“English”, “Anglish”, and “Englandish”

April 18, 2012

This post is just a quick note about terminology.

The English poet William Barnes (1801-1886) did more than probably anyone before him to work out a newly formed English English, an English cleansed of untoward foreign elements. Incidentally, a great book on him and his linguistic tinkerings is “The Rebirth of England and English” by Andrew Phillips which features a decent sized wordlist.

Barnes used the term “Englandish” to refer to English as it was actually spoken (as opposed to the true “English” which would not have such a profusion of Greek, Latin, and French). Likewise, I will sometimes use the term “Englandish” to mean “English as it actually is including all Greco-Latin and French elements”.

Anglish“, as stated last time, means “English as it could be if we were to make better use of its homeborn roots”.

Come to think of it, I may end up amending this post to become a full glossary of terms I use in the course of this blog.

 

[EDIT]

Link to book by Andrew Phillips:  http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Rebirth-England-English-William/dp/1898281173/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334751270&sr=8-1