We can have a lot of fun with how languages develop over time:
On Christmas Eve last year, a 22-year-old student called Simon Roper posted a video on YouTube in which he reconstructed the development of the London accent from 1340 to 2006 in a single monologue. In whispered tones, Roper voiced men from 12 generations of the same imaginary family, speaking at 60-year intervals. Their vowels flattened and their monophthongs shifted as they talked of their daily life – of cooking and horses and cold winters – transforming from barely decipherable Chaucerians to cheeky 1930s Cockneys over the course of 16 minutes. His speech was faltering, full of human reality and strangely intense. He wrote the piece in his bedroom during lockdown, and it has been watched two million times.
One element might be about what the British are not:
One reason is that the identity of Britain only began to be seriously
investigated (as distinct from being taken for granted) after the Second World
War, a time when peace and imperial retreat fostered a highly introverted
view of the British past. With their subject reduced to a normally peaceful,
increasingly disgruntled, and essentially second-ranking state on the
peripheries of Europe, historians of Britain found it easier to understand its
past in terms of internal social, political, religious, and cultural divisions,
rather than approaching it as a one-time great power influencing and being
influenced by every continent in the world...
the form of
a verb that shows how the meaning of that verb is considered in relation to time, typically expressing if
an action is complete, repeated, or continuous
the form of
a verb group indicating whether an action, event,
or situation is seen as continuing or
as complete. In English there are two aspects,
the progressive, such as ‘is arriving’ or
‘was arriving’, and the perfective, such as ‘has seen’
and ‘had seen’.
The term orientalism denotes the exaggeration of difference, the presumption of Western superiority, and the application of clichéd analytical models for perceiving the "Oriental world".
To build a conceptual framework around a notion of Us-versus-Them is, in effect, to pretend that the principal consideration is epistemological and natural—our civilization is known and accepted, theirs is different and strange—whereas, in fact, the framework separating us from them is belligerent, constructed, and situational.
Did the Romans invade Britain because they wanted to destroy the Druidic religion, the focus of Celtic religious and cultural resistance?
The extermination of the druids, as well as the great number of other soothsayers and herbalists, cannot be separated from the larger process of Romanization, in which older facets of Celtic culture were gradually abandoned to integrate the new peoples into the Greco-Roman sphere.
The Roman fort is believed to have had the name Nemetostatio, meaning "The road-station of the sacred groves", and may have been located on the site of an ancient druidic sanctuary. It covered an area of roughly 600 ft (185m) east-west by 390 ft (120m), and was located adjoining the Roman road between Isca Dumnoniorum (Exeter) and Okehampton.
Nemetostatio - 'The Outpost of the Sacred Grove(s)' The place-name seems to be an amalgamation of the Celtic word Nemeton 'sacred grove' and the Latin word Stationis 'road-station, outpost'. It would appear that the Romans built the Nanstallon fort close-by or perhaps directly upon the site of an ancient druidic sanctuary, and hoped by their presence to suppress the native Celtic religion, together with its reputed practice of human sacrifice.
... for many Stonehenge is a cornucopia of earth energy and has a whole network of ley lines running through which connect it to the plethora of ancient wonders that surround it in Wiltshire and beyond. For example, one such ley line connects Stonehenge, Old Sarum, Salisbury Cathedral and Clearbury Ring. Although the churches were not built at the same time, the ley lines suggest, some would say, that intense earth energies were always present in these positions – causing later societies to build their monuments there.
Old Sarum lies on one of the earliest recognised examples of leylines as determined by Sir N. Lockyer. It is connected to both Salisbury and Stonehenge, both sacred places on the Wiltshire landscape.
Sir Norman Lockyer - (1836-1920) - Lockyer made the first 'professional' observation of geometry in the lay-out of the ancient landscape. He realised that a geometric connection existed between Stonehenge, Grovely (Grove-ley) castle and Old Sarum. The three form an equilateral triangle with sides 6 miles long. (See Above)
Lockyer pioneered the field of archaeo-astronomy, and spent some a time in Egypt, where he investigated the alignments and orientations of many ancient structures. He was able to combine his astronomical knowledge with observations at certain temples, and produce dates that he confirmed through examples of temples with re-aligned axis. His researches led him to conclude dates of 4,000 BC for early dynastic structures (3).
Out of necessity and intent, the use of online learning apps surged during the pandemic. For ESL students and educators, that growth will likely continue.
