Sunday, June 06, 2004

"Speaking Anglo-Saxon not make one great."

According to a professor of linguistics, and as reported on the BBC (so it must be true), Yoda speaks like Anglo-Saxon; at least, Yoda's sentence structure is similar to old Anglo-Saxon. This professor notes that Sam Gamgee and Gollum speak a non-standard form of English, while Frodo and Bilbo Baggins speak a standard form. All of this in an effort to recognize non-standard English.

The sad part? He thinks that using Yoda as an example is a good way to get children interested in how preferences in English word order changed from the Anglo-Saxon era to that of Middle English. Using Yoda won't be enough for that, I'm afraid. It would also take chocolate, video games, and a pile of cash.

No comments: