The Suindune Rag is a neighbourly flyer with news and sundry writings from Swindon. It's written in a funny way of doing English, called Anglish.
Aside from news, the Rag writes about bygone times, the living world, ways of speach, and other sundry thoughts.
Shortly put, Anglish is English without the french bits (or all the many Latin and Greek words). It's the way I write the Suindune Rag.
You see, when William the first came from France and took over the Kingdom of England in 1066, he brought a lot of french talk with him. His lords and high folk were speaking French while most folk in the land were still speaking Old English. As such, many french words from the higher ups became a part of everyday English throughout this time.
Even nowadays words that came from Old English have another feel to words that came from French. Look at these words from French:
The words from Old English that follow feel more grounded and hearty.
This may seem to be a knotty undertaking, but hopefully with a bit of cunning the Rag can be made lightwork for everyday folk to read.
I first heard of Anglish from this short film by RobWords: ANGLISH: English without the 'foreign' bits. It's a fun first look at what Anglish is all about and Rob also has lots of other great flims about speach as well.
However, what mainly put the thought in my mind to write The Sindune Rag was The Anglish Times, which writes news in Anglish from all around the world.
Care should be taken to be kind. Most of all, to be kind to the least among us. Less care need be taken to save the feelings of the high and mighty, but some care should still be taken.
Speach should be true and thoughtful. The Rag should also be mindful not to be too sure of itself. It's a big world and it's hard to know anybody as they truly are.
Everyone has their own ways that work for them. Folk should be allowed to live how they like, as long as they aren't harming anyone.
It mostly talks about happenings in Swindon. As well as news, it will tell tales of yore. It might talk about bygone times in Swindon, but also the wider land like Wessex, England, or Britain.
It hopes to look at Swindoners from all different walks of life and tell tales of the many kinds of folk who live here.
In the earliest book we have that talks about Swindon, it was written as 'Suindune'.
The book is called the Doomsday Book and comes from the time of William the first, in 1086. It held the names and worth of all the towns and steads in England. He had the book made so that he would know how much he could raise in tolls from the whole kingdom. It was called the Doomsday Book as it was like God taking a reckoning of all things at the end of time.
I'm an everyday Swindoner. I like learning about olden times and other spoken toungs. I care about my town along with its many folk and niebourhood and want to talk about it.