3 ms·

There has been remarkably little English linguistic drift since the widespread adoption of the printing press.

by pjscott 5y ago

animal531 5y ago
I agree. Trying to read some Tarzan books that were translated to my local language in the 1980's now is an atrocity. But reading the English version is still pretty decent, and that is now older than 100 years (the language itself is still fine, but terms relating to natives and the ideology of the superior white man can get to be a bit over the top).
blincoln 5y ago
I don't know how common it is, but a lot of the English writing I've seen from years gone by was written using extremely long continuous sentences.[1][2] I find it hard to parse some of it, because of having to mentally maintain so much "sentence state". For example, from Robinson Crusoe: "He told me it was men of desperate fortunes on one hand, or of aspiring, superior fortunes on the other, who went abroad upon adventures, to rise by enterprise, and make themselves famous in undertakings of a nature out of the common road; that these things were all either too far above me or too far below me; that mine was the middle state, or what might be called the upper station of low life, which he had found, by long experience, was the best state in the world, the most suited to human happiness, not exposed to the miseries and hardships, the labour and sufferings of the mechanic part of mankind, and not embarrassed with the pride, luxury, ambition, and envy of the upper part of mankind." Orwell's style is much more well-ordered and understandable, IMO. Maybe the GP is referring to something like that? [1] https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/521/pg521-images.html https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/521/pg521-images.html [2] https://archive.org/details/lettersfromegypt0000nigh https://archive.org/details/lettersfromegypt0000nigh

3 ms·

There has been remarkably little English linguistic drift since the widespread adoption of the printing press.

by pjscott 5y ago

There has been remarkably little English linguistic drift since the widespread adoption of the printing press.

animal531 5y ago
I agree. Trying to read some Tarzan books that were translated to my local language in the 1980's now is an atrocity. But reading the English version is still pretty decent, and that is now older than 100 years (the language itself is still fine, but terms relating to natives and the ideology of the superior white man can get to be a bit over the top).
blincoln 5y ago
I don't know how common it is, but a lot of the English writing I've seen from years gone by was written using extremely long continuous sentences.[1][2] I find it hard to parse some of it, because of having to mentally maintain so much "sentence state". For example, from Robinson Crusoe: "He told me it was men of desperate fortunes on one hand, or of aspiring, superior fortunes on the other, who went abroad upon adventures, to rise by enterprise, and make themselves famous in undertakings of a nature out of the common road; that these things were all either too far above me or too far below me; that mine was the middle state, or what might be called the upper station of low life, which he had found, by long experience, was the best state in the world, the most suited to human happiness, not exposed to the miseries and hardships, the labour and sufferings of the mechanic part of mankind, and not embarrassed with the pride, luxury, ambition, and envy of the upper part of mankind." Orwell's style is much more well-ordered and understandable, IMO. Maybe the GP is referring to something like that? [1] https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/521/pg521-images.html https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/521/pg521-images.html [2] https://archive.org/details/lettersfromegypt0000nigh https://archive.org/details/lettersfromegypt0000nigh