I sat mesmerised by a programme on TV about our English language. It seems it was King Alfred the Great whose seat of power was at Winchester decided that English the spoken word would also be the written word. These books are at Winchester Cathedral. Then in 1066 the spoken word was French, yes we were taken over by the French, for three hundred years French was the language spoken here. There were over 4,000 French words that were used by the English. Melvin Bragg was the commentator, not sure if there is going to be another instalment about the English language. I hope so.
I do know that on Richard & Judy programme on TV the other week there were two men who had discovered a hoard of coins, many going back before the Romans, plus there was written words on the coins, it will be interesting to find out what will be learnt about our language from these coins, so perhaps there was a written language here long before King Alfred decided he would have the written word. Jean UK or should I say England, no one mentioned about what languages were spoken then in Wales, Scotland and Ireland. To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED]
