The title of today’s cartoon (Pride goeth before the smack) has a funny feature.
Middle English.
I don’t speak it. Neither do you. In fact, nobody speaks Middle English with a possible exception of academics who don’t study anything else and have like-minded colleagues sitting around the faculty room at their university.
But we can parrot the heck out of tiny, tiny pieces of it. Mostly when we’re at churches where the King James version is still used or when we’re pretending to be King Arthur or one of his contemporaries (who, assuming they were really running around a thousand years ago, didn’t live in an area where Middle English was spoken.) “Goeth” is one of those words that sounds best when swinging a cardboard sword at your brother who’s wearing cardboard armor and saying “It’s only a flesh wound.”
Want proof that Middle English isn’t just English with ‘thee’ and ‘thou’ thrown in? Read some Chaucer. Woo. No, Middle English is foreign.
Or (more entertaining and intelligible) read Bill Bryson’s ‘Mother Tongue- English and how it got that way” Delightful book.
So did Dad just duck out of being on the team?????
PS, I can speak Middle English. I have minors in Chaucer and Shakespeare. English as we know it derives from an ancestor that also dropped German. Old English, if you know German, isn’t too hard. English was shaped by influx of others coming to settle, invasions and rubbing shoulders with territories and trade; and occasionally does a ‘vowel shift’. Chaucer once you get used to the shift isn’t bad. English at the time of Shakespeare/Queen Liz had a huge influx from colonies and did a vowel shift to what we are used to… and things are shifting again (expect one about every 400 years, some places in the UK this is well underway). Since the language was in flux, Shakespeare had great leeway and created a number of new words in his works… (shall I go away now?) The KJV bible was done in this era (circa 1615) and a marvel of it’s time. NIV is an attempt to bring what now seems some archaic ways of turning words and phrases into what we are more comfortable with, also signaling another change…
Happy and I’m smilin’, walk a mile to drink your water
You know I’d love to love you and above you there’s no other
We’ll go walking out while others shout of war’s disaster
Oh, we won’t give in, let’s go living in the past
like he would manage to do more than 2 with that tubby body. GET REAL…
Uhm, I’ve actually read The Canterbury Tales. I admit it helps to be mildly dyslexic to understand half of it but still the point being, I have read some of his work. Chaucer’s I mean. ^^;
The “Lords Prayer”
AD 995
Fæder ?re, ð? ð? eart on heofonum,
S? ð?n nama geh?lgod.
T? becume ð?n rice.
Gewurde ð?n willa
On eorþan sw? sw? on heofonum.
Urne gedæghwaml?can hl?f syle ?s t?dæg.
And forgyf ?s ?re gyltas,
Sw? sw? w? forgyfaþ ?rum gyltendum.
And ne gelæd ð? ?s on costnunge,
ac al?s ?s of yfele.
AD 1526
O oure father which arte in heven,
halowed be thy name;
let thy kingdom come;
thy wyll be fulfilled
as well in erth as hit ys in heven;
geve vs this daye oure dayly breade;
and forgeve vs oure treaspases,
even as we forgeve them which treaspas vs;
leede vs not into temptacion,
but delyvre vs ffrom yvell.
For thyne is the kingdom and the power,[4]
and the glorye for ever.
Amen.
“Modern” English (1922):
Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power,
and the glory, for ever and ever.
Amen.
Which would YOU rather have to read and speak? 😛
And Chaucer complained about the people of his time beginning to speak a more modern english which he called ‘that bastardization of good english and French’ even while he wrote in that new style himself. I read The Canterbury Tales in highschool, needed extra credit, and translated them into Latin.
Greg, our illustrious cartoonist, tweeted that he’s in the ER. Nothing fun like wrecking his unicycle on a bike pump course. He’s sidelined with a blood clot in his leg.
I was just gonna post this and ask people to “reply” … so people REPLY TO Mr. Lindley and let us tell Greg how much we love him, and want him to get well soon.
You can reply here … on Twitter … or post a message on Greg’s Facebook (if you’re on there…)
GREG – I personally want you well soon. You’re a beloved artist and cartoonist, and your too young to be having clots.
As I said on Tweeter – I’m sending positive thoughts your way.
No-o-o-o, Greg! The competition is slogging through thick MUD, not thick blood. Hope that sucker dissolves safely and you are up and on your bicycle in no time.
I was about to say “Gee, Mr Cravens, please be more careful”, but then I remembered something like a dozen comics where I could already read his answer, so…
Get well soon, and don’t forget to bring the pics.
Could have been worse. He could have lost the seat somewhere between jump and landing and truly rectum.
Greg is still in the hospital recuperating. Here’s his most recent post.
https://twitter.com/Hubriscomics/status/973588234054897666/photo/1
O,O Oh my goodness…! I wondered why it got so quiet…
Yes, of course, do get better Mister Greg. Blood clots are nothing to sneeze at. I hope everything will be okay soon. <3
Get well fast, Greg!
Get patched up and mended, Greg. Take the time to take care of yourself first. We’ll be here when you get back. In the meantime we’re all pulling for you to get better soonest.
get better GREG! HEHE
Ah man.. feel better Greg! Lemme see if I can scrounge up some donation $$. ER room visits aren’t cheap!
Greg is still in the hospital recuperating. Here’s his most recent post.
https://twitter.com/Hubriscomics/status/973588234054897666/photo/1
Get better Greg!
Get well soon, Greg!
Wrecked his unicycle on a bike pump course.
meanwhile, I sleep wrong and I’m walking with a severe limp all day.
I have no idea how the hell you do it, Greg, but hurry up and heal so you can get back to doing it!
No … he didn’t wreck his unicycle … he had a blood clot.
Oops, I misread it. I thought the clot was caused by the crash.
Either way, it’s a bad situation, and I hope Greg heals quickly.
Vote for Hubris every day. Show Greg your support; Top Web Comics only lets you vote once per day per computer, so vote on your home computer, the one at the local library, your work computer, run around town and use wifi locations. Click on the TWC Vote Hubris link on the right side.
Well, I know that you are better (or you have opened communication from the next stop) so I can say that my Icelandic exchange daughter once picked up my bio-daughter’s copy of Seamus Heaney’s Beowulf. It is a pony , with the original Old English on one page and the translation on the other. Turns out, Icelandic, which has changed little in the last 1000 years, is brother to Old English, and Giga could read the original, without a blip. Also, I speak Modern English, with thees and thys all in.