The AP reports that the Eyak language became extinct on Monday when the last fluent speaker, Chief Marie Smith Jones, died in her sleep. A linguist at UAK Fairbanks had collaborated with her for years in an attempt to preserve the language, but it’s not the same as having a native speaker around…
Posted by Garrett on January 24th, 2008 in Language, Obituary | No Comments
I’ve been a fan of diagramming sentences since I learned how to do it in school (somewhere between 4th and 10th grade, at this point I’m a bit hazy on the details). It provides a way to see proper sentence structure, and makes you think about how English is built. Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dog is high on my list of books to buy, as soon as I figure out where I put that other Borders Gift card I got for Christmas :-)
BoingBoing today pointed at a site which, among other things, diagrams the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution.
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.
Posted by Garrett on June 28th, 2007 in Humor, Language | 2 Comments
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