/r/anglish

Photograph via snooOG

Anglish is how we might speak if the Normans had been beaten at Hastings, and if we had not made inkhorn words out of Latin, Greek and French.

What is Anglish

Anglish is how we might speak if the Normans had been beaten at Hastings, and if we had not made inkhorn words out of Latin, Greek and French.

So, we say things like 'hearty' instead of 'cordial', and 'wordbook' instead of 'dictionary'.

Why We Do It

While there are many grounds for Anglish, English words grounded in Old English are often more friendly and meaningful to English-speakers. As Ernest Hemingway once wrote to William Faulkner:

“He thinks I don't know the ten-dollar words. I know them all right. But there are older and simpler and better words, and those are the ones I use.”

How We Do It

  1. Where there are native and borrowed words meaning the same thing, we choose our living inborn words. Such as: ‘inborn’ (an Old English build) rather than ‘native’ (a French word thrust into English through the Norman overlordship).

  2. Where there is an inborn word whose meaning was narrowed or upset by a borrowed word (most often influenced by French, Latin, or Greek) we bring back the inborn word's older meaning. Such as: ‘deer’ to mean any kind of ‘animal’, one of many more French words thrust into English through the Norman overlordship.

  3. Where the inborn word died out from being swapped with a borrowed word, we bring back the dead word, from Old or Middle English, in a New English shape. Such as: inborn ‘frith’ instead of French ‘peace’.

  4. Where there is a outlandish coining for something latter-day and inborn (often Latin and Greek, for scientific, or ‘inkhorn words’), we look upon the Old English-sprung wordhoard (vocabulary) to craft new words. Such as: ‘wirespel’ rather than ‘telegram’, a coining by William Barnes; and we widen the meaning of a word like ‘mote’ to stand in for ‘particle’).

  5. Where English and its forebears (Old and Middle English) has no word for something, such as a new and foreign concept, we can allow for the utilitarian borrowing, as expected of a natural language, and only nativise the spelling. Such as: ‘karma’, borrowed as is; and shifting the Norman-French spelling of a word like ‘sugar’ to ‘sucker’; a shape of the word English might have, were England not under Norman yoke when sugar first landed.

Hƿi are sum þings spelled like þis? / Why are some things spelled like this?

For the sake of readability, we ask that you kindly write your Anglish in either the Anglish Spelling standard, or keep to standard English spellings.

https://anglisc.miraheze.org/wiki/The_Anglish_Alphabet

If you wish to spell things your own way, then kindly also write it out in standard English, so that everyone can understand you.

/r/anglish

19,395 Subscribers

0

If vikings spoke new English, Anglish is how I feel they would talk

Only a weird thought I had while playing the anglish brood of Delvecraft (Minecraft if it was not straightforward enough)

0 Comments
2024/12/02
05:35 UTC

1

An intro to the Anglish Rewriting of the Holy Writ (ARHW). Translation philosophy and how to help.

Greetings, the ARHW is a new rewriting of the Holy Writ based in the Latin Vulgate. We translate it using an interlinear in English (https://archive.org/details/INTERLINNovaVulgata/page/n2897/mode/2up), then using modern rewritings we make the language as understandable as possible. We then rewrite it into Anglish. We currently have Jude, Second John, and Third John. You can soon access this rewrting on-line at AHRW.neocities.org!

0 Comments
2024/12/02
04:50 UTC

28

Why did English stop using the “for-“ prefix?

As in “forsake” and “forgive.” All other Germanic languages use it.

21 Comments
2024/12/01
22:23 UTC

2

Cowtown by John Linnell and John Flansburgh

I'm going down to Cowtown.

The cow's a friend to me.

Lives beneath the waters,

'n' that's where I will be.

Beneath the waves, the waves.

And that's where I will be.

I'm going to see the cow beneath the sea.

The yellow Roosevelt Lane bare for all to see.

The throes of our missel toes behind us

Left forgotten openly, openly.

In the lane bare for all to see.

It's lane bare for all to see.

And so I'm going down to Cowtown.

The cow's a friend to me.

Lives beneath the waters,

'n' that's where I will be.

Beneath the waves, the waves.

