I sat down here at the puter. WHAT is going on?

I suspect a pinched nerve now. If that's the case, then physical therapy, I think is the next step. My email is piling up to the point that I'll either have to delete a bunch of stuff, or people will start getting a message to the effect that this email box is full.

Watched a very interesting program on the local PBS station on "Do You Speak American?" The presenter toured the country and talked to people from all over. Interesting how some accents developed, and how some regions have retained the dialect of the original settlers in the area, particularly in the Appalachians. I couldn't understand but one or two words of the Cajun patois. But Ah shore did git a tickle of mem'ry when Ah heard the Tayxus cowboys tawkin'!

Then, the farther west in Texas we get some Spanish mixed in, words so common to the language we've even forgotten their source: rodeo, bronco, f'r instance. But California is where we get Spanglish, especially in the Los Angeles area. Check out a map of California and see how many cities have Spanish names (and especially saints' names)...even our own capital city.

The interesting thing is how the language keeps evolving. How many words and expressions come from the different sub-cultures like surfing, skateboarding, computers (whoever heard of "nerd" before computers?) have become common in the lexicon.

And, of course, the adoption of words from the languages of people immigrating from other countries. Don't suppose English, however it's spoken, will ever become a "dead" language as Latin did. Seems it's the lingua franca of the world now.

Interesting subject to pursue, but I think I'll go to bed now.

Shalom