Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Explaining Things....

"I hate explanations; they fog a thing up so that you can't tell anything about it." --Mark Twain

Okay, so I've been reading Twain again. We're currently on A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. I've never read this work before, but I'm finding it very entertaining. One of my favorite things about the work so far is the language. I'm enjoying how Twain shows the differences between Arthurian English (or what he sees as the English of that time period) and the English of his day. An example:
"Who are they? Where do they hang out?"
"Where hang they out?"
"Yes; where do they live?"
"Ah, I understand thee not. That will I tell thee eftsoons. [. . .] Hang they out--hang they out-- where hang--where do they hang out; ah, right so: where do they hang out."

No comments: