Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue

by John Mcwhorter

  Favorite star: Roger Lass, “Phonology and Morphology,” in The Cambridge History of the English Language (Vol. 2), ed. by Norman Blake (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp. 23-155.

  Schwa-drop observation: Thomason and Kaufman, p. 277.

  Funny passage on gender in English: Chun-fat Lau, “Gender in the Hakka Dialect: Suffixes with Gender in More Than 40 Nouns,” Journal of Chinese Linguistics 27 (1999): 124-31.

  Hashimoto on Chinese: Mantaro Hashimoto, “The Altaicization of Northern Chinese,” in Contributions to Sino-Tibetan Studies, ed. by John McCoy and Timothy Light (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1986), pp. 76-97.

  Four

  DOES OUR GRAMMAR CHANNEL OUR THOUGHT?

  Standard go-to Whorf text: John B. Carroll, ed., Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee

  Whorf (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1956).

  Kawesqar: Jack Hitt, “Say No More,” The New York Times, February 29, 2004.

  “Users of markedly . . .”: Carroll, p. 221.

  “Newtonian space . . .”: Carroll, p. 153.

  Hopi data: Ekkehart Malotki, Hopi Time: A Linguistic Analysis of the Temporal Concepts in the Hopi Language (Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1983), p. 534.

  “No words . . .”: Carroll, p. 57.

  “Potential range . . .”: Carroll, p. 117.

  “We cut nature up . . .”: Carroll, pp. 213-14.

  “It might be said . . .”: Carroll, p. 151.

  “The thought of the individual . . .”: Dorothy Lee,

  “Conceptual Implications of an Indian Language,” Philosophy of Science 5 (1938): 89-102.

  “It is clear that linguistic determinism . . .”: Carroll, p. 117.

  Clark: Herbert H. Clark, “Communities, Commonalities, and Communication,” in Rethinking Linguistic Relativity, ed. by John J. Gumperz and Stephen C. Levinson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 343.

  Wilson on Russian: Lewis A. Dabney, Edmund Wilson: A Life in Literature (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2005), p. 409.

  French verbs: Mark Abley, Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003), p. 48.

  Boro verbs: Abley, pp. 122-27.

  Second in European languages: Martin Haspelmath, “The European Linguistic Area: Standard Average European,” in Language Typology and Language Universals: An International Handbook, ed. by Martin Haspelmath, Ekkehard König, Wulf Österreicher, and Wolfgang Raible (Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2001), pp. 1495, 1503.

  “Does the Hopi . . .”: Carroll, p. 85.

  “Our objectified view . . .”: Carroll, p. 153.

  Montagnais: Abley, pp. 276-77.

  Cree: Thomas Payne, Describing Morphosyntax: A Guide for Field Linguists (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), p. 211.

  Hypothetical Chinese sentence: Charles N. Li and Sandra A. Thompson, Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981), p. 647.

  Bloom study: Aldred H. Bloom, The Linguistic Shaping of Thought: A Study in the Impact of Language on Thinking in China and the West (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1981).

  Sign language: Leah Hager Cohen, “Deafness as Metaphor, Not Gimmick,” The New York Times, August 23, 2003.

  Guugu Yimithirr: Stephen C. Levinson, “Relativity in Spatial Conception and Description,” in Rethinking Linguistic Relativity, ed. by John J. Gumperz and Stephen C. Levinson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 180-81.

  Pirahã: Dan Everett, “Cultural Constraints on Grammar and Cognition in Pirahã: Another Look at the Design Features of Human Language,” Current Anthropology 46: 621-46.

  Everett on language as thought: He told me, on April 13, 2007.

  Gender and thought: Lera Boroditsky, Lauren A. Schmidt, and Webb Phillips, “Sex, Syntax, and Semantics,” in Language in Mind: Advances in the Study of Language and

  Thought, ed. by Dedre Gentner and Susan Goldin-Meadow (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003), pp. 79-91.

  Imagining gendered voices: M. Sera, C. Berge, and J. del Castillo, “Grammatical and Conceptual Forces in the Attribution of Gender by English and Spanish Speakers,” Cognitive Development 9: 261-92.

  Kay quote: Paul Kay, “Intra-Speaker Relativity,” in Rethinking Linguistic Relativity, ed. by John J. Gumperz and Stephen C. Levinson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 110.

  Paul Kay and Willett Kempton, “What Is the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis?” American Anthropologist 86 (1984): 66.

  Barnard and Spencer: Alan Barnard and Jonathan Spencer, eds., Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology (London: Routledge, 1996).

