This is a wonderful series. Much I know, much I didn't. This one hit home at the end: My grandparents came to the US in the beginning of the 20th century to escape the pogroms of Russia. My grandfather was a scholar of the Talmud--not a way to make a living; my parents left Orthodox Judaism, and became lovers of democracy, America, and the English language. Our names: Susan, Elinore, and Harry--were far from the Yiddish names of family who came from Europe--their older brothers were given new names. My father taught English in ''night school''--mostly to new immigrants; my mother, elementary school. In our house, there were fines for mistakes in grammar, horror at the wayward daughter (me)'s spelling mistakes. Skip ahead and my brother is a Professor of Intellectual History, and I'm a college teacher. So I'm part of this exciting story! Thank you. Well done!
Lost in Savannah, GA in 1973 I rolled down my passenger side window and asked a young black man for directions. I had to do a double take when I heard the most perfect English I had ever encountered. He was probably a product of a barrier island where little changed due to the distance to the mainland and lack of contact with the people there.
At 48:00, let's not forget Joel Chandler Harris who published the tales of B'rer Fox and Rabbit using the vernacular of the slaves. The Negro blacksmith on my grandfather's farm, Clemons Robinson - a genius who with six months of education, homeschooled himself to learn calculus - had slave parents whose owner, Mr. Clemons, was mentioned by name in Harris' Civil War autobiography, On The Plantation.
I'm German-american and grew up in the DC/Northern Virginia area. I was exposed to various subtle dialects of English and other languages. It's fascinating to learn how they evolved and keep evolving.
He should at least have mentioned the hillbillies of Appalachia, whose isolation resulted in a close approximation to Elizabethan English; the Cajuns of Louisiana, whose patois contributed to jazzy slang; and the large wave of Russian Jews, whose Yiddishisms (e.g., the questioning declaration, "You talking to me?") came into currency via popular culture.
@Tony Alan Marchant Hebrew is the language of the Bible, the language of King David and the Kingdom of Solomon. When the Jews were conquered and dispersed by many conquerors--ancient Assyria, Rome, etc., they kept Hebrew as their language of the religion. In many places it was combined with the local language to form a new, everyday language: with German--Yiddish, Spanish--Ladino, Arabic, Italian. Each developed it's own style and culture. So many Yiddish speaking Jews came from Europe that they influenced English in many ways--ever watch ''Seinfeld''?
Louisiana Cajuns speak French, or a mix of French and English. I think you mean Creoles, who are Louisianans who are part black and part white, for generations.They have their own culture. They may speak a patois which resulted in "jazzy slang". But I sorta doubt it.
I always wondered how american english came to be and was searching here on youtube but couldn't really find what i was looking for and was about to give up and came across this doc, now i know how american english came to be, thanks!
The commentator states that haul in n. America means to carry via a vehicle and altho that is true enough, it still retains its former english meaning of carry by force as in haul one into court for the purpose of a legal suit
Fort Christina was a Swedish colony taken over by the Dutch...today we call it Philadelphia. OK, so he gets some American right..however, lumber also means to move slowly. Perhaps he needs to do a whole documentary of Appalachian English, my grandmother from Kentucky taught me well, even though today I have a proper Midwest flat accent. In the hills of the mid to southern Appalachians (Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, West Virginia, Georgia, and Alabama) you don't say "I guess" you say "I reckon". And something far away is "a fur piece". What he does not realize is that in the remote regions of the Appalachians, they still held onto the Shakespeare language. "Over yonder" is over there.... And not only that, a tote is a sack, which is a bag. A brook is a stream, but you call it a crick (creek). And you trade for food at the trade store, not the grocery unless you shop at the Piggly Wiggly or A&P. So if someone said to you that they had to trade a tote sack, that means they went shopping. You cross over a river and ford the oxen, you don't say you forded the river with cattle. Maybe a cow, but never a heifer, because they don't say heifer unless they grow commercially. And he forgot the jerky, you know like beef jerky. And you use the out house. And sailors wear skivvies, but generally the farmer wears long johns and bibbed overalls. If you dawdle at your task, what you are doing is idling. I can go on, but if you put a southern Kentucky Hillbilly in the same room as a Beacon Hill Beantowner, they would have trouble understanding each other.
+moorek1967 I'm from Appalachia, and I understand & appreciate your comment. I've often heard that hillbillies speak more closely Elizabethan English than anywhere else, due to their isolation. Also, I've heard that when I was growing up, there were more dialects in the hills of English than anywhere else, again due to isolation. I saw the same thing in Austria. You go from one valley to another, and the "men" and "women" restrooms are entirely different words.
Steve Weinstein That is true, there are very different dialects all over Appalachia and even the name itself is different depending on which side of the hill you are on. I saw while doing genealogy of a family in Kentucky how the name Miracle was written from Merkle...because that's the way my grandmother would say miracle, as merkle. Miracle and Merkle are two different meanings altogether, but when they say merkle, what they are really saying is miracle, and that dialect caused the census enumerator to spell it the wrong way.
Time mark 15:24 is the School house Southpark City Museum, Fairplay, Colorado; time stamp 27:58 is the Saloon at the Museum town. I play there 2nd weekend in August
The Shot Heard Round The World was fired at Lexington Common, not the bridge in Concord. The regulars were on their way to Concord to seize American guns (remember that, gun grabbers) when the militia in Lexington came out to meet them. The men in Lexington were routed by the regulars, then the other local militias met them in Concord, where there was a fight on the bridge, and chased them back to Boston under fire the whole time. Trying to seize American guns will end poorly for you.
In fact, the Pilgrims first stopped and spent several months in Provincetown at the tip of Cape Cod. I assume the omission of Jamestown is because the settlement did not survive.
