Celebration

Wednesday, December 1st, my second novel, The China-Africa Parallax: A Ryan and Gillian Mystery, goes into production. I hope to have a finished copy in hand by Christmas. This is fun and exciting.

Why is language so illogical?

How come we never hear about gruntled employees?

On the other hand, what is the speed of dark?

What is a free gift?

Where do forest rangers go to get away from it all?

Why do builders avoid having a 13^th floor, but publishers don’t fear chapter 11?

How are self-help groups possible?

Why is there an interstate highway in Hawaii?

Why isn’t phonics spelled the way it sounds?

What happened to Preparations “A” through “G?”

What happened to the first “6” Ups?

How much deeper would some oceans be if sponges didn’t live there?

If olive oil comes from olives, where does baby oil come from?

Can a TV program really have a guest host?

What do you love?

         Most churches and many homes have Advent wreaths. Each Sunday in Advent a candle is lighted, symbolizing, weekly in this order: Peace, Hope, Joy, Faith and Love.

         Christmas Day brings the Love candle and at first glance, this seems an easy symbol to interpret because we know about Love.

         We love our family, we love our friends, we love our pets, and a whole bunch other things we say we love.

         For example, we love ice cream and cake; we love Stilton cheese; we love barbecued ribs; we love the Huskers; we love a big, fat, juicy hamburger; we love a special kind of pizza.        

         In American English and in American culture the word love is scattered and 
thrown around like confetti at a New Year’s party. I’m trying to use love more sparingly and and more intentionally.

God Rest Ye Merry, Gentleman

When the peasants of England sang God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen more than 500 years ago, they understood a vastly different meaning from what people in America think today when they hear it. 

       "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" was sung for hundreds of years before being published in the 1800s. Queen Victoria loved Christmas carols so during her time this song began to find favor in the Anglican Church. Soon the protestant English clergy of that era were even enthusiastically teaching "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" to their congregations. Moving to both Europe and America, the carol became a favorite throughout the Christian world. It is still sung in much the same way as it was five hundred years ago.

               The problem is that few of today’s singers fully understand the beginning of the carol. This is because language is dynamic and words change over time.

       Today, when people say Merry Christmas, they mean “happy.” Five hundred years ago, when "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" was written, “merry” had a very different meaning.

        You know of Robin Hood’s "Merry Men." Now, they may have been happy, but in the time of Robin Hood the word “merry” that described them meant “great or mighty.” Thus, in the middle ages a strong army was a merry army, a great singer was a merry singer, and a mighty ruler was a merry ruler.

       So when the English carolers of the Victorian era sang, "merry gentlemen," they meant great or mighty men. Even when translated to "God rest you mighty gentlemen," the song still makes very little sense.

        This is because another word that has a much different meaning in today’s world and a punctuation mark that has been lost. The word "rest" in "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" simply meant “keep or make.” Yet to completely uncover the final key understanding the meaning, a comma needs to placed after the word “merry.”

       Therefore, in Modern English, the first line would read "God make you mighty, gentlemen." Using this translation the old carol suddenly makes perfect sense, as does the most common saying of the holidays, "Merry Christmas."

       You just have to know how to translate the words into Modern English and have a very Mighty Christmas!

Language Rules

The title of this blog is ambiguous because the two words have no real context of meaning. On the one hand, the title could indicate to the reader that I'm going to list a bunch of rules that distinguish correct English usage from incorrect usage. If you expect this, too bad. Another meaning of the title could be that I think language rules, as a ninth-grader  might say about an item or idea that assumes the quality of awesome or boss. If you expect this, good.