How our language has changed over the years

January 30, 2022, 11:23 AM

quote:
I am glad this idiom is long gone,

the immortal lyrics from Kookie's song career:

"I've got smog in my noggin
Ever since you made the scene"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gDT2Xk5-Oo

Almost seems contrived, eh?
Unlike our Modern Era.

Ah yes....

January 30, 2022, 12:27 PM

medic15al

II was born in early 1970, and as a 52 year old understood what he was saying.

Still an 80's kid so our slang was more rad!

January 30, 2022, 01:05 PM

PASig

I saw this fascinating thread on Quora about language and how that might go:

quote:

Would an Old English speaker, a Middle English speaker, and a Modern English speaker be able to understand each other?

—Hello, I am a Modern English speaker.

—By God and seint Martyn, I too an Englissh speaker am.

—Super. Lovely to meet you.

—And yow too, god wot.

—Ic cwidde Englisc.

—Eh? Did you get that?

—Pardee, I understounde not.

—Sounded like he said something about ‘English’.

—I wolde prey yow, sire, speak agayn, for certes, I wot not what ye say.

—Ic eom Aeldred.

—Hmm, still not really getting it, old chap.

— Ic ne wát þæt hwilc þu cwiddest.

—Oh, this is going nowhere.

—By god, ye speak trouthe, withouten doute.

—I’m glad you think so. Shall we get a beer?

—Upon my lyf, ye, certes, a cup of ale I wold drinke with thee.

—Cheerio. Weirdo.

—Ay, farwel, brother.

[The Modern English and Middle English speaker leave.]

—…Þæt wæs gód spræce.

Link

January 30, 2022, 01:47 PM

PASig

quote:
Originally posted by RogueJSK:
quote:
Originally posted by PASig:
Finna: “about to” (corrupted form of “fitting to” I believe)

It's a corrupted form of "fixing to", a phrase more common in the South, meaning "about to"/"planning to" (do something).

https://ygdp.yale.edu/phenomena/fixin-to

"Gonna" is a more widespread and older term, a similar corruption of "going to", which means basically the same thing as "finna".

Yes you are right, but I think “fitting to” or “fitting’ to” is itself a corruption of “fixing to”. I heard lots of guys I served with in the Army who were from the South use that phrase “fitting’ to” which then evolved into “finna”.

January 30, 2022, 06:59 PM

flesheatingvirus

A rare recording of white jive.

Fascinating.

________________________________________

-- Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past me I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. --

January 31, 2022, 09:35 AM

sigcrazy7

Shakespeare would not have understood Chaucer’s English, and they were only separated by 100 years or so.

January 31, 2022, 09:58 AM

RogueJSK

quote:
Originally posted by sigcrazy7:
Shakespeare would not have understood Chaucer’s English, and they were only separated by 100 years or so.

A bit more than that... More like 200 years.

Chaucer: ~1340-1400. Canterbury Tales was written ~1390.

Shakespeare: 1564-1616. His works were written starting in ~1590.

But yes, they used two different forms of English. Chaucer wrote in Middle English. Shakespeare wrote in Early Modern English. There were massive changes in the English language during the century or so from roughly 1470-1580.

January 31, 2022, 10:00 AM

mark123

Most folks in the 1950s didn’t actually talk like that. Being quirky and hip and dislodged from the stuffy old establishment was as important to the youth then as it is now.

January 31, 2022, 10:02 AM

Flash-LB

quote:
Originally posted by flesheatingvirus:
A rare recording of white jive.

Fascinating.

I speak white jive.

January 31, 2022, 10:04 AM

ZSMICHAEL

quote:
Most folks in the 1950s didn’t actually talk like that. Being quirky and hip was as important to the youth then as it is now.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Word has it that Vtail did. Shaboom.

January 31, 2022, 10:07 AM

mark123

quote:
Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
quote:
Most folks in the 1950s didn’t actually talk like that. Being quirky and hip was as important to the youth then as it is now.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Word has it that Vtail did. Shaboom.

That’s one crazy and kicked-up cat, man. We’re talking wild, baby.

January 31, 2022, 10:15 AM

Rey HRH

And so it goes...

"It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life – daily and hourly. Our answer must consist not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual." Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, 1946.

January 31, 2022, 11:13 AM

Hamden106

I am 72.5. I would have to put my hearing aids in to catch what they said

January 31, 2022, 12:17 PM

amals

quote:
Originally posted by Blackmore:
I understood it all. Brought to mind a schoolyard Q&A about Kookie:

How many girl friends does Kookie have? 77
What do they watch when he takes them parking? Sunset
What's he make them do? ...

I'm 68 and understood it all. Used to watch the show. Don't recall hearing this Q&A in my schoolyard, though. Funny, come to think of it; I don't hear the term "schoolyard" much anymore, along with the things it used to suggest.

January 31, 2022, 12:27 PM

ensigmatic

quote:
Originally posted by Hamden106:
I am 72.5. I would have to put my hearing aids in to catch what they said

It would still be difficult. I had mine in, I still had to listen a couple times, and I still didn't catch 100% of it. Music, noise, talking quickly... Hearing aids can do only so much. Particularly since I haven't heard that kind of talk in a long, long time

"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system,,,, but too early to shoot the bastards." -- Claire Wolfe
"If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living." -- Seneca the Younger, Roman Stoic philosopher