+Rosemary Bowler What?! Jamestown did survive. You are thinking about Roanoke Island. Jamestown was the first lasting English settlement in America. Thirteen years before Plymouth Rock. In fact the Pilgrims were already aware of the Jamestown settlement. The Pilgrims had to petition the English government for permission to settle in America and one of the stipulations was that they not settle anywhere close to the Jamestown settlement.
No one has lived at Jamestown for centuries. Plymouth, on the other hand, is essentially still inhabited. Jamestown was more like a temporary outpost. Also, settlers in Virginia were not aggressive "planters" of culture like the Puritans, who intended to form a new community with a set of shared religious values, government, and language. Northern culture did in fact win out as far as American language and culture go--in history and literature especially.
It is the history of ENGLISH not the history of AMERICA. The fact that early colonists met with a native American who had learned English long before and who had lived in England was the point of starting the story this way.
The actual original landing place of the Pilgrim Fathers is unknown. The first mention of it in writing did not occur until over 100 years after the event and so it can be disputed based on that piece of knowledge. First big error in this episode occurs at 1014 when the presenter comments that, "From the very beginning, Americans...." The United States of America did not exist. They were English. I do agree with the comment of John Smith, below, and also question why Jamestown was ignored. However, Jamestown did not last very long but the Pilgrim Fathers survived. Many other mistakes rear their heads but are seemingly ignored but then the commentator probably only repeated what he was told to say. The word maize has rather a convoluted origin and meaning. It was not a term used by any aboriginal tribe of the USA but a Spanish word removed from Haiti and transplanted to the colony. Another major mistake is in regard to pemmican. In fact, it originated in what is now Canada by the Metis who used bison, caribou, and or elk, all lean meats to create the concoction. George Washington was not the First President of the United States of America. (Suggest research John Hanson.) However, he was the first to hold that position under the Constitution. Always check and recheck before putting fingers to the keyboard or speaking. That way there will be less errors made. Many problems within this production due, in part, to poor research and lack of correct knowledge. Finally,two comments just to round things up they ain't Indians but now known as First Nations People. The person presenting himself as Davy Crewcut sure made a biggy when he mentioned Uncle Sam..Davy wore a coonskin hat and he could not have mentioned Uncle Sam as that person was not introduced until about 1812 during the war of that name. No more from me.
great documentary. learning so much about English, both it's start in the UK and the new words from the 18th century hat were coined here in the US. I have one question about the saying "on the wagon" I watched a program that said that fraise was started when transporting the condemned to the place of execution the wagon driver would stop at a pub, public house? he would let the convicts have a drink, when one would ask for another the driver would say "not for him, he's on the wagon" has anyone heard that story also, it would put that fraise to be much older than what is stated here.
Why Puritans Left England The Puritans left England for America not because they couldn’t be Puritans in their mother country, but because they were not allowed to force others to become Puritans; in the New World, of course, they could and did. ~ Gore Vidal (born:1925-10-03 died:2012-07-30 at age:86)
+Roedy Green Thanks for the quote from one of my heroes Mr Vidal. Yes the Puritans came here to force people to become like them or be burned as witches. Burning them was also a successful strategy for stealing property. The thanks Squanto and his people got for their efforts to help the Puritans is a good example of the Puritans despicable behavior. Anyway most people know all this by now but for those that don't and have interest to find out more read Howard Zinns book the Peoples History of the United States.
Vidal was smart but I'm not sure this is totally accurate. In Ric Burns' 3 part documentary "The Pilgrims" he talks about them living underground in Amsterdam for years after being chased out of England. They were simply practicing a form of Protestantism far stricter than the Church of England and less dependent on the priest and formal structures of the church. In fact the original pilgrims didn't believe in having a priest at all.
Good documentary series, I find it fizzles out at American, as it seems much history here is contested, I imagine the facts aren't all correct, but it links up well enough to give you a summary of what occurred, I imagine some further reading might clarify some specifics. Or should I be a real academic and get all my facts from tv? (sarcasm for the record)
Regardless of how accurate the documentary is, complainers are NOT always right. Controversy by itself is not proof of inaccuracy. Lack of dissent is NOT proof of truth.
Maybe you should highlight the inconsistencies. Maybe you should bolster your accusations with facts. Which facts aren't correct? Why are they not correct? Who will corroborate your claims?
+John Smith : I was watching and really enjoying this series until I got to the part where English spread throughout America from Plymouth Rock. Could not watch any further. If they get that part wrong, what else is incorrect?
+Mark C I was enjoying it also until they got to Squanto and Massachusetts. Even the Queen recognized this in 2007 when they celebrated the 400th anniversary of the founding of Virginia. In fact, Ralph Stanley was invited to sing for the Queen because he represented the language and music of early Virginia. In fact, there were three ships of French Huguenots already landed at Jamestown and settled at Manikintown before Plymouth Rock. Today, we call it Richmond.
+Mark C And I forgot, Pocahontas was declared princess as Squanto was "helping" the Plymouth settlers. OK, so the British call her Rebecca Rolfe, but she was Matoaka. And she is still buried in England and they won't return her body because they declared that the same tribe doesn't exist any more. She needs to come home.
moorek1967 Yes, the Spanish were the first Europeans to America (if you discount the Vikings). However, the Spanish territories were mostly in the Caribbean islands and South America. They did have outposts in Florida and other parts of the southeastern U.S., but their scope was limited as Britain mostly controlled it. The French had their own territories here too (Lousiana being the notable one) as well as various places in Canada (where French is still spoken). Interesting trivia: Columbus himself was not Spanish, but Italian. He could not get the Italians to finance him, so we went to the Spanish queen.
