meaning, red, black, blue, the, his, her are examples of simple Germanic roots in English. Notice these are mostly three, four or five letter words or compounds of short words. “Early to bed, early to rise makes us healthy, wealthy and wise”; this is an example of an ancient English proverb over a thousand years old. It does not have a single Latinate word.
We should, recall, that literature is older than the alphabet and the earliest genres are myths, orations, poems, prayers and proverbs. Some English proverbs appear to be translations of Latin or French proverbs but others seems to be unique to English.Here are some other examples:
1)“All
that glitters is not gold” (appearances can deceive)
2)“When
meat is in, anger is out” (one way
to remedy anger)
3)“Better
to ask the way than go astray” ( ask to as not to get lost)
4)“Hard
words break no bones” (effect of criticism)
5) “If
a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.” (Value of diligence)
6) “Every
shoe fits not every foot” (people
are different)
7) “When
the moon’s in the full, then the wit’s in the wane”
(Full moons
make people crazy)
8) “Make
not thy friend thy foe” (don’t make enemies of your friends)
10)“Many
hands make light work” (value of people helping each other)
11) “Little gear, less care” (“gear” means possessions; rich people
worry)
`12)“O God, thy sea is so great, and my boat is so small”[1]
Here is an example of writing English in a Germanic (Anglo-Saxon) way
or in an academic/legal (Latin) way:
EXAMPLE#1: ANGLO-SAXON (“Germanic”) English:
Now anything he tries to do in the
house without his shoes will be kept from his mother and father as well as his
folk. The child’s behavior is trouble.
EXAMPLE #2 LATINATE (Academic/legal) ENGLISH:
It will not be possible to restrain him from exercising in the domicile without his boots nor to conceal it from his parents as well as from the people. The comportment of the neonate is problematic.
Since less than 40% of modern English is Germanic (and about 25% is derived from Anglo-Saxon) it is impossible, today, to communicate without any Greco-Latin (or classical) words. But the Anglo-Saxon roots, generally speaking, are high frequency words and are very emotive words. Sophisticated words or polysyllabic words are almost always Greek or Latin in origin (including French words) but tend to be “colder” in tone. For simplicity’s sake I always say “Anglo-Saxon” rather than “Germanic” or Old English so as to make it clear that I am not referring to German or modern English.
See the chart below for some examples.
Three Strata of
English:
ANGLO-SAXON (includes native British words ****************** ****** and other Germanic)
LATIN Includes Latinate or French words often legal,
military or academic words
GREEK often scientific philosophical, medical or technical terms
Everyday words“four letter words”
Quotidian; common vocabulary
Koine (standard universal language)
To drink
To imbibe
Dipsosis (thirst) Dipsomaniac (person addicted to drinking alcohol) Medical terms
To eat
To consume; to
devour
Parasite
Leech, toady Freeloader
Servile person
Parasite,
sponger sycophant
Healer“nurse” “saw bones”
Doctor General practitioner (GP) Medical doctor
Physician Surgeon ; surgery The names for specialists are Greek derived: ex. Obstetrician (baby doctor) Pediatrician (child doctor)
thing
Object , entity article, commodity
Synthesis, analysis
Figure 6 Early Anglo Saxon Runes or Alphabet
The history of English is traditionally divided into three periods usually called Old English (or Anglo-Saxon), Middle English, and Modern English. Three Germanic tribes, called Angles, Saxons and Jutes, invaded Roman Britain in the fifth century AD. They may have first come as barbarian mercenaries and when the Roman legions were withdrawn from Britain the Anglo-Saxons or English –who were pagans- gradually took over from the native Romano-Britons who were Christian. King Arthur, the legendary King of Camelot, [1]is supposed to have rallied the Britons against these pagan invaders from a time; this allowed Wales and Scotland to develop as independent countries with their own languages and traditions.[2] Later those Celtic languages had some influence on English but relatively little until the 18th and 19th century. Some Celtic loanwords in modern English are loch (lake), whiskey, phoney, leprechaun, slogan, kibosh, shenanigans, ceilidh, galore, shanty, colleen, gillie , cairn, plaid , shamrock, clan, bog, cairn. There are a score of others which may be Celtic but are usually considered of unknown origin; Skullduddery? , toting a piece? (Carrying a weapon) , “a “checkered past”(?), “smashing” (good) , noggin ? and so on. I make no claims of my own.; I follow the authority of the Oxford English Dictionary and the American Heritage Dictionary. John Ciardi, the famous linguist, also said America popularized many Irish words which were frowned upon in England until recent times. See John Ciardi, A Brower’s Dictionary Harper and Row, 1980. There are of course many Celtic loanwords in Latin and German dating back to pre-Roman times. See also An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language (1896) reprinted 1982. Most Celtic words in modern English were popularized by the poems and songs of Robert Burns, the poems of Thomas Moore, William Butler Yeats and the novels and poems of Walter Scott and others of the “Celtic Revival”.
