Re: Why does the meaning (and spelling) of words change?

As far as I know, neither publique nor towne are "good" words. They are just
faux-archaic like "ye olde sweete shoppe". Since we were invaded (sorry:
visited)
by the Norman French in 1066, French rapidly became the prestige language,
reflected in writing. Chaucer's spellings are overwhelmingly French such as
"honour" and "colour" which is the origin of BE spelling. Basically, those
who didn't speak French probably couldn't write in any case, so it was not
that the population as a whole 'wrote' French, just that French (and Latin)
were the only languages in which the language was written at all. In fact,
up until fairly recently, a great deal of legal work was carried out in
Norman French - many terms still exist in legalese such as "poursuivant".
British English spelling still reflects the Norman French pronunciations,
thus we have "honour" whose pronunciation certainly wasn't /on@/ as it is in
modern English! I rather guess that this might be a clue as to why you found
so many instances of "computer programme" - either as an (incorrect)
reaction by some militant Brit to what he perceived as Americanisation of
the language, or possibly as simply a substring within the phrase "computer
programmer". Try putting in the search string "computer programme " - note
the space at the end.
Mike
> I'm sure I have seen many, many instances of "computer
> programme".  A Yahoo search on the exact phrase
> "computer programme" turned up over 63,000 pages using
> that spelling.
>
> I don't doubt that "programme" is also a perfectly
> good word in the same sense that "publique" and
> "towne" are perfectly good words.  In fact there is a
> shopping mall where I used to live called "old towne
> mall".  I'm only suggesting that "programme" seems
> either "quaint" or "French-ified" (putting on airs) to
> the American reader.
>
> I once heard the story (somebody tell me if this is
> true or not.  I suspect it's BS) that about a thousand
> years ago in Great Britain, the French language and
> culture was much admired and to speak french was
> considered the mark of good breeding.  Those who
> didn't speak French, however, not wanted to be thought
> too backward, adopted French-like spellings of English
> words to give their writing an air of culture.  Thus
> words like "colour", "cheque", and "programme".  These
> spellings, so the story goes, were a kind of
> poor-man's toy French.
>
> --gary

Reply