The French also came to settle and create a new society with the native peoples. Read Champlain's biography. Also check out the histories of New Orleans, Saint Louis, and French Canada. French settlements were not all fur trading. But this documentary doesn't bother with background details, so it's no surprise these facts are glossed over. Where he goes deep, he's spot on, but he definitely leaves out a lot of history and, in so doing, misstates history.
+moorek1967 The British had also established a colony at Cupids, Newfoundland prior to the Pilgrims landing in Plymouth. Interesting documentary but not very historically accurate.
+moorek1967 It can be argued that Virginia & the Carolinas didn't have the urban centers that quickly developed in the Northeast. There was effectively only one city, Charlestown. Up north, Boston, Providence, New Haven, New York …
Steve Weinstein It can be argued if you come from a Northern perspective. Since we are talking about first settlements, then it doesn't matter how quickly an area became urbanized. Since you brought it up, think about Baltimore and Annapolis. Also, Philadelphia used to be Fort Christina, a Swedish colony. But you forgot about Savannah also.
+moorek1967 Savannah, like Georgia itself, was a very, very late founding. Baltimore & Annapolis were founded separately from Virginia. I think the larger point is that he's right insofar as the Pilgrims were the first whose intentions were to put down roots. Jamestown, as you know, was very different - no families, just adventure seekers after fortune, like the Spanish. The South had almost no cities. It remained an agrarian, pre-industrialized society, which is one big reason why it lost the Civil War - a point Rhett Butler makes nicely in that early scene in GWTW. There are plenty of reasons why each society developed differently. But the point is that they did. So I think he's justified in emphasizing the Pilgrims.
The first the settlement established in the U.S.A was Jamestown in Chesapeake Bay in 1607. However since its settlers were a bunch of merchants, scholars or scientists and sailors (that means almost no woman abroad) sponsored by the government, that didn't come to stay, I understand why he chose to speak of Plymouth as a first colony :)
I've read that this author's version of the origin of "nitty gritty" may not be the correct one. Other explanations I've heard were even more, um, graphic.
Ignoring of Jamestown is preposterous. If "Pilgrims" had all died out, English had already been planted in North America. On a different topic: Finding the ONLY American Aboriginal (out of hundreds of millions) who spoke English must be one of the greatest coincidences in all human history.
+Steve Weinstein Whitman didn't perform poetic magic like Dickinson, in terms of language. Dickinson was a master of near rhyme, eye rhyme, assonance, much more creative in use of word forms.
very interesting. I particularly liked the part about the black's use of "dat" for that, "don't" for doesn't and "chillun" for children. I was never so stupid as to think the use of these "mispronunciations" as indications of inferiority but I thought it indicated verbal laziness. I never knew they had actual historical context. I still think this way of talking needs to be replaced with correct English (except for chillun, i like that word). I mean, they were taught in school how to correctly pronounce these words just as I was; so why don't they? many have adopted "correct" English but why do so many others continue to purposely speak in a manner that separates them from the rest of society? the Hispanics, Japanese, Czechs and Indians all speak proper English, some with accents but its still grammatically correct, why not the blacks who've been here for many more generations? its called assimilation. one odd thing I've noticed is that blacks will often speak one way around whites and another way amongst themselves. uummm, very strange indeed. oh well; I guess that's my problem.
It's left over from their African languages mixed with their learning of English. It's like a patois. It's also cultural. No matter what they learn in school, they've been taught Ebonics-that's what how some blacks talk is called- at home. Also, they were slaves fora couple of hundred years in America. The other nationalities you mentioned do not have a history of being shipped to a foreign country as slaves. In this circumstance, they often wanted to be understood by each other, but not by outsiders. (Eugene Genovese, "Roll, Jordan, Roll: the World the Slaves Made"). Anyway, if you meet a black person from California, they talk like Californians, and the same is true of black people from New York City and from Oklahoma. They don't all have the same accent, although they may have similar words.
There's a lot that could be said here. There's a quote by Toni Morrison that I think sums it up nicely, though. "In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate."
Ok, what's up? I thought Long time no see, came from Chinese "ho loi moh gin", "hao jiu bu jian". I had learned it came directly from Cantonese (the first). Can someone back up his assertion that it comes from Native American?
+陈瀚龙 you are probably right, because I am pretty sure that Chinese had traded in the Americas a lot longer beforehand and so would have passed the saying on. Maybe the exact origin wasn't mentioned because it is about the English language and it's evolution and it's direct influence was through the native peoples of America.
+Nephilim Slain I'm a foreign English teacher in Xining, China. If I don't expect too much, it treats me very well, thanks:) ......So breathable would be nice, though.
hahaa, i have dyslexia, bulls.... Here they tell how English words has been writen difrently in England and then USA. My dyslexia is going same direction, taking letter awy and changing cee to s etc. At my native language I hit etymology of words. And sometimes i is not just important to write correctly, not necessary to put whole your concentration to rules of writing, much much important things that writen corrctly.
and one thing is that language is living thing, when you use exacly expressions perhaps there is no word for certain fine emotion or situation what you are writing down - telling to other so you become creative how to use phenoms, it kind of music in it's basic sense, you express yourself. I dont meant that we would talk only about ourselves : )
Ummmm...Native American words didn't come into the English language in their thousands, like with French, Danish, Latin and Greek because Native American languages did not have writing systems. You can only adopt words from other languages if you can write them down. But if there's no writing, then you won't write them down and you'll forget...
The next generation forgets. Logical conclusion: if reading ONE book is socially ordained over reading 100 books - ergo the society becomes ... (yeah) Prove your premises and the follow-on conclusions or go back to sleep.
