See, I'm not even kidding about that. People really did try in the 17th Century when they were inventing dictionaries to modify the English grammatical system to include Latin and Greek traits even when this made no sense whatsoever. This is why English has words like Democracy instead of Rule of the Commonwealth.
It's one of the most bizarre things I've ever heard of, though IIRC Russian went through the same thing in the 19th Century to transform it into a literary language. Ironically the first lingua franca of the "civilized" world was well, French. Even in England. I'm just glad that smart people don't have to sound like ducks making love any more. ;P
Credits & Style Info
Talk Politics. A place to discuss politics without egomaniacal mods
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 3/5/12 21:10 (UTC)http://ling.kgw.tu-berlin.de/lexicography/data/B_HIST_EU.html
It's one of the most bizarre things I've ever heard of, though IIRC Russian went through the same thing in the 19th Century to transform it into a literary language. Ironically the first lingua franca of the "civilized" world was well, French. Even in England. I'm just glad that smart people don't have to sound like ducks making love any more. ;P