And that's where I will be.

I'm going to see the cow beneath the sea.

We yearn to swim for home,

But our only home is bone.

How sleepless is the egg

Knowing that which throws the stone

Foresees the bone, the bone?

Our only home is bone.

Yes, our only home is bone.

And so I'm going down to Cowtown.

The cow's a friend to me.

Lives beneath the waters,

'n' that's where I will be.

Beneath the waves, the waves.

And that's where I will be.

I'm going to see the cow beneath the sea.

Yes I'm going down to Cowtown.

The cow's a friend to me.

Lives beneath the waters,

'n' that's where I will be.

Beneath the waves, the waves.

And that's where I will be.

I'm going to see the cow beneath the sea.

I'm gonna see (I'm gonna see)

The cow (the cow)

Beneath the sea.

0 Comments
2024/12/01
19:58 UTC

5

Bringing forth some things I came up with.

Instead of "dom" in words like "Folkdom", we'd say "led", like in "Folkled".

"Maths" would be "Numberlore" or "Numberwork(ing)". I don't know about addition yet, but I think you can all understand Take Aways, Fold of, and Halved by:

3, take away 2, is worth 1.

Threefold of 4, is worth 12.

35, halved by 7, is worth 5.

New note: Would you all understand "on top/atop" for addition? Like with 8, atop 9, atop 3, is 20? And in this case, would "take down" be more fitting for subtraction, then?

As for the more burdensome numberworking...It can rot in a heap of dung for all I care.

Anyway, this may draw the anger of most of you here, but would any of you know of Anglish that has Welsh or Brythonic loanwords, or a blend between the two tungs?

10 Comments
2024/12/01
16:44 UTC

11

I have been working on an Anglish Bible Translation, and have offically begun an all new translation from the Latin Vulgate, here is Jude. Give tips please!

1 Jude, servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those loved by God the Father, kept sound in Jesus Christ, and called:

2 May kindness, peace, and love be full among you.

3 Dear ones, while I was eager to write to you about our shared safety, I found it needful to write urging you to fight for the belief handed down once to the holy ones.

4 For certain men have sneaked in unnoticed, who were long ago marked for this doom: ungodly men who twist God’s gift into wanton living and deny our one Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

5 I wish to remind you, though you already know this, that the Lord, after saving a folk from the land of Egypt, later destroyed those who did not trust Him.

6 And the angels who did not hold to their rightful place but left their own home—He has bound them in never-ending chains under darkness for the great day of doom.

7 In the same way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the nearby towns, which gave themselves to wild lusts and followed unnatural fleshly cravings, stand as a warning, suffering the fire of everlasting loss.

8 Likewise, these people stain their bodies, scorn lordship, and speak ill of high beings.

9 But Michael, the chief angel, when he argued with the devil over Moses’s body, did not dare to bring a railing charge but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”

10 Yet these men speak ill of things they do not understand. What they know by raw instinct, like unreasoning beasts, these are the things that undo them.

11 Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, rushed into Balaam’s folly for gain, and met their end in Korah’s mutiny.

12 These are stains at your feasts of love, sharing without fear, feeding themselves; clouds without water, driven by winds; fruitless trees in the fall, twice dead and uprooted;

13 Wild waves of the sea, spewing forth their shame; wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness is kept forever.

14 Enoch, the seventh from Adam, also foretold of them, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with thousands of His holy ones

15 To judge all and to show the unholy their wrong deeds done in unholy ways, and all the hard words they spoke against Him.”

16 These are grumblers, fault-finders, walking after their own wants. Their mouths speak boastful words, and they flatter others for gain.

17 But you, dear ones, recall the words spoken by the messengers of our Lord Jesus Christ.

18 They said to you, “In the last days there will be scoffers walking after their own unholy wants.”

19 These are the ones who make splits; they are worldly and lack the spirit.

20 But you, dear ones, build yourselves up in your most holy belief and pray in the Holy Spirit.

21 Keep yourselves in God’s love, waiting for the kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ leading to never-ending life.

22 Be kind to those who waver,

23 Save others by pulling them out of the fire; and to others, show kindness with fear, hating even the clothing stained by sin.

