Third National Flag of the
Confederate States of America
P. A. Stonemann, CSS Dixieland
National Jack of the
Confederate States Navy
|
Third National Flag of the Confederate States of America |
P. A. Stonemann, CSS Dixieland |
National Jack of the Confederate States Navy |
CSS Dixieland
Probing the depths of knowledge
These essays by P. A. Stonemann, CSS Dixieland, cover a wide range of
historical, philosophical, scientifical and technical subjects. Each page
deals with a particular topic, divided into sections and explained by itself.
Every page shows at its top hyper links to every other page. The Start page
also has short descriptions of the other pages. CSS Dixieland expresses
gratitude to the readers that make this work meaningful.
This Web document has been tested with KDE Konqueror, graphic HTML interpreter
for Linux. It may not be rendered correctly by other graphic HTML interpreters.
It will probably be correct when rendered by text-only HTML interpreters (visual,
aural, or Braille tactile interpreters), but if feasible, please use KDE Konqueror.
Uniform Resource Locator:
English Language page
Race and language are the basis of Ethnicity and Culture
Sections in this page
Brief History of English
Technical note: In languages other than English or Latin, but which use mainly
Latin characters, some characters are taken from other alphabets, or some Latin
characters are modified with diacritic marks for representing different phonemic
sounds or other orthographic conventions of those languages. Those characters,
when used in this document, have been encoded as entities of Hyper Text Mark-up
Language or sometimes in Unicode UTF-8. Therefore computers using other character
encodings may render some characters inaccurately, but hopefully, it will still
be possible to read non-English words without too much difficulty.
Brief History of English
After centuries of linguistic studies, there is today a fairly accurate
picture of the classification of English as part of the Aryan Family of
languages. The most accepted taxonomy is shown in the lines below.
There are at least fifty linguistic Families in the World. Really many more,
taking into account isolated languages that form a Family of their own, plus
dead languages that have left material enough for study and classification.
The Aryan Family (also called Indo-European or Indo-Germanic) is formed of
the Kentum and Sato sub-Families, and comprises at least the following twelve
infra-Families: Tokahric, Indic, Iranic, Armenic, Anatolic, Baltic, Slavonic,
Germanic, Celtic, Hellenic, Albanic, Italic.
Some authors propose the existence of one or two other Aryan infra-Families,
at present extinct, whose dubious existence can only be inferred by vestigial
remnants. Other authors put together some of the above infra-Families: the
Baltic and Slavonic in a Balto-Slavonic infra-Family, or the Indic and Iranic
in an Indo-Iranic infra-Family (of which the Darda Branch is a good example,
because it is half-way between the Indic and the Iranic). Finally, there are
authors who take some living languages out of the most accepted taxonomy, and
rank them as an infra-Family of their own, or as common ancestors to two or
more infra-Families, as it is the case of the Cafiric (Nuristanic) Branch.
The Germanic infra-Family counts three Branches:
The West Germanic Branch contains three sub-Branches:
The Low German West (Platt Deutsch Westen) sub-Branch has three or perhaps
four infra-Branches or languages (classification and denomination is more
controversial when cutting thin at the lower levels):
The Saxon language has two sub-languages:
The Anglo language has two sub-languages:
The only written form of Old English is in the West Saxon sub-language (one
of the two sub-languages of the Saxon language) in which Christian monks from
the VII to the XI centuries wrote poems based on modified oral traditions.
The earliest is 'C\E6dmon's Hymn' from the year 670. Later came 'Beowulf' (over
3 000 lines, the longest known), 'The Battle of Maldon', 'Brunanburh' and
some others, all anonymous. In total over 30 000 lines of Old English are
known. The correct name of this sub-language is West Saxon, sometimes wrongly
called 'Anglo-Saxon', though it entirely belonged to the Saxon language and
there was almost nothing of the Anglo language in it.
The Saxon and Anglo languages were so similar at that time that they could
also be considered as sub-languages or even as dialects. We call them
'languages' mainly in attention to their distribution following political
boundaries at that time, and also to their historical development at later
times, rather than following a strict linguistic taxonomy. This territorial
distribution roughly reflects the Seven Kingdoms of the Heptarchy that
existed from the V to nearly the XI century: A Jute kingdom (Kent), three
Saxon kingdoms (Essex, Wessex, Sussex) and three Anglo kingdoms (East Anglia,
Mercia, Northumberland). English Scots is the result of a later contact
between English and Gaelic, this one a Celtic language.
