The Metrognome and Other Stories (anthology) by Alan Dean Foster

Author:Alan Dean Foster
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: High Tech, Space Opera, Fiction, Science Fiction, Adventure, General
ISBN: 9780345363565
Published: 2011-08-11T19:35:51+00:00

THE THUNDERER

The wonderful thing about English (the rotten thing is spelling, but that has nothing to do with this story) is that it's like a big vacuum cleaner. It sucks up everything, useful or not, and compacts it in one place where you can pick through stuff at your leisure, sorting out the useful from the lint and dead things. Not only individual words and phrases but patterns of speech as well.

Not long ago The Economist magazine did an extended survey of international English, remarking on its versatility and ready adaptability to the needs of today. The gist was that a supplier of raw materials in Bombay could talk to his dealer in Singapore to ship via Kenya to London and New York even if he couldn't talk to his neighbor down the block. Putting Urdu and Hindi aside, neighbors would end up conversing in English.

Because the English language lives while others wither and die. In English words are never thrown out with the garbage. More often than not they're resurrected and given new life and meaning. Witness "gay, " "cool, " and "gas" as examples of old words given new meanings. Sometimes a word can acquire and dose several meanings in a mere lifetime, such as "bitchin'. " Words are discarded as rapidly as new ones are invented to take their place, so we have "rad" replacing "reet. "

Speech patterns can be as fascinating as the words they employ. When stirred together, they form a linguistic gumbo that can create a mythology all its own. Plain everyday talk can suggest any number of phantasmagoric possibilities.

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