Anglish
Encyclopedia
Anglo-Saxon linguistic purism is a kind of English
linguistic purism
, which favors words of native (Anglic
, West Germanic) origin over those of foreign (mainly Romanic
, Latin
and Greek
) origin. In its mild form, it merely means using existing native words instead of foreign ones. In its more extreme form, it involves coining new words from Germanic roots and/or reviving native words that are no longer used. The resulting language is sometimes called Anglish (after Paul Jennings 1966) or Saxonised English, among other names. The mild form is often advocated as part of Plain English
– avoiding complicated Latinate/Greek terms – and has some influence in English usage. The more extreme form has been and continues to be a fringe movement with little broader influence.
Anglo-Saxon linguistic purism is discussed by David Crystal
in the Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. The idea dates at least to the inkhorn term
controversy in the 16th and 17th century. In the 19th century, writers such as Charles Dickens
, Thomas Hardy
, and notably William Barnes
, tried to introduce terms like birdlore for ornithology and speechcraft for grammar. It continued to be advocated in the 20th century, notably by George Orwell
, who advocated what he saw as simple Saxon terms over complex Latin or Greek ones, and the idea continues to have advocates today.
) many Old Norse
loans for every-day terms (skull, egg, skirt).
After the Norman conquest
of 1066–71, the top level of English society was replaced by people who spoke Old Norman
(a Romance language
closely related to Old French
). It evolved into Anglo-Norman
and became the language of the state. Hence, those who wished to be involved in fields such as law and governance were required to learn it (see "Law French
" for example).
It was in this Middle English
period that the English language became exposed to an influx of Romance loan words (via Anglo-Norman) – see Latin influence in English
. However, there were a few writers who tried to withstand the overbearing influence of Anglo-Norman. Their goal was to provide literature to the English-speaking masses in their vernacular
or mother tongue. This meant not only writing in English, but also taking care not to use any words of Romance origin, which would likely not be understood by the readers. Examples of this kind of literature are the Ormulum
, Layamon's Brut, Ayenbite of Inwyt
and the Katherine Group
of manuscripts in the "AB language
".
s") was rife. Writers were introducing many complicated words, mainly from Latin and Greek. Critics saw this as unnecessary and pretentious, arguing that English already had words with identical meanings. However, many of the new words gained an equal footing with the native Germanic words, and often replaced them.
Writers such as Thomas Elyot
flooded their writings with foreign borrowings, whilst writers such as John Cheke
sought to keep their writings "pure". Cheke wrote:
In reaction, some writers tried either to resurrect older English words deliberately (gleeman for musician, sicker for certainly, inwit for conscience, yblent for confused) or to create wholly new words from Germanic roots (endsay for conclusion, yeartide for anniversary, foresayer for prophet). Few of these words remain in common use.
, who advocated it to make English easier to understand without a classical education, proposing such words as sun-print (as an alternative to the Greek photo-graph).
In his 1946 essay "Politics and the English Language
", George Orwell
wrote:
A contemporary of Orwell, the Australia
n composer Percy Grainger
, wrote English with only Germanic words and called it "blue-eyed English". For example, a composer became a tonesmith. Lee Hollander's 1962 English translation of the Poetic Edda
(a collection of Old Norse
poems), written almost solely with Germanic words, would also inspire many future "Anglish" writers.
In 1966, Paul Jennings wrote a number of articles in Punch, to commemorate the 900th anniversary of the Norman conquest
. These articles posed the question of what England would be like had it not happened. They included an example of what he called "Anglish", such as a sample of Shakespeare
's writing as it might have been if the conquest had failed. He gave "a bow to William Barnes
, the Dorset
poet-philologist".
In 1989, science fiction
writer Poul Anderson
wrote a text about basic atomic theory
called Uncleftish Beholding
. It was written using only words of Germanic origin, and was meant to show what English might look like without foreign borrowings. In 1992, Douglas Hofstadter
jokingly referred to the style as "Ander-Saxon". This term has since been used to describe any scientific writings that use only Germanic words.
Anderson used techniques including:
Another approach, without a specific name-tag, can be seen in the September 2009 publication How We'd Talk if the English had Won in 1066, by David Cowley. This is based on updating known Old English words to today's English spelling, and seeks mainstream appeal by covering words in 5 Steps, from easy to "weird and wonderful", as well as giving many examples of use, drawings and tests.
Since the 2000s, there are a number of online projects dedicated to Anglish among them the Anglish Moot on Wikia
(since 2005).