Inscribed to R. Aiken, Esq. “Let not Ambition mock their useful toil, Their homely joys, and destiny obscure; Nor Grandeur hear, with a disdainful smile, The short and simple annals of the Poor. MY lov’d, my honour’d, much respected friend! No mercenary bard[1] his homage pays; With honest pride, I scorn each selfish end, My dearest need, a friend’s esteem and praise: 5
Only “bard” is a native Celtic word.
Bard is a Celtic word (poet); Ingle (fireplace ) is a Celtic word; but most of the “difficult” words such as “weary kiaugh” (cark) burden; worry are Scottish English dialect derived from Middle English. They are archaisms of English not Celtic.
“Coronach”
Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832)
HE is gone on the mountain,
He is lost to the forest,
Like a summer-dried fountain,
When our need was the sorest.
The font reappearing 5 From the raindrops shall borrow,
But to us comes no cheering,
To Duncan no morrow!
The hand of the reaper
Takes the ears that are hoary, 10 But the voice of the weeper
Wails manhood in glory.
The autumn winds rushing
Waft the leaves that are serest,
But our flower was in flushing 15 When blighting was nearest.
Fleet foot on the corrie
Sage counsel in cumber,
Red hand in the foray,
How sound is thy slumber! 20 Like the dew on the mountain,
Like the foam on the river
Like the bubble on the fountain,
Thou art gone, and forever.
Only a few Celtic words are added (Corry and Coronach) though it is possible the simple style reads like a translation from Gaelic. Correi (or Corrie ; Coire) is a round hollow in the hillside. Use of this Gaelic word adds local color but otherwise the poem is pure English. A coronach id funeral dirge on the bagpipes ( from the Gaelic Coranach )
“How Oft Has the Banshee Cried”
By Thomas Moore
HOW oft has the Banshee cried!
How oft has death untied
Bright links that Glory wove,
Sweet bonds entwined by Love!
Peace to each manly soul that sleepeth; 5 Rest to each faithful eye that weepeth;
Long may the fair and brave
Sigh o’er the hero’s grave!
Once again there is only one Celtic word (Banshee). A banshee (Bean-Sidh) is a legend, a banshee is a fairy woman who begins to wail if someone is about to die. In Scottish mythology the creature is called the bean sìth or bean-nighe and is seen washing the blood stained clothes or armor of those who are about to die.
Here is an extended quotation from Merriam Webster. I can read Middle English (Chaucer) with some annotation but I cannot read Anglo-Saxon nor am I an expert on Anglo-Saxon so here it is best to go word by word from an expert source: [1] The following brief sample of Old English prose illustrates several of the significant ways in which change has so transformed English that we must look carefully to find points of resemblance between the language of the tenth century and our own. It is taken from Aelfric’s “Homily on St. Gregory the Great” and concerns the famous story of how that pope came to send missionaries to convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity after seeing Anglo-Saxon boys for sale as slaves in Rome : Eft he axode, hu ðære ðeode nama wære þe hi of comon. Him wæs geandwyrd, þæt hi Angle genemnode wæron. Þa cwæð he, “Rihtlice hi sind Angle gehatene, for ðan ðe hi engla wlite habbað, and swilcum gedafenað þæt hi on heofonum engla geferan beon.”
A few of these words will be recognized as identical in spelling with their modern equivalents—he, of, him, for, and, on—and the resemblance of a few others to familiar words may be guessed—nama to name, comon to come, wære to were, wæs to was—but only those who have made a special study of Old English will be able to read the passage with understanding. The sense of it is as follows:
Again he [St. Gregory] asked what might be the name of the people from which they came. It was answered to him that they were named Angles. Then he said, “Rightly are they called Angles because they have the beauty of angels, and it is fitting that such as they should be angels’ companions in heaven.”
