Yes, this is what I find Stephen does better than many people with this level of intelligence. He's uncannily able to use his humility to downplay his own intelligence and empower people, giving them an uplifting feeling and sense of worth. He's ruddy lovely, that bloke.
I so wish that every single English Language teacher in every school watches and learns from this brilliant, brilliant man. That for me was 45 minutes of inspiration, entertainment and education. So many thanks for posting it.
Mee eens heerlijke taal Nederlands. Just read Troy and I'm still reading Mythos. Always knew he was a writer, never knew he was a great writer until I picked up some of his books.
Hopefully the new King ignores the rules and politicians and bestows a long overdue knighthood. Stephen Fry is worth more to our country and culture than many of the other "Sirs" combined
I'd rather Fry was celebrated through his popularity, not some made up title from an outdated and archaic institution that perpetuates the idea of class and social hierarchy.
Bravo Stephen Fry! Your enormous talent and wonderful humility are truely inspiring. Listening to and attempting to grasp and digest the most eloquent flow of words and ideas in this lecture is impossible. Fortunately, we have rewind and replay to help we mere mortals attempt to understand.
As a graduate of University of Huddersfield, a huge fan of the English language's ability to continually morph and adapt to our landscape over time and a constant inquisitor of the ever patient Gordon Byers at said University, I am crestfallen I was unable to attend this lecture. I have parroted many of Fry's talking points over the years to those attempting to shackle my use of our wonderful language. I would then use my complimentary moist lemon scented cleansing square to wipe up afterwards 😀 Thank you for sharing this for us mere mortals to enjoy.
He walked the walk as well as talked the talk, his presentation being a perfect example of the actual subject itself…or is it “it” ? Loved the London Paris analogy. Bravo to you or “yourself”. Thank you Stephen.
The delivery is as good as the theme. A new original piece by Stephen is always something to behold. Thank you for sharing this with me here in New Zealand.
Ate this for breakfast here in Amarillo, TX. Stephen is "The Living End" as we used to say.... I suspect more than a few of us would freely give our eyeteeth to sit down for 10 minutes with him... and then, be too embarrassed to open our mouths.
Brilliant and entertaining as well as educational. However, Stephen has dashed me ice cold water. Until this lecture I had spent countless finger tapping hours on a keyboard chastising the typical American pronunciations of common and well-heard words.
Wow. I was punished as a kid for using vocabulary beyond my parents, siblings, teachers, and peers. I had to unlearn my language in order to avoid the often severe and always undeserved punishment.
I am 80, I when I was at boarding school aged 8, 3 of us had a bath together every day after school. I was at the top end and read Enid Blyton stories out loud. The girl at the other end would turn on hot water, the girl in the middle would paddle it up to me. One of the VERY few happy memories of living in hell. How I still love words and books. Love you Stephen ❤
I am imbued with a refreshed respect for my mother tongue. I think all people are at their most entertaining and compelling when they speak of the things they love rather than decry the things they loath, which is what so much of the internet and Clip-Share comment sections in particular have become for in the minds of so many. The sheer charm of enthusiasm is something we should celebrate more of, without cynicism or suspicion. Just the joy of something shared and understood. Thank you, Stephen.
My gratitude to years of British television, therefore and henceforth, preparing me for the comprehension of the soliloquy articulated by esteemed gentleman.
I was lucky enough to be in the audience. Fantastic experience. Such a shame that the university announced it is closing the linguistics department the next day. Stephen fry is a national treasure, thank you for bring us his profound intellect.
@Jan Willem v.d. Gronden I don't see it as treachery. I see it as 'we'll show you how important a linguistics department is to a university' as a fight back of what was presumably an impending decision when Fry was booked.
The wonderful Stephen Fry cast me back to being cast as "Ernest" in the play by Oscar Wilde in High School. I am now watching the 2002 remake of it with Dame Judi Dench and Colin Firth and re-living the glorious script. The wonders of modern technology allow us to deeply access our linguistic heritage.
As both a lover of the personalities of cities & the love of English, l so love Fry's analogy of the difference between French Paris + English Londinium
Get this guy in front of a bunch of linguists and he grabs the opportunity to show off his amazing vocabulary with both tonsils. Of course I could listen to Stephen Fry read the phone book, and marvel at how he would never mispronounce any name at all.
One of the few people I can joyfully listen to for hours on end. If you haven't discovered his podcast series on the seven sins I absolutely recommend you go find it! Hours and hours of a delightful Stephen in his element. His use of language and his delivery is such a joy. I have listened to the series several times, the extra listens were partly due to the fascinating topic, but really it was so I could sit back and enjoy listening to this exceptional human. We are so lucky to be alive when he is, to be witness to this art ❤️
There are few people who write or speak as well as Stephen Fry. Whether its his retelling of the Greek myths in Mythos, Heroes and Troy or reading the words of JK Rowling, I could listen to this man speak for hours.
