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Re: Phaistos disk (was: boustrophedon)

From:Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>
Date:Tuesday, July 16, 2002, 21:11
En réponse à John Cowan <jcowan@...>:

> > ObArgument: Christophe, is this .sig French? > > Charles li reis, nostre emperesdre magnes, > Set anz totz pleinz ad ested in Espagnes. >
Yep, Old French. You can recognise it as it still features the two-case system of Old French (which was lost quite early on - by the XIIIth century - mostly because it was less and less productive (only masculine words had a case system working, in feminine words the -s simply marked number) and had only one mark - the suffix -s - which was used in a very ambiguous way - it marked both the nominative singular and the oblique plural, while the nominative plural and oblique singular stayed unmarked, at least for words which kept the full paradigm -). Well, I don't seem to be able to translate the second line, its syntax looks much too alien for me :(( . But the first line is pretty straightforward: "Charles the king, our great emperor". Christophe. http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.

Replies

John Cowan <jcowan@...>Old French II
Matthew Butt <m.butt@...>