117-433: Sir Thomas Urquhart (1611–1660) was a Scottish aristocrat, writer, and translator. He is best known for his translation of the works of French Renaissance writer François Rabelais to English. Urquhart was born to Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty and Christian Elphinstone, daughter of Alexander Elphinstone, 4th Lord Elphinstone . At the age of eleven he attended King's College , University of Aberdeen . Afterwards he toured
234-707: A cot–caught merger , which is rapidly spreading throughout the whole country. However, the South, Inland North, and a Northeastern coastal corridor passing through Rhode Island, New York City, Philadelphia, and Baltimore typically preserve an older cot–caught distinction. For that Northeastern corridor, the realization of the THOUGHT vowel is particularly marked , as depicted in humorous spellings, like in tawk and cawfee ( talk and coffee ), which intend to represent it being tense and diphthongal : [oə] . A split of TRAP into two separate phonemes , using different
351-668: A Master of Requests . Between 1545 and 1547 François Rabelais lived in Metz , then a free imperial city and a republic, to escape the condemnation by the University of Paris . In 1547, he became curate of Saint-Christophe-du-Jambet in Maine and of Meudon near Paris. With support from members of the prominent du Bellay family , Rabelais had received approval from King Francis I to continue to publish his collection on 19 September 1545 for six years. However, on 31 December 1546,
468-570: A Roman Catholic , Rabelais was a humanist , and favoured classical Antiquity over the "barbarous" Middle Ages, believing in the need for reform to return science and arts to their classical blossoming, and theology and the Church to their original Evangelical form as expressed in the Gospels. In particular, he was critical of monasticism . Rabelais criticised what he considered to be inauthentic Christian positions by both Catholics and Protestants, and
585-520: A pronunciations for example in gap [æ] versus gas [eə] , further defines New York City as well as Philadelphia–Baltimore accents. Most Americans preserve all historical /r/ sounds, using what is known as a rhotic accent . The only traditional r -dropping (or non-rhoticity) in regional U.S. accents variably appears today in eastern New England , New York City , and some of the former plantation South primarily among older speakers (and, relatedly, some African-American Vernacular English across
702-477: A universal language , and his most celebrated work, his translation of Rabelais. Urquhart returned to the Continent some time after 1653, perhaps as a condition of his release by Cromwell. Little is known of his life after this time. He died no later than 1660, because in that year his younger brother took up his hereditary titles. There is a legend that Urquhart died in a fit of laughter on receiving news of
819-399: A Greek manuscript from the printer. Gryphius published Rabelais' translations and annotations of Hippocrates , Galen and Giovanni Manardo . In 1537 he returned to Montpellier to pay the fees to obtain his licence to practice medicine (April 3) and obtained his doctorate the following month (May 22). Upon his return to Lyon in the summer, he gave an anatomy lesson at Lyon's Hôtel-Dieu using
936-631: A complex phenomenon of "both convergence and divergence": some accents are homogenizing and leveling , while others are diversifying and deviating further away from one another. Having been settled longer than the American West Coast, the East Coast has had more time to develop unique accents, and it currently comprises three or four linguistically significant regions, each of which possesses English varieties both different from each other as well as quite internally diverse: New England ,
1053-447: A consonant, such as in pearl , car and fort . Non-rhotic American accents, those that do not pronounce ⟨r⟩ except before a vowel, such as some accents of Eastern New England , New York City , and African-Americans , and a specific few (often older ones) spoken by Southerners , are often quickly noticed by General American listeners and perceived as sounding especially ethnic, regional, or antiquated. Rhoticity
1170-488: A fat Swiss guy on a cannon. In the Prologue to Gargantua the narrator addresses the: "Most illustrious drinkers, and you the most precious pox-ridden—for to you and you alone are my writings dedicated ..." before turning to Plato's Banquet . An unprecedented syphilis epidemic had raged through Europe for over 30 years when the book was published, even the king of France was reputed to have been infected. Etion
1287-584: A fellow Franciscan, and corresponded with Guillaume Budé , who observed that he was already competent in law. Following Erasmus ' commentary on the original Greek version of the Gospel of Luke , the Sorbonne banned the study of Greek in 1523, believing that it encouraged "personal interpretation" of the New Testament. As a result, both Lamy and Rabelais had their Greek books confiscated. Frustrated by
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#17327809369371404-415: A list of the most notable works of French literature, noting with surprise and indignation that Rabelais was placed behind Charles de Gaulle 's war memoirs, and was denied the "aura of a founding figure! Yet in the eyes of nearly every great novelist of our time he is, along with Cervantes , the founder of an entire art, the art of the novel". In the satirical musical The Music Man by Meredith Willson ,
1521-531: A manuscript containing eleven chapters and ending mid-sentence in Lyon on his way to Rome to work as Cardinal du Bellay's personal physician in 1548. According to Jean Plattard, this publication served two purposes: first, it brought Rabelais some much-needed money; and second, it allowed him to respond to those who considered his work blasphemous. While the prologue denounced slanderers, the following chapters did not raise any polemical issues. Already it contained some of
1638-591: A merger with the THOUGHT ( caught ) set. Having taken place prior to the unrounding of the cot vowel, it results in lengthening and perhaps raising, merging the more recently separated vowel into the THOUGHT vowel in the following environments: before many instances of /f/ , /θ/ , and particularly /s/ (as in Austria, cloth, cost, loss, off, often, etc.), a few instances before /ŋ/ (as in strong, long, wrong ), and variably by region or speaker in gone , on , and certain other words. Unlike American accents,
1755-463: A misogynist or a feminist based on different episodes in his works. An article by Edwin M. Duvall in Études rabelaisiennes 18 (1985) sparked a debate on the prologue of Gargantua in the pages of the Revue d’histoire littéraire de la France as to whether Rabelais intentionally hid higher meanings in his work, to be discovered through erudition and philology, or if instead the polyvalence of symbols
