Re: Questions about "ðat strange orþography"

Staving Carsten Becker:
>From: "Peter Bleackley" <Peter.Bleackley@...>
>Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2004 2:13 PM
>Subject: Ðe construct case hisparadox
>
>
> > Meþinks a paradox ariseþ in ðe construct case hisuse, [...]
>
>Now, it's clear to me what those þ's and ð's are standing for (/T/ and
>/D/ of course), that <hw> is for <wh>, <-þ> is for <-s> and "meþinks"
>means "I think", but what does "hisuse" mean? Is the "his" for marking
>the genitive of the previous noun, like <-'s>? And why did you do that
>instead of writing normal, plain English? Has it simply something to do
>with some
>what-if-English-spelling-would-not-have-been-messed-up-by-the-Normans
>project you were working on at this time? Don't get me wrong, I'm just
>asking naïvely and curiously.
I was, at the time, playing about with some features I like from older
forms of English, under the name of "Englisc as it might oðerwise be". It
had a construct case (possession marked on the possessed, as found in
Semitic languages), marked by a prefix "his-". This usage is attested even
in Early Modern English, eg from "Twelfth Night"

Once in a sea-fight against the Count his galleys

At the time a few people on the list were experimenting with alternative
Englishes, so I thought I'd give it a go. After a few weeks, however, I
found typing it too laborious.

Pete