Tolkien to write, В«There are no words left to express his staggerment, since Men changed the language that they learned of elves in the days when all the world was wonderful . В»What Tolkien's elves might have expressed in one word, resonant with meaning, Tolkien's diminutive man cannot express at all.change can be viewed dispassionately as a natural process, but it can also be invested with a spiritual significance, as Tolkien and Suffield have done. A model language is an art form and its crafting can even convey this theme of spiritual isolation. As Ronald Suffield wrote, В«no word is still the word, but, a loafward has become lord.В» Are the goddy tawdry maudlin for they shall christgeewhiz bow down before him: bedead old men, priest and prester, babeling a pitterpatternoster: no word is still the word, but, a loafward has become lord.Suffield, В«The Tenth BeatitudeВ» subtle poem by the English philologist Ronald Suffield is actually written at two levels. For Suffield intends that the reader hold in mind not just the current meanings of these words but the original meanings as well. For the meaning of a word changes over time. The example everyone knows is gay, which originally meant В«merryВ», but because some people are a little too merry came to mean В«wantonВ», and because some people are a little too wanton came to mean В«homosexualВ», which is the sense almost exclusively used now.model language that you develop will have words that are descended from words with quite different meanings. Some of the words used in Ronald Suffield's poem, The Tenth Beatitude, will be used to demonstrate how words change through time.is the process by which a word's meaning worsens or degenerates, coming to represent something less favorable than it originally did. Most of the words in Suffield's poem have undergone pejoration.instance, the word silly begins Suffield's poem and meant in Old English times В«blessedВ», which is why Suffield calls his poem a beatitude (Christ's beatitudes begin with В«blessed are the ...В») . How did a word meaning В«blessedВ» come to mean В«sillyВ»? Well, since people who are blessed are often innocent and guileless, the word gradually came to mean В«innocentВ». And some of those who are innocent might be innocent because they haven't the brains to be anything else. And some of those who are innocent might be innocent because they knowingly reject opportunities for temptation. In either case, since the more worldly-wise would take advantage of their opportunities, the innocents must therefore be foolish, which of course is the current primary meaning of the word silly.word goddy in the poem is a metaplasmus (artful misspelling) of gaudy. The word gaudy was derived from the Latin word gaudium, В«joyВ», which was applied to praying (as a type of rejoicing). Because the most common prayers in Middle English times were the prayers of the rosary, Middle English gaude came to ...
