Re: CHAT: barbarisms (was: CHAT: Being both theologically correct and properly modern)

Lars Henrik Mathiesen scripsit:

> Denmark is full of families, noble or otherwise, whose surnames are
> just toponyms or common nouns (animal names, for instance), respelt in
> verious creative ways. To which Danish, Swedish, German --- and
> Hungarian, evidently --- seem to lend themselves better than English.
Oh, English too.

The 18th-century author Henry Fielding was talking one day with the
Earl of Denbigh about how Denbigh's family name came to be spelled
"Feilding".  "I know not, my Lord," said Fielding, "unless it were
[subjunctive] that my branch of the family was the first to learn
how to spell."

--
John Cowan                                   cowan@ccil.org
One art/there is/no less/no more/All things/to do/with sparks/galore
        --Douglas Hofstadter