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.
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