PLEASE! I’M TALKING
The title is not the writer remonstrating with the reader, who has chosen to chat with a friend or colleague, instead of reading this article. It’s an expression that is usually delivered politely, but firmly, during a discussion with someone who frequently interrupts while thespeaker attempts to hold the floor. It’s especially conspicuous, as well as quite effective, when you’re someone like Kamala Harris engaging in debate with Donald Trump.
Enough of them for the time being. The world seems to have stopped, in order to focus on their public debate and other utterances – sadly, mostly insults – between the two contenders. And it will dominate the headlines for the next seven weeks until the United States of America (USA) national election. Well, it is important since the winner will lead the biggest democracy in the world and rest assured that Ms Harris, who is now certain to win, (a bold prediction costing me nothing) will be supported by some very capable advisers.
Favoured
And fortunately, she does not stoop to the verbal squalor favoured by Trump. No, last week we were on a journey, perhaps to solidify the writer’s preference for staying on the terra firma that we know and trust. Preferable to stepping out into space just to wave back to family and friends 720km away on Earth. Followed by engineer Sarah Gillis, billionaire Jared Isaacman did the first private spacewalk. An equally big deal is the personal history of Mr Isaacman who did the first bit of ‘stepping out’ at 16 years of age in 1999, when starting a highly lucrative point-of-sale payment company. Wherein lies the motivation exhibited by this guy? It needs to be passed on to the young emaSwati. Can someone get to him on social media and find out?
Our last stop a week ago was Wales, so in a spirit - without notes - of harmony, we cross the English Channel, a piece of water that has seen some mighty battles protecting England, last invaded in 1066 – no, that’s not a misprint - at the Battle of Hastings. Please read on the Internet the marvellous poem of that name, written by Marriot Edgar a century ago. You will not be disappointed. It stands out for its use of colloquial language, to be read out perhaps in a Manchester accent, as it playfully retells a very significant historical event. The overall style is more akin to an entertaining anecdote than a sombre bit of history.
Invasion
The attacker in that invasion was William, the Duke of Normandy, who, after ‘shooting King Harold in the eye’ and beating the Saxon army into a hasty retreat, took over the throne. Can you believe that French was the language of the English royal court for the next 300 years. What a cheek! Then came the 100 Years War between the two countries. Can you just imagine a war of that length? I don’t think there are any survivors still alive (lol) so we perhaps have to guess why there is, buried inexplicably among some Brits, a quiet animosity towards the French.
There would be no justification for that. England (well the United Kingdom (UK), of which England is one of four member countries) and France have fought together in two world wars and then partnered economically and politically for many years before the UK left the European Union in 2016. And in a lasting memory is the extent to which French is so conspicuous in the English language. I doubt that you need to know any French to manage to get the gist of the average sentence. And how cosy that we’ve swapped a few words to be kept in their original form.
The English use ‘entrepreneur’, ‘deja-vu’ and ‘rendez-vous’, in precisely the French format, while the French have adopted words like ‘weekend’, ‘meeting’ and ‘shopping’. Does that perhaps suggest the French have spent a lot of time talking about the English ‘spending all weekend meeting to go shopping?’ But the French language is so elegant and stylish. Forgive me if previously I’ve offered the following story (a joke) about the English friend who was in New York and was so impressed by the name and popularity of a restaurant there, called Bonjour Croissant that he rushed to Paris and opened a restaurant called Hello Toast. Not stylish.
Influence
English itself must be one of the most mongrel – that is, mixed breed – languages. After emerging from the influence of the dialects and vocabulary from early invasions by the Germanic people, it absorbed the words of many other languages, including French, Greek, Dutch and Latin. The highly skilful Romans brought water supply and plumbing – even underfloor heating – to England as well as the Latin. But their Roman Empire got too big and faded 1700 years ago, as did the British Empire much later, albeit in a more orderly manner. Too big an Empire doesn’t work. Mr Putin, are you listening?
Latin became a dead language after evolving into Vulgar Latin and eventually Italian. Poor old Dan Quayle, a former vice-president of the USA, was credited, well, discredited, with having said – “I was recently on a tour of Latin America, and the only regret I have was that I didn’t study Latin harder in school.” It proved to be untrue, but Mr Quayle, already known for being an intellectual lightweight, had to tolerate its addition to the other gaffes which he really did make on the speech platform.
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