Path: ...!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: Aidan Kehoe Newsgroups: sci.lang Subject: Re: William Cobbett born (9-3-1763) Date: Sun, 10 Mar 2024 10:43:19 +0000 Lines: 25 Message-ID: <87le6q8j08.fsf@parhasard.net> References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: individual.net frh/1NlMY1RvdOiCe3dIaQaXursUqAVPRQMWd/iA0jnvqLS1zI Cancel-Lock: sha1:QnVcQL2jnj8XPzlXkmNDome35D4= sha1:aRIEqfbtS/jtmMMIR/E0n/oI1fc= sha256:73AzYHVwx+AK+IBVU0Cj4hsWWdeEqWQW8Ui+vDlVyEI= User-Agent: Gnus/5.101 (Gnus v5.10.10) XEmacs/21.5-b35 (Linux-aarch64) Bytes: 1916 Ar an deichiú lá de mí Márta, scríobh Ross Clark: > [...] And finally, a memory of how he spent his time when he was in the army > (1783-91): > > "I procured me a Lowth's grammar [see 8 February] and applied myself to the > study of it with unceasing assiduity and not without some profit...I wrote > the whole grammar out two or three times. I got it by heart; I repeated it > every morning and every evening, and, when on guard, I imposed on myself the > task of saying it all over once every time I was posted sentinel." Very unusual to do that with one’s first language these days. A Brazilian of my acquaintance (grandparents moved to Rio Grande do Sul in a hurry in 1946, had native German with a Black Forest accent), in Dublin to learn English, would get up at 05:00 every morning to do exra prep for her language classes, I could well imagine her doing that, and I am sure there are other second-language learners that take things that seriously. But first language? -- ‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out / How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’ (C. Moore)