  Textbook: Conrad Phillip Kottak, Cultural Anthropology (New York: McGraw Hill, 2002).

  Five

  SKELETONS IN THE CLOSET

  Statement on orphan words: Don Ringe, From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), pp. 295-96.

  Semitic etymologies of fright, folk, and maiden: Theo Vennemann has presented these in many places; the handiest is in German (“Zur Entstehung des Germanischen,” Sprachwissenschaft 25 [2000]: 233-69). However, the most accessible English-language source is Vennemann’s website, which includes a handout outline of a comprehensive presentation Vennemann has given on the topic.

  Historical evidence for Phoenicians’ travel northward: The handiest source in English is Theo Vennemann, “Phol, Balder, and the Birth of Germanic,” in Etymologie, Entlehnungen und Entwicklungen: Festschrift für Jorma Koivulehto zum 70. Geburtstag, ed. by Irma Hyvärinen, Petri Kallo, and Jarmo Korhonen (Helsinki: Mémoire de la Société de Néophilologie de Helsinki LXIII, 2004), pp. 439-57; see also Vennemann’s website.

  Hebrew cross and shore and Old English ofer: Saul Levin, Semitic and Indo-European: The Principal Etymologies, with Observations on Afro-Asiatic (Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1995), pp. 367-75.

  Semitic source for Germanic seven: Levin, pp. 409-12.

  Magnum opuses: Saul Levin, The Indo-European and Semitic Languages (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1971); Saul Levin, Semitic and Indo-European: The Principal Etymologies, with Observations on Afro-Asiatic (Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1995).

  Artifacts in North Sea: Matthias Schulz, “Göttertränen im Watt,” Der Spiegel (December 4, 2006): 160-62.

  Acknowledgments

  This book is based on detours in my academic research. My primary research focus has been on creole languages, but certain strains of my arguments in that realm have led me, by chance, to investigations of why English is the deeply peculiar language that it is, compared to its closest relatives, the other languages in the Germanic family.

  Over time I realized that this research, taken together, constituted a revised conception of what English is and why. I found emerging in me a certain irresistible desire now familiar as the spark for all of my books: to get what was sticking in my craw down in book form.

  I sensed that the point of the book would not lend itself to the process via which books are presented to agents and publishers: summarizing the ideas in outline form. I predicted that in bullet-point format, the thrust of the book would seem too in-house, too pointy-headed, too specialized.

  So I did an end run and just wrote the book unbidden and submitted a whole draft to my agent. Much to my surprise, she, Katinka Matson, loved it, and to my further surprise, my now regular publisher, Gotham Books, did, too.

  As such, my first acknowledgment is to Katinka, and to William Shinker at Gotham, for being open to a book with such a weird focus. Thanks also to Patrick Mulligan at Gotham for making the manuscript better—and notably for coming up with “Volcanoes” as the mnemonic for Icelandic.

  I am also grateful to linguists Werner Abraham, Östen Dahl, Andrew Garrett, Gary Holland, Fred Karlsson, John Payne, Irmengard Rauch, Elizabeth Traugott, Theo Vennemann, and David White for their support for and feedback on the articles that this book is based on. Special thanks to Elly Van Gelderen, a sterling researcher on the history of Eng
lish but open to new ideas, for first tipping me off that the folks arguing that English is shot through with Celtic influence are not crazy.

  My argumentation was also sharpened by feedback at presentations of my work at the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Helsinki, the University of Tromsø, the University of Toronto, and the University of Manchester.

  Finally, my wife, Martha, read all of the chapters in first draft and restrained me from something linguists writing for the general public must guard against, a tendency to luxuriate in idle details under the impression that this will be comfort food to the general reader. Thank you, Martha, for “getting it” as you do because you have spent years listening to me gabbing about language and linguistics, but remaining aware of how my presentation will come off to readers who did not happen to marry me.

  Index

  A

  ablative case

  Abley, Mark

  aboriginal languages

  academic specialization

  accusative case

  adjectives

  adverbs

  Aelfric’s Colloquy

  Africa

  African languages

  Afrikaans

  Akkadian

  Albanian

  Algonquian languages

  Altaic

  Amazonian languages

  American War

  American Sign Language

  Anatolian

  Ancient Greek

  Angles

  and Celtic extermination theory

  invasion of Britain

  and progressive -ing

  Anglo-Saxons

  and Celtic extermination theory

  and education

  and French influence

  and linguistic equilibrium

  and Modern English

  and Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

  and scripture vs. writing

  and simplification of English

  and Viking influence

  anthropology

  apartheid

  Arabic

  and grammar

  path to Modern English

  and Proto-Germanic consonants

  Arabic (continued)

  and Urdu

  and verb placement

  and written vs. spoken language

  Aramaic

  archaeology

  Armenian

  Arrested Development

  Assyrian

  asusu

  Austen, Jane

  Australians, aboriginal

  “The Awful German Language” (Twain)