Somehow when Essex, Sussex, Wessex, Mercia, Anglia, and Northumbria united ... they called the united kingdom Anglaland, then Englaland, then England....so the language became English.
What Noah Webster did was NOT to improve the English language but to BASTARDISE it. Removing 'u' from "colour", "harbour", "flavour", etc., was a blatant example of such BASTARDISATION. Webster should've left the spelling conventions ALONE. He had wantonly destroyed the efforts put in by Dr Samuel Johnson of Oxford University in codifying the English language and the spelling thereof so that everyone could understand it. In History's pages, Noah Webster should be reviled and condemned.
The Two Greatest Injuries or Deceptions to our race, the first could be cited as Anglicisation; the second, stemming from The American Revolution. The roots of the first are ancient, from B.C. even- most of the history, from historians of England, isn't really correct. The Invasion was by English or Frisians alone- no Saxons, who are Celtic, were involved. The English successfully concealed basic facts, such as surrounding themselves. The English Race was Urwetu, which means of a forbidden mixture of races; none of the Basic 13 should mix to make children. Not one of the pure, basic race lines; did not have the blessing of a special Land assigned, or given to them. They came from the east into Allbion, a Celtic land, very disappointed, a characteristic trait of Perdition types. They stayed in an abandoned village, built by Danish, Hesekedefen. There they hatched their plot; through violence, murder, child kidnapping (killing the parents) of Celts, and Race Vampirism, they aquired an overrule in Allbion, which they renamed England. All 13 Kings of Allbion they murdered; holding them consecutively in a dungeon, those kings would not agree to bow down under English hegemony. One of the first martyred, King Celt... after his death, they went into his regional city of Nehitevmetebec, sacked it, murdered all the parents and took the children into captivity and servitude. This is why such a huge percentage of people calling themselves English were actually Anglicised Celts. The Vampirism consisted in that all their Race Energy was drained out of them, and the English tried to clone English out of them. Ye, of this land acquired in a Pirate robbery, have no Race Energy, either. There exists no Race called by the name American. By that Aquarius, all of "England" had correctly the Celtic Sign; all Sign and Channel for English was removed from the planet permanently, all of English race were destroyed and sent to a punishment. The Goddess Bellona or Britannia, also removed and sent to a Punishment. No English has ever resided in this land, and it is not possible, any have or have had English ancestry- they never mixed with other races, with their grand design on others and the world. Possibly, Anglicised Celtic in ancestry, true... We have the very same Rezefede, or Race Attribution, Anglicised Celt- all have the same attribution at present. The Land's Over Sign here is now fully Celtic. English, now a Zybit Language is in the 24th best or worst category of all languages for us; the best, Scottish Gaelic, German and Irish a little bit less surely best. All Race Blessing and Energy was lost for those joining with an "America", best to rename the land Nova Scotia or Alba Nuadh, to throw off a curse. It could be made a Race, or Rezefede Land; was made and is a Not-Race, or Tedehed Land, having been acquired or made through most forbidden means...
This is a wonderful series. Much I know, much I didn't. This one hit home at the end: My grandparents came to the US in the beginning of the 20th century to escape the pogroms of Russia. My grandfather was a scholar of the Talmud--not a way to make a living; my parents left Orthodox Judaism, and became lovers of democracy, America, and the English language. Our names: Susan, Elinore, and Harry--were far from the Yiddish names of family who came from Europe--their older brothers were given new names. My father taught English in ''night school''--mostly to new immigrants; my mother, elementary school. In our house, there were fines for mistakes in grammar, horror at the wayward daughter (me)'s spelling mistakes. Skip ahead and my brother is a Professor of Intellectual History, and I'm a college teacher. So I'm part of this exciting story! Thank you. Well done!
i love this guy , great work
What beautiful voices. Gimme chills!
Lost in Savannah, GA in 1973 I rolled down my passenger side window and asked a young black man for directions. I had to do a double take when I heard the most perfect English I had ever encountered. He was probably a product of a barrier island where little changed due to the distance to the mainland and lack of contact with the people there.
I remember from the 2nd grade to the end of 5th grade we had a spelling test every Friday, and once in the 4th grade you had to write in cursive
mrkjsmooth16 when I went to school in Canada we had to learn how to read, write, talk and think in two languages.
This video is good.
Love this series!
At 48:00, let's not forget Joel Chandler Harris who published the tales of B'rer Fox and Rabbit using the vernacular of the slaves. The Negro blacksmith on my grandfather's farm, Clemons Robinson - a genius who with six months of education, homeschooled himself to learn calculus - had slave parents whose owner, Mr. Clemons, was mentioned by name in Harris' Civil War autobiography, On The Plantation.
I'm German-american and grew up in the DC/Northern Virginia area. I was exposed to various subtle dialects of English and other languages. It's fascinating to learn how they evolved and keep evolving.
He should at least have mentioned the hillbillies of Appalachia, whose isolation resulted in a close approximation to Elizabethan English; the Cajuns of Louisiana, whose patois contributed to jazzy slang; and the large wave of Russian Jews, whose Yiddishisms (e.g., the questioning declaration, "You talking to me?") came into currency via popular culture.
Steve Weinstein wats the differance between yidish an hebrew
@Tony Alan Marchant Hebrew is the language of the Bible, the language of King David and the Kingdom of Solomon. When the Jews were conquered and dispersed by many conquerors--ancient Assyria, Rome, etc., they kept Hebrew as their language of the religion. In many places it was combined with the local language to form a new, everyday language: with German--Yiddish, Spanish--Ladino, Arabic, Italian. Each developed it's own style and culture. So many Yiddish speaking Jews came from Europe that they influenced English in many ways--ever watch ''Seinfeld''?
