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Show Watch Your Language By DON NORTON Assistant Professor of English Brigham Young University STRUCTURES A grammatical structure that appears to be very Mormon, at least Western U.S., is the common greeting at Mormon meetings: "we'd like lo welcome you all out." One of the westernisms Mormon missionaries export to all parts of the English speaking world is "You bet ! " Mormons are also prone to use a lot of formalisms, archaisms, and biblical expressions: "He to whom you have just listened ..." "We should all be baptized, even by immersion." "not a more ... save it be ... each and every one. . ." Brethren is standard, rather than brothers. Mormons are among the very few Christians who still use the respect pronouns thou, thee, thy, thine in prayers - but that usage becomes more and more shakey, as the decades pass. VOCABULARY Certain words are strictly Mormon coinages: telestial, Mormon, Jack-Mormon Jack-Mormon (formerly a Mormon sympathizer) ; and other Book of Mormon vocabulary - Lamanite, Jaradite, Promised Land. Only in Utah is a Jew a gentile. The term ward, once a political unit (in Nauvoo, I understand), now describes the basic ecclesiastical unit. It is not scriptural. By contrast, ; stake is biblical, but not its specialized Mormon use. The abandoned (we hope) term stake house (now stake center) certainly caused a lot of confusion among meal-expecting investigators. . Mormons have mainly given specialized meaning to hundreds (perhaps thousands ) of ordinary English words : testimony pre-existence 4 Zion (also common among other early religious settlers in America) magnify recommend sticks (for scriptures) R.M. (for returned missionary - with often a negative connotation) general authority correlation saint standard works The list could go on and on. Next week : Mormon cliches . |