Sujet : Re: William Cobbett born (9-3-1763) De : kehoea (at) *nospam* parhasard.net (Aidan Kehoe) Groupes :sci.lang Date : 10. Mar 2024, 12:43:19 Autres entêtes Message-ID :<87le6q8j08.fsf@parhasard.net> References :1 User-Agent : Gnus/5.101 (Gnus v5.10.10) XEmacs/21.5-b35 (Linux-aarch64)
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)