Uncleftish Beholding

"Uncleftish Beholding" (1989) is a short text by Poul Anderson, included in his anthology "All One Universe".[1] It is designed to illustrate what English might look like without its large number of loanwords from languages such as French, Greek, and Latin,[2] especially with regard to the proportion of scientific words with origins in those languages.

Uncleftish Beholding
Presented1989
Author(s)Poul Anderson
SubjectAtomic theory
PurposeLinguistic purism in English

Written as a demonstration of linguistic purism in English, the work explains atomic theory using Germanic words almost exclusively and coining new words when necessary;[3] many of these new words have cognates in modern German, an important scientific language in its own right. The title phrase uncleftish beholding calques "atomic theory."[4]

To illustrate, the text begins:[5]

For most of its being, mankind did not know what things are made of, but could only guess. With the growth of worldken, we began to learn, and today we have a beholding of stuff and work that watching bears out, both in the workstead and in daily life.

It goes on to define firststuffs (chemical elements), such as waterstuff (hydrogen), sourstuff (oxygen), and ymirstuff (uranium), as well as bulkbits (molecules), bindings (compounds), and several other terms important to uncleftish worldken (atomic science).[6] Wasserstoff and Sauerstoff are the modern German words for hydrogen and oxygen, and in Dutch the modern equivalents are waterstof and zuurstof.[7] Sunstuff refers to helium, which derives from ἥλιος, the Ancient Greek word for 'sun'. Ymirstuff references Ymir, a giant in Norse mythology similar to Uranus in Greek mythology.

Glossary
Comparison of terms in "Uncleftish Beholding" and English
Term in "Uncleftish Beholding" Term in English Origin In English
uncleft atom from Greek atomos 'uncut, unhewn; indivisible', from a- 'not' + tomos 'a cutting',[8]
uncleftish atomic as above
beholding theory from Greek theōria 'contemplation, speculation; a looking at, viewing; a sight, show, spectacle, things looked at', from theōrein 'to consider, speculate, look at', from theōros 'spectator',
worldken science from Latin scientia 'knowledge'.[9] World + ken means "knowledge of the world".
stuff
firststuff		 matter
element		 from Latin materia 'substance from which something is made',[10]
from Latin elementum 'rudiment, first principle, matter in its most basic form'[11]
forward bernstonish lading positive electric charge from Greek ḗlektron 'amber',[12] in German bernstein ('burn-stone')
from Late Latin carricare 'to load a wagon or cart'[13]
backward bernstonish lading negative electric charge
forwardladen positive
backwardladen negative
waterstuff hydrogen from Greek for 'water'[14]
sunstuff helium from Greek for 'sun'[14]
stonestuff lithium from Greek for 'stone'[14]
coalstuff carbon from Latin for 'coal'[14]
chokestuff nitrogen Name from niter, from the Ancient Greek νιτρων nitron from Ancient Egyptian netjeri, related to the Hebrew néter, for salt-derived ashes (their interrelationship is not clear).[15]

Chokestuff is inspired by chokedamp, a term for oxygenless air found in mines and other confined spaces. Chokedamp is composed mostly of nitrogen.

sourstuff oxygen from Greek for 'sharp' or 'sour'[14]
glasswortstuff sodium Glasswort was used as a source of soda for glassmaking
flintstuff silicon from Latin for 'flint'[14]
potashstuff potassium Latinised form of potash[16]
ymirstuff uranium from Uranus (Norse equivalent is Ymir)
aegirstuff neptunium from Neptune (Norse equvialent is Ægir)
helstuff plutonium from Pluto (Norse equivalent is Hel)
roundaround board of the firststuffs Periodic Table of Elements from Latin periodus (“complete sentence, period, circuit”), from Ancient Greek períodos (“cycle, period of time”)
farer ion from Greek neuter present participle of ienai, meaning "to go".
samestead isotope Greek roots isos (ἴσος "equal") and topos (τόπος "place"), meaning "the same place"

The vocabulary used in "Uncleftish Beholding" does not completely derive from Anglo-Saxon. Around, from Old French reond (Modern French rond), completely displaced Old English ymbe (modern English umbe (now obsolete), cognate to German um and Latin ambi-) and left no "native" English word for this concept. The text also contains the French-derived words rest, ordinary and sort.

The text gained increased exposure and popularity after being circulated around the Internet,[17] and has served as inspiration for some inventors of Germanic English conlangs. Douglas Hofstadter, in discussing the piece in his book Le Ton beau de Marot, jocularly refers to the use of only Germanic roots for scientific pieces as "Ander-Saxon."

See also

References
  1. Anderson, Poul (1996). All One Universe. Macmillan. ISBN 9780312858735.
  2. Omissi, Adrastos (2015-07-11). "Swear words, etymology, and the history of English". OUPblog. Archived from the original on 2015-07-14. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  3. Allén, Sture, ed. (1995). Of Thoughts and Words: Proceedings of Nobel Symposium 92: The Relation Between Language and Mind (Conference publication). River Edge, New Jersey: Imperial College Press. pp. 217–266. ISBN 9781860940057. LCCN 96130659. OCLC 34912899.
  4. "Uncleftish Beholding". Centre for Complexity Science, University of Warwick. 12 Feb 2014. Archived from the original on 2014-11-12. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  5. Anderson, Poul (December 1989). "Uncleftish Beholding". Analog Science Fiction and Fact. Vol. 109, no. 13. Davis Publications. pp. 132–135.
  6. Hofstadter, Douglas R. (August 1994). "Speechstuff and Thoughtstuff: Musings on the Resonances Created by Words and Phrases via the Subliminal Perception of their Buried Parts". Nobel Symposium 92. Stockholm. doi:10.1142/9781908979681_0023.
  7. R.L.G. (2014-01-28). "Johnson: What might have been". The Economist. Berlin. Archived from the original on 2019-02-20. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  8. "atom | Search Online Etymology Dictionary". www.etymonline.com. Retrieved 2021-03-19.
  9. "Definition of science | Dictionary.com". www.dictionary.com. Retrieved 2021-03-19.
  10. "matter | Search Online Etymology Dictionary". www.etymonline.com. Retrieved 2021-03-19.
  11. "element | Search Online Etymology Dictionary". www.etymonline.com. Retrieved 2021-03-19.
  12. "electric | Search Online Etymology Dictionary". www.etymonline.com. Retrieved 2023-02-04.
  13. "charge | Search Online Etymology Dictionary". www.etymonline.com. Retrieved 2021-03-19.
  14. Stwertka, Albert (1996). A guide to the elements. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-508083-1. OCLC 33013451.
  15. "nitre". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  16. "potash | Origin and meaning of potash by Online Etymology Dictionary". www.etymonline.com. Retrieved 2021-03-19.
  17. "Johnson: What might have been". The Economist. 2014-01-28. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2021-03-19.
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