Language Nostalgia and the Geek-chic factor
Not only has the Internet increased the rate of langauge change (witness the spread of "im in ur [noun], [present participle] ur [plural noun]"), it has also brought into contact all sorts of people who enjoy participating in the nostalgic imitation of older varieties of English--even back to Old English itself! This group engages in scholarly work, making dictionaries available and editing e-texts, but some of them also play at imitation of archaic English, which has become something of a game for many self-identified "geeks."
For class today, let's look at several of these sites. I'll start with Old English ones, and move to the imitations of more modern Englishes.
Old English
Computer terms translated into Old English by Carl Berkhout
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, still going strong after all these millenia.
Wicipaedia, se freo wisdomboc (this site has some trouble with special characters)
A seasonal offering for us from the Boar's Helm Pub.
Bayeux Tapestry
Techinically, this isn't language nostalgia, but I'm fascinated by the on-line gaming jokes made in the Bayeux Tapestry image sets:
Medieval images on YTMND, particularly, shows deliberately bad "Olde Englishe" (using "thine" for "thy," for instance.
Middle English
Geoffrey Chaucer hath a blog. If you're in 433 next semester, you might want to bookmark this. It will only get funnier as you get used to the ME, and the language links off to the left are a gold mine (especially the dictionary). Part of the fun here is watching him translate modern terms into ME or Latin, such as his musings on a "gret japery" (fun game)--"auriole" (ie, halo).
Katherine Swinford--another blog in ME. Hers is actually closer to ME, and a little harder to read.
The 17th century
Technically, this isn't language imitation, since it's just someone putting Pepys diary up as if it were a blog. Pepys was a real diarist from the 17th century. I still think it falls under the heading of nostalgia, though.
Victorian England
Lady Bracknell doesn't keep character consistently--unlike Chaucer, whose identity is mysterious, the author has photographs of herself up. But she still tries to sound like she's from Victorian England.
For class today, let's look at several of these sites. I'll start with Old English ones, and move to the imitations of more modern Englishes.
Old English
Computer terms translated into Old English by Carl Berkhout
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, still going strong after all these millenia.
Wicipaedia, se freo wisdomboc (this site has some trouble with special characters)
A seasonal offering for us from the Boar's Helm Pub.
Bayeux Tapestry
Techinically, this isn't language nostalgia, but I'm fascinated by the on-line gaming jokes made in the Bayeux Tapestry image sets:
Medieval images on YTMND, particularly, shows deliberately bad "Olde Englishe" (using "thine" for "thy," for instance.
Middle English
Geoffrey Chaucer hath a blog. If you're in 433 next semester, you might want to bookmark this. It will only get funnier as you get used to the ME, and the language links off to the left are a gold mine (especially the dictionary). Part of the fun here is watching him translate modern terms into ME or Latin, such as his musings on a "gret japery" (fun game)--"auriole" (ie, halo).
Katherine Swinford--another blog in ME. Hers is actually closer to ME, and a little harder to read.
The 17th century
Technically, this isn't language imitation, since it's just someone putting Pepys diary up as if it were a blog. Pepys was a real diarist from the 17th century. I still think it falls under the heading of nostalgia, though.
Victorian England
Lady Bracknell doesn't keep character consistently--unlike Chaucer, whose identity is mysterious, the author has photographs of herself up. But she still tries to sound like she's from Victorian England.
posted by Rebecca Brackmann at
8:03 AM
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