Some of the words in the original have survived in altered form, including axode (asked), hu (how), rihtlice (rightly), engla (angels), habbað (have), swilcum (such), heofonum (heaven), and beon (be). *** ” Perhaps the most distinctive difference between Old and Modern English reflected in Aelfric’s sentences is the elaborate system of inflections, of which we now have only remnants. The period of Middle English extends roughly from the twelfth century through the fifteenth…” [2] We can hear elements of Middle English, still, in northern English and Scottish dialects.
In-depth and personal interviews by Rita Guibert of Pablo
Neruda, Jorge Luis Borges, Miguel Angel Asturias, Octavio Paz, Julio Cortázar,
Gabriel García Márquez and Guillermo Cabrera Infante. The Nobel
Prize in Literature was awarded to Pablo Neruda in 1971, Miguel Angel Asturias
in 1967, Octavio Paz in 1990 and Gabriel García Márquez in 1982.
[5] Also
called “Aryan” this was a linguistic group like Latin or Spanish. In Nazism it
was considered a “race” of “pure Europeans” (Caucasian Gentiles of a Nordic
type). Indo-European speakers were of many races.
Figure 1 Roman soldier and barbarian In English there has long been a battle between the LATIN (Classical soul) and the ANGLO-SAXON soul.
That book you read,” she asked wistfully, “what’s it about?”
“It was written by a man named Plato,” Ranse told her
stiffly.
“It was written in Greek.”
She brought him a cup of coffee and hesitated for a minute,
and then asked, “You can read and write American, too, can’t you?”
“English, Miss Hallie, “he corrected. “English is our mother
tongue. I am quite familiar with English.”
She put her red hands on the café counter. ‘Mr. Foster,” she
whispered, “will you teach me to read?’
FROM “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” by Dorothy M.
Johnson.
B
Figure 2 STONEHENGE
Brief timeline of English history
Neolithic (Stone Age) period, c. 5000-2000 BC, agriculture, mound tombs
Non-Indo-European speaking people of Britain (indigenous population; related to Picts and Basques?)
Stonehenge I & II (2800-2000 B.C.)
Bronze Age, 2000-500 B.C.
Indo-European language, burial with drinking vessels, flint, metal
Stonehenge III & IV (2000 B.C. -1100 B.C.)
Celtic inhabitants (British) arrived around 750 B.C., hill forts
Iron Age, , in Britain around 500 or 600 B.C.; Began in Europe around 8th century B.C
CELTIC people in British Isles from Gaul and Spain: Britons (hence Britannia) Κελτοί Keltoi was a Greek word and Celtae was the Latin equivalent. Britain (Britannia) seems to be land of painted people (Picts).Albion is also an ancient name meaning land of the “White Cliffs” (Dover). [1]
Celtic languages: Gaelic, Brythonic (British; ancestor of Welsh) Celtic place names in Britain:
Camulodunum “Camelot” =
chief Celtic town named after Camulos a God of War in Celtic Britain; later “Colchester”, York (Eboracum:”Place of the Yew Trees”) Bows
were made of Yew wood so occupying this place would have of strategic
importance.
Figure 3 Britannia circa 150 AD
Roman Britain
Julius Caesar invades Britain, 55/54 BC Roman influence grows
43 AD Roman Conquest begins under Claudius, Romanization of Britain 43-410 AD: introduction of Latin & Latin alphabet. ; Roman place names (sometimes mixed with native Celtic) Castra meant military camp (fort):Chester (camp of XX Legion), Colchester,Gloucester, Manchester, Lancaster, Portchester; Lincoln (Colonia)
Hadrian’s
Wall (73 miles long), 121-127 A.D. Fortification against Picts and
Scots. First evidence of Jews and
early Christians in 2nd century.
Figure 4 Hadrian’s Wall
4th and 5th centuries: Germanic tribes invade Roman Empire ; Visigoths sacked Rome in 410 A.D.)
Roman departure from Britain 410 AD
Birth of St. Patrick in Roman Britain circa 432AD; his mother was the niece of St. Martin of Tours and his father was a deacon and a low-ranking Imperial official.
