Cliff 's Blog

Learning something new

Cliff — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:13:41 +0000

Learning something new. I recently read three books: 1 the secret life of words (by Henry Hitchins), how English became English. 2 the map that changed the world, the tale of 'Strata Smith' by Simon Winchester, the story of the creation of the science of geology, 3 The Professor and the Madman, the story of the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary,

Holdays of a Lifetime

Cliff — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 12:54:43 +0000

Holidays of a lifetimeOver a glass of wine (it may well have been more than one glass) the other ...

ThisGreatWorld™, The Threats to “English”

Cliff — Wed, 03 May 2006 15:36:35 +0100

ThisGreatWorld™, The Threats to “English”. What are the threats to ‘English’. Probably the biggest threat comes from people who deliberately give a new meaning to a word or phrase. The whole concept of George Orwell’s ‘1984’ with a usage denoted as ‘NewSpeak’.

ThisGreatWorld™, The English Language – 3. My favourite .....

Cliff — Wed, 03 May 2006 13:26:04 +0100

ThisGreatWorld™, The English Language – 3. My favourite words, phrases, quotes or excerpts etc: Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noon day sun;

ThisGreatWorld™, The name comes from....

Cliff — Wed, 03 May 2006 12:03:53 +0100

ThisGreatWorld™, The name comes from an acronym of Christian names; Thomas, Terrence, Tamara, Tabitha, Tanya, Tessa, Terry, Theresa, Tim, Titus, Tina, Toby, Tom, Tony, Tracey, Trevor,

ThisGreatWorld™, celebrating ‘English’, Introduction and Summary

Cliff — Wed, 03 May 2006 11:55:42 +0100

So why celebrate ‘English’. ‘English’, is a unique phenomenon. So how did it come about? What caused it to become what it now is? Personally I love the diversity, the richness of our society and I love the freedom of speech, the freedom to criticise, the freedom to have your own opinions.

ThisGreatWorld™, The English National Day of Celebration

Cliff — Tue, 02 May 2006 22:48:46 +0100

ThisGreatWorld™, The English National Day of Celebration. Should we award ourselves a National Day to celebrate this ‘Englishness’ and ...

ThisGreatWorld™, The English People

Cliff — Tue, 02 May 2006 16:21:50 +0100

ThisGreatWorld™, The English People. So now to look at the people who are ‘English’. Our starting point is that there are virtually none of original dwellers left, they, the Angles, were driven into Wales etc. We have been successively invaded up until 1066. From then on the concept of England has developed.

ThisGreatWorld™, The English Language – 2. Almost 1 million words

Cliff — Tue, 02 May 2006 16:13:58 +0100

ThisGreatWorld™, The English Language – 2. Almost 1 million words 988,968 words reasons why the world loves English (According to the article in The Sunday Express issued on the 23rd April 2006)

ThisGreatWorld™, The English Language – 1. The origins

Cliff — Tue, 02 May 2006 16:05:49 +0100

ThisGreatWorld™, The English Language – 1. The origins We can fairly state that the language started with King Edward VI in about 1550, possibly when he commissioned the Book of Common Prayer and he decreed that it had to be written in English.