Those Frenchies!

I have a day of rest. No obligations, no need to jump in the car. I can just be at home today.

Weird.

I actually need the rest. I've been sneezing my head off. Today is the first time in two days I haven't felt like someone was trying to squeeze my face in. So rest is good. I managed to finish Baroness Orczy's The Elusive Pimpernel, a sequel to The Scarlet Pimpernel. I loved it very much. Percy and Marguerite in love. Chauvelin out for revenge. Romance and intrigue. What more would you want?

Speaking of France, I read an interesting article today. "French aghast at new English incursion to their language." The gist of it is that the French government is upset that their entrant in Eurovision will be singing in English. Eurovision is like American Idol, only older and international. This year's contest has performers representing 43 countries. My favorite line from this article was the idea that French is a "threatened" language. I imagine a protected habitat where where French rolls off the tongue freely and gabbles in pastures that inspired the French impressionists.

Linguistically speaking, a global economy threatens all language. When people interact with other cultures, their languages intermingle. I remember watching a series called the Story of English. It showed how English evolved and adapted to each situation where it confronted another language. Through war, occupation, migration and immigration English has changed. The only way to avoid change is to become secluded and avoid interaction with the world. But if you avoid interaction, I believe you are threatened with a greater loss than language. We humans need contact and interaction with others. That's why language developed in the first place.

Ha! I'm a homeschooler talking about socialization!