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

From:Ray Brown <ray.brown@...>
Date:Wednesday, September 24, 2003, 6:11
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. Ray =============================================== http://home.freeuk.com/ray.brown ray.brown@freeuk.com (home) raymond.brown@kingston-college.ac.uk (work) ===============================================

Replies

Peter Bleackley <peter.bleackley@...>
Joe <joe@...>
John Cowan <cowan@...>
Costentin Cornomorus <elemtilas@...>