Actually, Hebrew is the language of the Old Testament. The languages of the New Testament are Aramaic and Greek.
Aren't ya after fergettin' the Irish, boyo? We're the third largest national origin in the country. (And wasn't me ma's maiden name MacGready?)
Louisiana Cajuns speak French, or a mix of French and English. I think you mean Creoles, who are Louisianans who are part black and part white, for generations.They have their own culture. They may speak a patois which resulted in "jazzy slang". But I sorta doubt it.
I always wondered how american english came to be and was searching here on youtube but couldn't really find what i was looking for and was about to give up and came across this doc, now i know how american english came to be, thanks!
The commentator states that haul in n. America means to carry via a vehicle and altho that is true enough, it still retains its former english meaning of carry by force as in haul one into court for the purpose of a legal suit
In the UK haul means pull, usually something heavy
Fort Christina was a Swedish colony taken over by the Dutch...today we call it Philadelphia.
OK, so he gets some American right..however, lumber also means to move slowly. Perhaps he needs to do a whole documentary of Appalachian English, my grandmother from Kentucky taught me well, even though today I have a proper Midwest flat accent.
In the hills of the mid to southern Appalachians (Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, West Virginia, Georgia, and Alabama) you don't say "I guess" you say "I reckon". And something far away is "a fur piece". What he does not realize is that in the remote regions of the Appalachians, they still held onto the Shakespeare language. "Over yonder" is over there....
And not only that, a tote is a sack, which is a bag. A brook is a stream, but you call it a crick (creek). And you trade for food at the trade store, not the grocery unless you shop at the Piggly Wiggly or A&P. So if someone said to you that they had to trade a tote sack, that means they went shopping.
You cross over a river and ford the oxen, you don't say you forded the river with cattle. Maybe a cow, but never a heifer, because they don't say heifer unless they grow commercially. And he forgot the jerky, you know like beef jerky.
And you use the out house. And sailors wear skivvies, but generally the farmer wears long johns and bibbed overalls. If you dawdle at your task, what you are doing is idling.
I can go on, but if you put a southern Kentucky Hillbilly in the same room as a Beacon Hill Beantowner, they would have trouble understanding each other.
+moorek1967 Interesting comment, thanks.
+moorek1967 Hardly. Anyone who's done some reading would easily understand these distinctions, and, even explain the epistemological shift.
Keith Ninesling
I only have practical experience of knowing and hearing my great-grandparents speak, but I grew up in the North.
+moorek1967 I'm from Appalachia, and I understand & appreciate your comment. I've often heard that hillbillies speak more closely Elizabethan English than anywhere else, due to their isolation. Also, I've heard that when I was growing up, there were more dialects in the hills of English than anywhere else, again due to isolation.
I saw the same thing in Austria. You go from one valley to another, and the "men" and "women" restrooms are entirely different words.
Steve Weinstein
That is true, there are very different dialects all over Appalachia and even the name itself is different depending on which side of the hill you are on.
I saw while doing genealogy of a family in Kentucky how the name Miracle was written from Merkle...because that's the way my grandmother would say miracle, as merkle.
Miracle and Merkle are two different meanings altogether, but when they say merkle, what they are really saying is miracle, and that dialect caused the census enumerator to spell it the wrong way.
Woah, we have lots of Gulla words we use! Cool.
Time mark 15:24 is the School house Southpark City Museum, Fairplay, Colorado; time stamp 27:58 is the Saloon at the Museum town. I play there 2nd weekend in August
The Shot Heard Round The World was fired at Lexington Common, not the bridge in Concord. The regulars were on their way to Concord to seize American guns (remember that, gun grabbers) when the militia in Lexington came out to meet them. The men in Lexington were routed by the regulars, then the other local militias met them in Concord, where there was a fight on the bridge, and chased them back to Boston under fire the whole time. Trying to seize American guns will end poorly for you.
In fact, the Pilgrims first stopped and spent several months in Provincetown at the tip of Cape Cod. I assume the omission of Jamestown is because the settlement did not survive.
+Rosemary Bowler What?! Jamestown did survive. You are thinking about Roanoke Island. Jamestown was the first lasting English settlement in America. Thirteen years before Plymouth Rock. In fact the Pilgrims were already aware of the Jamestown settlement. The Pilgrims had to petition the English government for permission to settle in America and one of the stipulations was that they not settle anywhere close to the Jamestown settlement.
No one has lived at Jamestown for centuries. Plymouth, on the other hand, is essentially still inhabited. Jamestown was more like a temporary outpost. Also, settlers in Virginia were not aggressive "planters" of culture like the Puritans, who intended to form a new community with a set of shared religious values, government, and language. Northern culture did in fact win out as far as American language and culture go--in history and literature especially.
It is the history of ENGLISH not the history of AMERICA. The fact that early colonists met with a native American who had learned English long before and who had lived in England was the point of starting the story this way.
@hauskalainen Thank you!
Every Summer we'd go visit aunt Essie who lived on Sullivan's Island.
The actual original landing place of the Pilgrim Fathers is unknown. The first mention of it in writing did not occur until over 100 years after the event and so it can be disputed based on that piece of knowledge. First big error in this episode occurs at 1014 when the presenter comments that, "From the very beginning, Americans...." The United States of America did not exist. They were English. I do agree with the comment of John Smith, below, and also question why Jamestown was ignored. However, Jamestown did not last very long but the Pilgrim Fathers survived. Many other mistakes rear their heads but are seemingly ignored but then the commentator probably only repeated what he was told to say. The word maize has rather a convoluted origin and meaning. It was not a term used by any aboriginal tribe of the USA but a Spanish word removed from Haiti and transplanted to the colony. Another major mistake is in regard to pemmican. In fact, it originated in what is now Canada by the Metis who used bison, caribou, and or elk, all lean meats to create the concoction. George Washington was not the First President of the United States of America. (Suggest research John Hanson.) However, he was the first to hold that position under the Constitution. Always check and recheck before putting fingers to the keyboard or speaking. That way there will be less errors made. Many problems within this production due, in part, to poor research and lack of correct knowledge.
