Re: Back to the Future (was: I'm back, sort of)

Staving Ray Brown:
>On Tuesday, September 23, 2003, at 06:47 , Joe wrote:
>
>[snip]
>>'Future English' is everywhere.  I know future English will be at least a
>>slightly synthetic language, with forms for at least negatives ( I dunno,
>>  I
>>ain't).
>
>Future?
>
>"ain't" had been the mark of upper class aristo English for a few
>centuries;
>it retreated among "the lower orders" because of the pretensions of the
>19th century bourgeoisie, but never disappeared.  Indeed, in rural dialects
>of england it remained and, in the south at least, was (and probably still
>is)
>pronounced /Ent/ - a fact Tolkien used in tLotR in Treebeard's pun:
>"..there are Ents and things that look like Ents but ain't, as you might
>say."
>
>Sorry, "ain't" ain't future English - 'tis centuries old.
>
>Dunno how old "dunno" is, but it was certainly already in common currency
>this side of the Pond 50 years ago or more.
>
Future English will have a nominative case of nouns and pronouns which is
marked for tense.

Pete

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