In the XI century West Saxon began to be written also for other purposes, but
the Saxon defeat in the year 1066 at the Battle of Hastings against the
Normans, imposed Norman French as official language in England for about
three hundred years. Saxon was still spoken, but seldom written, though there
are a few texts that seem to belong to a period somewhat after the Norman
invasion, and certainly not later than about 1150. No dialect is predominant
in this period, known as 'Middle English'. When about 1360 English became
official again, the written form was not West Saxon anymore. It was
Anglo-Mercian, particularly East Midland dialect as spoken in the area of
London. This period between the XIV and XVI centuries is called 'Early Modern
English' or 'King's English'. Its later development in the XVI to XVIII
centuries is known as 'Classic Modern English'.
Chronology
410: The Roman legions retreat from Britain. Latin slowly declines before
the commonly used Celtic.
450: Begin the Jute, Saxon and Anglo invasions. Celtic is pushed westward to
Cornwales and to Wales.
670: 'Cædmon's Hymn', anonymous, is the oldest known text in Old English
(West Saxon).
1066: Norman invasion. Latin, Celtic and Saxon lose all official status.
Norman French is now the only official language.
1066-1370: Middle English period. No spoken dialect is predominant, West
Saxon is written until about 1150.
1300-1370: The four English sub-languages begin to be written again for
narrative literature.
1362-1363: English becomes official again, but it is not the West Saxon
sub-language. It is now the East Midland dialect of the Anglo-Mercian
sub-language.
1370-1550: Early Modern English, also called King's English. In narrative
literature it begins with 'The Canterbury Tales' by Geoffrey Chaucer.
1550-1750: Classic Modern English. Initially it is best represented by the
literature of William Shakespeare. This author used the richest vocabulary of
all English authors ever: over twenty five thousand different root words, not
counting inflections.
1750-1945: Contemporary Modern English. The rules of the language are fixed
by the first grammars and dictionaries. Some of those pioneer works are:
'A Short Introduction to English Grammar' by Robert Lowth
'English Grammar' (1794) by Lindley Murray
'English Dictionary' by Samuel Johnson
1945-today: International Modern English replaces French in diplomacy and
German in science as a worldwide language.
1991: release of the World Wide Web by C.E.R.N.
This is the oldest known text in the English language, Cædmon's Hymn:
Nuí weí sculon herigean
Now we must praise
Character encodings for letters used in Old English
It can be observed in the above text the presence of three letters that are
not normally used in Contemporary Modern English, although they may still be
written in some specific words. One or more of those three letters are common
part of some other human languages. Two of the letters are vowels:
The third letter is a consonant:
The thorn is represented in Contemporary Modern English as the "th" digraph.
Using computers, those letters can be represented by different encodings:
-EBCDIC (Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code), 8-bit encoding
mainly used by main-frame computers.
There is also a 7-bit Standard ASCII encoding used by the vast majority of
micro-computers, an absolutely uniform standard world-wide, but the problem
is that special characters such as the three letters listed above, cannot be
represented in 7-bit Standard ASCII.
In theory those special letters can be represented in 8-bit Extended ASCII,
but this has never been a unified standard. Different operating systems, such
as Unix, DOS, Macintosh or Windows, may use different encodings for 8-bit
Extended ASCII, which makes difficult the portability of texts using those
letters, because it may result in strange characters appearing in the text.
The font set may also be unavailable in a particular computer, in which case
a similar glyph will, hopefully, be used.
Fortunately, those special letters can also be encoded for representation in
SGML (Standard Generalised Mark-up Language), or in HTML (Hyper Text Mark-up
Language), thus being displayed by user agents that recognise those mark-up
languages. Due to the general availability of HTML in the early XXI century,
and to the fact that it is a unified standard, it is recommended to use it
whenever possible. There is below a table listing the encodings for SGML-HTML.
Comment on Old English (West Saxon)
Old English reads as a foreign language when compared to Contemporary Modern
English, because in fact Old English is really another language. As explained
above, Old English belongs to the Saxon language while Contemporary Modern
English belongs to the Anglo language. Saxon gradually disappeared as spoken
language during the three hundred years in which Norman French was official
language in England, with Saxon leaving only vestiges in the English of today.
By influence of the political centre being located in London, the Anglo
dialect known as East Midland became Modern English. The other Anglo dialects
are gone in their original form, but they also left vestiges until today. So
it happened to the Jute dialect of Kent.
