Wayne Smallman's Friends

Wayne Smallman's Discussions

Replied Dec. 24, 2008

Replied Dec. 21, 2008

Replied Dec. 20, 2008

April 2

February 7

At 1:31am on February 7, 2009, photographworks said…: Monty Python explains the North-South divide.

At 8:41am on December 24, 2008, Heidi Cool said…: re: our convo on Twitter. Awhile back I was reading some history of the English language. Apparently words of Germanic origin now only make up 20% or so of our vocabulary, but they are the words we use 80% of the time. We've taken in so many words from other languages that German no longer dominates, but it still holds sway. (These numbers may be vague, it seems like another application of the 80/20 rule.)

And of course the Normans added a lot of French to the mix so we (wir) eat (essen) beef (from the French boeuf) that comes from cows (from the German Kuhe). The Norman influence affected language mostly in the aristocracy which is why we kept the every day German and added the French for more of the highbrow language needs. But then again the VIkings brought more Germanic into the equation when they came to England before the Normans. I wonder if their influence held more sway in the north while the French held more sway in London. That could explain some of the older vocabulary use in your part of England. Then again it could be pure conjecture on my part. I'll have to go read more about this.

At 11:15pm on December 20, 2008, Heidi Cool said…: Hey Wayne,
Welcome to our little Post-Pownce experiment!

At 8:18pm on December 20, 2008, ShootFromTheHip said…: Score! F***en - ey! Glad you could join forces with the rebel alliance. The power Pownce. Ahem, scuse me, I'm still in Star Wars mode for the next few months, big exhibition with levitating rides and robots you can build yourself.

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