Fall of Roman Empire in the West 476 AD
Anglo-Saxon barbarian Invasions of Britain
Roman Britain besieged by Picts, Scots, and Saxons (barbarian tribes) circa 375-410
Circa 410: British leader Vortigern invites Saxons (Angles, Saxons, Jutes) into as mercenaries against other barbarians (Picts and Scots);
Saxon settlements in Britain (Sussex and Wessex, 477- 495)
British Celts (Romano-Britons) driven into Wales, Cornwall and Brittany (on northwest coast of France)
British resistance, King Arthur, British victory at Mt. Badon, A.D. 500 (quasi-historical King of Camelot).[2]
Gildas, De Excidio Britanniae (The Fall of Britain) (c. A.D. 540) , a Latin work describing and lamenting the fall of Britain to the Anglo-Saxons.
Anglo-Saxons in control of “England” (Angle-Land) by sixth century
St. Columba (Irish saint) establishes center of learning and Christianization at Iona which will spread the Latin alphabet and Christianity to Scotland and northern England. 563 AD.
Anglo-Saxon England
Angles’ settlements in East Anglia, the Midlands, and Northumbria; England (“land of the Angles”)[3]
Pope Gregory the Great sends St. Augustine (the “Apostle of the English)”a Roman Benedictine monk,[4] to Kent A.D. 597
Aethelbert I of Kent (Jutes), converted to Christianity by Augustine, first Christian king of Anglo-Saxon England (Rex Anglorum), also compiled law code (c. 600)
Gradual Christianization of pagan Anglo-Saxons by Roman and Irish (Gaels) missionaries (St. Aidan and others, 635-655); Theodore of Tarsus, Greek and Latin speaking archbishop of Canterbury organized the Anglo-Saxon church.
Lindisfarne Gospels 698, Latin Vulgate text with interlined Old English paraphrase
Circa 725 AD Beowulf Old English epic poem consisting of 3182 alliterative lines. It is the oldest surviving long poem in Old English (Anglo-Saxon)
Venerable Bede (673-735),Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum (Ecclesiastical History of the English People) (731), Latin work;
Offa, king of Mercia (r. 757-796); Alcuin of York (732-804), high level of Latin scholarship
First Viking attacks 787, sack of Lindisfarne Priory 793; Book of Kells: created in Iona: Irish illuminated manuscript of four gospels (8th c.) in Latin.
King Alfred the Great of England
King Alfred the Great (849-899), king of Wessex (r. 871-899), many victories over Vikings ; 886 Alfred captures London and is recognized as king of all England (except for Danish parts)
King Alfred’s employment of Mercian scholars (Plegmund, Waerferth, Aethelstan, and Werwulf) in educational and literary endeavors (885), revival of learning, beginnings of Anglo Saxon Chronicle (written in Old English not Latin) Alfred the Great’s unique importance in the history of English letters came from his conviction that a life without knowledge or reflection was unworthy.
West Saxon dialect became literary standard of Old English literature; oral tradition. Many translations from Latin into English fostered by Alfred the Great.
late 10th and early 11th century, renewed Scandinavian (Viking) invasions of British Isles (England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales)
Aethelred II Unraed (r. 978-1016); married to Emma (daughter of Richard II, duke of Normandy); peak of monastic and literary revival: Aelfric (955-1020), Catholic Homilies, Lives of the Saints; Wulfstan d. 1023, Sermo Lupi ad Anglos (1014, “Sermon of the Wolf to the English People”) (in Old English with Latin introductory words).
Battle of Maldon 991; Old English poem Battle of Maldon recorded in manuscript Cotton Otho (destroyed by fire in 1731)
Cotton Vitellius (c. 1000), manuscript containing Old English poem Beowulf Judith, partially destroyed by fire in 1731
Danish Canute (Cnut), king of England (r. 1016-1035), married Aethelred’s widow Emma and fathered Hardecanute, king of England (1040-1042)
Edward the Confessor (r. 1042-1066), son of Aethelred II Unraed and Emma; lived in exile in Normandy, during Danish rule of England, until 1041; conflicts and power sharing with Godwin, earl of Wessex, and his son Harold Godwinson (last Anglo-Saxon king, killed in 14 October 1066 at the Battle of Hastings)
1066 Norman invasion; William the Conqueror, Battle of Hastings 1066, end of Anglo-Saxon Period French and Latin become the languages of law and higher education.