1872-636: A nice day , for sure); many are now distinctly old-fashioned (swell, groovy). Some English words now in general use, such as hijacking, disc jockey , boost, bulldoze and jazz , originated as American slang. American English has always shown a marked tendency to use words in different parts of speech and nouns are often used as verbs . Examples of nouns that are now also verbs are interview, advocate, vacuum, lobby, pressure, rear-end, transition, feature, profile, hashtag, head, divorce, loan, estimate, X-ray, spearhead, skyrocket, showcase, bad-mouth, vacation , major, and many others. Compounds coined in
1989-480: A process of extensive dialect mixture and leveling in which English varieties across the colonies became more homogeneous compared with the varieties in Britain. English thus predominated in the colonies even by the end of the 17th century's first immigration of non-English speakers from Western Europe and Africa. Additionally, firsthand descriptions of a fairly uniform American English (particularly in contrast to
2106-507: A rejection of the sacred truths themselves. Timothy Hampton writes that "to a degree unequaled by the case of any other writer from the European Renaissance, the reception of Rabelais's work has involved dispute, critical disagreement, and ... scholarly wrangling ..." In particular, as pointed out by Bruno Braunrot, the traditional view of Rabelais as a humanist has been challenged by early post-structuralist analyses denying
2223-680: A series of other vowel shifts in the same region, known by linguists as the " Inland North ". The Inland North shares with the Eastern New England dialect (including Boston accents ) a backer tongue positioning of the GOOSE /u/ vowel (to [u] ) and the MOUTH /aʊ/ vowel (to [ɑʊ~äʊ] ) in comparison to the rest of the country. Ranging from northern New England across the Great Lakes to Minnesota, another Northern regional marker
2340-422: A single consistent ideological message of his text, and to some extent earlier by Marxist critiques such as Mikhail Bakhtin with his emphasis on the subversive folk roots of Rabelais' humour in medieval " carnival " culture. At present, however, "whatever controversy still surrounds Rabelais studies can be found above all in the application of feminist theories to Rabelais criticism", as he is alternately considered
2457-525: A survey, completed in 2003, polling English speakers across the United States about their specific everyday word choices, hoping to identify regionalisms. The study found that most Americans prefer the term sub for a long sandwich, soda (but pop in the Great Lakes region and generic coke in the South) for a sweet and bubbly soft drink , you or you guys for the plural of you (but y'all in
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#17327809369372574-453: A variation of American English in these islands. In 2021, about 245 million Americans, aged 5 or above, spoke English at home: a majority of the United States total population of roughly 330 million people. The United States has never had an official language at the federal level, but English is commonly used at the federal level and in states without an official language. 32 of the 50 states, in some cases as part of what has been called
2691-404: A whole it exercises a baneful influence. Acknowledging both the sordid side of the work and its protean nature, Jean de La Bruyère in 1688 saw beyond that its sublimity: His book is an enigma, it is whatever you want to say, it is inexplicable, it is a chimera ….. a monstrous assembling of refined and ingenious morality and foul corruption. Either it is bad, sinking far below the worst, to have
2808-654: Is also associated with the United States, perhaps mostly in the Midwest and the South. American accents that have not undergone the cot–caught merger (the lexical sets LOT and THOUGHT ) have instead retained a LOT – CLOTH split : a 17th-century distinction in which certain words (labeled as the CLOTH lexical set ) separated away from the LOT set. The split, which has now reversed in most British English, simultaneously shifts this relatively recent CLOTH set into
2925-664: Is also home to a creole language known commonly as Hawaiian Pidgin , and some Hawaii residents speak English with a Pidgin-influenced accent. American English also gave rise to some dialects outside the country, for example, Philippine English , beginning during the American occupation of the Philippines and subsequently the Insular Government of the Philippine Islands ; Thomasites first established
3042-412: Is an abstract one: whether Panurge should marry or not. Torn between the desire for a wife and the fear of being cuckolded, Panurge engages in divinatory methods, like dream interpretation and bibliomancy . He consults authorities vested with revealed knowledge, like the sibyl of Panzoust or the mute Nazdecabre, profane acquaintances, like the theologian Hippothadée or the philosopher Trouillogan, and even
3159-538: Is common in most American accents despite being now rare in England because, during the 17th-century British colonization, nearly all dialects of English were rhotic, and most North American English simply remained that way. The preservation of rhoticity in North America was also supported by continuing waves of rhotic-accented Scotch-Irish immigrants, most intensely during the 18th century (and moderately during
3276-464: Is considered a Christian humanist . He was critical of medieval scholasticism, lampooning the abuses of powerful princes and popes, opposing them with Greco-Roman learning and popular culture. Rabelais is widely known for the first two volumes relating the childhoods of the giants Gargantua and Pantagruel written in the style of bildungsroman ; his later works—the Third Book (which prefigures
3393-420: Is often identified by Americans as a "country" accent, and is defined by the /aɪ/ vowel losing its gliding quality : [aː] , the initiation event for a complicated Southern vowel shift, including a " Southern drawl " that makes short front vowels into distinct-sounding gliding vowels . The fronting of the vowels of GOOSE , GOAT , MOUTH , and STRUT tends to also define Southern accents as well as
3510-469: Is the variable fronting of /ɑ/ before /r/ , for example, appearing four times in the stereotypical Boston shibboleth Park the car in Harvard Yard . Several other phenomena serve to distinguish regional U.S. accents. Boston , Pittsburgh , Upper Midwestern , and Western U.S. accents have fully completed a merger of the LOT vowel with the THOUGHT vowel ( /ɑ/ and /ɔ/ , respectively):
3627-591: The Book of Tobit whose canonical status was being debated at the Council of Trent —led Rabelais to dedicate the book to her before she wrote the Heptameron . In contrast to the two preceding chronicles, the dialogue between the characters is much more developed than the plot elements in the third book. In particular, the central question of the book, which Panurge and Pantagruel consider from multiple points of view,
