A taste of Alternative English

Originally, this article was going to be mainly about the different sources of the vocabulary of English. However, I think it's time to give a sample of a text written in Alternative English.

If you've read my previous two articles, you'll know that I've come up with a hypothetical Alternative English, spoken in a parallel universe where the Viking invasions and Norman conquest had never happened.

Alternative English is a standardised variety of English that could have been spoken today, in the year 2014, if these important historical events had never taken place.

Below is a translation of the Tower of Babel passage in Genesis (quite fitting, I think!) from real English into Alternative English. All words that are not descended directly from Old English have been removed. I have replaced them either with an existing native English word, or with a word that has died out in real English.

Again, borrowed words in the real English version are colour coded as follows: Blue for French, red for Latin, and gold for Old Norse.

I have provided a glossary below the Alternative English 'translation,' which gives the meaning and etymology of the new words that I have coined. OE stands for Old English.

The Tower of Babel:

Real English

Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. ² As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

³ They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. ⁴ Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

⁵ But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. ⁶ The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. ⁷ Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

⁸ So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. ⁹ That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

Alternative English

Now the whole world had one thede and a samen speech. As folk shrithed eastward, hie found a field in Shinar and settled there.

Hie said to each other, "Come, let's make bakestones and bake hem thoroughly." Hie breek bakestone instead of stone, and tar for clome. Then hie said, "Come, let us build ourselves a borough, with a tower that reacheth to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be shattered over the onleat of the whole earth."

But the LORD came down to see the borough and the tower the folks were building. The LORD said, "If as one folk speaking the self thede hie have begun to do this, then nothing hie mint to do will be unmayly for hem. Come, let us go down and yondming her thede so hie will not understand each other."

So the LORD shattered hem from there over all the earth, and hie stopped building the borough. That is why it highted Babel - as there the LORD yondminged the thede of the whole world. From there the LORD shattered hem over the onleat of the whole earth.

Glossary

Thede = language (from OE þēod)

Samen = common (ME samen < OE samen 'together')

Shrithe = to move (OE scrīþan 'to move, glide, wander')

Hie = they (OE hī, hīe) 
[To be pronounced the same as 'high']

Hem = them (OE hem)

Brook = to use [past tense: breek; past participle: brocken] (OE brūcan) 
[We could also have note, which apparently means 'use' or 'employment' in some Northern English and Scottish dialects. It comes from Old English notu.]

Clome = mortar (OE clām)

Onleat = face (ME onlete < OE anwlite)

Mint = to plan (OE myntan)

Mayly = possible (may + -ly; modelled on German möglich and Dutch mogelijk) 
[Hence, unmayly means 'impossible']

Yondming = to confuse (OE geondmengan)

Her = their (OE hierra) 
[Yes, this creates some interesting ambiguity with the existing pronoun her!]

Hight = to be called (ME hight < OE hēht) 
[We could also have to be challed but I like the idea of hight surviving into Modern English]

Yesterday

Now let's compare the amount of loanwords in the Tower of Babel passage with the famous Beatles song, Yesterday.

This is a song with pretty straightforward lyrics, and it so happens that it is chiefly made up of native English words! I will post both the original lyrics and a translation into Alternative English, with a small glossary.

Real English

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away
Now it looks as though they're here to stay
Oh, I believe in yesterday

Suddenly, I'm not half the man I used to be
There's a shadow hanging over me.
Oh, yesterday came suddenly

Why she had to go, I don't know, she wouldn't say
I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday

Yesterday, love was such an easy game to play
Now I need a place to hide away
Oh, I believe in yesterday

Why she had to go, I don't know, she wouldn't say
I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday

Yesterday, love was such an easy game to play
Now I need a place to hide away
Oh, I believe in yesterday

Alternative English

Yesterday, all my sorrows seemed so far away
Now it looketh lich hie sind will blive
Oh, I believe in yesterday

Suddenly, I'm not half the man I once had been
There's a shadow hanging over me.
Oh, yesterday came suddenly

Why she had to go, I don't know, she wouldn't say
I said some unright, now I long for yesterday

Yesterday, love was such an eath game to play
Now I need a stow to hide away
Oh, I believe in yesterday

Why she had to go, I don't know, she wouldn't say
I said some unright, now I long for yesterday

Yesterday, love was such an eath game to play
Now I need a stow to hide away
Oh, I believe in yesterday

[Unfortunately, I couldn't get the first pair of lines to rhyme, and the lines containing 'such an eath game to play' won't scan!]

Glossary

Blive (or belive) = to stay, remain [OE belīfan]

Eath = easy [ME ethe < OE ēaþe]

Stow = place [ME stowe < OE stōw]

Next up

I'm sicker [sure] you gode [want] to see more of this Other [Alternative] English, with most borrowed words nomen [taken] out.

What? You think. Even want and take are borrowed words? Yes, hie sind [they're] baith [both] Old Norse in orcoming [origin].

In my next limmel [article], I am going to focus* my heeding [attention] on the ways in which Old Norse has inflowed [influenced] English, baith [both] in wordlist [vocabulary] and grammatic.*

I'll also show how some samen [common] workwords [verbs] such as give, take, get and die would have turned out if hie [they] hadn't been undersoled [supplanted] or warped by her [their] lichworth [equivalent] words in Old Norse.

Footnotes

*Focus is a Latin word, of course, but it's been borrowed into most other Germanic languages, so I'm going to allow it.

Grammatic is how the word 'grammar' would have been borrowed, if it had been borrowed straight from Medieval Latin rather than via French. As a learned Greek word, grammatic (or grammatik, or something similar) has been borrowed into most Germanic languages.