Sometimes I have trouble ending sentences with prepositions myself - it just sounds so quirky to! It’s akin to watching a dog walk on its hind legs. The practice is so ingrained in my writing style I hardly have taken time to find out what the rule is all about.
It just is not supposed to happen – right?
Wherever you fall on the matter, you will find yourself in an ancient argument. Poet John Dryden in a 1672 essay criticized prepositionists for writing “the bodies that these souls were frightened from.” However formal, classical written English – which Dryden was accustomed to - stems in part from its Latin academic roots. Latin, a language that routinely emphasizes “verb at the end at all costs”, easily avoids the prepositional conundrum. As a prestige language, Latin structure informed elevated English writing, - however at times these rules it has a hard time keeping up with.
So what’s this book about? (See what I did there?)
Robert Greene’s book You Are What You Speak explores this debate and the politics of identity through language in a thoughtful and easy-to-follow way. Grammar Grouches, Language Laws and Politics of Identity – many groups have attempted to control language as means to a political end. From reviving languages such as Hebrew to freezing a language in time with Arabic, Greene makes a compelling argument that languages are in their nature hard to regulate.
Take Greene's example of Arabic, a term us English speakers use to cover an array of languages that are sometimes mutually unintelligible. Fusha Arabic, the standard prestige language of the Quran, has been crystallized by authorities since its inception - which is why you find no translations of the religious book in use today. Want become a muslim? Learn ancient Fusha, a written language no one actually speaks in everyday conversation. In an attempt to crystallize the words of Mohammad in a highly regulated text, the Arabic world has created a fragmented linguistic landscape with spoken arabic languages and dialects that have out evolved each other. Spoken language continued to evolve despite efforts to freeze the written language in time.
Greene's book provides us with a fascinating and well researched look into the world history of language politics.