ACTIVITY M-2: OUR CHANGING LANGUAGE
WORKSHEET

Thomas Jefferson: Below are excerpts from Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia in which he answered all sorts of questions about the United States asked by Francois Barbe Marbois, a French envoy in America. Read both excerpts and then "translate" them into how a contemporary American might say the same thing.

Excerpt #1: The question Jefferson was answering had to do with the self-sufficiency of the United States. In part, Jefferson replied:

It is not easy to say what are the articles either of necessity, comfort, or luxury, which we cannot raise, and which we therefore shall be under a necessity of importing from abroad, as every thing hardier than the olive, and as hardy as the fig, may be raised here in the open air. Sugar, coffee and tea, indeed, are not between these limits; and habit having placed them among the necessaries of life with the wealthy part of our citizens, as long as these habits remain, we must go for them to those countries which are able to furnish them.

How might a contemporary American say this?
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Excerpt #2: George deBuffon, a French naturalist of Jefferson's era, wrote that America's domestic animals were not as large or hardy as those in Europe. Barbe Marbois asked Jefferson if this was true. Jefferson replied that it might be true, but:

In a thinly peopled country, the spontaneous productions of the forests and waste fields are sufficient to support indifferently the domestic animals of the farmer, with a very little aid from him in the severest and scarcest season. He therefore finds it more convenient to receive them from the hand of nature in that indifferent state, than to keep up their size by a care and nourishment which would cost him much labour.

How might a contemporary American say this?
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Not only has language style changed since Jefferson's lifetime, but vocabulary as well. Below are several words taken from Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia. Do you know what they mean? (Some are simply spelled differently than now)

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Meriwether Lewis
1. Suppose, in some strange futuristic time warp, you come face-to-face with Captain Lewis. When you try to tell him about life in America today, you find that he doesn't understand many of the terms you are using, such as baseball, skyscraper, etc. What are some other English words or terms in common use today that Captain Lewis never would have heard? Write as many as you can think of on the lines below.
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2. Select one of the words from the above list and explain to Captain Lewis what it is, what it means, what it looks like, how it functions, etc.
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William Clark
William Clark's quill pen obviously wasn't equipped with spell-check. Like many people of his day, he spelled words exactly the way they sounded—or at least, the way they sounded to him. For example, the words below were taken from Clark's journals exactly as he wrote them. Before you laugh too hard, see if you can correct the misspelled words. When you have finished, your teacher will supply the correct answers. Count the number of words you spelled correctly and claim your award.

HOW DID YOU DO?
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