suliman on 3/2/2009 at 09:08

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Gorn. Now there's a nice word. Goooooorrrrn. Got a sort of... woody quality to it, don't you think?

all on 3/2/2009 at 10:57

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Well, I hope no one will be angry if I rant a bit, but I can't help it :p

[INDENT]At first, my reaction was: Why do we have to save the words of a language that is spoken all over the world anyway? But then I checked the site and I was surprised to read that "Each year hundreds of words are dropped from the English language" bit. Good point. And that did arise my sympathy.

But at the same time, I asked myself: "how can this be a general statement? Who says this is true, and for whom? Everyone?" We can't expect everyone to speak/write/read the same English (no, this would be a very bad thing). Then, I'd started to become amused by this site. How can adopting a word a day (especially ridiculously far-fetched words like 'agonyclide', 'ectylotic', 'pseudisodomus' [although I guess this one could be useful for building thief maps], or 'pugnastics'), without learning how to use it, help us save a language? What is more important? The empty words-shells or the complex meanings they convey?

Popular language obeys the economic rules of making oneself understood with the least effort. Why use the complex pseudisodomus (which my spell-check doesn't even recognize anyway) when a series of simple one-syllable words everyone knows like "the stones in this wall are of different thickness" is better adapted to get the message across today?

Or maybe we're just running out of complex things to say? :p

Then, I read the "if not for yourself, then for generations yet to come". And I said to myself: "okay, so learning a word a day is supposed to help future generations? But what about simply reading more good books?" Or is that too much for our current generation to handle? Seems to me if words are removed from dictionaries each year, its simply because they no longer hold a function in that language. So why keep 'em? I totally agree with D'Juhn Keep this kind of natural selection of words.

I'm no linguist, but I know most of today's English words (and correct me if I'm wrong) have either archaic French or Scandinavian origins anyway. Many of them were formerly compounded, like window (wind+ow, ow being eye in old English, hence a "wind hole"), or pre-/post fixed, like pseudisodomus, and just leaning a whole bunch of them won't get us very far. And many have been dropped from the dictionaries long ago without worrying anyone. And then, there's syntax and grammar (yippee!), but nobody's worried about them, so lets keep it at that...

I believe an articulated use of language has to find a more central place in the lives of those who think the English language is disappearing. Reading books, and not just watching TV, for starters... But, lets be realistic about this, how many people are really going to do this?

However, if we grant that words are disappearing from English dictionaries everywhere, I think we need to understand something out of this. What exactly, I can't say, but maybe it has something to do with the way we use words today? Why aren't words "important enough" for us any more? Is it something political, like some kind of indicator of the health of a nation? Or what?[/INDENT]


Now this is already more interesting:




Ok, I'm finished now. :erg: I feel better.

37637598 on 3/2/2009 at 11:59

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What a great idea! I was hoping something would help keep us from falling to a world where lol is a commonly spoken sentence.

Dux on 3/2/2009 at 12:38

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Of course archaic words are interesting, but the fact that they are disappearing is no news (hence `archaic'). Language is always changing. Besides, new words, neologisms, are created continuously - perhaps at an even faster rate than the old words disappear.

I would like to add that the site is great and humorous :).

Jusal on 3/2/2009 at 13:14

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Molrowing - Act of making merry with prostitutes

"When shown the photographs, the molrowing politician asked for copies for his close friends."

Worry no longer, oh fine word, your saviour has come.