Absolutely riveting! Who would have thought that a 45-minute lecture on language would have been so fascinating or so vital an analysis of not only dialectics and all the rest, but of our humanity?
I would love to know the word count as I have never heard so many words with such meaning in 45 minutes. I would love to speak proper like he does. Mr Stephen Fry an institution of inspiration.
Well, I can rest easy knowing that my 2 years of casual study of Dutch allowed to understand what Stephen said there. Guess I'm at the brothel level. Next trip to Amsterdam will be more interesting than first thought.
Understanding Dutch tends to be easier to foreigners than pronouncing it as well as Stephen did here, as a native dutch speaker I was pleasantly supprised.
Stephen Fry is clearly the UK leading public intellectual. He may even by one of the most important public intellectuals on the whole planet. Thank you Stephen.
Great stuff! Btw, Percy Grainger was motivated by racism to try to purge all Latin, French and Greek-origin words from English. He called the result Blue-eyed English. Of course, in the last 1000 years, we have lost lots of the original Anglo-Saxon vocabulary, so modern English without the Continental overlays is just ridiculous.
I was an immigrant child from Ireland (fifty years ago a couple of weeks back) and brought with me 'fillum' and 'haitch'. Alas, the 'fillum' as it was to go as it was too conspicuous, but the 'haitch' clung until my varsity when I finally traded it for 'aitch', and yet now, almost no one I know uses it.
The Irishman is no fool: after going to the trouble of learning his spellings, he's not going to let anyone pull the wool over his eyes with talk of silent letters and syllables.If you don't want it pronounced, why put in in there in the first place?
This is the second time I've heard the good Mr Fry state in such clarity about the impossibility of guard-railling language, that it is an ever evolving beast of it's own creation and I heartily and solidly agree... although... I feel that it is sane to allow one sin, one transgression, one single avenue of evil and that for me is this.... when precisely did 'lost' and 'lose' be come 'loosed' and 'loose', I appreciate that in a distant form a thing can be released in such a way that it is so far from you it has seemingly flown into a distant space, but when I 'loosed' my keys I didn't throw them, I misplaced them.... it makes my eyes itch.
Thank you so much!!! I'm considered a very powerful and potentially dangerous speaker by those who know me. And, by and large, they are correct. But I must, if course, prostrate myself before Mr. Fry. There is not a better speaker. Full stop. His work cannot be edited or improved on. But: keep talking, Y'all!!! The best of all the knowledge we have managed to acquire should be shared, not stuck in some dusty museum, So: talk to people... tell them your thoughts. The world in which we apparently live can only be improved by your words.
I’m a huge fan. Thing about him is he can’t seem to get out of his own head. His thoughts are almost consistently self-centered. He doesn’t visit our world but instead invites us to stroll through his head. That’s why I adore him.
Wonderful as ever Stephen. I would like to add that language IS for everyone... EXCEPT people who say 'would of' when they mean 'would have' language is not for them 😁 Joking of course 😛
@Graeme Ferguson Oh, I haven't noticed that change, probably because I'm watching different TV channals which are mostly in dutch. But also because I noticed that in many conversations, especially in spoken language, certain things that are assumed to be known already are not spoken. So it could be the case that the complete answer was "So (you want to know about my family, well) I have two sisters and a brother...". where this might be just some new abbreviation for saying it. It doesn't drive me insane, but the amount of changes in the use of language lately starts to annoy me as well. Personally I'm more worried about changes in definitions like with the word 'literally'.
@BlacksmithTWD you, of course, are correct regarding my errant (typo) use of the word an, which I am perfectly aware should precede a word beginning with a vowel and not a consonant. It's difficult writing on a phone which tends to auto correct etc. Of course I should have spell checked my comment prior to sending. No, I am merely referring to what appears now to be the acceptable way in which many interviewees seem to answer any form of question during TV interviews etc. It has almost become the new convention to answer any question in such a manner eg Interviewer: "What can you tell me about your family?", Interviewee: "So, I have two sisters and a brother.... ". I hope this clarifies my position and if you haven't noticed it so far, I bet you will from now on. Regards
@Graeme Ferguson If the answer starts with "So you want to know more about..." I don't necessarily see a problem with starting an answer with the word 'so', unless of course you were referring to the lower case 's' in the word 'so' that should have been a capital 'S' since it's the first letter of the word that starts the sentence. But if the latter is your problem you may want to reserve 'an' to be placed in front of words that start with a vowel, in cases where the following word starts with a consonant like the word 'complete' I advise you to merely use 'a' instead.
