Luther King or Churchill? Or anyone else?
Whos is the most influential English speaker in history?
I think that the answer like Walt Disney are not serious. First of all we speak about hystory. MollyB, would you mind if you explain me your opinion. It's like to say Mickey Mouse has an influence in hystory.
I watch TV and Churchill just say "ohh yesh" so I am thinking William Shakespeare.
When you say speaker do you mean as in an orator? A master or mistress of pure verbal rhetoric rather than a mere everyday speaker of the Language as most people naturally are? If so I reckon you would have to trawl through a very long historical list of people who were engaged in politics, just as one example - the most obvious in most people's minds.
There have been many great political speeches over the years and Winston Churchill immediately comes to mind here as we can see from previous posts in here. Churchill really did have a great gift for the spoken word, used to great effect in stressful and difficult times of great emotion and turmoil.
Famous preachers have also proved to be great orators, highly skilled in the use of Language to instil passion into those who listened to them.
Several centuries before Churchill came on the scene we in Scotland spawned a guy called John Knox - he truly did utilise Language extremely effectively so much so that he virtually cast a spell on his audiences, proving himself to be one of the original "fire and brimstone" rabble rousers. Knox eventually established the Presbyterian Church in Scotland following the Reformation and the displacement of Roman Catholicism in this part of the world.
Down in England something similar occurred with the emergence of Charles Wesley, the great English preacher who also used oratory to great effect, not only from the pulpit but also from any rural vantage point across England where he decided to dismount from his horse, thethered it to a tree, and then proceeded to demonstrate great power in the use of the spoken word all in the name of the Methodist religion at a time of great religious fervour in England, such fervour arising out of the sheer verbal passion and power of people like Wesley and his brother John.
As for Shakespeare, his power lay in his pen rather than his tongue, so his great influence on the English Language came at us from a different perspective. As far as I know I don't think Will was any great shakes in the art of oratory - he left that to the actors who transferred his great works from the written to the oral.
Of course, Charles Wesley also demonstrated his skill in the written word - as we see today in his well known hymns now so familiar to most people no matter what their own religious following.
There have been many great political speeches over the years and Winston Churchill immediately comes to mind here as we can see from previous posts in here. Churchill really did have a great gift for the spoken word, used to great effect in stressful and difficult times of great emotion and turmoil.
Famous preachers have also proved to be great orators, highly skilled in the use of Language to instil passion into those who listened to them.
Several centuries before Churchill came on the scene we in Scotland spawned a guy called John Knox - he truly did utilise Language extremely effectively so much so that he virtually cast a spell on his audiences, proving himself to be one of the original "fire and brimstone" rabble rousers. Knox eventually established the Presbyterian Church in Scotland following the Reformation and the displacement of Roman Catholicism in this part of the world.
Down in England something similar occurred with the emergence of Charles Wesley, the great English preacher who also used oratory to great effect, not only from the pulpit but also from any rural vantage point across England where he decided to dismount from his horse, thethered it to a tree, and then proceeded to demonstrate great power in the use of the spoken word all in the name of the Methodist religion at a time of great religious fervour in England, such fervour arising out of the sheer verbal passion and power of people like Wesley and his brother John.
As for Shakespeare, his power lay in his pen rather than his tongue, so his great influence on the English Language came at us from a different perspective. As far as I know I don't think Will was any great shakes in the art of oratory - he left that to the actors who transferred his great works from the written to the oral.
Of course, Charles Wesley also demonstrated his skill in the written word - as we see today in his well known hymns now so familiar to most people no matter what their own religious following.
<<<I think that the answer like Walt Disney are not serious. First of all we speak about hystory.>>>
And what's your idea of history Luara?
And what's your idea of history Luara?
First of all, if you want to be serious you need to make the question clearer. Influential? What does that mean? In what field? In what period? It is impossible to find one single person that has been influential in every possible way, however I think this men here is definitely a good candidate:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0