The Write Stuff?

©2010 by LeeZard

Is digital communication destroying the art of good writing or, is it merely continuing the evolution of our language? It’s a question that’s been on my mind for a while. I’ve thought for a long time that it’s the former. All this abbreviating to save time (minutes!) and space for emailing, texting and chatting, I thought, eliminates the use of proper punctuation and spelling, not to mention creative word usage. That would be tragic to LeeZard, who cherishes good writing.

I’m rethinking it, though. After all, how did we get from Old English, the written and spoken Anglo-Saxon language circa 1000 AD, to our modern version?

One of the best examples of beautiful writing in Old English is the classic poem “Beowulf,” a portion of which appears here with a modern translation:

Hwæt. We Gardena in geardagum,

LO, praise of the prowess of people-kings

þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,

 of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped,

hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

we have heard, and what honor the athelings won!

Indeed, our language is constantly evolving. It was no great leap from Old to Modern English. There was Middle English circa 14^th century, as in Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales (Click on the image for a larger view):

Heere bigynneth the knyghtes tale
Here begins the Knight’s Tale

Whilom, as olde stories tellen us,
Once on a time, as old tales tell to us,

Ther was a duc that highte Theseus;

There was a duke whose name was Theseus:

Of Atthenes he was lord and governour,

Of Athens he was lord and governor,

And in his tyme swich a conquerour,

And in his time was such a conqueror

That gretter was ther noon under the sonne.

That greater was there not beneath the sun.

And, Early Modern English circa early 17^th Century, as in the King James Bible (1611):

And hee said, A certain man had two sonnes:

He said, "There was a man who had two sons.

And the yonger of them said to his father, Father, giue me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his liuing

The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them

And not many days after, the yonger sonne gathered altogether, and tooke his journey into a farre country, and there wasted his substance with riotous liuing.

"Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.

And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he beganne to be in want.

After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need.

However, if you look at a copy of the original King James Bible, it is, to LeeZard, unreadable (Again, click on the image for a larger view):

Now let’s look at what LeeZard calls “Digital English:”

nd he sd, sum man hd 2 sons

And he said some man had two sons.

In Digital English, note the absnce of uppr case at the strt of the sntnce. Ur gttng all ths, rt

lol

roflmao

(LeeZard looks at the above and shakes his head)  Arrrgggghhhhh!

So, what are we to make of all this? Yes, language evolves but as we see in the examples above, even as it evolves good writing does not go by the wayside. Nay fair maids and merry men; to the contrary, good writing goeth forever.

Heck, LeeZard didn’t even touch on Shakespeare who, I’m not embarrassed to admit, gives me a headache. Why, because he wrote in Early Modern English. Yeah, yeah I have to give props to Will; he was a pretty faire writer and he really did transform the language – almost single-handedly building the bridge from Middle English to Modern.

To answer my own question, then (What are we to make of all this?), LeeZard is write back where he started. Digital communication is killing good writing. In fact it’s a massacre!