Tuesday, January 01, 2008

I love this description of English!

Why did I never hear this before? James Nicoll has said of English that
The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.

The Flibbertigibbet recently saw this quote paraphrased on a T-shirt as
English doesn't borrow from other languages. English follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks them over and goes through their pockets for loose grammar.
Fits better on a T-shirt than the original, but dropping the cracks about the "purity" of English is a tragic loss.

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