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3744-482: The English-only movement , have adopted legislation granting official or co-official status to English. Typically only "English" is specified, not a particular variety like American English. (From 1923 to 1969, the state of Illinois recognized its official language as "American", meaning American English.) Puerto Rico is the largest example of a United States territory in which another language – Spanish –
3861-622: The Mid-Atlantic states (including a New York accent as well as a unique Philadelphia–Baltimore accent ), and the South . As of the 20th century, the middle and eastern Great Lakes area , Chicago being the largest city with these speakers, also ushered in certain unique features, including the fronting of the LOT /ɑ/ vowel in the mouth toward [a] and tensing of the TRAP /æ/ vowel wholesale to [eə] . These sound changes have triggered
3978-551: The Native American languages . Examples of such names are opossum , raccoon , squash , moose (from Algonquian ), wigwam , and moccasin . American English speakers have integrated traditionally non-English terms and expressions into the mainstream cultural lexicon; for instance, en masse , from French ; cookie , from Dutch ; kindergarten from German , and rodeo from Spanish . Landscape features are often loanwords from French or Spanish, and
4095-638: The Restoration of Charles II. Urquhart's prose style is unique. His sentences are long and elaborate, and his love of the odd and recondite word seems boundless. At its worst his style can descend into almost unintelligible pretension and pedantry ("a pedantry which is gigantesque and almost incredible", in the words of George Saintsbury ), but at its best it can be rich, rapid and vivid, with arresting and original imagery. He coined words constantly, although none of Urquhart's coinages have fared as well as those of his contemporary Browne . Urquhart appears as
4212-591: The Tiers Livre joined the Sorbonne's list of banned books. After the king's death in 1547, the academic élite frowned upon Rabelais, and the Paris Parlement suspended the sale of The Fourth Book, published in 1552, despite Henry II having accorded him the royal privilege. This suspension proved ineffective, for the time being, as the king reiterated his support for the book. Rabelais resigned from
4329-463: The University of Poitiers and then to the University of Montpellier to study medicine. In 1532 he moved to Lyon , one of the intellectual centres of the Renaissance, and began working as a doctor at the hospital Hôtel-Dieu de Lyon . During his time in Lyon, he edited Latin works for the printer Sebastian Gryphius , and wrote a famous admiring letter to Erasmus to accompany the transmission of
4446-722: The francophile tastes of the 19th century Victorian era Britain (for example they preferred programme for program , manoeuvre for maneuver , cheque for check , etc.). AmE almost always uses -ize in words like realize . BrE prefers -ise , but also uses -ize on occasion (see: Oxford spelling ). There are a few differences in punctuation rules. British English is more tolerant of run-on sentences , called " comma splices " in American English, and American English prefers that periods and commas be placed inside closing quotation marks even in cases in which British rules would place them outside. American English also favors
4563-568: The grotesque , and for his larger-than-life characters. Both ecclesiastical and anticlerical , Christian and a freethinker , a doctor and a bon vivant , the multiple facets of his personality sometimes seem contradictory. Caught up in the religious and political turmoil of the Reformation , Rabelais treated the great questions of his time in his novels. Assessments of his life and work have evolved over time depending on dominant paradigms of thought. Rabelais admired Erasmus and like him
4680-463: The veracity of obviously fantastical elements of the story. The full version appeared in 1552, after Rabelais received a royal privilege on 6 Aug 1550 for the exclusive right to publish his work in French, Tuscan , Greek, and Latin. This, he accomplished with the help of the young Cardinal of Châtillon ( Odet de Coligny )—who would later convert to Protestantism and be excommunicated. Rabelais thanks
4797-764: The 18th century; apartment , shanty in the 19th century; project, condominium , townhouse , mobile home in the 20th century; and parts thereof ( driveway , breezeway, backyard ) . Industry and material innovations from the 19th century onwards provide distinctive new words, phrases, and idioms through railroading (see further at rail terminology ) and transportation terminology, ranging from types of roads ( dirt roads , freeways ) to infrastructure ( parking lot , overpass , rest area ), to automotive terminology often now standard in English internationally. Already existing English words—such as store , shop , lumber —underwent shifts in meaning; others remained in
Thomas Urquhart - Misplaced Pages Continue
4914-546: The 20th century. The use of English in the United States is a result of British colonization of the Americas . The first wave of English-speaking settlers arrived in North America during the early 17th century, followed by further migrations in the 18th and 19th centuries. During the 17th and 18th centuries, dialects from many different regions of England and the British Isles existed in every American colony, allowing
5031-627: The British form is a back-formation , such as AmE burglarize and BrE burgle (from burglar ). However, while individuals usually use one or the other, both forms will be widely understood and mostly used alongside each other within the two systems. While written American English is largely standardized across the country and spoken American English dialects are highly mutually intelligible, there are still several recognizable regional and ethnic accents and lexical distinctions. The regional sounds of present-day American English are reportedly engaged in
5148-524: The Cardinal for his help in the prefatory letter signed 28 January 1552 and, for the first time in the Pantagruel series, titled the prologue in his own name rather than using a pseudonym. The French Renaissance was a time of linguistic contact and debate. The first book of French, rather than Latin, grammar was published in 1530, followed nine years later by the language's first dictionary. Spelling
5265-543: The Continent in order to economize, but returned in 1645 and published Trissotetras , a mathematical treatise. In 1648, Urquhart participated in the Royalist uprising at Inverness . He was declared a traitor by Parliament, though he doesn't seem to have suffered any other consequences. Two years later he marched with Charles II and fought in the Battle of Worcester . The Royalist forces were decisively defeated and Urquhart
