[Or do you believe English is "thousands" (that's a plural), of years old?]
Of course I do. Multiple languages were established by God at the tower of Babel. You reference a book, well I call reference to this article: http://www.trueorigin.org/language01.asp By the way, my tinfoil is fine. It reflects meaningless trivals off very effectively.
37 comments
"Freepers: fountains of stupidity."
That Babel effect must still be active; I have no idea what a "trival" is.Beowulf , if he thinks languages don't undergo change and development; there's a lot more going on there than superficial shifts in spelling and slang.
~David D.G.
Oh, yes, English has never changed: I mean, Wrætlic is þes wealstan, wyrde gebræcon; burgstede burston, brosnað enta geweorc. Hrofas sind gehrorene, hreorge torras, hrungeat berofen, hrim on lime, as I'm sure you'll agree.
Chaucer was only a little over 600 years ago, and already hard to understand without some practice (and most English-speaking people would find it almost impossible to understand spoken). Go back another 600 years and it was like Tiny Bulcher's example - a foreign language.
Yes, it is as Marnanel says, the opening lines of the Old English poem 'The Ruin', which shows clearly how much the language has evolved in the last 1200 years or so. (The poem is notable for giving JRR Tolkien the word 'ent', fact fans). Literal translation for the benefit of D Laurier: 'Wroughtlike is this well-worked stone, by weird broken, castle-stead burst, ent's work ruined; roofs are fallen, ruinous towers, gate smashed, frost (rime) on the lime (cement)'.
He has already been shown samples of both Middle English and Old English, and he says they are *still English!*.
Okay, so if he thinks ME and OE are "still English", presumably this is analogical to the creationist assertion that species may develop over time but don't split into separate species. So I would like someone to show him examples of vernacular Latin and various stages in its transition to the several Romance languages.
Or do you believe that Shakespeare really wrote in a comprehensible English?
I fucking love Old English. It's gorgeous.
Clearly, y'all are missing the Big Picture here.
What's a "trival"?
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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