tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13713642.post1776706426787502369..comments2024-03-18T10:05:48.042-05:00Comments on Unlocked Wordhoard: Pragmatic Reasons to Study Old EnglishDr. Richard Scott Nokeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01348275071082514870noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13713642.post-20158447711439575682017-09-21T10:35:47.063-05:002017-09-21T10:35:47.063-05:00It's fun to read original sources, and I study...It's fun to read original sources, and I study Latin for a hobby. Still, I don't think it is realistic to think that one can see the errors of a professional translator without also attaining a professional level. Almost all of us can set aside the hope of avoiding "dodgy" translations.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13713642.post-23954148270257328912014-01-18T12:28:55.298-06:002014-01-18T12:28:55.298-06:00Dear Kel,
I teach OE to KS3 learners and I strugg...Dear Kel, <br />I teach OE to KS3 learners and I struggled to find a good simple reason why they should study it. I like your poetic one as it sounds convincible to young learners as well as teachers themselves.Gislamnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13713642.post-25690293316976736372013-11-03T14:04:33.768-06:002013-11-03T14:04:33.768-06:00Learn English effortlessly through the online Engl...Learn English effortlessly through the online English course, and believe me, it will really help boost your inner confidence while dealing with the foreign delegates, and win the new business opportunities as well. Language infohttp://effortlessenglishlearning.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13713642.post-1611072581673144822010-03-03T12:18:27.033-06:002010-03-03T12:18:27.033-06:00what would i say about my old english teacher whil...what would i say about my old english teacher while she was sucked and fucked up?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13713642.post-12245553674950870982009-03-20T22:56:00.000-05:002009-03-20T22:56:00.000-05:00Maybe I am just weird, but I am learning Old Engli...Maybe I am just weird, but I am learning Old English because I would like to speak it(as best as can be done teaching oneself), although currently I am studying German and I find it alot easier to learn when I understand the different cases and conjugating verbs.<BR/>I do want to be a High School teacher, either German or English, but I didn't have a clue that Old English was offered at any college. And I agree with Kel, a language wouldn't be what it is today without it's history, I see languages as the most important form of art in the world, they develope in ways that people could not predict, and just imagine your life if you couldnt read, write, talk, or listen...<BR/>Just a question though, is it possible to be able to speak any form of Old English?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13713642.post-68756413915681062242008-09-18T23:24:00.000-05:002008-09-18T23:24:00.000-05:00I just came across your blog when trying to find a...I just came across your blog when trying to find a translation of "gelicran" for the minitext in Baker :) Lucky for me!<BR/><BR/>I like your reasons to study Old English, and I can add a poetic one to your list-- without its roots, a tree dies. Language isn't worth as much if we ignore its history.<BR/><BR/>Thanks for the site! I'll be a regular reader this semester :)Kelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09270189372994253642noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13713642.post-47070421009876147332008-08-05T15:45:00.000-05:002008-08-05T15:45:00.000-05:00Squire (and others),"Knowing" a language can seem ...Squire (and others),<BR/><BR/>"Knowing" a language can seem a Sisyphean task ... as soon as you get the rock rolled partway up the hill, it seems to roll down again. For example, whenever someone asks if I "know" Korean, I usually respond that I know how to butcher it.<BR/><BR/>All we can do, any of us, is to try to roll the stone a little further up the hill. Most students of my OE class will not be able to read even prose unassisted after just one semester(unless they've got super kick-butt memories) -- but they'll be able to sit down with a dictionary and a couple of paradigms and work out any prose text. And, of course, almost no one "knows" OE well enough to write an essay in the language, a task that we ask foreign students to do all the time in MnE.<BR/><BR/>Follow along with our class, and you WILL know Old English, even if it's just knowing it well enough to understand where our modern pronouns come from (and why they act that way), why we've got all these weird plural nouns like "mice," and why verbs in King James English all seem to end in "-eth." You might not be the greatest OE Master of the Cosmos, but you'll be further along than you were before.