I agree with you. That absolutely drives me insane. It shows a complete misunderstanding of how to use abbreviation. It annoys me almost as much as how it has become commonplace for people to answer a question by starting with the word 'so'.
As somebody who gives English classes to Colombians, I generally tell them to 'keep it simple'. The Spanish-thinking mind translated to English, particularly in writing, often delivers something that results in headache-inducing decoding. clip-share.net/video/IrZgsbzStIQ/video.html
Love Stephen Fry to bits! He’s so deliberately inconsistent; as my father used to say: “I’m consistently inconsistent!” (And proud of it, I might add) same goes for Stephen Fry. He is consistently inconsistent, his love for language being the common denominator for which ever position he holds, or chooses to defend. Glorious Linguist! 42:27 one name comes to mind though, not mentioned but just as flowery and crazy smart as the orator here on display! A bon vivant, branded Russell! PS in my teens we had a new English teacher and she introduced me to the poems of Lemn Sissay and I was instantaneously hooked!
@Jill Osler I agree, it would be very difficult - but - that's right in Fry's wheel-house and I've seen him do it before; he addressed the oxford union without notes.
He is so much right and yet also wrong; in the UK our teachers told us things, they failed to show the delights we could have discovered if they just peaked our interests, as he did with the un named film he watched, one of my all-time favourites which I recognised before he got halfway through his description, though I was until he said so I did not know it was by Oscar Wilde. As a relatively uneducated old fart, who was failed totally by our schooling methods it took me a life time to find stuff out, though Stephen does not say it fully; so many of us were ruined by the emphasis laid on us at school for bloody stupid pointless, useless sport, instead of language, art and science's. As always Mr Fry is a delight to listen to and I wish I could afford those audio books I am sure he must have done on the plays of Oscar Wilde.
I was once asked which three people (alive or dead) I would like to have lunch with. My answer was "Stephen Fry......" ........ After a while I was asked "...so, who else?" "Why would I want to share him?" I replied.
A quote.. _"it's important to learn to be surprised by simple facts.."_ Like perhaps the simple fact that language of life is encoded on a remarkable chemical molecule called DNA and being a language could only come from a mind..
@BlacksmithTWD No one has ever been able to back up the claim that a god exists. If anyone had done so there would be no atheists in the world and there would only be one religion. As it is even Christians can’t agree among themselves what the Christian god is. So no, no-one in the history of the universe has ever substantiated any of the god claims. And if you claim that there are several sources which substantiate the existence of any of the many thousands of gods that have ever been claimed as real you are actually suffering from delusions. The rest of what you wrote is just a word salad of nonsense and I really can’t be arsed to discuss nonsense. Take your silly argument to somewhere like The Atheist Experience - give them a call and they’ll put you right on your muddled thinking.
@Steve p Nonsense, I didn't claim there to be a god hence I don't see why I should substantiate a claim I didn't even make. He who makes the claim has the burdon of proof, not the one who asks a question about the soundness claim because some of the premises haven't been substantiated. Besides, how is anyone supposed to substantiate a claim containing a word that is not unambigously defined? God can be just a synonym for reality for at least some people, are you able to substatiate the claim that reality exists, or is the concept of reality more an axiom than a conclusion? One can reason from first principles about god/reality, but one simply cannot reason towards first principles about anything, that's why they are called first principles or axioms. How about you substantiate your claim that no-one has ever done this in the history of the universe. I can name several historical persons who have done so, whether you consider their arguments compelling is besides the point since you didn't mention this as a requirement. If someone introduces a word to make a claim, in order to address the claim, the meaning of the word must be understood, otherwise you are merely setting yourself up for making a (possibly unintended) changing the goalpost fallacy. We can quite precisely define concepts of things we can no longer substantiate in a scientific manner, that doesn't mean they don't exist. Whether ether does exist or doesn't exist doesn't really matter as the concept was usefull at the time it was used within the scientific community, even though these days we have a different way to describe the original intended concept in a scientific way in other branches like for instance making radio broadcasts the term 'ether' is still very much alive and as such does exist without being a problem or threat to science. The point being, if you don't even understand what is intended with the concept that the word is a placeholder for, you simply cannot make an argument in favor or against the concept. Similarly if someone measures a temperature, the value 20 has no meaning without being informed whether the applied temperature scale is Celcius, Farenheid or Kelvin. Yet you seem to claim you already know it cannot possibly be 20 even before attempting to measure the temperature in any way and without knowing what temperature scale was applied by the one who said that it was 20. I hope you can manage to do better in your next post than attempting to bounce the burdon of proof on the one asking a simple question about the claim you made. At least you can answer the question or simply admit you didn't even think about it yet rather than being (or pretending to be) so naive about the burdon of proof.
