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Chapter 3:The Muse of Fire (90-129)

The Muse

Of Fire

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The Story of English

By Don L. F. Nilsen

Based on The Story of EnglishBy Robert McCrum, Robert MacNeil

and William Cran (Penguin, 2003)

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The English Renaissance

• 1476: Caxton’s Printing Press at Westminster—resulted in a rise of the middle class

• Henry VIII broke with Rome—established the Anglican Church

• Queen Elizabeth was threatened by the superpowers of France and Spain (Napoleon & Spanish Armada)

• James I had the Bible translated (McCrum 93)• Greek & Latin Inkhorn Terms had entered

English (Inkhorn, European, Four-Letter Words)

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James VI James I

• James was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots and he wrote broad Scots, but when he left Holyroodhouse to move South to Edinburgh, he became a Lowland Scot (McCrum 148).

• James VI of Scotland became James I of the British Isles. He was the first king of the entire British Isles and wanted to unite everybody in the Kingdom.

• So he had the Bible translated into the best English possible

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Features of Renaissance English

Verbs:

-est

-eth

Pronouns:

Thou

Thee

Thy

Thine

Ye

(McCrum 101)

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Shakespeare’s Comedies

• All’s Well that Ends Well

• Comedy of Errors

• Love’s Labors Lost

• Merry Wives of Windsor

• Midsummer Night’s Dream– Bottom’s Dream

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Shakespeare’s Histories

• Antony and Cleopatra• Henry V• Henry VIII• Julius Caesar• Richard II• Richard III• The Tempest: written 2 years after

Jamestown about the wreck of the Sea Venture 500 miles East of Charlestown, SC.

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Shakespeare’s Romances

• Much Ado about Nothing

• The Taming of the Shrew

• Romeo and Juliet (started as a comedy; became a tragedy when Mercutio was killed)

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Shakespeare’s Tragedies• Hamlet

– The Mad Scene (Polonius in wings)– The Grave-Digger’s Scene (Yorick)– To be or not to be (Slings and Arrows)– The Mouse Trap (cf. Agatha Christie)– Good Night, Sweet Prince

• King Lear– The fool is not the fool

• MacBeth– Drunken Porter’s Scene– Lady MacBeth’s “Out out, damn spot”

• The Merchant of Venice– Portia in drag as a lawyer (her defense)

• Othello– Put out the light and then put out the light (McCrum 102-

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English Authors

• Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World

• George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion

• Lerner & Lowe’s My Fair Lady

• George Orwell’s Animal Farm & 1984

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The King-James (Authorized) Bible

• 6 Groups of Translators of at least 8 translators per group (6 years of hard work)– Two groups in Westminster (London)– Two groups in Oxford (Royalist)– Two groups in Cambridge (Puritan)

– (McCrum 113, 116)

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English Comes to America

• New England (r-less) was settled by Puritans from East Anglia, Kent, Yorkshire & Devon (r-less and British /a/)—The Mayflower sailed from Plymouth to Plymouth Rock, MA in 1620

• Rest of America (with r & flat /æ/) was settled by immigrants from Southwestern England (with r and flat /æ/) (McCrum 116-117)

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England: Flat /æ/ vs r-less Dialects (McCrum 114/115)

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English in America

• /r/ is generally pronounced

• Flat /æ/ is most frequent

• Missile, fertile, sterile (stress front shifted)

• Secretary, laboratory advertisement (stress front shifted)

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English Colonization Names

CITIES:Baltimore

Boston

Cambridge

Charleston

Columbus

Durham

Elizabethtown

Georgia

Jamestown

STATES:

N/S Carolina

Hoytoyters (from the Tidewater States)

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English Colonization Names II

CITIES:

Lewiston

Lincoln

New Bedford

New Brunswick

New Hampshire

New Haven

Newport

Norfolk

STATES:

New England

Newfoundland (Canada)

