Letters

Linguistics

Matt Bruekers

Contents - Dec 2006 - Buy a copy now Editorial: The first Christmas - Peter Westmore Benedict XVI challenges 'de-Christianisation' of society - Michael Gilchrist News: The Church Around the World Sydney RCIA conference for 2007 on authentic formation of new Catholics - Paula Flynn 'Lost!' controversy: Archbishop Bathersby's reply - AD2000 Report Catechesis of the Good Shepherd: the Montessori method for RE - Anne Delsorte A 'best practice' guide to priestly vocations Modest dress: Suitable attire for Mass: the moral dimension - Bishop John W. Yanta Religious Life: Tyburn Sisters' communities spread around the world - Tess Livingstone 2006 National Church Life Survey: important questions overlooked - Michael Gilchrist Shrines: Marian Valley: Queensland's centre of pilgrimage - Peter Westmore Letters: Vatican guidelines on Holy Communion for politicians - Vincent Bemowski Letters: A must read for faithful Catholics - Frank Bellet Letters: Liberal Catholicism - Paula Gartland Letters: News from India - Fr Francis Pinto CSsR Letters: Church teaching - Mark Moriarty Letters: Infant Baptism Letters: Community? - Peter Gilet Letters: Christian differences - Alan Barron Letters: True Church - E. Makaus Letters: Linguistics - Matt Bruekers Letters: Liturgical language - Ted Hayhoe Letters: Why apologise? - Concerned Catholic Books: The Shroud Story, by Brendan Whiting - Peter Westmore (reviewer) Books: COME, LORD JESUS:Reflections on the Advent and Christmas Seasons, James Tolhurst - Michael Gilchrist Events: Advent and Christmas Ceremonies - Priestly Fraternity of St Peter Books: SACRED PLACES, PILGRIM WAYS: Catholic Pilgrimages in France and Belgium - Michael Gilchrist (reviewer) Books: New Titles from AD Books Reflection: Jesus' law of love and the Ten Commandments - Fr Dennis Byrnes

The argument about 'politically correct' language has been going on for a long time; yet, there is a simple solution because the problem derives from an ignorance of Anglo-Saxon (English) linguistics.

To a European, who by now has spent more than fifty years in Australia, it is surprising to observe how little local English-speaking people appear to have been taught about grammar and the Anglo-Saxon roots of their language; for the Saxon languages (the English and German varieties alike) are as 'politically correct' as any diehard feminist could ever hope for.

In Germanic languages there always was a clear distinction between the sexes. In Saxon, a male was a werman, a female was a wifman. (Wer, wher, weer, vir, etc, are all derived from the Sanskrit vira, meaning male.) Lazy usage of the language dropped the wer from werman and changed wifman to wife and woman.

The obvious solution to the feminist hang-up would have been to reinstall the word werman, because wer and its local variations and derivations are still a common indicator of the male gender in all Germanic languages: werewolf in English, Wehrmacht (male power, army) in German, weergeld (a former conscription-tax) in Dutch, etc, are some, still current, examples.

If our feminists hadn't been so ignorant they would have insisted on reintroducing werman as a male indicator, rather than bastardising the English language with the introduction of neo-logisms such as chairwoman, chairperson, wimmen, etc.

Let me close with a quote from a medieval Anglo-Saxon legend about the martyrdom of St Agatha, which relates that her final prayer included the sentence: 'I thank you God, for having created me a man.'

Readers who would like to get a more complete idea about the interaction between the Saxon language and its English heir should read the, sometimes hilarious, 13 page article, 'In the Image of God: Male, Female and the Language of the Liturgy', in which the self-proclaimed feminist Suzanne Scorsone trashes the idea of an inclusive language (Communio, Volume XVI, #1, Spring 1989, p.139).

MATT BRUEKERS
Lesmurdie, WA

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 19 No 11 (December 2006 - January 2007), p. 16