Art duuuump!

[hellzabeth]

Another semi-educational one, in the form of my illustrated notes!

Warning, image heavy, as expected from an art dump.



English is called the cannibal language for a reason; it's a combination of every language we've ever admired, been ruled by or have conquered. Scandinavian, Old German (Saxons), Latin and French are the biggest influences.

About the "Great Vowel Shift": One day, for a reason linguists cannot fathom, the south of England started speaking their vowels differently from the north. Previously, we had used more open vowels, as demonstrated in an American accent, rather than closed vowels, as Standard English uses today.

About Neo-classicism: Yeah, we suddenly up and changed our grammar too. No longer are we allowed "to boldly go", that's splitting infinitives! Which, because it cannot be done in Latin (because infinitives are... one word... like in modern European languages and indeed most languages but English) shall therefore not be done in English! It's "to go boldly". >> Uptight and full of yourself much Iggy?


If you can read my handwriting you are a credit to your species.







---

And now that's done, time for other drawings! 8D



I am a cruel and horrible person.

So yeah, France's oil burn scars from Family Ties. They're not going away too fast. Plus bruising on his neck and wrists. And the corner of his mouth. Because I can. And France is pretty when injured.



Random India sketch. Noooot entirely sure about it either. One thing's for sure; girl can multitask. Looks a bit like Saraswati.



While China gained power and inteligence over 3000 years, India's progress was much less rapid. When China hit teenagerdom (about 300BC?) India was still looking about 7 or 8.

Plus it's cute shut up.



That's me done for the evening. Ciao for now.

Comments

[lovelylurker.livejournal.com]

Indian English frightens me so much. At least the main difference between American and English is spelling and vowel intonation. >->;

[hellzabeth.livejournal.com]

Frightens you? India: *snaps her teeth*

Ahh, if we'd been left apart for longer it would have become it's own distinct language, and then we wouldn't understand each other. XD

[amygirl.livejournal.com]

This is going to sound like a very weird question but since we're on the topic of the English language.

Say someone from modern America were to travel back into time to Viking times (probably say the 900's time period) would someone from that time period listening to them be able to recognize that the language is a vein of English albeit not the same as what they were speaking at the time? Or has the language changed so much that it would be unrecognizable as even being from the same language family?

I just need to know for...er...science purposes. *shifty eyes*

[hellzabeth.livejournal.com]

Oh goodness, no. Anyone traveling back to that time would find it a struggle to tell the language they were speaking was English. Mostly because it wasn't. 900 would be before the Norman (French) invasion, so we wouldn't have all sorts of words, and our grammar would be... uh, German.

In 900 it would be the period of Old English. In order to go to an era you would understand, you'd have to go to 1500 or later, which is Early Modern English. So, we can understand Shakespeare without translations (save the odd cultural footnote) but not, say, Beowulf, Old English untranslated.

Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.
Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum,

monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah,
egsode eorlas. Syððan ærest wearð
feasceaft funden, he þæs frofre gebad,
weox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þah,
oðþæt him æghwylc þara ymbsittendra

There are one to two words in there you can understand, such as male pronouns, "oft" (archaic though that one is) or "under", but everything else is... yeah.

And you're totally not writing a timetravel fic or anything are you. XD

[amygirl.livejournal.com]

I didn't think so but I figured I'd clarify, thanks!

**And you're totally not writing a timetravel fic or anything are you. XD**

*shifty eyes*

Although these days I could probably safely say that I am not... *le sigh*

[dreamfleet.livejournal.com]

you know what's fun?

I LEARNED STUFF

YAY LIZZY

[hellzabeth.livejournal.com]

YAAAAAY WHAT DID YOU LEARN NEKO WHAT DID YOU LEARN?

[shardsofmemory]

Stuff you taught me. :3

[alianorethecat.livejournal.com]

*_* I love language. And you make notes really fun to read. Maybe I should start reading through my linguistics books again..

[hellzabeth.livejournal.com]

Well I would fall asleep on them otherwise. XDDD

[alianorethecat.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I'd always draw on my notes. But they rarely had anything to do with what I was learning. Your notes are cool.

Long and late comment is long and late

[emelethaine.livejournal.com]

Indian english. Will you believe I spent a whole month taking all that in. >.> At first it was cute and novel and all that, but at the end I was just all like, 'AAGH THAT ACCENT KILL ME NOW'. Especially the fact that everyone seems to know English. Just... it's THIS English.

NEVER EVAR SWITCH TO CHINESE TONGUES. ENGLISH IS A BEAUTIFUL LANGUAGE. (I can't stand hearing Mandarin Chinese spoken, although in writing it is quite beautiful. Also, I'm having a bitch of a time of it being shoved down my throat by my stupid school, so I guess I'm pretty biased.)

Also, we all speak American English because it's too effing hard to speak with that beautiful accent the British do and we're all too lazy to add that 'u' after 'o'. .___.

And we all know drawing makes notes fun. (No srsly; I'd doodle Port and Spain in my history notebook which is full of Age of Discovery notes, but school's over.)

[emelethaine.livejournal.com]

Overuse of the word beautiful. >.>