Finally,two comments just to round things up they ain't Indians but now known as First Nations People. The person presenting himself as Davy Crewcut sure made a biggy when he mentioned Uncle Sam..Davy wore a coonskin hat and he could not have mentioned Uncle Sam as that person was not introduced until about 1812 during the war of that name.
No more from me.
great documentary. learning so much about English, both it's start in the UK and the new words from the 18th century hat were coined here in the US. I have one question about the saying "on the wagon" I watched a program that said that fraise was started when transporting the condemned to the place of execution the wagon driver would stop at a pub, public house? he would let the convicts have a drink, when one would ask for another the driver would say "not for him, he's on the wagon" has anyone heard that story also, it would put that fraise to be much older than what is stated here.
Gosh, I guess he never heard of Virginia, where English settlement began in 1607. Plymouth was an afterthought
Levis are no longer made in the states. So those of you who are Americans check out All American Clothes.com and All USA Clothing .com.
Give a language some time and you'll see completely different languages to emerge.
Flávio Viana Gomide Polynesian language has changed very little across the Pacific ocean from new zealand to Hawaii
Ft Christina today is the modern city of Wilmington Delaware.
'... the greatest country on earth'. I assume he is talking about Canada.
Lara Ding yeah he did any anglo saxon colonies
As an "American" myself, I can only hope he wasn’t speaking of the US. I would have to vehemently disagree with the statement.
Why Puritans Left England
The Puritans left England for America not because they couldn’t be Puritans in their mother country, but because they were not allowed to force others to become Puritans; in the New World, of course, they could and did.
~ Gore Vidal (born:1925-10-03 died:2012-07-30 at age:86)
+Roedy Green Thanks for the quote from one of my heroes Mr Vidal. Yes the Puritans came here to force people to become like them or be burned as witches. Burning them was also a successful strategy for stealing property. The thanks Squanto and his people got for their efforts to help the Puritans is a good example of the Puritans despicable behavior. Anyway most people know all this by now but for those that don't and have interest to find out more read Howard Zinns book the Peoples History of the United States.
Too bad they came at all.
Vidal was smart but I'm not sure this is totally accurate. In Ric Burns' 3 part documentary "The Pilgrims" he talks about them living underground in Amsterdam for years after being chased out of England. They were simply practicing a form of Protestantism far stricter than the Church of England and less dependent on the priest and formal structures of the church. In fact the original pilgrims didn't believe in having a priest at all.
Good documentary series, I find it fizzles out at American, as it seems much history here is contested, I imagine the facts aren't all correct, but it links up well enough to give you a summary of what occurred, I imagine some further reading might clarify some specifics. Or should I be a real academic and get all my facts from tv? (sarcasm for the record)
Regardless of how accurate the documentary is, complainers are NOT always right. Controversy by itself is not proof of inaccuracy. Lack of dissent is NOT proof of truth.
Maybe you should highlight the inconsistencies. Maybe you should bolster your accusations with facts.
Which facts aren't correct? Why are they not correct? Who will corroborate your claims?
Uh, Plymouth Rock was not the first English settlement in America. Why is Jamestown always ignored (1607 Virginia).
+John Smith : I was watching and really enjoying this series until I got to the part where English spread throughout America from Plymouth Rock. Could not watch any further. If they get that part wrong, what else is incorrect?
+Mark C I was enjoying it also until they got to Squanto and Massachusetts. Even the Queen recognized this in 2007 when they celebrated the 400th anniversary of the founding of Virginia. In fact, Ralph Stanley was invited to sing for the Queen because he represented the language and music of early Virginia.
In fact, there were three ships of French Huguenots already landed at Jamestown and settled at Manikintown before Plymouth Rock.
Today, we call it Richmond.
+Mark C And I forgot, Pocahontas was declared princess as Squanto was "helping" the Plymouth settlers. OK, so the British call her Rebecca Rolfe, but she was Matoaka. And she is still buried in England and they won't return her body because they declared that the same tribe doesn't exist any more.
She needs to come home.
+John Smith Virginia started it all for the British. They were late, St. Augustine of the Spanish was much earlier.
moorek1967 Yes, the Spanish were the first Europeans to America (if you discount the Vikings). However, the Spanish territories were mostly in the Caribbean islands and South America. They did have outposts in Florida and other parts of the southeastern U.S., but their scope was limited as Britain mostly controlled it. The French had their own territories here too (Lousiana being the notable one) as well as various places in Canada (where French is still spoken).
Interesting trivia: Columbus himself was not Spanish, but Italian. He could not get the Italians to finance him, so we went to the Spanish queen.
The Missouri city is pronounce as "Saint LEWIS".
Also, Cape JER-AR'-DOUGH.
The French also came to settle and create a new society with the native peoples. Read Champlain's biography. Also check out the histories of New Orleans, Saint Louis, and French Canada. French settlements were not all fur trading. But this documentary doesn't bother with background details, so it's no surprise these facts are glossed over. Where he goes deep, he's spot on, but he definitely leaves out a lot of history and, in so doing, misstates history.
no one I know in America has ever said we aren't changing the language...notice he doesn't say who claimed the not changing.
jail are made of tin! In the Big Rick Candy Mnts
I did notice his Illuminati language (sign) 36:19
Except..Jamestown was the first established British colony. And, the story of Squanto isn't like he said.
