We were talking about sacred texts and Irish monks in two classes today. In Punctuation, I described early Irish monks who were new to both Christianity and Latin. They knew that they copied sacred texts in a language not their own and therefore began to simplify the task. They codified sentence word order as subject + verb + object. They placed spaces between the Latin words and began to use punctuation. M. B. Parkes, who has written best (and most densely) on the topic, described the new Irish practices as a “grammar of legibility.” When the Irish turned their quills from Latin to Irish, initially they did not use word separation as they had begun to do with Latin. Irish was familiar to them; lack of spacing and punctuation was the norm.
In the Irish class we discussed the magic of language. The pre-literate Irish, influenced by Celtic culture, were reluctant to dilute the power of language by writing it down. Spoken language had power and resonance; as long as it was memorized, it could be passed from generation to generation. Record it on something such as vellum (treated animal skin) and it might be forgotten, and then the impermanent record might easily be lost or destroyed.
In Research we broached the topic of memory across the generations. I asked how many students knew the names all four of their great grandfathers (or great grandmothers) — I could remember two off the top of my head. I also asked how many could remember the names of all of their current teachers.
3 Responses to the power of language