24 Now to Him who can keep you from falling and can set you spotless and glad before His shining might,

25 To the one God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, worth, strength, and rule, now and forevermore. Amen.

10 Comments
2024/12/01
06:52 UTC

2

H.L. Mencken on William Jennings Bryan

Bryan was a ill-bred, lowly man, a lout unweakened. He was blind, foredoomed, self-seeking, glaring and shifty. His livelihood brought him abreast with the first men of his time; he liked the fellowship of nitwits better. It was hard to believe, watching him at Dayton, that he had been abroad, that he had been taken in by tamed lands, that he had been a high wickner of rich. He seemed only an arm clod like those about him, tricked by childish godlore, full of an almost sickness of hatred of all learning, all mannish warmth, all winsomeness, all good and athel things. He was a bower come home to a dung heap. Think of an athel and you will have thought of everything he was not.

2 Comments
2024/12/01
05:02 UTC

6

Inari and the childless woman (A Japanish tale)

Inari is often of the utmost kindness. One tale tells us that a woman who had been wed for many years, and was yet childless,went one day, and bade at Inari's shrine. At the end of her beseeching, the stone foxes wagged their tails as snow began falling. She saw these happenings as good foretokens. She then made her way back to her house, and a while after she got there, a drifter showed up, asking her for something to eat. The woman kindly made and gave him a bowl of red bean rice. The next day, her husband found that same bowl at Inari's shrine. As it was, the drifter had been Inari all along. She was so thankful for the woman's kindness, that the next spring, she blesst her with a baby.

8 Comments
2024/11/30
19:04 UTC

5

Reincarnation/Rebirth

What word could we brook for reincarnation/ rebirth?

8 Comments
2024/11/30
02:09 UTC

23

what is the anglish word for etymology? if there is not one i have an idea.

the word "etymology" is obviously not built from germanic roots. is there already an anglish substitute for it? if so what is that word? if not I have an idea. how about "wordlore". if there is not one and people have better ideas (or if that word has a different meaning); obviously those ideas are also welcome

43 Comments
2024/11/28
21:56 UTC

20

How should we name numbers from 21?

It has not always been the case that twenty-one is called twenty-one, but until the Renaissance it was still common to say one-and-twenty as in German, for example. Since the aim of the Anglish community is to create a form of English that is free of the vocabulary that the Normans brought with them and such that came later, just (perhaps) adapted to today's grammar, I wonder whether we want to keep "one-and-twenty" or not? Yes, I know, "twenty-one" is modern and of Germanic origin, but not only grammatically, so yeah, I cannot really say!

Because you can argue in favour of both variants, not everyone agrees and I haven't yet decided for myself which I think is better, I would like to hear your objections!

PS: For the sake of simplicity and because I'm still learning, I've used modern English in this post.

14 Comments
2024/11/27
16:21 UTC

4

How would you say "jargon" in Anglish?

14 Comments
2024/11/27
13:15 UTC

37

What would we call "gender" in Anglish?

And how would we say "nonbinary"?

34 Comments
2024/11/27
03:55 UTC

40

Mirie þancsgiving to all Anglish-Americans

(Sorry if “America” is forbidden, couldn’t þinc of an anglish term)

31 Comments
2024/11/25
02:55 UTC

3

Smallest stearshift for sheerest Anglish

This comes from an anqueath I made to another post that misliked using stearshift to explain Anglish.

My anqueath had a lot of Romish words, so I chose to make a main post with as many Anglish words as mightly.

I'd be drawn to anqueaths about my choices of Anglish words as well as the stearshift setting (=”scenario”).


In order to choose the right word to use, you need to know what words to exclude, which would hinge on befallings elsewhither to what in truth befell.

I guess to reach an utterly sheerthinking hue of Anglish with smallest stearshift, you could say Henry VIII bade a cleansing of Romish-drawn (=Popish) words amid his break with the Pope, and Edward and Elizabeth made sure it was brought to fuldom.

Even then, you still have Norse words. You need Norse sway, otherwise you likely still have case endings.

0 Comments
2024/11/24
15:14 UTC

27

What's the Anglish word for "almond"?