5382-464: The Continent, returning in 1636. In 1639, he participated in the Royalist uprising known as the Trot of Turriff ; he was knighted by Charles I at Whitehall for his support. In 1641 he published his first book, a volume of epigrams. Urquhart's father died in 1642, leaving behind a large estate encumbered by larger debts. As the eldest son, Urquhart was from that time on harassed by creditors. He left for
5499-476: The Divine Bottle, in the subsequent episode, Pantagruel is content simply listening to the thawing words as they rain down on the boat, whereas Jeanneret observes that his companions focus instead on their colourful appearance while they are still frozen, hurrying to gather as many up as they can and offering to sell those they have collected. The pilot describes the words as evidence of a great battle, and
5616-413: The East Coast (perhaps in imitation of 19th-century London speech), even the East Coast has gradually begun to restore rhoticity, due to it becoming nationally prestigious in the 20th century. The pronunciation of ⟨r⟩ is a postalveolar approximant [ ɹ̠ ] or retroflex approximant [ ɻ ] , but a unique "bunched tongue" variant of the approximant r sound
5733-682: The Hôtel Dieu de Lyon on 13 February 1535 after receiving his salary, disappearing until August 1535 as a result of the tumultuous Affair of the Placards , which led Francis I to issue an edict forbidding all printing in France. Only the influence of the du Bellays allowed the printing presses to run again. In May, Jean du Bellay was named cardinal, and still with a diplomatic mission for Francis I, had Rabelais join him in Rome. During this time, Rabelais
5850-571: The Inland North. Rather than one particular accent, General American is best defined as an umbrella covering an American accent that does not incorporate features associated with some particular region, ethnicity, or socioeconomic group. Typical General American features include rhoticity , the father–bother merger , Mary–marry–merry merger , pre-nasal "short a " tensing , and other particular vowel sounds . General American features are embraced most by Americans who are highly educated or in
5967-458: The Lyon fairs in the early 1530s. In the first chapter of the earliest book, Pantagruel's lineage is listed back 60 generations to a giant named Chalbroth. The narrator dismisses the skeptics of the time—who would have thought a giant far too large for Noah's Ark —stating that Hurtaly (the giant reigning during the flood and a great fan of soup) simply rode the Ark like a kid on a rocking horse, or like
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#17327809369376084-573: The South), sneakers for athletic shoes (but often tennis shoes outside the Northeast), and shopping cart for a cart used for carrying supermarket goods. American English and British English (BrE) often differ at the levels of phonology, phonetics, vocabulary, and, to a much lesser extent, grammar and orthography. The first large American dictionary, An American Dictionary of the English Language , known as Webster's Dictionary ,
6201-528: The U.S. Several verbs ending in -ize are of U.S. origin; for example, fetishize, prioritize, burglarize, accessorize, weatherize , etc.; and so are some back-formations (locate, fine-tune, curate, donate, emote, upholster and enthuse). Among syntactic constructions that arose are outside of, headed for, meet up with, back of, etc. Americanisms formed by alteration of some existing words include notably pesky, phony, rambunctious, buddy, sundae , skeeter, sashay and kitty-corner. Adjectives that arose in
6318-570: The U.S. are for instance foothill , landslide (in all senses), backdrop , teenager , brainstorm , bandwagon , hitchhike , smalltime, and a huge number of others. Other compound words have been founded based on industrialization and the wave of the automobile: five-passenger car, four-door sedan, two-door sedan, and station-wagon (called an estate car in British English). Some are euphemistic ( human resources , affirmative action , correctional facility ). Many compound nouns have
6435-676: The U.S. are, for example, lengthy, bossy, cute and cutesy, punk (in all senses), sticky (of the weather), through (as in "finished"), and many colloquial forms such as peppy or wacky . A number of words and meanings that originated in Middle English or Early Modern English and that have been in everyday use in the United States have since disappeared in most varieties of British English; some of these have cognates in Lowland Scots . Terms such as fall ("autumn"), faucet ("tap"), diaper ("nappy"; itself unused in
6552-530: The U.S. while changing in Britain. Science, urbanization, and democracy have been important factors in bringing about changes in the written and spoken language of the United States. From the world of business and finance came new terms ( merger , downsize , bottom line ), from sports and gambling terminology came, specific jargon aside, common everyday American idioms, including many idioms related to baseball . The names of some American inventions remained largely confined to North America ( elevator [except in
6669-427: The U.S.), candy ("sweets"), skillet , eyeglasses , and obligate are often regarded as Americanisms. Fall for example came to denote the season in 16th century England, a contraction of Middle English expressions like "fall of the leaf" and "fall of the year." Gotten ( past participle of get ) is often considered to be largely an Americanism. Other words and meanings were brought back to Britain from
6786-597: The U.S., especially in the second half of the 20th century; these include hire ("to employ"), I guess (famously criticized by H. W. Fowler ), baggage , hit (a place), and the adverbs overly and presently ("currently"). Some of these, for example, monkey wrench and wastebasket , originated in 19th century Britain. The adjectives mad meaning "angry", smart meaning "intelligent", and sick meaning "ill" are also more frequent in American (and Irish) English than British English. Linguist Bert Vaux created
6903-538: The United States and the United Kingdom suggest that, while spoken American English deviated away from period British English in many ways, it is conservative in a few other ways, preserving certain features 21st-century British English has since lost. Full rhoticity (or "R-fulness") is typical of American accents, pronouncing the phoneme /r/ (corresponding to the letter ⟨r⟩ ) in all environments, including in syllable-final position or before
