60 seconds in a minute, right? Seconds? Why not 60 firsts in a minute? Or 60 thirds? Why seconds?
For that you first have to ask "Minute? What's that?"
Comes from Latin. The Hour is divided into 60 parts. Called "pars minuta prima". Meaning First Small Part. The first division of the hour is into 60 “minute" parts.
The second division of the hour is thus, pars minuta secunda. Tada! The Second!
Bet you never connected in your mind that "minute" of time is the same spelling as "minute" of size. Because for size we pronounce it as "my-nyoot" and for time we pronounce it as "minnit". And ofcourse if its Second from secunda, shouldn't the minute be Prime from prima?
What's all this confusion anyway? It's about English being a mongrel language.
Believe it or not but English is a dehati language, a language of undeveloped, uneducated, uncivilized barbarians. Unlike German, French, Italian, Persian, Latin, Sanskrit, which are all languages of educated priests, Kings, intellectuals and the cultured elite.
The English picked up whatever words they came across from the Continental European elites who ruled them, pronounced them however they could manage, fitted them together as was functionally useful.
And created a language that has flexibility of syntax, pronunciation, meaning, that none of the formal classical languages have. This made English an organically expanding monster, who's rules are so flexible that it can adapt into infinite forms, from the Queen's English of William Shakespeare to "Show bobs and vagene" of India to the Reggae of Jamaica. That has made it the Language of The World.
We can all talk to each other, no matter who we are, through English. If you can speak some English, no matter how broken, you are connected to the world. If you can't speak any English, whether you're French or Chinese or Indian or Arab, you live in an isolated bubble, cut off from the rest of Humanity.
So why the focus on Good Queen's English? Because that anchors all the forms of English in the world on one rock and prevents them from diverging away from each other into mutually unintelligible languages. And maintains English as a language of culture, intellectualism, science, and politics and creates a global Anglosphere that rules the world.
So next time you're late to a meeting say, "I'll be there in 15 minutae". If someone objects, tell them to get an education.
For that you first have to ask "Minute? What's that?"
Comes from Latin. The Hour is divided into 60 parts. Called "pars minuta prima". Meaning First Small Part. The first division of the hour is into 60 “minute" parts.
The second division of the hour is thus, pars minuta secunda. Tada! The Second!
Bet you never connected in your mind that "minute" of time is the same spelling as "minute" of size. Because for size we pronounce it as "my-nyoot" and for time we pronounce it as "minnit". And ofcourse if its Second from secunda, shouldn't the minute be Prime from prima?
What's all this confusion anyway? It's about English being a mongrel language.
Believe it or not but English is a dehati language, a language of undeveloped, uneducated, uncivilized barbarians. Unlike German, French, Italian, Persian, Latin, Sanskrit, which are all languages of educated priests, Kings, intellectuals and the cultured elite.
The English picked up whatever words they came across from the Continental European elites who ruled them, pronounced them however they could manage, fitted them together as was functionally useful.
And created a language that has flexibility of syntax, pronunciation, meaning, that none of the formal classical languages have. This made English an organically expanding monster, who's rules are so flexible that it can adapt into infinite forms, from the Queen's English of William Shakespeare to "Show bobs and vagene" of India to the Reggae of Jamaica. That has made it the Language of The World.
We can all talk to each other, no matter who we are, through English. If you can speak some English, no matter how broken, you are connected to the world. If you can't speak any English, whether you're French or Chinese or Indian or Arab, you live in an isolated bubble, cut off from the rest of Humanity.
So why the focus on Good Queen's English? Because that anchors all the forms of English in the world on one rock and prevents them from diverging away from each other into mutually unintelligible languages. And maintains English as a language of culture, intellectualism, science, and politics and creates a global Anglosphere that rules the world.
So next time you're late to a meeting say, "I'll be there in 15 minutae". If someone objects, tell them to get an education.
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