Anent

What is First English?

First English is a kind of English from which some words have been outtaken. These words are mainly those from the French, Latin and Greek tongues. Aside from words, there is little unalikeness between this and everyday English. First English is written, said and understood in the same way as everyday English (or as nearly the same).

Why would anyone wish to do this?

There are many grounds on which someone may wish to do this, but I will tell thee mine.

We are always told that the shifting of speech cannot be stopped, and I do, on the whole, sit with this. Words will always be said in new ways or with new meanings, and no more could one fight the tide than fight this. For any shift in speech happens through every speaker, whether aware or unaware, choosing for themselves to speak in one way or another. When enough speakers have chosen to speak in a new way, then the tongue shifts, it can't be stopped. Thus speech is the most open and shared thing we own, and all of us, every speaker, gets a say in what happens to it.

Now understand this: no ones lives cut off from the world, shielded from its ways, unknowing of what others do. We see what others do and learn from them, as likewise they learn from us, in all things, speech within that. But who among us would willingly take up the speech of another? even forsaking their own to do so? No one. Willingly, we would rather speak how we wished, and let others do also.

But who said anything anent will? I said earlier that every speaker chooses the way they speak whether aware or unaware, and I dare say that the latter happens more often. So if we are unaware of our choosing the way we speak, and our will does not steer it, what does? Well, it is sad to say, but true, that most of mankind longs for something better, and we long to be like those who have better lives than our own. Hence, we choose that which makes us more like our betters.

This is the key to my grounds for First English.

Over most of the last one thousand years those in England who lived the best and most 'enviable' lives have had little or no love for the English tongue. Year in and year out those with wealth, might, learning and lives that we all wish to lead, have done nothing for the English tongue. Some even have felt ashamed to speak English, and yet we wish to be like them? and speak like them?

For years we have dived headlong into becoming our betters, and in doing so, forsaken our tongue. Our aping of their ways have made us forget our own. Our aping of their shame at speaking English has made it our own. Our aping of their need to have a 'learned ring' by speaking French and Latin words has become our showing off, our daily vanity, our snobbishness, our (dare I say it?) selfhate.

Whosoever says that the 'proper' word for 'fear of the dark' is achluophobia, a word that no English speaker can understand by itself, clearly loves the thought of Greek words more than he loves his fellow speakers.

I say, 'no longer'. Not now, not in times to come, and not in times foregone, am I happy with the shame they have fastened to my tongue. I will say 'thou' and 'thee', 'cunt' and 'fuck', 'swine' and 'hound', I will say all the words they look down upon, and what is more, what is First English: I will go through my tongue and root out the words they have laden on it in expression of their shame. One day English will be free from these words, and free from the prejudice of ages.

If thou cares for the English tongue, then help.

What bits of English truly belong?

This is the main thing, understanding what belongs, and what does not belong in First English. The former must be strengthened and spread, the latter must be weakened and cut away. We must know which word is which, or else we will end up going the wrong way.

So which words are wrong? The words which came in through those folk at the top, who, in their hate of the English tongue, borrowed words wholesale. These words are many and sundry, and to name them all would take a long time. I am sorry to tell thee that thou must put in some work on thine own side to learn these words. A growing deal of them are given on the Word Swaps leaf, but if thou needs to know where a word comes from, then seek it at the Online Etymology Dictionary.

Once thou knows more anent where a word come from, then thou can choose whether or not it is alright for First English. Here are a few laws to follow when choosing:

If it was good enough for my forefathers, it's good enough for me.

The goal of First English is not to make a 'pure' English tongue. There always has and always will be borrowed words in English, and that is where the first law comes in. Not every borrowed word was done so through hate of the English tongue. Some words were borrowed by folk who loved English, and their grounds for borrowing were sound and ought to be upheld.

We can tell the lovers from the haters with one word (albeit a French one): conquest. Before 1066, those who wielded might over the English tongue mostly loved it, and afterwards, they mostly hated it (if they cared to speak it at all).

So, therefore, any word borrowed before 1066 is alright and ought be left alone, for thy forefathers chose it.

Churls couldn't read.

A 'churl' is the English for 'peasant', and that is what most English speakers were hundreds of years ago. They couldn't read, and likely had no need to either. They didn't read Wace, they didn't read Virgil, and they didn't read Homer. They never leafed through a book and thought to themselves 'What a lovely word, and it fills an awful meaning gap in English, I'll have it!' They only learnt new words by hearing others speak them.

Churls would almost never have heard Greek spoken (at most a little by priests in church), and the only Latin and French speakers they met were ones they sought to ape, as I have said above. Churls would have met speakers of Welsh, Irish, Gaelic, Cornish and Manx; Danish, German, Dutch and Frisian, and learnt words from them all.

So, therefore, any word borrowed from French, Latin or Greek is not to be trusted in English, for they were not borrowed on their own worth, they were only borrowed in an aping of the wealthy and mighty and learned.

Once thou has learnt which word is First English or not, then thou can find new words for those that are outtaken. Again, it is best to begin at the Word Swaps leaf, but one also must learn to make thine own new words where there are none. It is alright to keep a few unEnglish words if one cannot think anything that fits its meaning, but bear in mind that if too many of those words are kept, then it is no longer First English.

What next?

Whatever thou wishes, English is thy tongue, after all.