Language Prescription Quotes

“but now I muſt recant and confeſſe that our Normane Engliſh which hath growen ſince William the Conquerour doth admit any of the auncient feete, by reaſon of the many poliſillables euen to ſix and ſeauen in one word, which we at this day vſe in our moſt ordinarie language: and which corruption hath bene occaſioned chiefly by the peeviſh affectation not of the Normans themſelues, but of clerks and ſcholers or ſecretaries long ſince, who not content with the vſual Normane or Saxon word, would conuert the very Latine and Greeke word into vulgar French, as to ſay innumerable for innombrable, reuocable, irreuocable, irradiation, depopulatiõ & ſuch like, which are not naturall Normans nor yet French, but altered Latines, and without any imitation at all: which therefore were long time deſpiſed for inkehorne termes, and now be reputed the beſt & moſt delicat of any other.”
― George Puttenham, The Arte of English Poesie