Guest Blogger: Conner M.

After reading a few of the Canterbury Tales, I came to realize that the text of the translation of its text was much more similar than that of Beowulf (which, in its case, was Old English). And after discussion of the importance of the story itself, as well as note-taking techniques, we had only taken a short amount of time to discuss the language itself, which, depending on your view, can be (mostly) interesting. I, however, did not want to discuss that. Instead, I wanted to talk more about Latin and French, which was more common for story-writing before Chaucer’s time.

As we have learned, because of the large control that Catholics had on society, Latin was mostly the language for writing stories (which I’m assuming was for its classical and traditional significance in older tales), as well as French. This brings about a great question. Why would anyone continue to use a language that was not spoken significantly for the publishing of massive works of literature if few spoke it (let alone teach entire classes in the language)? Even today, there is debate between Catholics whether church masses should be entirely in Latin (Pope Benedict the 16th, anyone? Read the news someday), and more and more traditions between cultures continue to be pressured to conform to standards which may seem more popular (for example, many countries are trading in their cultural clothing for the more widely recognizable casual clothes accredited to the western Hemisphere. Many South Koreans now have their weddings in U.S. style tuxedoes and white dresses as opposed to more ethnic ceremonial attire). Though, there should be a fine line between tradition and plain ridiculousness, right? I mean, Latin has been the tradition of it’s time for years! But few even speak it… does that mean that the current language of English is much inferior to an older language which has proven its worth? Who likes change? Apparently Chaucer, who obviously knocked everyone into a new sensibility for the modern age when he wrote his Canterbury Tales -in the language of the people. This was, of course, much easier to read for the common person, and had the potential for a wider variety of readers. Why didn’t I think of it? Haha.
What if it had become completely acceptable, no, unwritten law, to formulate major and popular web pages (I.e. Google, Wikipedia, Facebook) in an obsolete language that no one would recognize? Say-I don’t know- Sanskrit. It would, needless to say, be a very niche market the developers would be aiming for. Because the language is obsolete to the common person, who are the majority of web surfers, this would just not be acceptable today, in a time when ideas travel as fast as you can hit the “submit” button (who has the time to learn that crap, anyway?). Isn’t it fair to say that the British were holding back in the same way? Granted, the languages were, and are still, considered very fine, and have continued to be passed down from the original respective countries where they completely permeated the entire culture. But because transport to other countries wasn‘t widely available in the time of more ancient languages, was it even relevant at the time for them to worry about whether others other cultures consider themselves “fine“? Well, aside from the war, and the slaves, and the… okay, but you get the point. But whether it was or the 1300s or the current day, cultural differences will always continue to be a much debated topic, and their mystique may continue to be a reason others try to hold on and “borrow” separate aspects.

As I would hope you may understand, language structure has a huge influence on our society, and especially in our media. Of course, it makes it very hard to exchange thoughts if no one can understand the basis of your words, so conformism is important in some aspects. Though, why can’t we all just learn Latin and have a better understanding of older literature. Heck, why don’t we all learn Spanish? Why should others have to go through the trouble of learning our language, and not vice versa? What would be the difference, anyway? Does tradition vs. sensibility even seem like a worthy fight? Find out next time… or not.