I'd like to have a conversation on all aspects of language. It's origins, it's development, it's current state, it's problems and it's advantages. Bassically anything about language is more than welcome.
I'd also like to know more about the nature of language and it's development globally.
Anything you want to share, or anything you want to know about anything to do with language please join in and hopefully we can get a fascinating and informative conversation going about the subject of language.
I'm told language was first written in ancient Summeria 6000 (8000?) years ago. I heard some of these words are still in use today such as alchohol, cane, wheel and a few others I don't remember. Not sure if they were pronounced in the same way back then, i'm pretty sure they were not spelt the same (as the alphabet was invented in greece I beleive). I have no idea if this info is true, maybe some of you know better?
An interesting fact I heard on radio 2 today is that for 300 years following the norman invasion in 1066, the predominant language in england was french. Whether french in those days resembles modern french in anyway I don't know? But it seems modern english probably doesn't ressemble any english dated pre 1350 (to me). Have we adopted many old english words in modern english? Was there a renaisance of english at some point after the norman integration, or was a new language made up?
Modern english seems to have been heavily influenced by shakespear, and the english bible (king James version). Was shakespear himself influenced by the kJB? Did he write it? Did Francis Bacon write it? Who wrote it? It seems Elisabeth the 1st was responsible for a revolution in education which resulted in the likes of shakespear and Bacon. Anybody feel like sharing anything about this era in the english language?
Another thing i'd like to understand is why so many nations speak a language derived from latin/greek? any insights into this would be great. How many nations speak a greek/latin based language? What other languages have 'given birth to' many languages in this way? Would be good to hear about development of eastern and african languages too.
I've put a lot in the intro, but if you just want to post a simple fact or adress one of the questions thats great.
I put this in history, but I'd like to learn more about the current state of language. History seemed the least disagreeable catergory for the evolution of language.