Contemporary Modern English presents various degrees of influence from
languages that at some time were spoken in the British Islands, such as
Pictish-Caledonian-Hibernian (extinct somewhen after the V century), Briton
Celtic (dead in the XVIII century in Cornwales, today spoken in Wales and
in the Britanny-Bretagne-Armoricana Peninsula), Gaelic Celtic (today spoken
in Scotland, official in Ireland), Latin (official in the Vatican State),
Viking Norse (from which it derives modern Icelandic, Faeroese, and the
Landsmaal Nynorsk of Norway, all official in their territories), Danish
(official in Denmark, and as Riksmaal Bokmaal Dans-Norsk also official in
Norway), and Norman French (dead in its original form, although it greatly
influenced later French).
Contemporary Modern English also uses many terms of Latin or Greek origin,
especially for scientific disciplines, although Greek never was substantially
spoken in the British Islands. Latin was spoken, but it has left very few
words from the time of Roman rule. Most Latin words used nowadays in English
are much later incorporations into the language. Plenty of other languages
can be traced in the English of the present, but most of those languages have
only lent to English isolated words of natural phenomena that do not exist in
Britain (Icelandic 'geyser'), of religious belief in their regions (Polynesian
'taboo', American aborigin 'manitou'), of plants and animals (and the food or
other products obtained from them), or of other notions that have no easy
translation into English. In fact, since the mid XX century many languages
borrow terms from English (in particular technical terms), much more than the
other way round.
In some isolated regions of the World certain forms of Classic Modern English
have been kept to the present, forms that have disappeared even from England.
Perhaps the most clear and well known example of this linguistic relict is
Appalachian English, in the Dixie states of Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee,
North Carolina and Georgia, in the North American continent. Appalachian is
today spoken by hillbilly people, many of them of Scottish origin, who began
colonising those mountains in the XVII century from Jamestown, Virginia, an
English colony founded in 1607 and which is the oldest English colony in the
Americas, exception made only of Newfoundland, which was more of a seasonal
fishing port than of a real colony. In spite of what certain ignorant Yankees
may say, Jamestown was absolutely the first English colony in the American
continents. The Yankee colony of Plymouth in New England was founded thirteen
years later, in 1620.
Hyper links on English
The resources offered below will probably be of interest to those persons who
wish to delve into different aspects of the English language. Readers are
encouraged to send informations, advice, or corrections, which may enhance
the service provided to other readers of CSS Dixieland. The electronic
address of CSS Dixieland is given near the bottom of the Start page.
Books in Internet
The Internet has available all the known texts of Old English that have been
preserved throughout the centuries down to the present day, about thirty
thousand lines in total. The hyper link to Project Gutenberg, listed below,
contains books wholly written in Old English. There are also some documents
in the Internet that use Old English partly or entirely, making an effort to
keep intact this important aspect of our History. In a time when Contemporary
Modern English has been the victim of its own success as an international
language, being horrendously debased by some foreign ignorants who borrow our
words and use them improperly, or even deform them beyond recognition, it is
of the greatest importance to keep ourselves loyal to our own eternal roots.
A language is essential part of a culture, and our venerable Tradition must
not be allowed to perish into the maelstrom of repugnant "modernism".
Those books are available in electronic format in at least two on-line collections:
Project Gutenberg and Many Books, hyper linked below.
Project Gutenberg
Many Books
In a communication to CSS Dixieland, Lady Carole Fegan has informed of the
availability of a Web page that offers a complete list of electronic book
resources. Besides Project Gutenberg and Many Books, other collections of
free books exist for the enjoyment and knowledge of those who love to read.
Thanks to her report, the Uniform Resource Locator is here provided to the
readers of CSS Dixieland:
Free Electronic Books: The Ultimate Guide
Correction of text by competent writers
The effort of writing seriously in a language is THE BEST WAY of learning
that language, without any doubt. The writer must be careful with grammatical
and lexical rules of the language, must be imaginative, must anticipate the
guesses of the reader, must present an attractive story. It is necessary to
read good authors, and to consult dictionaries or encyclopedias fairly often.
