[Ltru] Re: Macrolanguages, countries & orthographies

John Cowan cowan at ccil.org
Wed Feb 14 22:38:02 CET 2007


CE Whitehead scripsit:

> I am not sure we can tag Old English as English (why is it not Danish?).

It is neither Danish nor Old Norse, I assure you.  

> Old English is not that tough when you get accustomed to it.
> "we" is still 'we,' for example.  but my Old English is rusty.

  Harold is swift.  His hand is strong and his word grim.  Late in
  life he went to his wife in Rome.

  Grind his corn for him and sing me his song.

  He swam west in storm and wind and frost.

	--Mitchell and Robinson's _A Guide to Old English_
	  (OUP, 5th ed., 1992, ISBN 0-631-16657-2)

> In Old French in "La Chanson de Roland" the word "noise" was used for 
> the modern French word "bruit" --which means 'noise' in English.  And 
> yes there was a huge exchange of vocabulary during the many wars.)

In addition, OF had Germanic influences on syntax that ModF has largely
lost or obscured.

-- 
So that's the tune they play on                 John Cowan
their fascist banjos, is it?                    cowan at ccil.org
        --Great-Souled Sam                      http://www.ccil.org/~cowan


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