7020-524: The United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States ; the de facto common language used in government, education, and commerce; and an official language in 32 of the 50 U.S. states . Since the late 20th century, American English has become the most influential form of English worldwide. Varieties of American English include many patterns of pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar and particularly spelling that are unified nationwide but distinct from other English dialects around
7137-605: The West and Midwest, and New York Latino English , spoken in the New York metropolitan area . Additionally, ethnic varieties such as Yeshiva English and " Yinglish " are spoken by some American Orthodox Jews , Cajun Vernacular English by some Cajuns in southern Louisiana , and Pennsylvania Dutch English by some Pennsylvania Dutch people. American Indian Englishes have been documented among diverse Indian tribes. The island state of Hawaii , though primarily English-speaking,
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#17327809369377254-535: The abbot in commendam of the Saint-Maur Abbey , Rabelais arranged to be assigned there, knowing that the monks were to become secular clergy the following year. In 1540, Rabelais lived for a short time in Turin as part of the household of du Bellay's brother, Guillaume . It was at this time that his two children were legitimized by Paul III, the same year that his third child (Théodule) died in Lyon at
7371-555: The accents spoken in the " Midland ": a vast band of the country that constitutes an intermediate dialect region between the traditional North and South. Western U.S. accents mostly fall under the General American spectrum. Below, ten major American English accents are defined by their particular combinations of certain vowel sounds: In 2010, William Labov noted that Great Lakes, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and West Coast accents have undergone "vigorous new sound changes" since
7488-505: The aeronautical sense ], gasoline ) as did certain automotive terms ( truck , trunk ). New foreign loanwords came with 19th and early 20th century European immigration to the U.S.; notably, from Yiddish ( chutzpah , schmooze, bupkis, glitch ) and German ( hamburger , wiener ). A large number of English colloquialisms from various periods are American in origin; some have lost their American flavor (from OK and cool to nerd and 24/7 ), while others have not ( have
7605-399: The age of two. Rabelais also spent some time lying low, under periodic threat of being condemned of heresy depending upon the health of his various protectors. In 1543, both Gargantua and Pantagruel were condemned by the Sorbonne , then a theological college. Only the protection of du Bellay saved Rabelais after the condemnation of his novel by the Sorbonne. In June 1543 Rabelais became
7722-622: The ban, Rabelais petitioned Pope Clement VII (1523–1534) and obtained an indult with the help of Bishop Geoffroy d'Estissac [ fr ] , and was able to leave the Franciscans for the Benedictine Order at Maillezais . At the Saint-Pierre-de-Maillezais abbey, he worked as a secretary to the bishop—a well-read prelate appointed by Francis I —and enjoyed his protection. Around 1527 he left
7839-458: The best-known episodes, including the storm at sea and Panurge's sheep. It was framed as an erratic odyssey, inspired in part by the Argonauts and the news of Jacques Cartier 's voyage to Canada, and in part by the imaginary voyage described by Lucian in A True Story , which provided Rabelais not only with several anecdotes, but also with a first-person narrator who regularly insisted on
7956-478: The bowels which Swift so malignantly hated. His was the true amor fati : he accepted reality in its entirety, accepted with gratitude and delight this amazingly improbable world." George Orwell was not an admirer of Rabelais. Writing in 1940, he called him "an exceptionally perverse, morbid writer, a case for psychoanalysis ". Milan Kundera , in a 2007 article in The New Yorker , commented on
8073-618: The charm of the rabble. Or it is good, rising as far as exquisite and excellent, to be perhaps the most delicious of dishes. In his 1759–1767 novel Tristram Shandy , Laurence Sterne quotes extensively from Rabelais. Alfred Jarry performed, from memory, hymns of Rabelais at Symbolist Rachilde 's Tuesday salons , and worked for years on an unfinished libretto for an opera by Claude Terrasse based on Pantagruel. Anatole France gave lectures on Rabelais in Argentina. John Cowper Powys , D. B. Wyndham-Lewis , and Lucien Febvre (one of
8190-467: The corpse of a hanged man, which Etienne Dolet described in his Carmina . It was through his work and scholarship in the field of medicine that Rabelais gained European fame. In 1532, under the pseudonym Alcofribas Nasier (an anagram of François Rabelais), he published his first book, Pantagruel King of the Dipsodes , the first of his Gargantua series , primarily to supplement his income at
8307-406: The country), though the vowel-consonant cluster found in "bird", "work", "hurt", "learn", etc. usually retains its r pronunciation, even in these non-rhotic American accents. Non-rhoticity among such speakers is presumed to have arisen from their upper classes' close historical contact with England, imitating London's r -dropping, a feature that has continued to gain prestige throughout England from
8424-613: The curacy in January 1553 and died in Paris later that year. Gargantua and Pantagruel relates the adventures of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel. The tales are adventurous and erudite, festive and gross, ecumenical, and rarely—if ever—solemn for long. The first book, chronologically, was Pantagruel: King of the Dipsodes and the Gargantua mentioned in the Prologue refers not to Rabelais' own work but to storybooks that were being sold at
8541-484: The danger of the Decretals." The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1911 declared that Rabelais was ... a revolutionary who attacked all the past, Scholasticism, the monks; his religion is scarcely more than that of a spiritually minded pagan. Less bold in political matters, he cared little for liberty; his ideal was a tyrant who loves peace. [...] His vocabulary is rich and picturesque, but licentious and filthy.[.....] As
8658-614: The diverse regional dialects of British English) became common after the mid-18th century, while at the same time speakers' identification with this new variety increased. Since the 18th century, American English has developed into some new varieties, including regional dialects that retain minor influences from waves of immigrant speakers of diverse languages, primarily European languages. Some racial and regional variation in American English reflects these groups' geographic settlement, their de jure or de facto segregation, and patterns in their resettlement. This can be seen, for example, in