This is true not only for narrative literature, but for any text of fiction or of
non-fiction. Through Internet it is possible to write in a foreign language
and request the review of competent writers or fluent speakers of that
language, who eventually will point out possible errors and offer the
alternatives considered more correct (or more common, depending on
the ideas and knowledge of the reviewer). This help can be obtained from:
Correct My Text
Literature and Comic Strips
Extant works of Sumerian or Egyptian Literature are thousands of years old,
but the genre known in English as Scientific Romance, Scientific Fiction,
Scientifiction, or Science Fiction, is of more recent vintage. The Sumerian
'Epopey of Gilgamesh' is mythical in nature, the 'Vera Historia' by Lukianos
of Samosata is purely fantastic, the 'Gulliver Travels' by Jonathan Swift is
a social satire of the times when the author lived, and so most other pioneer
works. They cannot be considered Scientific Fiction, in the sense that we
understand the term today. Some critics (Isaac Asimov, Carl Sagan, and P. A.
Stonemann) consider 'Somnium seu Astronomia Lunari' by Johannes Kepler,
published in 1634, as the first work of Scientific Fiction properly speaking.
Other critics (Brian Aldis, Ben Bova) give that honour to 'Frankenstein, or
The Modern Prometheus' by Mary Shelley, a Gothic novel published in 1819.
Still others speak of 'The Unparalleled Adventures of One Hans Pfaal' and
some other stories by Edgar Allan Poe, or of several stories by Jules Verne,
as deserving to be called the earliest examples of Scientific Fiction.
The controversy arises because Scientific Fiction itself is difficult to
define, as it is often mixed with elements considered fantastic for their
contemporary level of scientific knowledge. The submersible ship was already
a reality when Jules Verne introduced his fictional Nautilus and fictional
Captain Nemo in 'Vingt mille lieues sous les mers'. In real History, the
Confederate submarine CSS Hunley sunk the Federal ship USS Housatonic, and
sunk herself, during the War for Confederate Independence 1861-1865. The
space ship was not yet a reality in times of Jules Verne, but the theoretical
studies by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky on rocket propulsion came few years later.
At any rate, the 'ship' of Jules Verne in 'De la Terre a la Lune' is a bullet
shot from Earth by a gigantic gun, it is not a rocket. The ship of Herbert
George Wells in 'The First Men in the Moon' is propelled by a fictional
'anti-gravitational substance'. For stratospheric or space rockets in real
History, the merit goes to Robert Goddard, Esnault Pelterie, Herman Oberth or
Werner Von Braun, who were physicists or engineers, not writers of Scientific
Fiction.
In spite of their shots going wild, those fictional authors tried their best
to imagine, as scientifically as they could, how space travel could some day
be accomplished. By contrast, the time travel shown in 'The Time Machine' by
Herbert George Wells, is only a speculation for which there is no theoretical
explanation even today, other than the hints provided by some physicists. The
experiment of Abraham Michelson on the speed of light gave the perplexing
result that the rule of composition of speeds given in Newtonian Physics,
cannot be applied to the propagation of electromagnetic (radiant) energy.
Fitzgerald suggested that a body in movement suffers a contraction, axial to
the dimension of that movement. Larmor and Lorentz accepted the hypothesis,
and modified the Law of Transformations of Galileo into the Law of Lorentz.
Albert Einstein then explained that Time is not an absolute continuum, but a
dimension intimately related to space, and therefore to movement in space.
Other theorists have written on the subject, but we are still far from any
possible method for travelling in Time. It might be a physical impossibility,
considering the paradoxes that come to mind when we try to imagine that.
Yet, it might also happen that some possible solutions have not come to our
mind. As an example of scientific pessimism, Auguste Comte said that the
chemical composition of the Sun or of other stars could never be known, since
they are too far and too hot for us to go and take samples. In spite of his
gloomy foresight, the invention of spectrographic analysis made possible to
know with accuracy the composition of the chromosphere and the photosphere.
As for the nucleus, we have to rely on indirect measurements and on our
current ideas on nuclear fusion. As the character Mister Spock says in 'Star
Trek' by Gene Roddenberry: "If we eliminate the impossible, what we have left
is only the improbable". Or we have the CURRENTLY impossible for us, but not
necessarily impossible for ever. More than impossible, we may term some
techniques as currently UNFEASIBLE.