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
linguistic purism
Linguistic purism
Linguistic purism or linguistic protectionism is the practice of defining one variety of a language as being purer than other varieties. The ideal of purity is often opposed in reference to a perceived decline from an "ideal past" or an unwanted similarity with other languages, but sometimes simply...
, which favors words of native (Anglic
Anglic languages
The English languages are a group of linguistic varieties including Old English and the languages descended from it...
, West Germanic) origin over those of foreign (mainly Romanic
Romance languages
The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...
, Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
and Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
) origin. In its mild form, it merely means using existing native words instead of foreign ones. In its more extreme form, it involves coining new words from Germanic roots and/or reviving native words that are no longer used. The resulting language is sometimes called Anglish (after Paul Jennings 1966) or Saxonised English, among other names. The mild form is often advocated as part of Plain English
Plain English
Plain English is a generic term for communication styles that emphasise clarity, brevity and the avoidance of technical language – particularly in relation to official government communication, including laws.The intention is to write in a manner that is easily understood by the target...
– avoiding complicated Latinate/Greek terms – and has some influence in English usage. The more extreme form has been and continues to be a fringe movement with little broader influence.
Anglo-Saxon linguistic purism is discussed by David Crystal
David Crystal
David Crystal OBE FLSW FBA is a linguist, academic and author.-Background and career:Crystal was born in Lisburn, Northern Ireland. He grew up in Holyhead, North Wales, and Liverpool, England where he attended St Mary's College from 1951....
in the Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. The idea dates at least to the inkhorn term
Inkhorn term
An inkhorn term is any foreign borrowing into English deemed to be unnecessary or overly pretentious.- Etymology :...
controversy in the 16th and 17th century. In the 19th century, writers such as Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
, Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.While he regarded himself primarily as a...
, and notably William Barnes
William Barnes
William Barnes was an English writer, poet, minister, and philologist. He wrote over 800 poems, some in Dorset dialect and much other work including a comprehensive English grammar quoting from more than 70 different languages.-Life:He was born at Rushay in the parish of Bagber, Dorset, the son of...
, tried to introduce terms like birdlore for ornithology and speechcraft for grammar. It continued to be advocated in the 20th century, notably by George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
, who advocated what he saw as simple Saxon terms over complex Latin or Greek ones, and the idea continues to have advocates today.
Old English and Middle English
Old English adopted a small amount of Greco-Roman loan words from an early period, especially in the context of the Christianisation of the Anglo-Saxons (church, bishop, priest), and from the 9th century (DanelawDanelaw
The Danelaw, as recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , is a historical name given to the part of England in which the laws of the "Danes" held sway and dominated those of the Anglo-Saxons. It is contrasted with "West Saxon law" and "Mercian law". The term has been extended by modern historians to...
) many Old Norse
Old Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
loans for every-day terms (skull, egg, skirt).
After the Norman conquest
Norman conquest of England
The Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. William became known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, defeating King Harold II of England...
of 1066–71, the top level of English society was replaced by people who spoke Old Norman
Old Norman
Old Norman, also called Old Northern French or Old Norman French, was one of many langues d'oïl dialects. It was spoken throughout the region of what is now called Normandy and spread into England, Southern Italy, Sicily, and the Levant. It is the ancestor of modern Norman, including the insular...
(a Romance language
Romance languages
The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...
closely related to Old French
Old French
Old French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories that span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from the 9th century to the 14th century...
). It evolved into Anglo-Norman
Anglo-Norman
The Anglo-Normans were mainly the descendants of the Normans who ruled England following the Norman conquest by William the Conqueror in 1066. A small number of Normans were already settled in England prior to the conquest...
and became the language of the state. Hence, those who wished to be involved in fields such as law and governance were required to learn it (see "Law French
Law French
Law French is an archaic language originally based on Old Norman and Anglo-Norman, but increasingly influenced by Parisian French and, later, English. It was used in the law courts of England, beginning with the Norman Conquest by William the Conqueror...
" for example).
It was in this Middle English
Middle English
Middle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....
period that the English language became exposed to an influx of Romance loan words (via Anglo-Norman) – see Latin influence in English
Latin influence in English
English is a Germanic language, having a grammar and core vocabulary inherited from Proto-Germanic. However, a significant portion of the English wordhoard comes from Romance and Latinate sources. Estimates of native words range from 20%–33%, with the rest made up of foreign borrowings...