8775-742: The double quotation mark ("like this") over the single ('as here'). Vocabulary differences vary by region. For example, autumn is used more commonly in the United Kingdom, whereas fall is more common in American English. Some other differences include: aerial (United Kingdom) vs. antenna, biscuit (United Kingdom) vs. cookie/cracker, car park (United Kingdom) vs. parking lot, caravan (United Kingdom) vs. trailer, city centre (United Kingdom) vs. downtown, flat (United Kingdom) vs. apartment, fringe (United Kingdom) vs. bangs, and holiday (United Kingdom) vs. vacation. AmE sometimes favors words that are morphologically more complex, whereas BrE uses clipped forms, such as AmE transportation and BrE transport or where
8892-497: The first edition and by Henri II for the 1552 edition, The Third Book was condemned by the Sorbonne, like the previous tomes. In it, Rabelais revisited discussions he had had while working as a secretary to Geoffroy d'Estissac earlier in Fontenay–le–Comte, where la querelle des femmes had been a lively subject of debate. More recent exchanges with Marguerite de Navarre —possibly about the question of clandestine marriage and
9009-517: The following two centuries) when this ethnic group eventually made up one-seventh of the colonial population. Scotch-Irish settlers spread from Delaware and Pennsylvania throughout the larger Mid-Atlantic region, the inland regions of both the South and North, and throughout the West: American dialect areas that were all uninfluenced by upper-class non-rhoticity and that consequently have remained consistently rhotic. While non-rhoticity spread on
9126-648: The founders of the French historical school Annales ), all wrote books about him. James Joyce included an allusion to "Master Francois somebody" in his 1922 novel Ulysses . Mikhail Bakhtin , a Russian philosopher and critic, derived his concepts of the carnivalesque and grotesque body from the world of Rabelais. He points to the historical loss of communal spirit after the Medieval period and speaks of carnival laughter as an "expression of social consciousness". Aldous Huxley admired Rabelais' work. Writing in 1929, he praised Rabelais, stating "Rabelais loved
9243-944: The hospital , BrE to hospital ; contrast, however, AmE actress Elizabeth Taylor , BrE the actress Elizabeth Taylor ). Often, these differences are a matter of relative preferences rather than absolute rules; and most are not stable since the two varieties are constantly influencing each other, and American English is not a standardized set of dialects. Differences in orthography are also minor. The main differences are that American English usually uses spellings such as flavor for British flavour , fiber for fibre , defense for defence , analyze for analyse , license for licence , catalog for catalogue and traveling for travelling . Noah Webster popularized such spellings in America, but he did not invent most of them. Rather, "he chose already existing options on such grounds as simplicity, analogy or etymology." Other differences are due to
9360-453: The hospital. The idea of basing an allegory on the lives of giants came to Rabelais from the folklore legend of les Grandes chroniques du grand et énorme géant Gargantua , which were sold by colporteurs and at the fairs of Lyon [ fr ] as popular literature in the form of inexpensive pamphlets. The first edition of an almanac parodying the astrological predictions of the time called Pantagrueline prognostications appeared for
9477-674: The influence of 18th-century Protestant Ulster Scots immigrants (known in the U.S. as the Scotch-Irish ) in Appalachia developing Appalachian English and the 20th-century Great Migration bringing African-American Vernacular English to the Great Lakes urban centers. Any phonologically unmarked North American accent falls under an umbrella known as General American. This section mostly refers to such General American features. Studies on historical usage of English in both
9594-415: The jester Triboulet . It is likely that several of the characters refer to real people: Abel Lefranc argues that Hippothadée was Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples , Rondibilis was the doctor Guillaume Rondelet , the esoteric Her Trippa corresponds to Cornelius Agrippa . One of the comic features of the story is the contradictory interpretations Pantagruel and Panurge get embroiled in, the first of which being
9711-438: The late 18th century onwards, but which has conversely lost prestige in the U.S. since at least the early 20th century. Non-rhoticity makes a word like car sound like cah or source like sauce . New York City and Southern accents are the most prominent regional accents of the country, as well as the most stigmatized and socially disfavored. Southern speech, strongest in southern Appalachia and certain areas of Texas,
9828-414: The members are defined positively, the text becomes more inviting: Honour, praise, distraction Herein lies subtraction in the tuning up of joy. To healthy bodies so employed Do pass on this reaction: Honour, praise, distraction The Thélèmites in the abbey live according to a single rule: DO WHAT YOU WANT Published in 1546 under his own name with the privilège granted by Francis I for
9945-427: The mid-nineteenth century onwards, so they "are now more different from each other than they were 50 or 100 years ago", while other accents, like of New York City and Boston, have remained stable in that same time-frame. However, a General American sound system also has some debated degree of influence nationwide, for example, gradually beginning to oust the regional accent in urban areas of the South and at least some in
10062-428: The monastery without authorization, becoming an apostate until Pope Paul III absolved him of this crime, which carried with it the risk of severe sanctions, in 1536. Until this time, church law forbade him to work as a doctor or surgeon. J. Lesellier surmises that it was during the time he spent in Paris from 1528 to 1530 that two of his three children (François and Junie) were born. After Paris, Rabelais went to
10179-617: The most formal contexts, and regional accents with the most General American native features include North Midland, Western New England, and Western accents. Although no longer region-specific, African-American Vernacular English , which remains the native variety of most working- and middle-class African Americans , has a close relationship to Southern dialects and has greatly influenced everyday speech of many Americans, including hip hop culture . Hispanic and Latino Americans have also developed native-speaker varieties of English. The best-studied Latino Englishes are Chicano English , spoken in
10296-645: The names " Chaucer ! Rabelais! Balzac !" are presented by local gossips as evidence that the town librarian "advocates dirty books." Rabelais is a pivotal figure in Kenzaburō Ōe 's 1994 acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize in Literature . American English American English , sometimes called United States English or U.S. English , is the set of varieties of the English language native to