15 Comments
2024/11/24
04:46 UTC

8

Off Topic Practice Thread 5 (11/23/24)

greetings, and welcome to the fifth moot.

the asking today is:

if thou frelse thanksgiving, what wilt thou have for thy thanksgiving meal?

eke, here is another weighty asking for those who lich to write. in ten words or less, answer this asking:

as the great bad wolf, how would thou break into the house of the third little swine?

4 Comments
2024/11/24
02:22 UTC

19

Ƿat are þe unalikenesses betƿeen “ð” and “þ?”

8 Comments
2024/11/23
18:30 UTC

9

Wending "ambience"

I should like to put forth my wend of the Frankish-gotten 'ambience' as 'feeling' or 'feel'. Good and straightforward.

The feeling of this eating house is lovely. We must come back sometime.

Feelsong is a good help for sleep or for giving rest to a highstrung mind.

9 Comments
2024/11/23
17:46 UTC

16

New to Anglish

My name is Jackson, I am twenty years old and I live in the Bonded Shires. I plan on oversetting this to anglish to trustmake myself with the speech. I hope this is understandlike and without too many mistakes. Any rightings are kindly wanted.

17 Comments
2024/11/23
12:40 UTC

3

The Wisdom Books

The Book of Job

The Book of Loaves

The Book of Bywords

Mathelspeeches

The Song of Songs

The Wisdom of Solomon*

The Wisdom of Jesus, son of Sirach*

*Taken as hallowed in the Ally, Rightframed, and Eastern Rightframed churches, but unhallowed by Rabbi Joudishdom and (therefore) Lollers.

0 Comments
2024/11/22
23:47 UTC

167

I like Anglish, I find an ideological attempt to justify it tedious

Anglish is a fun thought experiment, and indeed the new words that form from it have a compelling aesthetic and artistic nature.

That said, a few things about people’s outlooks I find consistently ignorant and annoying.

The first is the imagined purity of a Germanic English. All languages are heterogeneous and use a great deal of borrowings, they are constantly changing in myriad ways. The fact that we can’t even pin down what a language is, with the existence of things like dialect continuums, should be enough to dispel any notions of “purity”. This is especially true of constructed languages of which we have no literate records, such as proto-Germanic, and these proto languages were likely never actually spoken in a particular place or time. Nor if we arbitrarily assign purity to a particular snapshot of the English language (or English languages and their predecessors and dead evolutionary branches) is there any reason to suppose its purity makes it superior.

The second is that there’s an extensive inherent practical merit to Anglish. I think this one will be more controversial then my previous statement, but no word intuitively means something, “brook” as much as “clique” as much as “thing” etc must be explained, a word is the assignment of arbitrary sounds to a meaning. It is true that smashing words together can build meanings, and this is the tendency of Anglish. To use an example from a recent post, “bird lore” might be worked out and “ornithology” might not be. But when reading some of these Anglish posts, many of the new words are genuinely indecipherable without an explanation. That’s not to say they’re better or worse than any other word, just that they have no practical superiority, and it is ultimately a subjective preference of aesthetics and sound.

So yes, Anglish is very cool, and occasionally intuitive. It is an aesthetically pleasing art and stimulating past time. What it is not is a pure, superior or majorly more intuitive version of the English language.

50 Comments
2024/11/21
22:13 UTC

0

why would anyone be against using plain english roots for as many purposes as we can?

I do not understand how anyone thinks we shouldn't purify english of greek and latin. if you think those are superior to english; go speak them instead; and leave the rest of us with purified english. because many of the compounds the anglish movement proposes are "Self defining" in the words of one Elias Molee (an american advocate of purging greek and latin). their meaning is self evident from the very roots they are made of. and those roots are in daily use; even people who are against anglish use those words daily; versus the greek and latin are just gobbledegook to anyone who has not memroized them. I don't understand any argument against purification and writing our own language; not someone elses.

