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"It's pretty easy for some people with the benefit of 8000 years of learning to look at something like this and call it a cult." 8000 years of learning - chari

"It's pretty easy for some people with the benefit of 8000 years of learning to look at something like this and call it a cult." 8000 years of learning - charitable! We have learned many things and forgotten them and rediscovered all sort of things. I'm not sure how old our knowledge really is or if that actually means anything. Cult: terminology. Why on earth is Stonehenge mentioned at all? This is the stone age in the modern Arabian peninsula and bugger all to do with a bit of Wiltshire. I love the BBC but it would be nice if they decided to give up nonsensical parochialism or at least drop it for things like this - it's almost as daft as describing a dinosaur as coming from say London ... The modern London comes from ... Lundunwic is an early anglisc name (-wic: -wijk, -wick, -vic - probably others). Obvs: Lundumwic came from Londiumium (Roman). So where did Londinum come from? According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Londinium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Londinium - no one really knows. It is unlikely that Geoff off of Monmouth has a clue and frankly it is one of those things. To effectively engage with our forebears we have to start with dropping dodgy nationalistic labels. Says British bloke!

doodlebugging 4y ago
I think Stonehenge serves the same purpose as the Eiffel Tower here. It gives a reference that the reader may already be familiar with even though it makes little sense as a marker. Looking back at the history of the British Isles is like looking across the Channel at northern Europe. A lot of those towns and cities date to Roman times or earlier, to the Gauls and have been renamed. I often wondered how the French language evolved to ignore so many consonants and wonder if they preserved the traditional spellings but chose to change pronunciation over time so it was simpler. Pretty funny for a Texan who kinda-sorta speaks English, but with a noticeable accent.
- gerdesj 4y ago
  English is nominally a Germanic language (German, English, Dutch etc) and French is a Romance language (French, Spanish, Italian etc). Before the Romans rocked up, a Greek bloke called Pytheas sailed to the region and sailed around the mainland Britain and wrote up his travels and mentioned the Pretanike as the locals so that's an early description of the name that eventually became Britain/Britons. You are a Texan and I'm sure that if you and I met we would understand each other perfectly well. My brother lived and worked in Plano for a couple of years and my niece was born there - she's a Texan! English is what we make of it. It is just as much yours (US-TX) as mine (GB). I think the beauty of English is it shows a bit of thigh to everyone. English is quite an odd language - it wants to be spoken by everyone and will quite happily take from other languages. I suspect that some languages may have evolved simply to be different ... to differentiate. Anyway, it's probably time I visited a TL&C. Just to reiterate: you speak English - the same one as me. I'm a Brit and you are a Yank but we both have exactly the same ownership of the language. It is very polite of you to say otherwise - and I think that is a Texan thing.

doodlebugging 4y ago

I think Stonehenge serves the same purpose as the Eiffel Tower here. It gives a reference that the reader may already be familiar with even though it makes little sense as a marker. Looking back at the history of the British Isles is like looking across the Channel at northern Europe. A lot of those towns and cities date to Roman times or earlier, to the Gauls and have been renamed. I often wondered how the French language evolved to ignore so many consonants and wonder if they preserved the traditional spellings but chose to change pronunciation over time so it was simpler. Pretty funny for a Texan who kinda-sorta speaks English, but with a noticeable accent.

gerdesj 4y ago
English is nominally a Germanic language (German, English, Dutch etc) and French is a Romance language (French, Spanish, Italian etc). Before the Romans rocked up, a Greek bloke called Pytheas sailed to the region and sailed around the mainland Britain and wrote up his travels and mentioned the Pretanike as the locals so that's an early description of the name that eventually became Britain/Britons. You are a Texan and I'm sure that if you and I met we would understand each other perfectly well. My brother lived and worked in Plano for a couple of years and my niece was born there - she's a Texan! English is what we make of it. It is just as much yours (US-TX) as mine (GB). I think the beauty of English is it shows a bit of thigh to everyone. English is quite an odd language - it wants to be spoken by everyone and will quite happily take from other languages. I suspect that some languages may have evolved simply to be different ... to differentiate. Anyway, it's probably time I visited a TL&C. Just to reiterate: you speak English - the same one as me. I'm a Brit and you are a Yank but we both have exactly the same ownership of the language. It is very polite of you to say otherwise - and I think that is a Texan thing.