Tag Archives: history of the English language
Understanding the Word Pilgrim Posted by Gary Locke on Nov 18, 2021
Discussing the history of the Pilgrims who established the first New England colony in 1620 can open up a complex set of questions and arguments. Were they heroic trailblazers or foolish zealots? Were they rescued by the local natives, or did they exploit them? There are no easy answers. The Pilgrims of our first Thanksgiving…
Silent Letters in English: A History Posted by Gary Locke on Jun 3, 2021
It’s time to take a look at one of the most difficult problems for anyone learning English – silent letters. There are so many of them throughout the language that it’s hard to imagine having a conversation without encountering at least one. In fact, there were two in that last sentence, the G in throughout…
Why I, I Wonder? Posted by Gary Locke on Apr 14, 2017
In the English language, I is the nominative singular pronoun, used in reference to oneself, and it is always capitalized. No other language singles out and capitalizes this pronoun, only English. We don’t capitalize any other pronoun, me, my, mine, we, us, our… The question is – why? The most obvious answer is because English…