"Our Language" by Simeon Potter

More than twenty years ago, when I was still a student involved in translation studies at the University of Mons, Belgium, my father offered me an old book that he had kept and cherished for years: "Our Language" by the late Professor Simeon Potter. It was still a time when offering a rather old paperback version of a book meant a lot. It was then considered like sharing some bits of family heritage.

 

My Dad has retired for a few years, after having made a whole career as a language teacher in Southern Belgium's secondary schools and having been one of the few members of the Commission for Germanic language teaching programs officially recognized by the Ministry for Education of Brussels-Wallonia Federation.
The book which had been offered as a gift, a Pelican Original, was and still remains a classic for linguists.

I had read most of "Our Language" during my studies and have just plunged again into this excellent little book about the evolution of the English language. Each page of the book reveals some surprising anecdotes or astonishing explanations on how the English language and/or vocabulary has evolved and been influenced by other languages or dialects through the ages.

 

You are for instance reminded "that of all the living languages of Europe Lithuanian is the most archaic, preserving in its structural pattern the primitive features of Indo-European most faithfully. Lithuanian still preserves seven case-forms in its nouns, four tenses and four moods in its verbs, an elaborate series of participles and highly involved system of inflexions."

 

In the book written by Professor Simeon Potter, you will read that "the notion that there is any virtue in uniform spelling is recent. Shakespeare himself varied the spelling of his own name."

 

You will also learn that Dr Samuel Johnson, the first really authoritative lexicographer, "was not interested in the improvement of English orthography. He and other lexicographers, on the other hand, revised the French Academy Dictionary and changed the forms of some five thousand words or one quarter of the whole French vocabulary."

 

Another interesting anecdote is about the translation of Friedrich Nietzsche's Übermensch by George Bernard Shaw. He translated Übermensch as superman while others had previously rendered it beyondman and overman. It set the fashion in super words, especially in America.
 

At a time when more interest is being shown in language learning than ever before, Simeon Potter's book makes an excellent introduction to modern linguistics.

 

As internet users commented on some fora, websites and blogs, "Our Language" by Simeon Potter is one of the most interesting, informative and accessible books on the English language and its origins that is available. It is not a new book (first published in 1950) but it is still as accurate as ever. Definitely a book to (re)discover for all language lovers!