I was doing a bit of digging on this topic recently. I was really struck when
thinking about the word "trash" -- "though all my wares be trash" from
Dowland's Fine Knacks For Ladies. I think rubbish is the word now used in
England. Everyone says "trash" up here in Vermont. Do the Brittish say trash?
- Chris
--- Eric Crouch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> You may have found it on the internet, but I don't think it is
> correct. English had several major linguistic divisions that would
> have persisted strongly into Elizabethan times. For example the
> English of the south east which became standard English was much more
> influenced by Norman French than the English of the Northern and
> North Midland counties of England which showed strong influence from
> Scandinavian languages.
>
> Eric Crouch
>
> On 13 Jan 2006, at 03:31, Peter Oljelund wrote:
>
> > Hello Everyone
> >
> > Interesting subject!
> >
> > I found this text on the internet:
> >
> > "Elizabethian English did exist in England and the original form is
> > still
> > spoken in parts of the United States--particularly in the more
> > isolated
> > parts---which is more and more these days becoming almost none
> > extant. It
> > was the common language which everyone understood over regionalist
> > speech.
> > Just as today we in the United States all speak a common form of
> > English
> > which everyone or nearly everyone understands but regional English
> > such as
> > Valley Girl Speech ("He was just so gorgeous"--note the 'just
> > so'--everything is 'just so' in Valley Girl Speech') with such
> > expressions
> > that are not quiet slang but not quiet acceptable standard English
> > predominate. Likewise we have Cajun English (a combination of
> > French and
> > English), Gullah (a language and culture of Black South
> > Carolinians) which
> > is basically the African Language of Sierra Leone with a little
> > English
> > thrown in and Spanglish which is a combination of English and
> > Spanish. We
> > also have dialects that can tell one instantly where one is from---
> > parts of
> > North Carolina still sound as if they were from Scotland or
> > Elizabethian
> > England or England (the Rev. Billy Graham sounds like this), Parts of
> > Charleston, South Carolina have an Upper Class English that sounds
> > like they
> > are from London,England; people from Brooklyn, New York and Ohio as
> > well as
> > parts of Southern California (the way they say "you do" is an instant
> > giveaway) Mississippians have a dialect of the Old South of very
> > slow speech
> > often imitated poorly by Hollywood actors (Example is in Gone With
> > the Wind)
> > that I call "Under the Mag-NOL-yâhs" . People who speak this way
> > often give
> > the false impression that they are retarded and severly deficit in
> > intelligence because often it takes them forever and a day to say
> > what they
> > are going to say since they mull over what they say before they say
> > it.
> > Aside from foreign influences; American English has been heavily
> > influenced
> > by the languages of American Native peoples from Micronesia
> > (Chomorro tribe
> > of Guam and the Mariannas) and Polynesia (Hawaiians) to the
> > Continental
> > aboriginal Tribes and
> > the Inuit (Eskimo) of Alaska and Canada. The language has been much
> > enriched
> > by these peoples for instance the Inuit have more than 20 words for
> > snow and
> > ice ---with each word meaning a different type of snow or ice
> > type---words
> > which English did not have until enriched by theses peoples.
> >
> > However, Radio and Television as well as modern speaking machines have
> > rapidly put to an end most regionalism as well as modern
> > transportation.
> > American Africans of color no longer speak as they did in the 1950s
> > and
> > earlier as in George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess--original version
> > although
> > they often can be identified sight unseen over the telephone just
> > as some
> > Orientals can be. One hears less easily identifiable speech because
> > Television, Radio and the Movies have removed much of the isolationist
> > qualities that created and preserved regionalist speech.
> >
> > In England this is also true. It was once possible to easily
> > identify the
> > village, town or city one was from. No longer. The Anglican
> > Archbishop of
> > Ireland came to speak at my Parish bringing with him some English
> > friends
> > who sat beside me. When they heard me speak they tried to identify the
> > Village I was from, settled on Oxfordshire and finally asked me if
> > I was
> > from Oxford and if I was related to this peer or that peer of the
> > realm as
> > they though I looked like them. I told them "No I am not from
> > Oxford and
> > have lived in the United States since birth (except for travel) and
> > as for
> > as peerage is concerned that died on the the fields of Flanders during
> > Elizabeth I reign when the Duke was killed in battle as he was
> > single and
> > had no direct heir." They were amazed as was another friend from
> > Wales who
> > had been away so long that she had become throughly American. When
> > she went
> > back for a family reunion in Wales--when met people who sounded
> > like they
> > were from a Northumberland Village to her but were really from
> > Rutland.
> > "
> >
> > No new solo Terzi or solo Bachelar CD plans from anyone?
> >
> > (Except for David´s, hopefully this year, much awaited forthcoming
> > Terzi-CD.)
> >
> >
> > All the best
> >
> > Peter
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > * * * *
> > http://www.peteroljelund.se
> >
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >
> > Mobile +46 (0) 70-403 41 48
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >> From: "guy_and_liz Smith" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >> To: <[email protected]>, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >> Subject: [LUTE] Re: Surviving in Eliz. England.
> >> Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2006 19:17:21 -0800
> >>
> >> I'm sure Elizabethan England had many local dialects, just as it does
> >> today.
> >> But most countries have something that's considered the nominal
> >> standard
> >> dialect. IIRC, she was referring specifically to the accent that
> >> would have
> >> been used by by the "sophisticated" levels of society (the court,
> >> the upper
> >> end of the merchant class, etc.), something like BBC English is
> >> the nominal
> >> standard today.
> >>
> >> Guy
> >> ----- Original Message -----
> >> From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >> To: <[email protected]>
> >> Sent: Thursday, January 12, 2006 5:24 PM
> >> Subject: [LUTE] Re: Surviving in Eliz. England.
> >>
> >>
> >>>
> >>> Given the multiplicity of 'English' accents in modern england, is
> >>> there
> >>> any reason to suppose Elizabethan England would have had but one
> >> dialect?
> >>> London had a significant immigrant population as well as
> >>> itinerants from
> >>> wales, scotland, ireland, various areas of france, islands off
> >>> scotland
> >>> more norse than scots, frisia - not to mention the midlands,
> >>> northumberland, cornwall etc.
> >>> --
> >>> Dana Emery
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> To get on or off this list see list information at
> >>> http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
-------------------------------------
Christopher Schaub
web: http://www.christopherschaub.com
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