@BlacksmithTWD First you have to substantiate the claim that there actually is a god. Since no-one has ever done this in the history of the universe, any attempt to understand exactly what a god is would be completely pointless.
@Mike Bellamy You’re correct. And in all the scientific work to discover the facts about DNA, not once is any god required. Everything we know about DNA supports evolutionary theory. It says nothing about a supernatural being. You need to learn something about it, instead of totally failing to educate yourself and using that as a justification for believing nonsense. Citing DNA as evidence for a god is probably the most ignorant position for anyone to take.
The Importance of Being Earnest, in the shape of the 1988 TV production, had a similar impact on teenage me. Maybe not as pivotal but important. Isn't that rad.
As gifted an orator as you will find..and does not talk down to people...he engages, educates, delights and inspires. Humane and talented.
All the required assets of a great man.
Well said
Yes, this is what I find Stephen does better than many people with this level of intelligence. He's uncannily able to use his humility to downplay his own intelligence and empower people, giving them an uplifting feeling and sense of worth. He's ruddy lovely, that bloke.
This is a man whose funeral I would queue for . A genuine national treasure
i bet he can't wait, knowing you'll be there.
hear hear
@BRIAN BUCHBINDER If he doesn't record it in advance I will be very dissapointed!
we should have crowned him king, honestly.
I'd rather queue to hear him talk before that.
Stephen Fry isn't just my favorite Englishman, he's my favorite human.
I so wish that every single English Language teacher in every school watches and learns from this brilliant, brilliant man. That for me was 45 minutes of inspiration, entertainment and education. So many thanks for posting it.
This is such a delight - it's musical, education, heart warming, delightful - thank you for your generosity in sharing this.
Hello, how are you feeling today
I could listen to him for hours, no matter the subject. Such a soothing yet engaging voice
Mr Fry’s words are like honey drops to our ears
Mee eens heerlijke taal Nederlands. Just read Troy and I'm still reading Mythos. Always knew he was a writer, never knew he was a great writer until I picked up some of his books.
Hopefully the new King ignores the rules and politicians and bestows a long overdue knighthood. Stephen Fry is worth more to our country and culture than many of the other "Sirs" combined
I'd rather Fry was celebrated through his popularity, not some made up title from an outdated and archaic institution that perpetuates the idea of class and social hierarchy.
@J T When he was 18, he was imprisoned for three months for credit-card fraud. I assumed that was why he was denied the honour
When he was 18, he was imprisoned for three months for credit-card fraud. I assumed that was why he was denied the honour
No, Stephen supports the monarchy and the queen. That won't be why he might have turned it down.
@Christopher Luke why?
Further proof, if further proof were needed, that Stephen Fry is nothing less than a bloody genius!
Mesmerising, as always. Such a treat to share a chunk of the timeline of life with Stephen as part of it. Just love him to bits.
I would listen for hours to St Fry, talking about anything! He can make any subject immensely interesting
Bravo Stephen Fry! Your enormous talent and wonderful humility are truely inspiring. Listening to and attempting to grasp and digest the most eloquent flow of words and ideas in this lecture is impossible. Fortunately, we have rewind and replay to help we mere mortals attempt to understand.
This is absolutely wonderful to listen to. What a great speaker and writer. Such wit, humility, and humanity.
I feel immensely lucky to have stumbled on his lecture. Thank you for sharing.
Hear hear!
All hail the algorithm because "he's" everywhere and it feeds of our previous choices (mostly).
Me too 😊
As a graduate of University of Huddersfield, a huge fan of the English language's ability to continually morph and adapt to our landscape over time and a constant inquisitor of the ever patient Gordon Byers at said University, I am crestfallen I was unable to attend this lecture. I have parroted many of Fry's talking points over the years to those attempting to shackle my use of our wonderful language. I would then use my complimentary moist lemon scented cleansing square to wipe up afterwards 😀 Thank you for sharing this for us mere mortals to enjoy.
😅 I’ve just watched that Fry and Laurie video!
While encouraging us to play with language, he plays with it in a fascinating way, simultaneously at multiple levls of wit and wisdon. A genius.
in another (perfect) universe, stephen fry is an english professor, inspiring young minds to find their own voice and just create
He walked the walk as well as talked the talk, his presentation being a perfect example of the actual subject itself…or is it “it” ? Loved the London Paris analogy. Bravo to you or “yourself”. Thank you Stephen.
