VERNACULAR: 1.That writes, uses, or speaks
the native or indigenous language of a country or district. 2. a.
Of a language or dialect: That is naturally spoken by the people of a
particular country or district; native, indigenous.
Usu. applied to the native speech of a populace,
in contrast to another or others acquired for commercial, social, or educative
purposes; now freq. employed with reference to that of the working classes or
the peasantry.
LAYPERSON: A
member of the laity; a layman or laywoman.
One of numerous manufactured words formed to avoid alleged sexual
discrimination in terminology.
1972 E. J. GOODMAN Tenant Survival
Bk. ix. 121 Despite the prohibition against lay persons arguing at the bar,
some small claims courts..are now permitting community
advocates. 1975 Publishers Weekly 29 Dec.
63/2 He addresses himself to the layperson who has
been, in his view, taken in by wrong-headed mystery-mongers. 1980 L. BOTSTEIN in Michaels & Ricks State of
Lang. 353 The twentieth century has obliterated the skilled amateur and
widened the gap between the technical professional and the layperson. 1986 Church Times 23 May 5/3 This [URC]
Assembly was..presided over by its first layman as
Moderator (not the first layperson; Mrs. Rosalind Goodfellow
was that).
UNATTESTED: 1. unattested adj.
not existing in any
documented form: if a will contains unattested changes, the changes will be
disregarded although large masonry instruments were not unattested in the
world, they were constructed infrequently. • Linguistics denoting a form or usage ...
SANSCRIT: Sanskrit
(संस्कृता वाक् saṃskṛtā vāk, for short संस्कृतम् saṃskṛtam) is a
historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism,[2]
and one of the 22 official languages of India.[3]
Classical Sanskrit is the standard register as laid out in the grammar of Pāṇini,
around the 4th century BCE. Its position in the cultures of South and
Southeast
Asia is akin to that of Latin and Greek in Europe and it has
significantly influenced most modern languages of Nepal and India.[4]
The pre-Classical form of
Sanskrit is known as Vedic Sanskrit, with the language of the Rigveda
being the oldest and most archaic stage preserved, its oldest core dating back
to as early as 1500 BCE,[5]
qualifying Rigvedic Sanskrit as one of the oldest
attestation of any Indo-Iranian language, and one of the
earliest attested members of the Indo-European language family.[6]
The corpus of Sanskrit literature encompasses a rich
tradition of poetry and drama as well as scientific, technical, philosophical
and Hindu religious texts. Today, Sanskrit continues to
be widely used as a ceremonial language in Hindu religious rituals in the forms
of hymns and mantras. Spoken
Sanskrit is still in use in a few traditional institutions in India, and there
are many attempts at revival.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanskrit
WAVE THEORY: In
historical linguistics, the wave model
or wave theory (German Wellentheorie)
is a model of language change in which new features of a language spread from a
central point in continuously weakening concentric circles, similar to the
waves created when a stone is thrown into a body of water. This should lead to
convergence among dissimilar languages. The theory was directed against the
doctrine of sound
laws and the strict tree model introduced by the Neogrammarians and laid the foundations of modern sociolinguistics.
Advocacy of the wave theory is attributed to Johannes Schmidt and Hugo
Schuchardt. In modern linguistics, the wave model
has contributed greatly to improve the tree model
approach of the Comparative method.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_mode_(linguistics)
DANELAW: The Dane lawe, West-Saxon lawe, and Merchen lawe: The first of which
was brought in by the Danes.
PINDING: Originally: pidgin English. Subsequently gen.: a language
containing lexical and other features from two or more languages,
characteristically with simplified grammar and a smaller vocabulary than the
languages from which it is derived, used for communication between people not
having a common language; a lingua franca.
pidgin English: a pidgin in which the chief language is English. Also depreciative:
a simplified, imperfect, or debased form of English.
WYF: A serving
woman