. However, there were a few writers who tried to withstand the overbearing influence of Anglo-Norman. Their goal was to provide literature to the English-speaking masses in their vernacular
Vernacular
A vernacular is the native language or native dialect of a specific population, as opposed to a language of wider communication that is not native to the population, such as a national language or lingua franca.- Etymology :The term is not a recent one...
or mother tongue. This meant not only writing in English, but also taking care not to use any words of Romance origin, which would likely not be understood by the readers. Examples of this kind of literature are the Ormulum
Ormulum
The Ormulum or Orrmulum is a twelfth-century work of biblical exegesis, written by a monk named Orm and consisting of just under 19,000 lines of early Middle English verse...
, Layamon's Brut, Ayenbite of Inwyt
Ayenbite of Inwyt
The Ayenbite of Inwyt is a confessional prose work written in a Kentish dialect of Middle English...
and the Katherine Group
Katherine Group
The so-called Katherine Group is a group of five 13th century Middle English texts composed by an anonymous author of the English West Midlands. The texts are all addressed to anchoresses and praise the virtue of virginity....
of manuscripts in the "AB language
AB language
In English philology, AB language refers to the early Middle English dialect of Ancrene Wisse and the Katherine Group . The 'A' and 'B' refer to extracts in Hall's Selections from Early Middle English, 1130-1250 where 'A' is from the Katherine Group texts in MS Bodley 34 and 'B' is from Ancrene...
".
Early Modern English
In the 16th and 17th centuries, controversy over unnecessary foreign borrowings (known as "inkhorn termInkhorn term
An inkhorn term is any foreign borrowing into English deemed to be unnecessary or overly pretentious.- Etymology :...
s") was rife. Writers were introducing many complicated words, mainly from Latin and Greek. Critics saw this as unnecessary and pretentious, arguing that English already had words with identical meanings. However, many of the new words gained an equal footing with the native Germanic words, and often replaced them.
Writers such as Thomas Elyot
Thomas Elyot
Sir Thomas Elyot was an English diplomat and scholar.-Early Life:Thomas was the child of Sir Richard Elyot's first marriage with Alice De la Mare, but neither the date nor place of his birth is accurately known...
flooded their writings with foreign borrowings, whilst writers such as John Cheke
John Cheke
Sir John Cheke was an English classical scholar and statesman, notable as the first Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge University....
sought to keep their writings "pure". Cheke wrote:
I am of this opinion that our own tung should be written cleane and pure, unmixt and unmangeled with borowing of other tunges; wherein if we take not heed by tiim, ever borowing and never paying, she shall be fain to keep her house as bankrupt.
In reaction, some writers tried either to resurrect older English words deliberately (gleeman for musician, sicker for certainly, inwit for conscience, yblent for confused) or to create wholly new words from Germanic roots (endsay for conclusion, yeartide for anniversary, foresayer for prophet). Few of these words remain in common use.
Modern English
A noted advocate of Anglo-Saxon linguistic purism was 19th century English writer, poet, minister, and philologist William BarnesWilliam Barnes
William Barnes was an English writer, poet, minister, and philologist. He wrote over 800 poems, some in Dorset dialect and much other work including a comprehensive English grammar quoting from more than 70 different languages.-Life:He was born at Rushay in the parish of Bagber, Dorset, the son of...
, who advocated it to make English easier to understand without a classical education, proposing such words as sun-print (as an alternative to the Greek photo-graph).
In his 1946 essay "Politics and the English Language
Politics and the English Language
"Politics and the English Language" is an essay by George Orwell criticizing "ugly and inaccurate" contemporary written English.Orwell said that political prose was formed "to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." Orwell believed...
", George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
wrote:
Bad writers –especially scientific, political, and sociological writers– are nearly always haunted by the notion that Latin or Greek words are grander than Saxon ones.
A contemporary of Orwell, the Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n composer Percy Grainger
Percy Grainger
George Percy Aldridge Grainger , known as Percy Grainger, was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist. In the course of a long and innovative career he played a prominent role in the revival of interest in British folk music in the early years of the 20th century. He also made many...
, wrote English with only Germanic words and called it "blue-eyed English". For example, a composer became a tonesmith. Lee Hollander's 1962 English translation of the Poetic Edda
Poetic Edda
The Poetic Edda is a collection of Old Norse poems primarily preserved in the Icelandic mediaeval manuscript Codex Regius. Along with Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, the Poetic Edda is the most important extant source on Norse mythology and Germanic heroic legends, and from the early 19th century...
(a collection of Old Norse
Old Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
poems), written almost solely with Germanic words, would also inspire many future "Anglish" writers.
In 1966, Paul Jennings wrote a number of articles in Punch, to commemorate the 900th anniversary of the Norman conquest
Norman conquest of England
The Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. William became known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, defeating King Harold II of England...