28 Comments
2024/11/21
21:50 UTC

5

a few new vocabulary ideas

hi; just coined a few new anglish words; if anglish already has words for these concepts do tell me and i'll move on; but here they are:- shown against their typical counterparts:-

starlore (astronomy)

folkrule (democracy)

onerule (monarchy)

godrule (theocracy)

bookskill (literacy)

9 Comments
2024/11/21
17:12 UTC

21

"Let it go" in Anglish

(I'll rec some of my wends and word kirs as I go through. I understand that someone also did this a few years back. There are some onalikes but I also did some Rightwriting (spelling) wends too.)

---

Þe snoƿ gloƿs hƿite on þe barroƿ tonigt

Not a footsƿaþ(1) to be seen

A kingdom full of loneliness

and it looks like I’m(2) þe cƿeen

 

Þe ƿind is hoƿling like þis sƿirling storm inside

Culdn’t keep it in, heafen knoƿs I’f strifed

Don’t let þem in, don’t let þem see

Be þe good girl þu alƿags haf to be

But heel, don’t feel, don’t let þem knoƿ

Ƿell nu þeg knoƿ

 

Let it go, let it go

Can’t hold it back animore

Let it go, let it go

Ƿend aƿag and slam þe door

I don’t care hƿat þeg’r going to sag

Let þe storm irse on

Þe cold nefer boþered me aniƿag.

 

It’s funni hu sum farness makes eferiþing seem small

And þe fears þat ones ƿielded me can’t get to me at all

It’s time to see hƿat I can do

To fand þe fetters and break þroug

No rigt, no ƿrong, no eas for me,

I’m free

 

Let it go, let it go

I am one ƿiþ þe ƿind and skie

Let it go, let it go,

Þu’ll nefer see me sie(3)

Here I stand and here I’ll stag

Let þe storm irse on…

 

Mie afel flurris þroug þe lift into þe grund

[It floƿs into mie soul and to þe fagerness all arund

Efen one þougt and þe ƿorld ƿill be made of ise

I’m nefer going back, it’s in þe aforetime] (4)

 

Let it go, let it go

And I’ll rise like þe break of daƿn

Let it go, let it go

Þat fulfremmed girl is gon

Here I stand in þe ligt of dag

Let þe storm irse on

Þe cold nefer boþered me aniƿag

---

(1) took from OE.

(2) I've kept apostrophes as other Germanic languages use them.

(3) "fall"

(4) I changed this stanza a lot because I just couldn't get words to rhyme so I took influence from the German version.

14 Comments
2024/11/21
03:07 UTC

4

Asking to wharf something

German to Dutch and Germany to Dutchland and dutch (as in the Netherlands) to Netherlandisc

10 Comments
2024/11/21
02:37 UTC

6

Anglish App?

There is a cool app called Wordhord that displays daily Old English vocabulary words with a definition. I think it would be great if someone could develop the same thing for Anglish and perhaps base the Anglish Wordhord off of the Anglish Times. Just a thought.

0 Comments
2024/11/20
23:49 UTC

28

I need to vent about something anglish related

hi; I introduced someone I know to the idea of anglish earlier; using an example word that they mentioned in another context right before. I explained the movement and used the example of the word "ornithology" which they mentioned and the suggested anglish replacement "birdlore". any native english speaker instantly knows what "birdlore" means without having ever encountered the word before; vs "ornithology" is opaque even if you have (indeed I had to look it up again to post this because i already forgot it after only about an hour after hearing it; it is that alien and opaque to colloquial english). and I got the argument that it "sounded dumb"; and even the case that it was "dumbing down". people who think they sound more intelegent because of using greek or latin roots which mean nothing in ordinary english are the problem. they obviously don't think their own native language is worthy of describing complex ideas. if you feal that way; go speak greek or latin instead. if you are gonna refer to the study of birds as "ornithology" instead of bird lore; go the whole way and write about birds in greek or latin; not english. such people probably thought it was dumbing down to have any books in vernacular languages at all. they did not change their opinion when I brought up german "Vogelkunde"; which "birdlore" actually works as a straight calque of as well. the ic that is the end message of using greek and latin roots; english is rubbish and you shouldn't speek it; but we will dein to allow you to use english grammer when talking about things that should only be expressed in foreign dead languages. any thoughts?

50 Comments
2024/11/20
17:57 UTC

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