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From: Aidan Kehoe <kehoea@parhasard.net>
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: Re: William Cobbett born (9-3-1763)
Date: Sun, 10 Mar 2024 10:43:19 +0000
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 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)