+moorek1967
The British had also established a colony at Cupids, Newfoundland prior to the Pilgrims landing in Plymouth. Interesting documentary but not very historically accurate.
+moorek1967 It can be argued that Virginia & the Carolinas didn't have the urban centers that quickly developed in the Northeast. There was effectively only one city, Charlestown. Up north, Boston, Providence, New Haven, New York …
Steve Weinstein
It can be argued if you come from a Northern perspective.
Since we are talking about first settlements, then it doesn't matter how quickly an area became urbanized.
Since you brought it up, think about Baltimore and Annapolis. Also, Philadelphia used to be Fort Christina, a Swedish colony.
But you forgot about Savannah also.
+moorek1967 Savannah, like Georgia itself, was a very, very late founding.
Baltimore & Annapolis were founded separately from Virginia.
I think the larger point is that he's right insofar as the Pilgrims were the first whose intentions were to put down roots. Jamestown, as you know, was very different - no families, just adventure seekers after fortune, like the Spanish.
The South had almost no cities. It remained an agrarian, pre-industrialized society, which is one big reason why it lost the Civil War - a point Rhett Butler makes nicely in that early scene in GWTW.
There are plenty of reasons why each society developed differently. But the point is that they did. So I think he's justified in emphasizing the Pilgrims.
The first the settlement established in the U.S.A was Jamestown in Chesapeake Bay in 1607. However since its settlers were a bunch of merchants, scholars or scientists and sailors (that means almost no woman abroad) sponsored by the government, that didn't come to stay, I understand why he chose to speak of Plymouth as a first colony :)
Actually, The "real McCoy" has to do with an oiling system with the Railroad. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_real_McCoy
They are technically Bison, not buffalo.
Actually, the American is LAB-rah-tor-ee, not luh-BOR-uh-tor-ee.
I've heard lab-RAH-tree
Not by a self-respecting American, you haven't.
yo i thought he was talking about a bathroom(like on an airplane) which is luh-BOR-uh-tor-ee
Will Power, actually that would be lavatory when referring to a restroom.
Thought the same thing.
The greatest country on earth? America? I think not.
Lasoo? No, no. Lasso.
I've heard both pronunciations.
So have I.
So that's where passing the buck came from
He's got to work on the American pronunciation of laboratory.
He's from Cumbria. You have to make allowances.
I've read that this author's version of the origin of "nitty gritty" may not be the correct one. Other explanations I've heard were even more, um, graphic.
Ignoring of Jamestown is preposterous. If "Pilgrims" had all died out, English had already been planted in North America.
On a different topic: Finding the ONLY American Aboriginal (out of hundreds of millions) who spoke English must be one of the greatest coincidences in all human history.
That's not how we pronounce laboratory.....it's labratory.
Kanga-fucking-roo!
"the greatest country on earth, America". Why?
If you have to ask a stupid question like that, you'll never understand.
Too bad he didn't have enough time to talk about the English of Hawthorne, Zane Grey, James Fennimore Cooper and Edgar Allen Poe.
+moorek1967 Why? None of those writers made any impact on the development of language, especially Grey, who was a mere commercial pulp scribbler.
+moorek1967 The one 19th century writer he should have mentioned is Whitman.
+Steve Weinstein Whitman didn't perform poetic magic like Dickinson, in terms of language. Dickinson was a master of near rhyme, eye rhyme, assonance, much more creative in use of word forms.
Yeah, too bad it isn't a 10 year, 3 hour-per-episode series highlighting all of your comments.
33:48 This guy does NOT know how to pan for gold!
I heard from a different reliable source "Real McCoy" came from the pottery company. Now confused
Do research.
Gee thanks Mr. Wizard would never have thought of that butt head
32:30 so fanny !!!
very interesting. I particularly liked the part about the black's use of "dat" for that, "don't" for doesn't and "chillun" for children. I was never so stupid as to think the use of these "mispronunciations" as indications of inferiority but I thought it indicated verbal laziness. I never knew they had actual historical context. I still think this way of talking needs to be replaced with correct English (except for chillun, i like that word). I mean, they were taught in school how to correctly pronounce these words just as I was; so why don't they? many have adopted "correct" English but why do so many others continue to purposely speak in a manner that separates them from the rest of society? the Hispanics, Japanese, Czechs and Indians all speak proper English, some with accents but its still grammatically correct, why not the blacks who've been here for many more generations? its called assimilation. one odd thing I've noticed is that blacks will often speak one way around whites and another way amongst themselves. uummm, very strange indeed. oh well; I guess that's my problem.
It's left over from their African languages mixed with their learning of English. It's like a patois. It's also cultural. No matter what they learn in school, they've been taught Ebonics-that's what how some blacks talk is called- at home. Also, they were slaves fora couple of hundred years in America. The other nationalities you mentioned do not have a history of being shipped to a foreign country as slaves. In this circumstance, they often wanted to be understood by each other, but not by outsiders. (Eugene Genovese, "Roll, Jordan, Roll: the World the Slaves Made"). Anyway, if you meet a black person from California, they talk like Californians, and the same is true of black people from New York City and from Oklahoma. They don't all have the same accent, although they may have similar words.
There's a lot that could be said here. There's a quote by Toni Morrison that I think sums it up nicely, though. "In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate."
he is mispronouncing 1/3 of the American words mostly replacing short I with long E
Rob Rice mispronouncing
www.thefreedictionary.com/mispronouncing
America! The Greatest Country in the World!