10413-478: The narrator even wants to preserve some of the finest insults in oil. Jeanneret observes that Pantagruel considers the exchange of words to be an act of love rather than a commercial exchange, argues that their artificial preservation is superfluous, and "insinuates that books are petrified tombs, where the signs threaten to stop moving and, left to the devices of lazy readers, get shriveled down into simplistic meanings[,]" implying that "[a]ll writing carries within it
10530-447: The novel Gargantua permanently added more than 800 words to the French language. Most scholars today agree that Rabelais wrote from a perspective of Christian humanism . This has not always been the case. Abel Lefranc , in his 1922 introduction to Pantagruel , depicted Rabelais as a militant anti-Christian atheist. On the contrary, M. A. Screech , like Lucien Febvre before him, describes Rabelais as an Erasmian . While formally
10647-466: The novel. One of the characters in Robertson Davies ' The Cornish Trilogy , Urquhart McVarish, claims to be a descendant of Urquhart. Fran%C3%A7ois Rabelais François Rabelais ( UK : / ˈ r æ b ə l eɪ / RAB -ə-lay , US : / ˌ r æ b ə ˈ l eɪ / - LAY ; French: [fʁɑ̃swa ʁablɛ] ; born between 1483 and 1494; died 1553)
10764-526: The paradoxical encomium of debts in chapter III. The Third Book , deeply indebted to In Praise of Folly , contains the first-known attestation of the word paradoxe in French. The more reflective tone shows the characters' evolution from the earlier tomes. Here Panurge is not as crafty as Pantagruel and is stubborn in his will to turn every sign to his advantage, refusing to listen to advice he had himself sought out. For example, when Her Trippa reads dark omens in his future marriage, Panurge accuses him of
10881-402: The past forms of a few verbs (for example, AmE/BrE: learned / learnt , burned / burnt , snuck/sneaked , dove/dived ) although the purportedly "British" forms can occasionally be seen in American English writing as well; different prepositions and adverbs in certain contexts (for example, AmE in school, BrE at school ); and whether or not a definite article is used, in very few cases (AmE to
10998-465: The philosophical novel) and the Fourth Book are considerably more erudite in tone. His literary legacy is such that the word Rabelaisian designates something that is "marked by gross robust humor, extravagance of caricature, or bold naturalism". According to a tradition dating back to Roger de Gaignières (1642–1715), François Rabelais was the son of seneschal and lawyer Antoine Rabelais and
11115-578: The praise of Pantagruelion, which combines properties of linen and hemp—a plant used in the 16th century for both the hangman's rope and medicinal purposes, being copiously loaded onto the ships. As a naturalist inspired by Pliny the Elder and Charles Estienne , the narrator intercedes in the story, first describing the plant in great detail, then waxing lyrical on its various qualities. Rabelais began work on The Fourth Book while still in Metz. He dropped off
11232-545: The protagonist of Alasdair Gray 's short story "Sir Thomas's Logopandocy" (included in Unlikely Stories, Mostly ), the title taken from Urquhart's Logopandecteision . Urquhart appears in the illustrations throughout Unlikely Stories . Urquhart appears as a major character in the novel A Hand-book of Volapük by Andrew Drummond . Urquhart's language proposal "The Jewel" as well as Volapük , Esperanto , and other constructed languages are prominent plot devices in
11349-496: The same blind self-love ( philautie ) from which he seems to suffer. His erudition is more often put to work for pedantry than let to settle into wisdom. By contrast, Pantagruel's speech gains in weightiness by the third book, the exuberance of the young giant having faded. At the end of the Third Book , the protagonists decide to set sail in search of a discussion with the Oracle of the Divine Bottle. The last chapters are focused on
11466-568: The second novel, Gargantua , M. Alcofribas narrates the Abbey of Thélème, built by the giant Gargantua. It differs markedly from the monastic norm, since it is open to both monks and nuns and has a swimming pool, maid service, and no clocks in sight. Only the good-looking are permitted to enter. The inscription at the gate first specifies who is not welcome: hypocrites, bigots, the pox-ridden, Goths, Magoths, straw-chewing law clerks, usurious grinches, old or officious judges, and burners of heretics. When
11583-710: The study of grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic before moving on to the quadrivium , which dealt with arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. In 1623, Jacques Bruneau de Tartifume wrote that Rabelais began his life as a novice of the Franciscan Order of Cordeliers , at the Convent of the Cordeliers, near Angers ; however there is no direct evidence to support this theory. By 1520, he was at Fontenay-le-Comte in Poitou where he became friends with Pierre Lamy,
11700-460: The theologians but brought them popular success and the admiration of later critics for their focus on the body. This first book, critical of the existing monastic and educational system, contains the first known occurrence in French of the words encyclopédie , caballe , progrès, and utopie , among others. The book became popular, along with its 1534 prequel , which dealt with the life and exploits of Pantagruel's father Gargantua, and which
11817-570: The traditional standard accent of (southern) England, Received Pronunciation (RP), has evolved a trap–bath split . Moreover, American accents preserve /h/ at the start of syllables, while perhaps a majority of the regional dialects of England participate in /h/ dropping , particularly in informal contexts. However, General American is also innovative in a number of its own ways: The process of coining new lexical items started as soon as English-speaking British-American colonists began borrowing names for unfamiliar flora, fauna, and topography from
11934-417: The verb-and-preposition combination: stopover, lineup, tryout, spin-off, shootout , holdup, hideout, comeback, makeover , and many more. Some prepositional and phrasal verbs are in fact of American origin ( win out, hold up, back up/off/down/out, face up to and many others). Noun endings such as -ee (retiree), -ery (bakery), -ster (gangster) and -cian (beautician) are also particularly productive in
12051-775: The word corn , used in England to refer to wheat (or any cereal), came to denote the maize plant, the most important crop in the U.S. Most Mexican Spanish contributions came after the War of 1812 , with the opening of the West, like ranch (now a common house style ). Due to Mexican culinary influence, many Spanish words are incorporated in general use when talking about certain popular dishes: cilantro (instead of coriander), queso, tacos, quesadillas, enchiladas, tostadas, fajitas, burritos, and guacamole. These words usually lack an English equivalent and are found in popular restaurants. New forms of dwelling created new terms ( lot , waterfront) and types of homes like log cabin , adobe in
