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Be Glad You Were Not Fathered by James Augustus Henry Murray
I am reading a fascinating book (thank you Marc) called "the mother tongue, english and how it got that way" by Bill Bryson. How he manages to make this rather dry topic enthralling, amusing, and even suspenseful I don't quite know, but I have had a hard time putting it down.
I just finished the segment which chronicles the staggering project undertaken by the dutiful bank clerk, James Augustus Henry Murray, namely, the Oxford English Dictionary. He began editing this dictionary in 1879, and continued ceaselessly until his death in 1915, at the age of 78. He was working on the letter "U" when he died, and the project went on for thirteen more years until the final volume was finished.
Imagine the labor involved in compiling every word used in English since 1150, tracing it back through all its shifting meanings and uses to its present day definition and spelling. Without a computer.
Now imagine growing up as one of Murray's eleven children, who (according to Bryson) were inducted into the family endeavor as soon as they were able to read and write, sifting through several million slips of paper upon which were recorded bits and pieces of the last seven centuries of the English language.
As I pondered their unfortunate fates, I could see potential for a major motion picture. No doubt, each child had their own way of coping with this servitude. There may have been several who accepted and embraced the family mission with pragmatic diligence. I can imagine at least one who would have been stockpiling swear words for muttering under one's breath when one's father had his back turned. Perhaps the prepubescent boys enjoyed comparing newfound words for certain parts of the human anatomy, and using their superior knowlege to gain celebrity status with their peers. Others may have become surly, and intentionally mispelled words. In fact, who is to say that they are not responsible for such problem words as "knight" or "champagne"? J. A. H. Murry was one of the proponents of spelling reform, along with Mark Twain, pushing for univerally adopting the phonetic spelling of words. "Laff" for "laugh", for example. Maybe his offspring slipped a few knotty ones past him just to be obstinate.
Other funny scenes for the movie might include the Murray clan inventing the spelling bee, or using their extensive vocabulary to communicate with each other privately, like a secret code in public. Or the awful fate of a clumsy child who tips over a candle in the study, sending years of painstaking handwritten notes ablaze. Maybe each child can only speak with the words beginning with the letters they are working on in the alphabet. Now that would be a challenging screenplay.
At any rate, devoting one's life to the cataloguing of the English language by default could be a drag, especially if you actually preferred math or science, or cooking or carpentry. Not to mention being forced to work with your snotty brothers and sisters all the time. Anybody know another word for "slavery?" I wonder if any of them ever ran away . . .
I just finished the segment which chronicles the staggering project undertaken by the dutiful bank clerk, James Augustus Henry Murray, namely, the Oxford English Dictionary. He began editing this dictionary in 1879, and continued ceaselessly until his death in 1915, at the age of 78. He was working on the letter "U" when he died, and the project went on for thirteen more years until the final volume was finished.
Imagine the labor involved in compiling every word used in English since 1150, tracing it back through all its shifting meanings and uses to its present day definition and spelling. Without a computer.
Now imagine growing up as one of Murray's eleven children, who (according to Bryson) were inducted into the family endeavor as soon as they were able to read and write, sifting through several million slips of paper upon which were recorded bits and pieces of the last seven centuries of the English language.
As I pondered their unfortunate fates, I could see potential for a major motion picture. No doubt, each child had their own way of coping with this servitude. There may have been several who accepted and embraced the family mission with pragmatic diligence. I can imagine at least one who would have been stockpiling swear words for muttering under one's breath when one's father had his back turned. Perhaps the prepubescent boys enjoyed comparing newfound words for certain parts of the human anatomy, and using their superior knowlege to gain celebrity status with their peers. Others may have become surly, and intentionally mispelled words. In fact, who is to say that they are not responsible for such problem words as "knight" or "champagne"? J. A. H. Murry was one of the proponents of spelling reform, along with Mark Twain, pushing for univerally adopting the phonetic spelling of words. "Laff" for "laugh", for example. Maybe his offspring slipped a few knotty ones past him just to be obstinate.
Other funny scenes for the movie might include the Murray clan inventing the spelling bee, or using their extensive vocabulary to communicate with each other privately, like a secret code in public. Or the awful fate of a clumsy child who tips over a candle in the study, sending years of painstaking handwritten notes ablaze. Maybe each child can only speak with the words beginning with the letters they are working on in the alphabet. Now that would be a challenging screenplay.
At any rate, devoting one's life to the cataloguing of the English language by default could be a drag, especially if you actually preferred math or science, or cooking or carpentry. Not to mention being forced to work with your snotty brothers and sisters all the time. Anybody know another word for "slavery?" I wonder if any of them ever ran away . . .
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Comment by Rose Wolfe on January 13, 2009 at 1:24pm
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Imagine if they had to deal w/ today's evolution of language short hand used in im's and texts. I don't have to worry about spelling anymore, Google does it all for me!
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Comment by Chuck Stromme on January 4, 2009 at 4:31pm
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You're the second person in the last year or so to recommend this book to me. Now I'll have to consider it. Thanks for the excellent review. It might be especially appropriate for members of our forum. Has anyone else read it? Well, besides Marc, who hasn't yet joined.
"Bondage"?
Chuck
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