About English
Post 1634:
In more than one sense it’s a bit mad to write for recreation or money. What can one say that hasn’t already been said? Writers of songs and stories and poems must be suffering from degenerative hubris to presume there’s anything to add.
I should quit. Time to admit that we’ll never be able to contribute anything new to the world of language.
Okay, obviously I’m just doing a thing, and now I’m gonna do the other thing. Language is probably my favorite deal in the world because it never gets dull. Not to me, anyway. I’m always reading or hearing something new. Yeah, it’s in a structure I understand, but there’s so many ways language can be shaped.
Especially English.
Now I’m not the first to say this, but I’ve heard many great writers and scholars laud English as maybe the best language for expression. No, not because the people who came up with it are better. In fact, it would be hard to say that anyone came up with it. That’s not how it works. What we call modern English (not the band) comes from Nordic/Germanic sources, Romance (Latin) sources, and all kinds of other stuff. There are experts that trace words back through time. They can find out when they got split in two or went off in some random direction or got molded into a different meaning. It’s fascinating. Because nerd.
Anyway, the good thing about writing in a hybrid language like English is that there are lots of different ways to say the same thing, or just about the same thing.
For example, you want to say it’s getting better at your job:
I’ve been promoted.
I’m coming up in the world.
My lot in life’s improving.
One is very literal. One is weird, like you’re about to float away for something. One is used because lot in life is a snazzy expression that caught on somewhere down the line.
There’s so many ways to be creative with English. I’m sure it’s rad with all the other languages too, but I suck at those. I’m only decent at this one, gosh sakes. Get off my back. See? Why is that a sentence that isn’t weird? I don’t know. I only know it’s awesome. Nerds. Cheers and see you after.