12168-609: The world. Any American or Canadian accent perceived as lacking noticeably local, ethnic, or cultural markers is known in linguistics as General American ; it covers a fairly uniform accent continuum native to certain regions of the U.S. but especially associated with broadcast mass media and highly educated speech. However, historical and present linguistic evidence does not support the notion of there being one single mainstream American accent . The sound of American English continues to evolve, with some local accents disappearing, but several larger regional accents having emerged in
12285-421: The year 1533 from the press of Rabelais' publisher François Juste. It contained the name "Maître Alcofribas" in its full title. The popular almanacs continued irregularly until the final 1542 edition, which was prepared for the "perpetual year". From 1537, they were printed at the end of Juste's editions of Pantagruel . Pantagruelism is an "eat, drink and be merry" philosophy, which led his books into disfavor with
12402-553: Was a French writer who has been called the first great French prose author. A humanist of the French Renaissance and Greek scholar , he attracted opposition from both Protestant theologian John Calvin and from the hierarchy of the Catholic Church . Though in his day he was best known as a physician, scholar, diplomat, and Catholic priest , later he became better known as a satirist for his depictions of
12519-541: Was a poetic device meant to resist the reductive gloss . Michel Jeanneret [ fr ] suggests that Panurge's description (in the Papimane Island episode in The Fourth Book ) of the ill-effects of the pages of decretals being used as toilet paper, targets, cones, and masks on whatever they touch was due to their misuse as material objects. As the merry crew sail on from the island towards
12636-466: Was a prolific reader, who wrote a great deal about bodies and all they excrete or ingest. His fictional works are filled with multilingual, often sexual, puns, absurd creatures, bawdy songs and lists. Words and metaphors from Rabelais abound in modern French and some words have found their way into English, through Thomas Urquhart 's unfinished 1693 translation, completed and considerably augmented by Peter Anthony Motteux by 1708. According to Radio-Canada,
12753-404: Was also working for Geoffroy d'Estissac's interests and maintained a correspondence with him through diplomatic channels (under royal seal as far as Poitiers). Three letters from Rabelais have survived. On 17 January 1536, Paul III issued a papal brief authorizing Rabelais to join a Benedictine monastery and practice medicine, as long as he refrained from surgery. Jean du Bellay having been named
12870-601: Was attacked and portrayed as a threat to religion or even an atheist by both. For example, "at the request of Catholic theologians, all four Pantagrueline chronicles were censured by either the Sorbonne , Parlement, or both". On the opposite end of the spectrum, John Calvin saw Rabelais as a representative of the numerous moderate evangelical humanists who, while "critical of contemporary Catholic institutions, doctrines, and conduct", did not go far enough; in addition, Calvin considered Rabelais' apparent mocking tone to be especially dangerous, since it could be easily misinterpreted as
12987-462: Was born at the estate of La Devinière in Seuilly (near Chinon ), Touraine in modern-day Indre-et-Loire , where a Rabelais museum can be found today. The exact dates of his birth (c. 1483–1494) and death (1553) are unknown, but most scholars accept his likely birthdate as being 1483. His education was likely typical of the late medieval period: beginning with the trivium syllabus that included
13104-443: Was far less codified. Rabelais, as an educated reader of the day, preferred etymological spelling—preserving clues to the lineage of words—to more phonetic spellings which wash those traces away. Rabelais' use of Latin, Greek, regional and dialectal terms, creative calquing , gloss , neologism and mis-translation was the fruit of the printing press having been invented less than a hundred years earlier. A doctor by trade, Rabelais
13221-559: Was more infused with the politics of the day and overtly favorable to the monarchy than the preceding volume had been. The 1534 re-edition of Pantagruel contains many orthographic, grammatical, and typographical innovations, in particular the use of diacritics (accents, apostrophes, and diaereses ), which was then new in French. Mireille Huchon ascribes this innovation in part to the influence of Dante 's De vulgari eloquentia on French letters. No clear evidence establishes when Jean du Bellay and Rabelais met. Nevertheless, when du Bellay
13338-463: Was sent to Rome in January 1534 to convince Pope Clément VII not to excommunicate Henry VIII , he was accompanied by Rabelais, who worked as his secretary and personal physician until his return in April. During his stay, Rabelais found the city fascinating and decided to bring out a new edition of Bartolomeo Marliani 's Topographia antiqua Romae with Sebastien Gryphe in Lyon. Rabelais quietly left
13455-545: Was taken prisoner. He lost all his manuscripts, which he had brought with him for safekeeping, and he had to forfeit all his property. He was held first at the Tower of London and later at Windsor , but he was given considerable freedom by his captors. The following year he published Pantochronachanon , a work of genealogy, and The Jewel , a defense of Scotland. In 1652, he was paroled by Cromwell and returned to Cromarty. Soon after he published Logopandecteision , his plan for
13572-410: Was the first giant in Pantagruel's list of ancestors to suffer from the disease. Although most chapters are humorous, wildly fantastic and frequently absurd, a few relatively serious passages have become famous for expressing humanistic ideals of the time. In particular, the chapters on Gargantua's boyhood and Gargantua's paternal letter to Pantagruel present a quite detailed vision of education. In
13689-469: Was written by Noah Webster in 1828, codifying several of these spellings. Differences in grammar are relatively minor, and do not normally affect mutual intelligibility; these include: typically a lack of differentiation between adjectives and adverbs, employing the equivalent adjectives as adverbs he ran quick / he ran quickly ; different use of some auxiliary verbs ; formal (rather than notional) agreement with collective nouns ; different preferences for
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