A clear example is cryogenic hibernation. Serious scientific studies have
been carried out on Cryogenics, and we seem to be at the technical boundary
of its factual possibility, at least in a limited form. But Cryogenics may
only make sense for very specific purposes, such as a space travel lasting
for years. Many other scientific and technical problems would also have to be
solved for long term space travel to become a reality. The interest of such
an adventure would have to be wholly justified in the eyes of many pragmatics,
and the enormous economical resources needed for it would deplete the vaults
of even the richest nations. Sad it is to recognise that the race to the Moon
in the 1960's was fostered by prestige and competition during the Cold War,
between the United States and their allies, and the Soviet Union and theirs,
much more than by genuine scientific endeavours. Once that the Moon race was
over, the Congress withdrew the money and Astronautics stagnated, in spite of
the protests of the scientific community (of Werner Von Braun, director of
the Apollo missions at NASA, and of many other outstanding scientists).
Even authors of the hardest line of Scientific Fiction allow themselves some
sortie to the realm of imaginative speculation. The distinction between
Scientific Fiction and Fantasy is useful nonetheless, blurred as it is the
dividing line between those literary genres. The hyper links collected below
must be briefly explained. The first one refers to general Literature (not
everybody is prepared to understand Scientific Fiction, or to enjoy only that
genre, there is place for other genres as well). The second link (already
mentioned above, in connection with interactive stories) points to futuristic
speculations. The third link is solely devoted to Scientific Fiction and
Fantasy.
As for comic strips, the earliest series that existed is historically
recognised as having been 'The Yellow Kid', published by the New York Herald
at the end of the XIX century. Stories in the form of comic strips printed in
pulp paper became classics, and greatly influenced animated cartoons in
Cinematography, with artists such as Emile Cohl, George McManus, Winsor McCay,
Max Fleischer, Stuart Blackton, Julius Pinschewer, Earl Hurd or Walt Disney
as some of the earliest cartoonists. Techniques begin to overlap, when we
realise that some of the best 'cartoons' in Cinematography were not made of
hand drawings, but of animated muppets (Gerry and Sylvia Anderson), or of
plastiline molded manually and animated by a sequence of photographic frames,
or in more recent times using complex animation techniques aided by computers.
All those techniques, however, belong more to the History of Cinematography
than to the History of Literature, although cinematographic works are very
often inspired on literary works.
Scientific Fiction and Fantasy World
General Linguistics
These three hyper links offer a detailed list of ALL KNOWN LANGUAGES, and
throw the reader into the most strict scientific research of the discipline
known as Linguistics. The distinctive characteristics of a language are
better understood by comparison with those of other languages. There are
isolated languages without any known relative past or present (Basque in the
Iberian Peninsula, Ainu in Japan, Burushaski in Pakistan...). There are
artificial languages invented by some enthusiast of international friendly
communication (Esperanto, Volapuk, Latine sine Flexione). There are tribal
languages spoken by only a handful of individuals. There are even non-existing
languages, directly taken from the imagination of Gene Roddenberry (Star
Trek), of George Lucas (Star Wars), or of J. R. R. Tolkien (The Lord of the
Rings, and related works). Tolkien was a linguist himself, besides his
outstanding literary works of High Fantasy.
Ethnologue
Omniglot
English Linguistics
CSS Dixieland presents here a smorgasbord of hyper links for all tastes. Some
are concentrated on crosswords or on other kinds of puzzles. Others feature
an ample variety of linguistic games, from the classic Hangman to the most
undescribable, atrocious brain-twisters brilliantly engendred by the sick
mind of some confessed sado-masochist. Most of the links are of a pedagogic
nature, they propose methods for teaching or for learning English, or any
other language, and they offer plenty of resources by which that effort can,
hopefully, be helped. Needless to say, they are places of necessary visit for
teachers looking for ideas, or for students looking for advice.
Star Fall
Crossword Puzzles
Webgerman
Nellie Muller
Language learning: travelling complements reading
A French nobleman once said that Culture comes mainly from reading and from
travelling. That statement is true for any learning, but most especially for
the learning of a language. In theory it is not absolutely necessary to travel
to a region where a certain language be commonly spoken. There are specialists
who know dead languages quite well, which bears witness to the fact that it is
possible to learn a language only from books or similar resources. However, it
cannot be denied that the availability of fluent speakers for face to face
linguistic interaction is of a tremendous help to the learner. Trying to learn
a language without any contact with at least one competent speaker of that
language, is a major effort that can only be successfully accomplished by a
polyglot, or a highly talented and strongly motivated linguistic specialist.