The delivery is as good as the theme. A new original piece by Stephen is always something to behold. Thank you for sharing this with me here in New Zealand.
Ate this for breakfast here in Amarillo, TX. Stephen is "The Living End" as we used to say.... I suspect more than a few of us would freely give our eyeteeth to sit down for 10 minutes with him... and then, be too embarrassed to open our mouths.
It was astonishing so it was. I had something to get on with, so almost had in on in the background, and yet I could follow it so well.
He is of our time, but in an old fashioned way and makes me smile ( ah the whiskey has kicked in ) Keep on keeping on Stephen 😃
A Master perfectly demonstrating his craft. Don't you just Love Stephen Fry.
Once again, listening to Fry generates happiness.
What a joy it is to listen to Stephen Fry. I love his writing as well.
Brilliant and entertaining as well as educational. However, Stephen has dashed me ice cold water. Until this lecture I had spent countless finger tapping hours on a keyboard chastising the typical American pronunciations of common and well-heard words.
Wonderful! Thank you for making this lecture available.
Hello, how are you feeling today
A master of eloquence. Thank you Stephen!
Wow. I was punished as a kid for using vocabulary beyond my parents, siblings, teachers, and peers. I had to unlearn my language in order to avoid the often severe and always undeserved punishment.
That's 45 minutes of music as good - if not better - as any music ever composed. Such flawless use of the language.
Oh calm down
I just had so much fun listening to this lecture.
As always - simply glorious!
Stephen, you're wonderful!
I am 80, I when I was at boarding school aged 8, 3 of us had a bath together every day after school. I was at the top end and read Enid Blyton stories out loud. The girl at the other end would turn on hot water, the girl in the middle would paddle it up to me. One of the VERY few happy memories of living in hell. How I still love words and books. Love you Stephen ❤
It's a sheer pleasure and delight to be exposed to such a crisp enunciation of English!
I am imbued with a refreshed respect for my mother tongue. I think all people are at their most entertaining and compelling when they speak of the things they love rather than decry the things they loath, which is what so much of the internet and Clip-Share comment sections in particular have become for in the minds of so many. The sheer charm of enthusiasm is something we should celebrate more of, without cynicism or suspicion. Just the joy of something shared and understood. Thank you, Stephen.
One of the best things I have ever laid ears to thanks for making this available
My gratitude to years of British television, therefore and henceforth, preparing me for the comprehension of the soliloquy articulated by esteemed gentleman.
Wonderfully inspiring, thank you
I was lucky enough to be in the audience. Fantastic experience. Such a shame that the university announced it is closing the linguistics department the next day.
Stephen fry is a national treasure, thank you for bring us his profound intellect.
Seems a horrible irony!
@Jan Willem v.d. Gronden I don't see it as treachery. I see it as 'we'll show you how important a linguistics department is to a university' as a fight back of what was presumably an impending decision when Fry was booked.
@Toren Atkinson clip-share.net/video/3MWpHQQ-wQg/video.html
@Toren Atkinson It is here clip-share.net/video/3MWpHQQ-wQg/video.html
@Toren Atkinson clip-share.net/video/3MWpHQQ-wQg/video.html
The wonderful Stephen Fry cast me back to being cast as "Ernest" in the play by Oscar Wilde in High School. I am now watching the 2002 remake of it with Dame Judi Dench and Colin Firth and re-living the glorious script. The wonders of modern technology allow us to deeply access our linguistic heritage.
Absolutely delightful. I adore Stephen so much.
"...the lickability of it all" his word choice is heavenly 🥰
As both a lover of the personalities of cities & the love of English, l so love Fry's analogy of the difference between French Paris + English Londinium
Hello, how are you
To attend just one of his Presentations … is on my Bucket List 💯‼️
I was there!
If I attended one of his live presentation there would be no subtitles running on my screen, I’m at loss then!!
Fantastic lecture, thank you Stephen!
Amazing, when he finished, I could not believe he had been talking for 45 min, could listen to him all day.
Get this guy in front of a bunch of linguists and he grabs the opportunity to show off his amazing vocabulary with both tonsils. Of course I could listen to Stephen Fry read the phone book, and marvel at how he would never mispronounce any name at all.
I've always found you a great intellect Mr. Fry.
What a gift to the human collectiv, amazing!
I'm so, so glad he's better now. Idk what I'd do in a world without Fry!
@Diananou I see, sound good where are you from
@jonah Gerfin Meh, I'm grand. You?
Hello, how are you
Mesmerizingly masterful. Fry sounds to me to be in every way the linguistic personification of absolute perfection.
