'Oldest English words' identified

[RalofTyr]

You're incredibly witty. But I've given reasons for my view, and you haven't given any for yours.

You're too kind. I'm really an idiot.

There was never a point in time when English was around in Britain that Latin was the primary language.

Not true, Latin is still the primary dead-language of the Catholic Church, which is presently used in England.

When you're talking about timeframes stretching centuries, putting a label on the language spoken like "English" or "French" or "Arabic" is silly. There is no "English". It doesn't exist as a single entity. What we do have is a unfathomable series of dialects which share some common vocaublary and grammar but differ from each other very much in many ways.

Language is affected by so many things: Geography, Social class, Time period (Chaucer's english is VERY different from the English of Beowolf), and even a person's mother tongue affects the English you know and speak.

English won't be replaced by any other language, ever. It will absorb and adopt features of other languages it comes in contact with and evolve and change, but it can't be replaced.

You never know what circumstances will be in the future. In the case of native Americans, they're language was replaced, due to deaths...of all who spoke it.

To wonder if English will be replace entired by a new language...it would be foolish to rule that out...and equally foolish to think it will happen.

It is true languages evolve and change with time. If man should build generation ships to go across the stars, would they lose the word for "Rain"?

 

[BananaLee]

Not true, Latin is still the primary dead-language of the Catholic Church, which is presently used in England.

Wat?

You do realise that the official church of the United Kingdom is the Church of England right? And the Catholic Church uses the vernacular in Mass and has used vernacular since Vatican II.

During the time the Catholic Church was prevalent in England, English was already the main language of court and affairs of state. Prior to that (pre-Henry II), it was French in court, English on the fields.

Seriously, if you want to make silly statements, back them up with some half-sound evidence.

 

[RalofTyr]

Wat?

You do realise that the official church of the United Kingdom is the Church of England right? And the Catholic Church uses the vernacular in Mass and has used vernacular since Vatican II.

During the time the Catholic Church was prevalent in England, English was already the main language of court and affairs of state. Prior to that (pre-Henry II), it was French in court, English on the fields.

Seriously, if you want to make silly statements, back them up with some half-sound evidence.

I thought the official church of the UK was, "The Church of the Almighty Pound"...

You're going to need to prove that Catholic churches in England never say anything in Latin.

 

[BananaLee]

There was never a point in time when English was around in Britain that Latin was the primary language. French was the langauge of court for about 300 years and Latin was only used in Mass (and in some churches, not even as a functional language - i.e. they were merely silently mimed).

When did I ever say that Latin was never used in the Catholic Church? I said it was never a *primary* language (key word bolded and italicised for emphasis), which was in answer to your question: -

Say, just one question. How come Britain doesn't speak Latin as its primary language anymore?

 

[cubsfan6506]

I'm guessing "chinese whispers" is on the chopping block because we call taht the telephone game her.

 

[frekk]

How come Britain doesn't speak Latin as its primary language anymore?

Latin was never the primary spoken language in England. Not even during Roman times. In the Roman era, Latin was the language of the soldiers, the administrators, and so on. But two farmers who were neighbours didn't greet each other in Latin; they did it in Brythonic, albeit with some Latin loan-words. Brythonic wasn't replaced in England until the arrival of Germanic groups (like the Saxons), and it never did die out completely; Breton and Welsh are Brythonic dialects, with about a million speakers today (300k and 700k).

As far as Latin being used by the Church, it was just that: used by the clergy (a tiny fraction of the population), and not as their primary tongue either, but just for religious functions.