Too bad Americans do not take such care of the English language as they once did. We have become too informal with it.
+dapsapsrp You missed the entire point of this episode.
it is an american language now.
Well done, you missed the point of the entire series.
Ok, what's up? I thought Long time no see, came from Chinese "ho loi moh gin", "hao jiu bu jian". I had learned it came directly from Cantonese (the first). Can someone back up his assertion that it comes from Native American?
+陈瀚龙 you are probably right, because I am pretty sure that Chinese had traded in the Americas a lot longer beforehand and so would have passed the saying on. Maybe the exact origin wasn't mentioned because it is about the English language and it's evolution and it's direct influence was through the native peoples of America.
Wow, long time no remember I posted this question:) Thanks!
陈瀚龙 Hahaha, no problem mate, I hope life has treated you well since then :)
+Nephilim Slain I'm a foreign English teacher in Xining, China. If I don't expect too much, it treats me very well, thanks:) ......So breathable would be nice, though.
But they do make some pretty interesting masks! I thought I might teach English overseas at one stage, Good luck for the future.
The antebellum South wrote and spoke British English until after the war when aristocracy as a whole was destroyed.
hahaa, i have dyslexia, bulls.... Here they tell how English words has been writen difrently in England and then USA. My dyslexia is going same direction, taking letter awy and changing cee to s etc. At my native language I hit etymology of words. And sometimes i is not just important to write correctly, not necessary to put whole your concentration to rules of writing, much much important things that writen corrctly.
and one thing is that language is living thing, when you use exacly expressions perhaps there is no word for certain fine emotion or situation what you are writing down - telling to other so you become creative how to use phenoms, it kind of music in it's basic sense, you express yourself. I dont meant that we would talk only about ourselves : )
Ummmm...Native American words didn't come into the English language in their thousands, like with French, Danish, Latin and Greek because Native American languages did not have writing systems. You can only adopt words from other languages if you can write them down. But if there's no writing, then you won't write them down and you'll forget...
The next generation forgets. Logical conclusion: if reading ONE book is socially ordained over reading 100 books - ergo the society becomes ... (yeah) Prove your premises and the follow-on conclusions or go back to sleep.
Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin, Wyoming.
Why is the old English called in that way? It wasn't only the language of Angles. Actually, it could be called old Saxonish.
Somehow when Essex, Sussex, Wessex, Mercia, Anglia, and Northumbria united ... they called the united kingdom Anglaland, then Englaland, then England....so the language became English.
The natives were Solutreans here before the Indians.
Based on this part of the series, the rest of the series probably isn't worth watching.
What Noah Webster did was NOT to improve the English language but to BASTARDISE it. Removing 'u' from "colour", "harbour", "flavour", etc., was a blatant example of such BASTARDISATION. Webster should've left the spelling conventions ALONE. He had wantonly destroyed the efforts put in by Dr Samuel Johnson of Oxford University in codifying the English language and the spelling thereof so that everyone could understand it. In History's pages, Noah Webster should be reviled and condemned.
Neil Forbes Johnson was the dictionary king imho
+Betty Stephens: Dr Samuel Johnson was INDEED the dictionary King.
Wrong. Jamestown was the foundation.
Bollocks. Discuss.
Have to be honest I hate American English 😪
The Two Greatest Injuries or Deceptions to our race, the first could be cited as Anglicisation; the second, stemming from The American Revolution. The roots of the first are ancient, from B.C. even- most of the history, from historians of England, isn't really correct. The Invasion was by English or Frisians alone- no Saxons, who are Celtic, were involved. The English successfully concealed basic facts, such as surrounding themselves. The English Race was Urwetu, which means of a forbidden mixture of races; none of the Basic 13 should mix to make children. Not one of the pure, basic race lines; did not have the blessing of a special Land assigned, or given to them. They came from the east into Allbion, a Celtic land, very disappointed, a characteristic trait of Perdition types. They stayed in an abandoned village, built by Danish, Hesekedefen. There they hatched their plot; through violence, murder, child kidnapping (killing the parents) of Celts, and Race Vampirism, they aquired an overrule in Allbion, which they renamed England. All 13 Kings of Allbion they murdered; holding them consecutively in a dungeon, those kings would not agree to bow down under English hegemony. One of the first martyred, King Celt... after his death, they went into his regional city of Nehitevmetebec, sacked it, murdered all the parents and took the children into captivity and servitude. This is why such a huge percentage of people calling themselves English were actually Anglicised Celts. The Vampirism consisted in that all their Race Energy was drained out of them, and the English tried to clone English out of them. Ye, of this land acquired in a Pirate robbery, have no Race Energy, either. There exists no Race called by the name American. By that Aquarius, all of "England" had correctly the Celtic Sign; all Sign and Channel for English was removed from the planet permanently, all of English race were destroyed and sent to a punishment. The Goddess Bellona or Britannia, also removed and sent to a Punishment. No English has ever resided in this land, and it is not possible, any have or have had English ancestry- they never mixed with other races, with their grand design on others and the world. Possibly, Anglicised Celtic in ancestry, true... We have the very same Rezefede, or Race Attribution, Anglicised Celt- all have the same attribution at present. The Land's Over Sign here is now fully Celtic. English, now a Zybit Language is in the 24th best or worst category of all languages for us; the best, Scottish Gaelic, German and Irish a little bit less surely best. All Race Blessing and Energy was lost for those joining with an "America", best to rename the land Nova Scotia or Alba Nuadh, to throw off a curse. It could be made a Race, or Rezefede Land; was made and is a Not-Race, or Tedehed Land, having been acquired or made through most forbidden means...
Butchering the language doesn't improve it.