Contact with a fluent speaker can be in written form only, through traditional
postal service or through computer networks, sending and receiving text-only
messages or also recorded voice, but the possibility of having a spoken
interaction is of fundamental importance. Fortunately, having a computer with
the appropriate hardware, software and network connection, it is now possible
for the first time in History to interact by voice in real time. Telephone
existed before that, but telephone is not really feasible for the purpose of
learning a language. A computer can present a visual interface, possibly with
text, which is an important help for matching pronunciation and orthography,
Another option might be having some personal contact with those expatriate
foreign residents that exist in every big city in the World. There are often
places where foreigners of a certain language or nationality tend to meet,
such as consulates, cultural centres, libraries, restaurants, churches, or
even private residences. Some such places are open to visitors, others are
intended as a cultural refuge for their closed community, and they prefer not
to encourage visitors. Besides, some are related to religious or political
beliefs that may be common practice among those nationals, but not really
appropriate for a person whose main goal is only learning their language.
Another solution is to listen to wireless or television broadcasts in the
target language, such as by Short Wave Radio, or by cable broadcast services,
or by Internet. It means listening to the spoken voice, possibly accompanied
by textual captions, but it is a passive one-way communication, not the more
active two-way interaction that makes for really efficient language learning.
The same can be said as to watching cinematography with the sound track in a
given language (original or dubbed), with or without written legends. It is
an excellent practice, but it is only a single way, not a double way.
Finally, there is the solution of travelling. The advantage is that most
people in the place of destination know the predominant language, therefore
it is easy to find conversation partners. Also, almost everything visible or
audible in the streets or inside buildings will be written or spoken in that
language. The learner is almost continuously immersed in the target language.
Notwithstanding that apparently perfect learning paradise, there are some
key points that must be kept in mind when thinking of linguistic travel.
First, a warning: it is NECESSARY to know already something of the language,
and something sufficient for at least a basic communication. Going to a place
with only two dozen words in the head, armed with the classic phrase book for
travellers, is a sure recipe for disaster and frustration. Under such heroic
conditions, it would take a year to begin interaction at an acceptable level,
a year of uncountable suffering. The traveller must arrive to the country
possessing already the ability of reading relatively simple texts, such as
newspaper headlines or captions, and the ability of writing not perfect, but
clearly understandable sentences. The voice of native speakers will then help
in learning the correct pronunciation, and in adding new vocabulary.
Second, the traveller must consider the kind of people with whom he interacts.
Many languages have a cultivated norm used in formal occasions, and a popular
lingo used in every day speech. There may be a gradation between those two
extremes. Confusion will arise if using popular slang in a setting where more
correct language is expected. The traveller is strongly advised to consult a
good dictionary of the language for checking the acceptability of new words
that he may learn from popular (and possibly ignorant) mouths, or to ask for
verification from a competent speaker of reasonably high cultural standing.
Third, time of stay must be sufficient for the purpose in mind. A visit of
one week may be nice for tourism, but it is clearly insufficient for learning
the language, even for a talented polyglot. A sojourn of one month should be
the bare minimum of stay time. More recommendable is to stay at least for
three months, and actively using the language almost on a daily basis. Sorry,
but in spite of fantastic claims made by some (rather dishonest) companies of
cultural interchange, any stay of less than one month is as good as useless.
The task should be taken seriously or not at all. Three months, if well used,
will provide the ability of two-way communication in the chosen language.
The last consideration is purely pragmatic: how to find accommodation and
other resources for living during those months. This is more difficult to
inform, because different persons have different needs, but there is plenty
of advice in travel books, magazines, or Internet. Mister Ivan, of Tip Top
Coaching, has informed CSS Dixieland of the existence of an excellent Web
document explaining in detail how to live in London. For those whose plans of
linguistic travel include the capital of England, the Uniform Resource Locator
of that London Guide is hyper linked below. For those linguistic learners who
have other destinations, hyper links to travel Wikis are provided afterwards.
Wiki Travel and Wiki Voyage also feature a collection of phrase books in
various languages, to which the polyglot reader is invited to contribute.
Wiki Travel
Wiki Voyage
Search English words
English has today hundreds of thousands of words, although most of them are
highly specialised or they have a restricted use inside a certain community
or activity. A person commanding an active vocabulary of about ten thousand
root words or more, can be called cultivated in the language. Most natural
speakers of English do not go beyond an active lexicon of five thousand root
words, some speakers do not reach even three thousand, although their passive
vocabulary is normally twice or thrice the size of the active one.
