[geeks] New Tech Schools: Digital Harbor in Baltimore

[Mike Meredith]

On Fri, 13 Apr 2007 12:40:20 -0400 (EDT), Sandwich Maker wrote:
> a lot of the horseplay over english grammar stems from the idea that
> it should be more like latin [norman french?], whereas it in fact has
> a much stronger germanic foundation.  split infinitives is one area.

I was going to mention that but thought I was in danger of getting
dangerously long-winded :) I think the attempt to use latin
grammer to codify English grammar was a 19thC effort (perhaps 18thC).
Probably the most interesting effect of which were the number of
interesting academic arguments that it caused.

> in line with this, recall all the flack mark twain got for writing
> 'huck finn' in dialect.

I don't recall that. But certainly I'm aware of the general hostility
that authors who attempt dialect works are received with. Somewhat
similar to the reception British English films and books are sometimes
given in the US :)

-- 
Mike Meredith (http://zonky.org/)
  No security outfit ever went broke relying on the stupidity of users.