Monday, December 8, 2008

England gives up its language



A nation that gives up its language soon ceases to be a nation. The ties that bind its citizens together are words. Spoken and written words that invoke common memories of the country.

From England, a country that seems to be unable to shed its glorious and freedom giving past fast enough, we get another example of how those who worship at the altar of diversity are the leaders in this damnable task.

Keep in mind that this the "Children's" dictionary so some one will argue that the words aren't gone, merely moved. I would argue that 99% of the vocabulary is formed by age ten, and by removing them, even if a child is exposed to such a evil word as "altar," they won't have a ready and easy source of its meaning.

Oxford University Press has removed words like "aisle", "bishop", "chapel", "empire" and "monarch" from its Junior Dictionary and replaced them with words like "blog", "broadband" and "celebrity". Dozens of words related to the countryside have also been culled.

The publisher claims the changes have been made to reflect the fact that Britain is a modern, multicultural, multifaith society.

I never dreamed that "aisle," was ancient and out of date. And replacing "chapel" with "celebrity" seems to be well past midnight on the stupid clock.

What's next? "Terrorist" replaced by "insurgent?" That would suit the Left wing diversity crowd quite well."

Evidently this nonsense started in 2003. The removed words are:

Carol, cracker, holly, ivy, mistletoe

Dwarf, elf, goblin

Abbey, aisle, altar, bishop, chapel, christen, disciple, minister, monastery, monk, nun, nunnery, parish, pew, psalm, pulpit, saint, sin, devil, vicar

Coronation, duchess, duke, emperor, empire, monarch, decade

adder, ass, beaver, boar, budgerigar, bullock, cheetah, colt, corgi, cygnet, doe, drake, ferret, gerbil, goldfish, guinea pig, hamster, heron, herring, kingfisher, lark, leopard, lobster, magpie, minnow, mussel, newt, otter, ox, oyster, panther, pelican, piglet, plaice, poodle, porcupine, porpoise, raven, spaniel, starling, stoat, stork, terrapin, thrush, weasel, wren.

Acorn, allotment, almond, apricot, ash, bacon, beech, beetroot, blackberry, blacksmith, bloom, bluebell, bramble, bran, bray, bridle, brook, buttercup, canary, canter, carnation, catkin, cauliflower, chestnut, clover, conker, county, cowslip, crocus, dandelion, diesel, fern, fungus, gooseberry, gorse, hazel, hazelnut, heather, holly, horse chestnut, ivy, lavender, leek, liquorice, manger, marzipan, melon, minnow, mint, nectar, nectarine, oats, pansy, parsnip, pasture, poppy, porridge, poultry, primrose, prune, radish, rhubarb, sheaf, spinach, sycamore, tulip, turnip, vine, violet, walnut, willow

Words put in:

Blog, broadband, MP3 player, voicemail, attachment, database, export, chatroom, bullet point, cut and paste, analogue

Celebrity, tolerant, vandalism, negotiate, interdependent, creep, citizenship, childhood, conflict, common sense, debate, EU, drought, brainy, boisterous, cautionary tale, bilingual, bungee jumping, committee, compulsory, cope, democratic, allergic, biodegradable, emotion, dyslexic, donate, endangered, Euro

Apparatus, food chain, incisor, square number, trapezium, alliteration, colloquial, idiom, curriculum, classify, chronological, block graph


Isn't the question.... Why not just add the words? The English language is a wonderful sponge and is used the world over because it is flexible and adds/removes words on its own. It needs no help.

This action is like the canary in the coal mine.

The excuse, and the Left always has a good intentioned excuse, is stated as:

Vineeta Gupta, the head of children's dictionaries at Oxford University Press, said: "We are limited by how big the dictionary can be – little hands must be able to handle it

But wait, dear Vineeta, are you telling us that six or seven extra pages are so burdensome that the users can't handle them? As Colonel Potter said, "Horse hockey."

Here is the real reason. Again from Vineeta:

We are also much more multicultural. People don't go to Church as often as before. Our understanding of religion is within multiculturalism, which is why some words such as "Pentecost" or "Whitsun" would have been in 20 years ago but not now."

Indeed. "Not now."
`I don't know what you mean by "glory,"' Alice said.

Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. `Of course you don't -- till I tell you. I meant "there's a nice knock-down argument for you!"'

`But "glory" doesn't mean "a nice knock-down argument,"' Alice objected.

`When _I_ use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, `it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less.'

`The question is,' said Alice, `whether you CAN make words mean so many different things.'

`The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, `which is to be master - - that's all.'

--Lewis Carrol, "Through the Looking Glass"

Links and thanks to the Telegraph.

1 comment:

  1. I'm with ya on this one pal...I see no need to ever remove a word from a dictionary...ever. Even if a word or phrease is rendered obsolete in modern parlance, it is a part of history and should be preserved.

    - kdog

    ReplyDelete