This piece comes from a number of disparate influences, not the least of which is the fact that in the constantly changing and mutating English Language, many words shift over time. They get confused, misused and conflated, passed, harassed and irritated, and once in a while, honestly debated.
One of these, of course, is the term ‘will’, which I have previously called out as being one of the bandits of English: right up there with ‘should’ and ‘if’.
At one time, ‘will’ had a very specific meaning, (and since I have the urge to Godwin this discussion), most notoriously shown by Leni Riefenstahl in her notorious film ‘Triumph of the Will’. Likewise, so did the stodgy and oh-so-British ‘shall’/’shan’t’ (shall not).
Nevertheless, there have also been a number of famous/infamous shalls and shan’ts. First there were Mac and Tosh in the 1947 Looney Tunes short: Goofy Gophers, who spoke with British accents that would have done Lord Haw-Haw himself proud, and whose signature dialogue was: ‘Shall we? Yes! Let’s shall!’
As for the most infamous ‘shan’t’, I think the first one that comes to mind will always be the apostrophe-free rendition attributed to Jack the Ripper in his so-called ‘Dear Boss’ letter:
“I am down on whores and I shant quit ripping them till I do get buckled.”
There was also another odd bit of inspiration from the 1941 film noir The Maltese Falcon, where Sam Spade (played by Humphrey Bogart) smacks around Joel Cairo (played by Peter Lorre), and somehow manages to never lose his cigarette whilst doing so, and Bogie growls out the line: ‘When you’re slapped, you’ll take it and like it!’
The odd spelling of ‘English’ and ‘Colonialist’ comes from some SJW bullcrap that I had to put up with when I was in undergrad, as there were a few of the Limousine Liberal, Gucci Communist and Volvo Socialist/Vulva Socialites, who often liked to write shrill articles and placards featuring even shriller slogans such as: ‘€ng£iSSh KKKo£onia£iSSt KKK£eptomania De$tro¥SS the Wor£d!’
Invariably, every ‘K’ was either tripled, or placed inside a circle, like a Jewish ‘Kosher’ symbol, and every ‘S’ was either turned into a dollar sign, or doubled into Nazi SS lightning bolts, every ‘L’ became a British pound sign, every ‘E’ was a Euro symbol, and every ‘Y’ was a yen symbol. I’m sure you get the picture.
One of these, of course, is the term ‘will’, which I have previously called out as being one of the bandits of English: right up there with ‘should’ and ‘if’.
At one time, ‘will’ had a very specific meaning, (and since I have the urge to Godwin this discussion), most notoriously shown by Leni Riefenstahl in her notorious film ‘Triumph of the Will’. Likewise, so did the stodgy and oh-so-British ‘shall’/’shan’t’ (shall not).
Nevertheless, there have also been a number of famous/infamous shalls and shan’ts. First there were Mac and Tosh in the 1947 Looney Tunes short: Goofy Gophers, who spoke with British accents that would have done Lord Haw-Haw himself proud, and whose signature dialogue was: ‘Shall we? Yes! Let’s shall!’
As for the most infamous ‘shan’t’, I think the first one that comes to mind will always be the apostrophe-free rendition attributed to Jack the Ripper in his so-called ‘Dear Boss’ letter:
“I am down on whores and I shant quit ripping them till I do get buckled.”
There was also another odd bit of inspiration from the 1941 film noir The Maltese Falcon, where Sam Spade (played by Humphrey Bogart) smacks around Joel Cairo (played by Peter Lorre), and somehow manages to never lose his cigarette whilst doing so, and Bogie growls out the line: ‘When you’re slapped, you’ll take it and like it!’
The odd spelling of ‘English’ and ‘Colonialist’ comes from some SJW bullcrap that I had to put up with when I was in undergrad, as there were a few of the Limousine Liberal, Gucci Communist and Volvo Socialist/Vulva Socialites, who often liked to write shrill articles and placards featuring even shriller slogans such as: ‘€ng£iSSh KKKo£onia£iSSt KKK£eptomania De$tro¥SS the Wor£d!’
Invariably, every ‘K’ was either tripled, or placed inside a circle, like a Jewish ‘Kosher’ symbol, and every ‘S’ was either turned into a dollar sign, or doubled into Nazi SS lightning bolts, every ‘L’ became a British pound sign, every ‘E’ was a Euro symbol, and every ‘Y’ was a yen symbol. I’m sure you get the picture.
Category Poetry / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 50 x 50px
File Size 1.8 kB
"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and riffle their pockets for new vocabulary." -
-James Nicoll.
-James Nicoll.
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