  B

  Baal

  Babylonian

  Balder

  Barnard, Alan

  Basque

  Battle of Hastings

  Bengali

  Beowulf

  be-perfect

  Biblical Hebrew

  biological gender

  Bloom, Alfred

  Boas, Franz

  Boro

  Boroditzki, Lera

  Britain

  Bryson, Bill

  burial sites

  C

  Cádiz, Spain

  Cædmon’s Hymn

  Call Me Madam

  The Canterbury Tales (Chaucer)

  Cantonese Chinese

  Carthage

  case markers

  English and German contrasted

  and language evolution

  and linguistic equilibrium

  Old vs. Middle English

  and suffixes

  and written vs. spoken language

  casual speech

  causality issues

  Celtic language

  and English dialects

  and English grammar

  and English vocabulary

  and evolution of English

  genocide theory

  impact on English

  and linguistic equilibrium

  and meaningless do

  and noun cases

  and orphan words

  and the Picts

  and progressive -ing

  and Proto-Germanic consonants

  and Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

  and simplification of English

  and written vs. spoken language

  Chad

  Charles

  Chaucer, Geoffrey

  Chichewa

  children

  Chile

  China

  Chinese

  Christianity

  Clark, Herbert

  Classical Malay

  click sounds

  clipping endings

  Cnut (Canute , “the Great”)

  codexes

  Colasanto, Daniel

  colloquialisms

  colonialism

  The Comedy of Errors

  (Shakespeare)

  conditional tense

  conjugations

  consonants

  and orphan words

  and Phoenician influence

  and Proto-Germanic

  and Proto-Semitic verbs

  context

  Cornish

  and Celtic influence on English

  and Celtic subfamily

  and English grammar

  and English vocabulary

  and linguistic equilibrium

  and meaningless do

  and progressive -ing

  question sentences

  and verb conjugation

  Cran, William

  Cree

  Crete

  Crystal, David

  culture. See also Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

  D

  Dalby, Andrew

  Damin

  Danelaw region

  Danish

  and be-perfect

  impact on English

  and orphan words

  and Proto-Germanic

  and simplification of English

  and Viking influence

  Dante

  Dark Ages

  dative case

  democracy

  demonstratives

  Denmark

  Der Spiegel

  dialects

  Arabic

  English

  Germanic languages

  Kentish

  Mercian

  Monnese

  north of England

  Northumbrian

  and noun gender

  Old English

  Swedish

  West Saxon

  and written vs. spoken language

  direction words

  diversity

  DNA evidence

  documentary evidence

  domination of English

  Dorset

  Dravidian languages

  Dutch

  and etymologies

  and evolution of English

  and Germanic language families

  grammar

  and meaningless do

  and noun gender

  and orphan words

  path to Modern English

  and progressive -ing

  and Proto-Germanic

  and Viking influence

  E

  Early Middle English

  The Economist

  education

  egthu

  Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology (Barnard and Spencer)

  -ende construction

  England

  English. See Modern English

  ethnocentrism

  etymology

  Everett, Dan

  evolution of English

  explanation of language change

  expressions

  F

  families of languages

  Faroese

  fashions in language

  The Fight for English: How Language Pundits Ate, Shot, and Left (Crystal)

  Finnish

  folk

  formal language

  French. See also Norman French

  and “be” perfect

  and case marking

  in col
onial Africa

  and English vocabulary

  and generic pronouns

  invasion of Britain

  and meaningless do

  and mistranslation

  and modern education

  and modern vocabularies

  and noun gender

  and orphan words

  and Proto-Germanic vocabulary

  and Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

  and simplification of English

  and verb usage

  written and spoken language

  frequentive suffix

  fricatives

  fright

  Frisian

  and Evolution of English

  and Germanic language families

  and grammar inconsistency

  and Proto-Germanic

  and verb usage

  and Viking influence

  future tense

  G

  Gaelic

  Gamalson, Orm

  gender

  and Afrikaans

  biological

  English and German contrasted

  and English grammar

  gender-neutral pronouns

  and German

  and Germanic languages

  and Hittite

  and Icelandic

  “impersonal” gender

  and Indo-European languages

  and Modern English