Like the late Dr Sir Jonathon Miller CBE, Stephen is an absolute joy to listen to, regardless of the subject matter.
This is hugely entertaining. Great job :)
Thank you, Stephen.🙏🏻☺️
A beautiful lecture.
One of the few people I can joyfully listen to for hours on end. If you haven't discovered his podcast series on the seven sins I absolutely recommend you go find it! Hours and hours of a delightful Stephen in his element. His use of language and his delivery is such a joy. I have listened to the series several times, the extra listens were partly due to the fascinating topic, but really it was so I could sit back and enjoy listening to this exceptional human. We are so lucky to be alive when he is, to be witness to this art ❤️
There are few people who write or speak as well as Stephen Fry. Whether its his retelling of the Greek myths in Mythos, Heroes and Troy or reading the words of JK Rowling, I could listen to this man speak for hours.
Wow! Wow!!! Stephen Fry is just wonderful!
Absolutely riveting! Who would have thought that a 45-minute lecture on language would have been so fascinating or so vital an analysis of not only dialectics and all the rest, but of our humanity?
I would love to know the word count as I have never heard so many words with such meaning in 45 minutes. I would love to speak proper like he does. Mr Stephen Fry an institution of inspiration.
@JGM Editing proper _ly_ ... Sorry, couldn't resist ;-)
Be born into wealth and go to private school. Then you can learn to speak proper.
@Diacreth II. I know, right?! Stress another syllable and we’re lost ;-)
@Jan Willem v.d. Gronden Wow. That took me way too long.
Silly remark! The fact you use it, proves you know the word count…
Well, I can rest easy knowing that my 2 years of casual study of Dutch allowed to understand what Stephen said there.
Guess I'm at the brothel level. Next trip to Amsterdam will be more interesting than first thought.
Understanding Dutch tends to be easier to foreigners than pronouncing it as well as Stephen did here, as a native dutch speaker I was pleasantly supprised.
Listening to Stephen is always an absolute pleasure 🥰
Hello, how are you
Brilliant character brilliantly delivered and allways entertaining and educacional
Genius 💓
Hello, how are you
Wonderful!
Only a speech Stephen Fry could deliver! Thank you for sharing......very much enjoyed! ❤️🇦🇺🐨
Even more important than choosing the 'right' words is ensuring those words are presented in the 'right' order.
Indeed! a speech only SF could deliver!!
Imagine, if you will, just how enriched this sadening world could be with just a few more Stephen Fry[s] ...
Pure magic.
As entertaining as it was educational. You are areal treasure!
He's just so damned good at it!
Let's talk and talk about talking and words and love it 😍
Love this guy.
I really enjoyed the clip from "A Bit of Fry and Laurie". It really demonstrated his point.
Stephen Fry is clearly the UK leading public intellectual. He may even by one of the most important public intellectuals on the whole planet.
Thank you Stephen.
Have you checked all other public intellectuals who happen to have another first language than English?
Stephen Fry is the best of us.
I’m supposedly going to spend an eternity in the same place as Stephen Fry and a few others. I hope I run into him (and them) from time to time…
No one has ever been around Stephen Fry and thought “I am smarter than him.”
Only because the people who are have better things to think about than 'who is smarter'.
Stephen! I’ve missed you so much ❤️❤️❤️
Great stuff! Btw, Percy Grainger was motivated by racism to try to purge all Latin, French and Greek-origin words from English. He called the result Blue-eyed English. Of course, in the last 1000 years, we have lost lots of the original Anglo-Saxon vocabulary, so modern English without the Continental overlays is just ridiculous.
@Irene Johnston Good point...I mean non-Low-Germanic vocabulary.
Angles, Saxons and Jutes etc., are continental.
I was an immigrant child from Ireland (fifty years ago a couple of weeks back) and brought with me 'fillum' and 'haitch'. Alas, the 'fillum' as it was to go as it was too conspicuous, but the 'haitch' clung until my varsity when I finally traded it for 'aitch', and yet now, almost no one I know uses it.
The Irishman is no fool: after going to the trouble of learning his spellings, he's not going to let anyone pull the wool over his eyes with talk of silent letters and syllables.If you don't want it pronounced, why put in in there in the first place?
Some of your fillums were very good
Mr. Fry is the Michael Jackson of the English language; you're guaranteed to be spellbound by his performance
This is the second time I've heard the good Mr Fry state in such clarity about the impossibility of guard-railling language, that it is an ever evolving beast of it's own creation and I heartily and solidly agree... although... I feel that it is sane to allow one sin, one transgression, one single avenue of evil and that for me is this.... when precisely did 'lost' and 'lose' be come 'loosed' and 'loose', I appreciate that in a distant form a thing can be released in such a way that it is so far from you it has seemingly flown into a distant space, but when I 'loosed' my keys I didn't throw them, I misplaced them.... it makes my eyes itch.
