Language goes from spoken to written

A. Even in early written English, it is clear that the writers are still writing with significant influence from how a language is used in speech. Here is a passage from the first English printed book, namely William Caxton’s prologue to The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troy. Note that it is structured rather like the Saramaccan passage, with short phrases following one after the other:

And afterward whan I remeberyd my self of my symplenes and vnperfightnes that I had in bothe langages, that is to wete [wit] in Freshe and in Englisshe, for in France was I neuer, and was born and lerned myn Englissh in Kente in the Weeld, where I doubte not is spoken as brode and rude Englishh as is in ony place of Englond; & haue contynued by the space of xxx yere for the most parte in the contres of Braband, Flandres, Holand, and Zeland;…

B. A passage like this reflects the almost sobering reality of how we speak English, rather than write it. This is an exchange between two students in the 1970s, and one must admit that this indeed reflects casual spoken English, as opposed to how we write it:

A. On a tree. Carbon isn’t going to do much for a tree really. Really. The only thing it can do is collect moisture. Which may be good for it. In other words in the desert you have the carbon granules which would absorb, collect moisture on top of them. Yeah. It doesn’t help the tree but it protects, keeps the moisture in. Uh huh. Because then it just soaks up moisture. It works by the water molecules adhere to the carbon moleh, molecules that are in the ashes. It holds it on. And the plant takes it away from there.

B. Oh, I have an argument with you.

A. Yeah.

B. You know, you said how silly it was about my, uh, well, it’s not a theory at all. That the more pregnant you are and you see spots before your eyes it’s proven that it’s the retention of the water.

A. Yeah, the water’s just gurgling all your eyes.

C. Only by “translation” can we transform spoken English into written, a form that would never emerge from any human being speaking any language naturally, as with this passage as presented by linguist M.A.K. Halliday:

Spoken version:

I had to wait, I had to wait till it was born and till it got to about eight or ten weeks of age, then I bought my first dachshund, a black-and-tan bitch puppy, as they told me I should have bought a bitch puppy to start off with, because if she wasn’t a hundred percent good I could choose a top champion dog to mate her to, and then produce something that was good, which would be in my own kennel prefix.

Hypothetical written version:

Some eight or ten weeks after the birth saw my first acquisition of a dachshund, a black-and-tan bitch puppy. It seems that a bitch puppy would have been the appropriate initial purchase, because of the possibility of mating an imperfect specimen with a top champion dog, the improved offspring then carrying my own kennel prefix.

D. The roots of written language in spoken language can be seen in the earlier written documents of many languages.

1. Here is the way the opening passage of the Bible is often written:

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

2. But the original Hebrew version does not scan this way at all. Instead, it is written in short sentences, reflecting spoken language:

Bereshit bara Elohim et hashamayim ve’et ha’arets.

Veha’arets hayetah tohu vavohu

vechoshech al-peney tehom veruach.

Elohim merafechet al-peney hamayim.

Vayomer Elohim yehi-or va-yehi-or.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was formless and empty with darkness on the face of the depths. God’s spirit moved on the water’s surface. God said, “There shall be light” and light came into existence.

The Hebrew Bible was written at a time when writing was relatively new, and the writer was still inclined to simply transcribe language as it was spoken.

IV. What we are conditioned to view as the “real” type of language is actually a technological luxury, allowed by the transcription of language onto the page. All but a few languages are used orally only, and as complex as they tend to be, they are spoken in small “word packets,” juxtaposed with a certain freedom that relies on context as much as structure to convey meaning and with relatively small vocabularies. The Oxford English Dictionary and the prose of Milton are historical curiosities, departures from the “natural,” similar to dogs that bring in the newspaper.

مواضيع ذات صلة

Word by word

Finale—Master Class Introduction

Finale—Master Class

Sign language

Artificial spoken languages

Artificial Languages

Predictions

The success story

Obstacles to keeping 6,000 languages alive

Language revival movements

Language Death—Prognosis

What happens to a language when it is dying?