Lauren: I do love the idea that Chaucer had no idea that he was moving on from Old English to Middle English because there wasn’t a Modern English yet.
Gretchen: How could you describe yourself as “Middle English” – that’s sort of like the “late-stage capitalism” that implies that we’re towards the end of something. Like, we don’t know, folks.
Lauren: I don’t think English always does self-deprecating well. English has a lot of belief in its superiority as a language. I think we can say that about the ideology behind English. But I do love that English didn’t go for “Classical English.” Imagine if we said Beowulf was written in “Classical English.”
Gretchen: We could have, yeah. We could have.
Lauren: We just went with, “Ah, that’s old. I don’t understand it. It’s got cases. It’s got all these extra affixes. It’s old. It’s a bit stuffy.”
Excerpt from Lingthusiasm episode ‘No such thing as the oldest language'
Listen to the episode, read the full transcript, or check out more links about mythbusting and the history of language
chasing cars - snow patrol // here is the house - depeche mode // passenger seat - death cab for cutie // intertwined - dodie // i melt with you - modern english
Wax seals are one of my favorite ways to embellish letters. ✨🕯️✨ These days the letter processing machines tend to scrape them right off the envelope, so l've started putting the seals on the letter or card instead of the envelope.