(no subject)
Alrighty, this is 'a cause de' (or whatever) my english class, and unlikely to stay any longer than it will take me to print this out. So. Enjoy ^.^;;;;
Submit or die, what a wondrous choice we get. Only, and in some eyes regrettably, it isn't quite like that. Borrowing words doesn't enrich a culture, merely changes them. And change isn't good. It's natural, it's inevitable, it obeys the whims of fate and hitsuzen, but, it isn't good. Change is only about as good as language is. Which is, not at all. It can be used in any way you want. And, changing a language is very manipulatable. We could very easily start having a commercial language. A few government Shakespeares can rework the way we talk Oh, and from what I hear minipax keeps us safe too. But, change isn't so horrid either. I mean, we've changed thousands of time in the last hundred years, and never even noticed. I doubt anyone from the '50's would know what 'cyber-'this or 'electro-'that was. Hybrid cars? A start indeed! However, they are another example of how change can do absolutely nothing whatsoever. Ever hear of the hybrid hummer? Big and wasteful, but more fuel efficient, so it's just like a normal SUV. Change can be like this too.
So, why do I rant, and say such abysmal things? Well, simply, I've often seen people quite worked up about the subject. Feeling that resisting change is merely racism, or resisting our fate as a language. Making us dormant, supposedly. But, it is this resistance that we need as well. If we just go all gooey and let everything enter, then we'd wind up some sort of pidgin-english. And, I tell you know, that isn't a dialect, it's a golem. It's a bunch of spare parts slapped into a language, maximum efficiency, very little grace. Oh, that is my opinion, and so terrible of me to impose it like fact, but there is something people never think of. We shouldn't idly let our language change and alter; growing up in a vacuum, or in a pit with every other ravenous language either. We should consciously alter our language, bit by bit, for grace and efficiency. Not for casual speech or for social hierachry, no. But for grace and ease. Oh, but what of our history, what of the ancient language? Easily maintained, easily preserved. If it wasn't, how would we even know what words were borrowed and weren't. If we didn't try, we didn't resist change, we'd never know, never record. We'd just assume ourselves the golems, and toss out of past in a heap. But, no, this is a falsity. We need to craft, we need to art our way through language. It is with this, that we can better ourselves and our words. But how can we change if we resist? Well, I did mention hitsuzen, the Japanese unknowable inevitable. We will change, no matter how much we resist, only because the change will know our eventual effort. But, if we don't resist, we die, we become absorbed and forgotten. It would be wondrous to be an Eire, but the best we can hope for is a Scotland or North Ireland. And if we don't resist, will end up a Wales. A Bavaria. A Tenochtitlan. A language in name, but locatable or recognizable only than to those who know far to much. Resistance, not outright ignorance, is the way. Preservation in spite of inevitable alteration. This is how we, as a language have lived so long. So this book should be so arrogant as to claim that change made us live. No, evolution let us live, but change is our death. Hitsuzen is irresistible, but don't assume to predict it.
Submit or die, what a wondrous choice we get. Only, and in some eyes regrettably, it isn't quite like that. Borrowing words doesn't enrich a culture, merely changes them. And change isn't good. It's natural, it's inevitable, it obeys the whims of fate and hitsuzen, but, it isn't good. Change is only about as good as language is. Which is, not at all. It can be used in any way you want. And, changing a language is very manipulatable. We could very easily start having a commercial language. A few government Shakespeares can rework the way we talk Oh, and from what I hear minipax keeps us safe too. But, change isn't so horrid either. I mean, we've changed thousands of time in the last hundred years, and never even noticed. I doubt anyone from the '50's would know what 'cyber-'this or 'electro-'that was. Hybrid cars? A start indeed! However, they are another example of how change can do absolutely nothing whatsoever. Ever hear of the hybrid hummer? Big and wasteful, but more fuel efficient, so it's just like a normal SUV. Change can be like this too.
So, why do I rant, and say such abysmal things? Well, simply, I've often seen people quite worked up about the subject. Feeling that resisting change is merely racism, or resisting our fate as a language. Making us dormant, supposedly. But, it is this resistance that we need as well. If we just go all gooey and let everything enter, then we'd wind up some sort of pidgin-english. And, I tell you know, that isn't a dialect, it's a golem. It's a bunch of spare parts slapped into a language, maximum efficiency, very little grace. Oh, that is my opinion, and so terrible of me to impose it like fact, but there is something people never think of. We shouldn't idly let our language change and alter; growing up in a vacuum, or in a pit with every other ravenous language either. We should consciously alter our language, bit by bit, for grace and efficiency. Not for casual speech or for social hierachry, no. But for grace and ease. Oh, but what of our history, what of the ancient language? Easily maintained, easily preserved. If it wasn't, how would we even know what words were borrowed and weren't. If we didn't try, we didn't resist change, we'd never know, never record. We'd just assume ourselves the golems, and toss out of past in a heap. But, no, this is a falsity. We need to craft, we need to art our way through language. It is with this, that we can better ourselves and our words. But how can we change if we resist? Well, I did mention hitsuzen, the Japanese unknowable inevitable. We will change, no matter how much we resist, only because the change will know our eventual effort. But, if we don't resist, we die, we become absorbed and forgotten. It would be wondrous to be an Eire, but the best we can hope for is a Scotland or North Ireland. And if we don't resist, will end up a Wales. A Bavaria. A Tenochtitlan. A language in name, but locatable or recognizable only than to those who know far to much. Resistance, not outright ignorance, is the way. Preservation in spite of inevitable alteration. This is how we, as a language have lived so long. So this book should be so arrogant as to claim that change made us live. No, evolution let us live, but change is our death. Hitsuzen is irresistible, but don't assume to predict it.