Circa 1120 Eadwine’s Psalterium triplex, which contained the Latin version accompanied by Anglo-Norman and Anglo-Saxon renderings, appeared.
Circa 1350 Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Talesin Middle English using thousands of French borrowings.
By 1362 English had replaced French as the common language of the English parliament but the elite study Latin and speak French.
Inspired by John Wycliffe, Nicholas of Hereford leads English translation of the Bible. Circa 1380.
In 1408 a synod of clergy summoned to Oxford by Archbishop Arundel forbade the translation and use of Scripture in the vernacular (English). The Wycliffe Bible 1420-1450 in English gains popularity; thousands of handwritten copies (200 manuscripts extant).
Gutenberg’s Bible (1455); printing double-faced on linen paper spread rapidly throughout Europe opening unexpected possibilities in education, commerce, religion and communication.
Protestant Reformation 1519-1560; establishment of national churches with national languages undermines the supremacy of Latin.
1523-1525 William Tyndale translates English New Testament directly from Greek, over 18,000 copies are printed.
Act of Supremacy(1534); confirmation of the English-speaking Anglican church by Parliament,
1538“Great Bible” of Henry VIII placed in every parish church in England; 2500 copies are printed to start and six more editions are printed in 1540’s.
Colonies of dissident exiled Protestants make the “Breeches” Bible new translation of the Bible published in Geneva (New Testament, 1557; Old Testament, 1560) by a colony of Protestant scholars in exile English will become the standard language of the Calvinist Church of Scotland leading to a decline of Gaelic and of Scots (Scottish dialect of English).Geneva Bible is an important influence on the translators of the James King Version of 1611.
Jerome’s Latin Vulgate served as the basis for translations of both the Old and New Testament into Syriac, Arabic, Spanish, and many other languages, including English. The Vulgate provided the basis for the Douai-Reims Version (New Testament, 1582; Old Testament, 1609–10) ,revised in 1740-1752 by Bishop Challoner which remained the only authorized Bible in English for Roman Catholics until the 20th century.
Execution of Mary Queen of Scots (1587); leads to war with Spain until 1604; continues decline of French and Latin in England and Scotland
Destruction of Spanish Armada (1588) opens America to English and French colonization.
Famous speech by Queen Elizabeth (1588) “On eve of facing the Spanish Armada.”
First English dictionary A Table Alphabeticall (1604) by schoolmaster Robert Cawdrey
Colonization of North America by England : the South (Jamestown:1609) and the North (Plymouth 1620) Seed of USA and Canada
James King Version of Bible 1611. Most influential English book of all history.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) contemporary with King James Bible and the greatest poet and playwright of the English language. Sonnets circa 1592;
Defeat of the French in the Seven Years War 1755-1763 (“French and Indian War”) leads to the eclipse of French on the Indian subcontinent, and the dominance of English in British North America. French survives as a regional (“official”) language in Canada but English will be the predominate culture language in South Africa, India, Australia, New Zealand , Singapore, Hong Kong and many islands in the Caribbean.
Johnson’s Dictionary (1755)
Declaration of Independence (1776); US Constitution “and Bill of Rights (1787-1791): English will become divided into what we may call a“British Standard” (Standard English based on the “received pronunciation”) and American English where the emphasis in on grammar “good usage and spelling” not pronunciation.
1898 USA acquired Hawaii and the Philippines (Spanish was an official language until 1966) and English will become the lingua franca; Puerto Rico, officially bilingual remains Spanish-speaking.
1914-1945 War with Germany in two World Wars undermines use of German by German-American Communities (at one time about 20% of the American people -30 millions- spoke German and it was studied more than any foreign language except French and Latin.
WINSTON CHURCHILL NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE (1953)
1900-1945 USA becomes major English-speaking world power;
about 50% of all native English speakers are American (C. 2016)
INTRODUCTION
English is not the oldest native
language of the British Isles and Ireland but today it is the preeminent
language of many English-speaking nations such as England (the U. K.), the USA, Canada,
Ireland, South Africa, Australia
and New Zealand. English has become the native language of
more than 380 million people and is the most important second language in the
world spoken by perhaps 1 billion people.
English is worth studying because it is very useful in business, law,
medicine, technology, computers, and education.
