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Subject:Re: In Defense of Bourgeois Pedants From:"Walter Bross" <Indulis -at- msn -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 5 Dec 2000 20:02:22 -0500
> Find a language in which prescriptive
> grammars became widespread (among the literate, at least, if not among mere
> speakers) and *subsequently* that language was powerfully influenced by
> another language (the way English was by French after the Norman conquest).
>
> Was the original language changed to the same degree or did the prescriptive
> grammar dam hold back the deluge? Does anyone know a language that meets
> this description? The Gaelic spoken in Ireland before the English conquest
> was wiped out. But did the Gaelic literates use grammars? I don't know.
The Baltic cultures have preserved a complex, structured linguistic identity,
despite systematic conquests recorded since the Middle Ages through recent
Soviet
occupation. In an indo-european context, their shared character with Sanskrit
is profound.
The nineteenth century brought standardization and development to the latvian
language, along with publication of the world's largest compendium of folk song,
still fundamentally unchanged since pagan times.
A strong oral tradition establishes a grammar base; documentation perpetuates
it. For all the wizardry associated with technical communications, a writer's
job depends on the use of words.
Walter I. Bross
Indulis -at- msn -dot- com
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