How about the fact that even in the dictionary now the meaning of the word 'literally' can be 'figuratively' as well?
My word :! What a beautiful good well executed love!!
Thank you so much!!!
I'm considered a very powerful and potentially dangerous speaker by those who know me. And, by and large, they are correct.
But I must, if course, prostrate myself before Mr. Fry.
There is not a better speaker. Full stop. His work cannot be edited or improved on.
But: keep talking, Y'all!!!
The best of all the knowledge we have managed to acquire should be shared, not stuck in some dusty museum,
So: talk to people... tell them your thoughts. The world in which we apparently live can only be improved by your words.
I’m a huge fan. Thing about him is he can’t seem to get out of his own head. His thoughts are almost consistently self-centered. He doesn’t visit our world but instead invites us to stroll through his head. That’s why I adore him.
Wonderful as ever Stephen. I would like to add that language IS for everyone...
EXCEPT people who say 'would of' when they mean 'would have' language is not for them 😁
Joking of course 😛
@Graeme Ferguson
Oh, I haven't noticed that change, probably because I'm watching different TV channals which are mostly in dutch. But also because I noticed that in many conversations, especially in spoken language, certain things that are assumed to be known already are not spoken. So it could be the case that the complete answer was "So (you want to know about my family, well) I have two sisters and a brother...". where this might be just some new abbreviation for saying it. It doesn't drive me insane, but the amount of changes in the use of language lately starts to annoy me as well.
Personally I'm more worried about changes in definitions like with the word 'literally'.
@BlacksmithTWD you, of course, are correct regarding my errant (typo) use of the word an, which I am perfectly aware should precede a word beginning with a vowel and not a consonant. It's difficult writing on a phone which tends to auto correct etc. Of course I should have spell checked my comment prior to sending. No, I am merely referring to what appears now to be the acceptable way in which many interviewees seem to answer any form of question during TV interviews etc. It has almost become the new convention to answer any question in such a manner eg Interviewer: "What can you tell me about your family?", Interviewee: "So, I have two sisters and a brother.... ".
I hope this clarifies my position and if you haven't noticed it so far, I bet you will from now on. Regards
@Graeme Ferguson
If the answer starts with "So you want to know more about..." I don't necessarily see a problem with starting an answer with the word 'so', unless of course you were referring to the lower case 's' in the word 'so' that should have been a capital 'S' since it's the first letter of the word that starts the sentence.
But if the latter is your problem you may want to reserve 'an' to be placed in front of words that start with a vowel, in cases where the following word starts with a consonant like the word 'complete' I advise you to merely use 'a' instead.
I agree with you. That absolutely drives me insane. It shows a complete misunderstanding of how to use abbreviation. It annoys me almost as much as how it has become commonplace for people to answer a question by starting with the word 'so'.
@Pseudonayme 77
For _italics_ add an underscore at the start and end of a word, for *bold* add and asterix at the start and end of a word.
As somebody who gives English classes to Colombians, I generally tell them to 'keep it simple'. The Spanish-thinking mind translated to English, particularly in writing, often delivers something that results in headache-inducing decoding.
clip-share.net/video/IrZgsbzStIQ/video.html
Hello, how are you feeling today
Love Stephen Fry to bits! He’s so deliberately inconsistent; as my father used to say: “I’m consistently inconsistent!” (And proud of it, I might add) same goes for Stephen Fry. He is consistently inconsistent, his love for language being the common denominator for which ever position he holds, or chooses to defend. Glorious Linguist!
42:27 one name comes to mind though, not mentioned but just as flowery and crazy smart as the orator here on display! A bon vivant, branded Russell!
PS in my teens we had a new English teacher and she introduced me to the poems of Lemn Sissay and I was instantaneously hooked!
Wonderful as always. However, this is the first time I've ever seen Fry give a talk *from notes*.
@Jill Osler I agree, it would be very difficult - but - that's right in Fry's wheel-house and I've seen him do it before; he addressed the oxford union without notes.
A lecture lasting 45 minutes would be very difficult without notes.
As Ken Miles might have said: A little more of that, please.
What a pleasure!
