Historical linguists usually make much of place names, and rightly. When a given territory changes hands, the spoken language of the former inhabitants may completely give way to that of the newcomers, but the place names normally remain as a perennial monument to the people who first lived there, though they may change to the […]
“Surely these must be poetry, and not books of knighthood,” said the priest, and opening one he saw that it was La Diana by Jorge de Montemayor. Supposing that all the rest were of the same kind, he said “These don’t deserve to be burned like the rest, because they do not and will not […]
Most beloved by Hiawatha
Was the gentle Chibiabos,
He the best of all musicians,
He the sweetest of all singers.
Beautiful and childlike was he,
Brave as man is, soft as woman,
Pliant as a wand of willow,
Stately as a deer with antlers.
When he sang, the village listened;
All the warriors gathered round him,
All the women came to hear him;
Now he stirred […]
All in a moment through the gloom were seen
Ten thousand banners rise into the air
With orient colors waving; with them rose
A forest huge of spears; and thronging helms
Appeared, and serried shields in thick array
Of depth immeasurable. Anon they move
In perfect phalanx to the Dorian mood
Of flutes and soft recorders; such as raised
To highth of […]
These revisions seemed eminently sensible to no less a personage than the President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt. So delighted was he with the new garb in which these 300 words could be clothed that he immediately ordered that all government documents be printed in simplified spelling. And the result? Such […]