<BR/><BR/>Every time I teach the class, I learn more that I didn't understand before, so if you want to learn but feel like it isn't possible, don't worry. We're all "gesithas," a word that means something like "companions who journey together."Dr. Richard Scott Nokeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01348275071082514870noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13713642.post-42418931725027366462008-08-05T08:55:00.000-05:002008-08-05T08:55:00.000-05:00Great post. You've inspired me to dust off my para...Great post. You've inspired me to dust off my paradigms.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13713642.post-84798874717849553722008-08-04T18:56:00.000-05:002008-08-04T18:56:00.000-05:00"Studying the real-time motion of particles on a s..."Studying the real-time motion of particles on a subatomic scale? What use is that?!?"<BR/><BR/>I know it's the easy way out, but my own personal experiences show that questions like this are best ignored, especially if the asker is above the age of 25 or so.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13713642.post-15225393569049229422008-08-04T12:14:00.000-05:002008-08-04T12:14:00.000-05:00Oh great. I was hoping to escape learning Old Engl...Oh great. I was hoping to escape learning Old English because 1) I'm moving 2,200 miles in 5 days and 2) I have 42 other hobbies.<BR/><BR/>Now you say it's important for me as a professional editor? Good grief.<BR/><BR/>I enjoyed learning a bit of Middle English in my undergrad Chaucer class, and Old English constructions can be so beautiful and evocative (see "wordhoard", "whale road", "raven harvest", etc.). Darn. Now I'm tempted.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13713642.post-37644189565385388942008-08-03T22:41:00.000-05:002008-08-03T22:41:00.000-05:00Thanks for this. I don't know Old English, and pro...Thanks for this. I don't know Old English, and probably never will, but I often wish I did.<BR/><BR/>Orwell's essay goes far beyond the idea of minimizing Latinate words in English prose. I was amazed to read an argument against the turgid (don't say stupid) political writing of the 1940s, that so clearly applies to the unbelievably bad writing I have been forced to read in the academic arena this past year. <BR/><BR/>So much of it seems to depend on the vocab[ulary] and (de)constructions of "th[e]ory", which I thank fate more every week I am too old to have studied as an undergraduate. Now I wonder if the original problem is that its manifestos seem to have been written in French, a Latin language? And if so, is this an argument for the compulsory study of Old English by all future students and especially graduate students of English, as a kind of curricular knocking of heads?squirehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14280609151416389163noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13713642.post-28952389964546142392008-08-03T21:48:00.000-05:002008-08-03T21:48:00.000-05:00Even material for students from non-Romance langua...Even material for students from non-Romance language countries focuses on vocabulary with Latinate origins. Even east Asian countries, which have no particular linguistic reason to prefer Germanic or Romance words focus on the Latinate, because it allows you to learn large numbers of words quickly in preparation for TOEFL and other such tests.<BR/><BR/>I'm not actually that familiar with ESL materials produced specifically for students from Germanic countries, though ... I wonder their materials prefer Germanic words?Dr. Richard Scott Nokeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01348275071082514870noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13713642.post-20746252465238188502008-08-03T21:01:00.000-05:002008-08-03T21:01:00.000-05:00I'm interested in OE (I'll be following along your...I'm interested in OE (I'll be following along your class) because it's got some very good things written in it, and I want to read it without wondering how dodgy the translation is.<BR/><BR/>BTW, one reason that ESL relies on Latinate origins is that most of those words are shared by other languages, most notably Spanish. Nation, for instance, transposes into nacion; state is estado; behind orange,cavalry, and primary the Spanish speaker can see lurking naranja, caballero and primero. Most --tion words in English can be transposed into Spanish purely by changing the t to c (accion, for example). The most important exception is translation, the word for which in both Spanish and French is the cognate not of "translate" but "traduce"--which may say something about the perils of translation, and why it's better to read OE in the original.<BR/>And while I can't comment on the impact of OE in classroom, I can testify from personal experience that reading aloud the opening of the Canterbury Tales can satisfactorily awe a classroom of high school seniors.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com