Hello, how are you feeling today
14:57 - “Lady Fandermere’s Wind” 😂😂
He is so much right and yet also wrong; in the UK our teachers told us things, they failed to show the delights we could have discovered if they just peaked our interests, as he did with the un named film he watched, one of my all-time favourites which I recognised before he got halfway through his description, though I was until he said so I did not know it was by Oscar Wilde. As a relatively uneducated old fart, who was failed totally by our schooling methods it took me a life time to find stuff out, though Stephen does not say it fully; so many of us were ruined by the emphasis laid on us at school for bloody stupid pointless, useless sport, instead of language, art and science's. As always Mr Fry is a delight to listen to and I wish I could afford those audio books I am sure he must have done on the plays of Oscar Wilde.
Why not both? Why can’t you be sporty and creative?
I was once asked which three people (alive or dead) I would like to have lunch with.
My answer was "Stephen Fry......"
........
After a while I was asked "...so, who else?"
"Why would I want to share him?" I replied.
Guy wasn’t the sheriff in most adaptations I’m pretty sure… anyways, love him so much
A quote.. _"it's important to learn to be surprised by simple facts.."_ Like perhaps the simple fact that language of life is encoded on a remarkable chemical molecule called DNA and being a language could only come from a mind..
@BlacksmithTWD No one has ever been able to back up the claim that a god exists. If anyone had done so there would be no atheists in the world and there would only be one religion. As it is even Christians can’t agree among themselves what the Christian god is. So no, no-one in the history of the universe has ever substantiated any of the god claims. And if you claim that there are several sources which substantiate the existence of any of the many thousands of gods that have ever been claimed as real you are actually suffering from delusions.
The rest of what you wrote is just a word salad of nonsense and I really can’t be arsed to discuss nonsense. Take your silly argument to somewhere like The Atheist Experience - give them a call and they’ll put you right on your muddled thinking.
@Steve p
Nonsense, I didn't claim there to be a god hence I don't see why I should substantiate a claim I didn't even make. He who makes the claim has the burdon of proof, not the one who asks a question about the soundness claim because some of the premises haven't been substantiated. Besides, how is anyone supposed to substantiate a claim containing a word that is not unambigously defined?
God can be just a synonym for reality for at least some people, are you able to substatiate the claim that reality exists, or is the concept of reality more an axiom than a conclusion?
One can reason from first principles about god/reality, but one simply cannot reason towards first principles about anything, that's why they are called first principles or axioms.
How about you substantiate your claim that no-one has ever done this in the history of the universe. I can name several historical persons who have done so, whether you consider their arguments compelling is besides the point since you didn't mention this as a requirement. If someone introduces a word to make a claim, in order to address the claim, the meaning of the word must be understood, otherwise you are merely setting yourself up for making a (possibly unintended) changing the goalpost fallacy.
We can quite precisely define concepts of things we can no longer substantiate in a scientific manner, that doesn't mean they don't exist. Whether ether does exist or doesn't exist doesn't really matter as the concept was usefull at the time it was used within the scientific community, even though these days we have a different way to describe the original intended concept in a scientific way in other branches like for instance making radio broadcasts the term 'ether' is still very much alive and as such does exist without being a problem or threat to science.
The point being, if you don't even understand what is intended with the concept that the word is a placeholder for, you simply cannot make an argument in favor or against the concept. Similarly if someone measures a temperature, the value 20 has no meaning without being informed whether the applied temperature scale is Celcius, Farenheid or Kelvin. Yet you seem to claim you already know it cannot possibly be 20 even before attempting to measure the temperature in any way and without knowing what temperature scale was applied by the one who said that it was 20.
I hope you can manage to do better in your next post than attempting to bounce the burdon of proof on the one asking a simple question about the claim you made. At least you can answer the question or simply admit you didn't even think about it yet rather than being (or pretending to be) so naive about the burdon of proof.
@BlacksmithTWD First you have to substantiate the claim that there actually is a god. Since no-one has ever done this in the history of the universe, any attempt to understand exactly what a god is would be completely pointless.
@Steve p What makes you so sure it's his lack of understanding science rather than your lack of understanding what he means when using the word god?
@Mike Bellamy You’re correct. And in all the scientific work to discover the facts about DNA, not once is any god required. Everything we know about DNA supports evolutionary theory. It says nothing about a supernatural being. You need to learn something about it, instead of totally failing to educate yourself and using that as a justification for believing nonsense. Citing DNA as evidence for a god is probably the most ignorant position for anyone to take.
I think Stephen should have been the 5th horseman. A brilliant orator and intellectual titan.
Think again, next to being a brilliant orator and intellectual titan Stephen is also way too sensible for such foolishness.
The Importance of Being Earnest, in the shape of the 1988 TV production, had a similar impact on teenage me. Maybe not as pivotal but important. Isn't that rad.
Wish they'd provided a solid stable lectern for such a great orator
Bloody marvelous.