Since the 1300’s, the pronoun “thou” was actually considered more informal and even derogatory than the pronoun “you.” This is also why its usage began declining in the 17th century; it was considered “impolite.”
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language
The common English-speaker has roughly…
The common English-speaker has roughly 50,000 words within their mind and generally finds the correct one in approximately 600 milliseconds.
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Icelandic people actively work to eliminate…
Icelandic people actively work to eliminate English “loanwords” in their language by inventing and substituting new words from Old Icelandic and Norse roots.
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The “Pirate speak” from movies and books was an actual…
The “Pirate speak” from movies and books was an actual distinct dialect of English which was spoken until the 19th century in the west country. It became associated with pirates due to the strong seafaring tradition from the area.
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Calling football “soccer” originated in Britain…
Calling football “soccer” originated in Britain 200 years ago. It wasn’t until the 1980s that Britain began to phase out the name because it was “too American”.
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The Italian words widely used in New Jersey…
The Italian words widely used in New Jersey differ greatly from mainstream Italian today not because of bad “copying” but because the words came from people speaking an Italian dialect that subsequently died out in Italy.
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Louisiana French is in decline. One million people spoke…
Louisiana French is in decline. One million people spoke it in 1968, now only 150k-200k speak it.
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Women are responsible for 90% of modern language…
Women are responsible for 90% of modern language changes, with teenage girls historically having been the linguistic innovators.
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Louisiana has its own version of French called…
Louisiana has its own version of French called “Creole French” which only 70’000 people can speak. It varies so much from standard French that native French speakers cannot understand it.
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In 1923 the State of Illinois passed an act declaring “American”…
In 1923 the State of Illinois passed an act declaring “American” (as opposed to “English”) to be the state’s official language. The act was proposed by Senator Frank J. Ryan of Chicago who was “fed up” with American being called English. Ryan, in turn, got the idea from Montana Congressman Washington McCormick, who had tried, but failed, to get American designated as the national language. In 1969 the Illinois legislature revised the statute to make English, not American, the official state language.
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