Considering how rich our language is, the definitions provided by a good
dictionary are of the outmost importance. Dictionaries also help in knowing
the etymologic origins of terms, the accepted orthographic forms, the most
standard phonetic sounds and orthoepy in the pronounced language, the prosody
of accent, versification, figures of speech and related parts, the approximate
synonyms and antonyms, or a view to syntactic or morphologic constructions
considered correct by the best writers or grammarians.
Dictionary of the English language
Robot or human visitors to CSS Dixieland are recorded in raw access log. This
is a passive register purely for statistical purposes, no cookies are stored
in the client computer.
Go to top of this page
Go to page with index, history, exchange policy, contact CSS Dixieland:
Start
Hosted by Neocities:
https://konqueror.org/
Classification, origin and history of the English language
Walkyrie who takes our dead heroes to Walhalla in Asgard.
Wagner Frost Illustration
Hyper links on English
Search English words
-East Germanic: Old Gothic and related languages.
-North Germanic: Old Scandinavian and related languages.
-West Germanic: Old German and related languages.
Old German: High German (Hoch Deutsch)
Low German East (Platt Deutsch Osten)
Low German West (Platt Deutsch Westen)
Dutch (including nowadays the Flemish and the Nederlands Afrikaans languages)
Frisian (a language between Dutch and Anglo-Saxon, closer to the Anglo-Saxon)
Saxon, Anglo (linguistically different, cited together for historical reasons)
East Saxon (Jute). Modern dialects: Kentish.
West Saxon. Modern dialects: Essex, Wessex, Sussex.
Anglo-Mercian. Modern dialects: East Midland, West Midland.
Anglo-Northumbrian. Modern dialects: Northumbrian, English Scots.
It is calculated that in 2016 the World Wide Web has over twenty thousand
million pages, and that between 80% and 90% of them are written in English.
Original version in Old English
(West Saxon), year 670:
Meotodes meahte
weorc Wuldorfæder,
eíce Drihten,
Heí æírest sceoíp
heofon toí hroífe,
aí middangeard
eíce Drihten,
fíírum foldan,
heofonriíces Weard,
ond his moídge-anc,
swaí heí wundra gehwæs,
oír onstealde.
eorþan bearnum
haílig Scyppend.
monncynnes Weard,
æfter teíode
Freía ælmihtig.
Translation into
Contemporary Modern English:
The Measurer's might
the work of the Glory-Father,
eternal Lord,
He first created
heaven as a roof,
then middle-earth
eternal Lord,
for men earth,
heaven-kingdom's Ward,
and his mind-plans,
when he of wonders of every one,
the commencement established.
for men's sons
holy Creator.
mankind's Ward,
afterwards made
Master Almighty.
-The ae diphthong ligature æ
-The i acute accent í
-The thorn (also used in Icelandic) þ
-IBM (International Business Machines), 8-bit encoding very similar to EBCDIC
and also used by main-frame computers.
-Extended ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange), 8-bit
encoding used by most micro-computers, but not a completely uniform standard.
Letter used in Old English
Encoding in SGML or HTML
Small ae diphthong ligature
æ decimal 230
U+00E6 ISO Latin 1
Small i acute accent
í decimal 237
U+00ED ISO Latin 1
Small thorn (as in Icelandic)
þ decimal 254
U+00FE ISO Latin 1
Since 1971, the oldest collection of Internet books (over fifty thousand in 2016)
http://www.gutenberg.org/
All of the books from the Gutenberg collection, converted to mobile formats
http://manybooks.net/
Complete list of electronic book resources in the World Wide Web
http://www.freebooknotes.com/free-ebooks-guide/
Correction of text written in a foreign language
http://www.correctmytext.com/
In Literature, Comics or Cinematography
http://www.sffworld.com/
List of all known languages
http://www.ethnologue.com/
Introduction to many languages, and resources for learning them
http://www.omniglot.com/
Language learning games
http://www.starfall.com/
All levels, from pretty easy to criminally difficult
http://www.crossword-puzzles.co.uk/
Resources for language learning
http://webgerman.com/languages/
Resources for language learning
http://www.nelliemuller.com/
Detailed information on many destinations for travellers
http://www.wikitravel.org/
Detailed information on many destinations for travellers
http://www.wikivoyage.org/
One of the most complete in the Internet
http://www.dictionary.com/
https://www.neocities.org/