. These articles posed the question of what England would be like had it not happened. They included an example of what he called "Anglish", such as a sample of Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's writing as it might have been if the conquest had failed. He gave "a bow to William Barnes
William Barnes
William Barnes was an English writer, poet, minister, and philologist. He wrote over 800 poems, some in Dorset dialect and much other work including a comprehensive English grammar quoting from more than 70 different languages.-Life:He was born at Rushay in the parish of Bagber, Dorset, the son of...
, the Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
poet-philologist".
In 1989, science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
writer Poul Anderson
Poul Anderson
Poul William Anderson was an American science fiction author who began his career during one of the Golden Ages of the genre and continued to write and remain popular into the 21st century. Anderson also authored several works of fantasy, historical novels, and a prodigious number of short stories...
wrote a text about basic atomic theory
Atomic theory
In chemistry and physics, atomic theory is a theory of the nature of matter, which states that matter is composed of discrete units called atoms, as opposed to the obsolete notion that matter could be divided into any arbitrarily small quantity...
called Uncleftish Beholding
Uncleftish Beholding
Uncleftish Beholding is a short text written by Poul Anderson. It is written using almost exclusively words of Germanic origin, and was intended to illustrate what the English language might look like if it had not received its considerable number of loanwords from other languages, particularly...
. It was written using only words of Germanic origin, and was meant to show what English might look like without foreign borrowings. In 1992, Douglas Hofstadter
Douglas Hofstadter
Douglas Richard Hofstadter is an American academic whose research focuses on consciousness, analogy-making, artistic creation, literary translation, and discovery in mathematics and physics...
jokingly referred to the style as "Ander-Saxon". This term has since been used to describe any scientific writings that use only Germanic words.
Anderson used techniques including:
- extension of sense (motes for 'particles');
- calqueCalqueIn linguistics, a calque or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word or root-for-root translation.-Calque:...
s, i.e., translation of the morphemeMorphemeIn linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest semantically meaningful unit in a language. The field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. A morpheme is not identical to a word, and the principal difference between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word,...
s of the foreign word (uncleft for atom, which is from Greek a- 'not' and temnein 'to cut') - calques from other Germanic languages like GermanGerman languageGerman is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
and DutchDutch languageDutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
(waterstuff from the German Wasserstoff / Dutch waterstof for 'hydrogen'; sourstuff from the German Sauerstoff / Dutch zuurstof for 'oxygen'); - coining (firststuff for 'element'; lightrotting for 'radioactive decay').
Another approach, without a specific name-tag, can be seen in the September 2009 publication How We'd Talk if the English had Won in 1066, by David Cowley. This is based on updating known Old English words to today's English spelling, and seeks mainstream appeal by covering words in 5 Steps, from easy to "weird and wonderful", as well as giving many examples of use, drawings and tests.
Since the 2000s, there are a number of online projects dedicated to Anglish among them the Anglish Moot on Wikia
Wikia
Wikia is a free web hosting service for wikis . It is normally free of charge for readers and editors, deriving most of its income from advertising, and publishes all user-provided text under copyleft licenses. Wikia hosts several hundred thousand wikis using the open-source wiki software MediaWiki...
(since 2005).
Examples
- List of Germanic and Latinate equivalents in English
- List of English words of Anglo-Saxon origin
See also
- High IcelandicHigh IcelandicHigh Icelandic or Hyper Icelandic is a type of linguistic purism started by the Belgian Jozef Braekmans, aimed at removing loan words from the modern Icelandic language. Its vocabulary is described by its creator as an "ultra-purist" compilation of already existing Icelandic neologisms, and other...
and High NorwegianHøgnorskHøgnorsk, meaning "High Norwegian", is a term for varieties of the Norwegian language form Nynorsk that reject most of the official reforms that have been introduced since the creation of Landsmål... - Inkhorn termInkhorn termAn inkhorn term is any foreign borrowing into English deemed to be unnecessary or overly pretentious.- Etymology :...
- Classical compoundClassical compoundClassical compounds are compound words composed from Latin or Ancient Greek root words. A large portion of the technical and scientific lexicon of English and other Western European languages consists of classical compounds. For example, bio- combines with -graphy to form biography...
- Plain EnglishPlain EnglishPlain English is a generic term for communication styles that emphasise clarity, brevity and the avoidance of technical language – particularly in relation to official government communication, including laws.The intention is to write in a manner that is easily understood by the target...
- Constrained writingConstrained writingConstrained writing is a literary technique in which the writer is bound by some condition that forbids certain things or imposes a pattern.Constraints are very common in poetry, which often requires the writer to use a particular verse form....