English has a vast and famous literature, an influential musical culture
and arguably the greatest film and entertainment industry in the modern
world. English is also the language of
the Declaration of Independence, the
U.S. Constitution, Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Kennedy and the Roosevelts
and so has been an instrument in spreading democracy and human rights
throughout the world. The first step in gaining command of English is to know
the story of English. Along the way you will be introduced to selection of
great authors, orators and writers of the English language.
[1] Thomas, Charles
(1997). Celtic Britain. London: Thames and Hudson. p. 82. “If we seek
a meaning, the favored view is that it arises from an older word implying
‘people of the forms, shapes or depictions’
[2] Morris,
John (1977). The Age of Arthur: A History of the British
Isles from 350 to 650. Chichester, West Sussex, United Kingdom:
Phillimore & Co Ltd.
[3] The
legal name of the country we sometimes call England is “The United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Northern Ireland.”
Their passport is British, their Army is British, and the Parliament is
British. There is an English national football
team (soccer) and a Scottish national football time.
[4] NOT the more famous St. Augustine, author of The Confessions
who lived 354-430 A.D.)
“…after we had watched the moon float away above the chasm between the hills like an ascending spirit out of a grave; its sheen descended, cold and pale, like the ghost of dead sunlight. There is something haunting in the light of the moon; it has all the dispassionateness of a disembodied soul, and something of its inconceivable mystery. It is to our sunshine, which— say what you like— is all we have to live by, what the echo is to the sound: misleading and confusing whether the note be mocking or sad. It robs all forms of matter— which, after all, is our domain— of their substance, and gives a sinister reality to shadows alone.”
Lord Jim, Joseph Conrad
This Polish author was an amazing English-language author I understand he spoke with a heavy Polish accent his entire life.
In 1969, President Richard Nixon began a secret, illegal, and unconstitutional incursion into Cambodia, correctly believing that Vietnamese communists were using rural parts of the country to transport weapons from North Vietnam to South Vietnam. He ordered carpet-bombing as well as the establishment of military bases in Cambodia. The struggle between American and communist forces quickly destabilized the region, radicalizing many of the already-radical elements in the country.
The most important of the insurgents was a group of existentialist communists, the Khmer Rouge (Red Cambodians), under the leadership of Pol Pot (an assumed name and title) and his organization, The Ankor (The Organization). Pol Pot (1925-1998) was born, Saloth Sar. Though a Roman Catholic and a devout Jeffersonian coming out of high school, Sar attended university in in Paris, from 1949 to 1953, where he came under the influence of several Marxists and, especially, under the influence of the radical, former Nazi-collaborator-turned-communist, philosopher Jean Paul Sartre (1905-1980).
— Read on theimaginativeconservative.org/2016/05/horrors-communism-roland-joffe-the-killing-fields.html
Professor and Chairman of History Mark Kalthoff received the Daugherty Award for Teaching Excellence for the fall semester of 2018 at convocation on Thursday.
“Mark Kalthoff exemplifies the kind of steady, wise teaching that we prize at the college,” Dean of Faculty and Associate Professor of Education Daniel Coupland said in an email. “The hundreds of Hillsdale students who have sat in his classes over the years have been shaped by his deep understanding of his particular field and of liberal education in general.”
Of the original stories that Tolkien wrote for his nascent mythology, the first real attempt at depth as well as breadth was The Fall of Gondolin, most likely begun in 1916. From there, the story took on an unwieldy and unpredictable life of its own, like many of Tolkien’s writings. Tolkien’s wife, Edith, wrote out the story sometime in 1917 after he had first written it, and Tolkien offered a version of it as a public essay in 1920 at Exeter College, Oxford. The story appeared as one of the most drawn-out of Tolkien’s Lost Tales (the first version of the larger mythology that would one day become The Silmarillion); in slightly different form in the 1926 “Sketch of the Mythology”; in yet again slightly different form in the 1930 Quenta Noldorinwa; and, finally, in 1950 and 1951, as Tolkien was trying to write the history of the ages preceding the now completed but yet unpublished The Lord of the Rings. The final 1951 version ended up, more or less, in the 1977 Silmarillion.
— Read on www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/two-tolkiens-one-better-world/
Today, guests from the Hauenstein Center join us to talk about the event Searching for Deeper Common Ground as part of the center’s Common Ground
— Read on www.wgvunews.org/post/searching-deeper-common-ground
Spirit of Cecilia 
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