New Hampshire

New Jersey

New York

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English Colonization Names III

CITIES:

Plymouth (Rock)

Portland

Portsmouth

Raleigh

Richmond

St. George

Williamsburg

STATES:

Nova Scotia (Canada)

(W) Virginia

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Tidewater English (McCrum 107/115)

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American English before 1776 (McCrum 118/119)

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Indian Names

CITIES:Chataqua

Chattanooga

Cheyenne

Cincinnati

Minneapolis

Missoula

Mojave

Saginaw

STATES (26=Indian):Arkansas

Connecticut

Delaware

N/S Dakota

Illinois

Iowa

Massachusetts

Minnesota

Missouri

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Indian Names II

CITIES:

Sioux City

Sioux Falls

Spokane

Tuscaloosa

Wichita

Yosemite

Yuma

STATES:Montana

Nebraska

Ohio

Oregon

Tennessee

Utah

Wisconsin

Wyoming

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Indian Words

Plants:

Hickory

Pecan

Squash

Sequoia

(McCrum 122-123)

Animals:

Chipmunk

Moose

Racoon

Terrapin

Woodchuck

Etc:Igloo

Kayak

Moccasin

Mugwump

Papoose

Pow-Wow

Squaw

Tomahawk

Teepee

Wigwam

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Indian Loan Translations

• Firewater (whiskey)

• Indian summer

• To bury the hatchet

• To go on the warpath

• To play possum

• To smoke the peace pipe

• warpaint

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English vs. French vs. Spanish vs. Dutch (McCrum 119/120)

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Dutch Words

Boss (white domestic servants used this word rather than “massa”)

Brooklyn

Caboose

Coleslaw

Cookie

Haarlem

New Amsterdam

Poppycock

Sleigh

Spook

Waffle

Yankee (McCrum 128)

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French Colonization Names

CITIES:

Baton Rouge

Coeur d’Alene

Des Moines

Detroit

Dubuque

Eau Claire

STATES:

Louisiana

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French Colonization Names II

CITIES:

Louisville

New Orleans

St Cloud

St Louis

St Paul

Terre Haute

STATES:

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French Words (McCrum 126)

Bayou

Cajun

Castle

Depot

Dime

Gopher (go-for) (honeycomb)

Hotel

Levee

Parlay

Porter

Porpoise

Puny

Saloon

Voyageur

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Spanish Colonization NamesNew Spain: AZ, CA, NM TX (125)

CITIES: A-E

Alama Gordo

Amarillo

Butte

Cape Canaveral

El Dorado

El Paso

Fresno

STATES:

Arizona

California

Colorado

Florida

Nevada

New Mexico

Texas

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Spanish Colonization Names II

CITIES: K-O

Las Vegas

Los Angeles

Mesa

Rio Salado

Sacramento

San Diego

San Luis Obispo

STATES:

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!Spanish Colonization Names III

CITIES: P-Z

Santa Barbara

Santa Fe

Santa Maria

Santa Rosa

Sierra Madres

Sierra Nevada

STATES:

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!!Spanish Words

Ranch CultureDesparado

Hacienda

Hoosegow

Machismo

Mosquito

Rodeo

Sombrero

Stampede

Tornado

Food:

Cafeteria

Enchilada

Marijuana

Pinto (Beans & Horse)

Taco

Tortilla

Tostado

Etc:

Armadillo

Cockroach

Coronado

Dago

Incommunicado

(McCrum 125-126)

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!!!Nilsen PowerPoint & DVD

• My Fair Lady DVD by Lerner and Lowe, based on Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw

• Spanish-English Contrastive Analysis

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Works Cited

• McCrum, Robert, William Cran, and Robert MacNeil. The Story of English. New York, NY: Penguin, 1986. (source of map citations)

• McCrum, Robert, William Cran, and Robert MacNeil. The Story of English: Third Revised Edition. New York, NY: Penguin, 2003. (source of text citations)