I have sent the following letter to the Guardian. I don't suppose
they will publish it:
"During the Newsnight interview in which David Starkey complained
about "this language which is wholly false, which is this Jamaican
patois that has been intruded in England" (13th August), it was
shocking to note that he himself used a form of language which was
distressingly alien. I estimate that at least 40%, and quite possibly
more, of his vocabulary consisted of utterly foreign words forced on
us by a wholly other culture - words which were intruded in England
from the language of Norman French immigrants to our country, such as
"language" and "false". And there were many other alienating aspects
to his speech. It was unfortunate, for instance, that he chose to use
the term "intruded", employing a word insinuated into our language by
sub-cultures in our society who abandoned their true Anglo-Saxon
heritage and instead imitated the wholly false language of Roman
invaders."
Peter Trudgill
Honorary Professor of Sociolinguistics
University of East Anglia
Norwich
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