Re: Ungrammaticalization?

Christophe Grandsire wrote:

> >"[H]e axed after eggys: And the goode wyf answerde, that she coude not
> >speke no Frenshe ... And then at last a nother sayd that he woulde hau=
e
> >hadde eyren: then the goode wyf sayd that she vnderstood hym wel." --
>
>         Wow! Is that Old English or simply messed up English written bi=
zarrely?

No, it's Middle English.  The irony is that even though spoken Middle Eng=
lish
would be basicly unintelligible to the modern English speaker, Chaucer an=
d Caxton
can still be studied in the original with only a little help because Engl=
ish spelling is
so, well, "conservative" (to be nice about it) -- it hasn't fundamentally=
 changed
since 1485 or so.

Here're the first few lines from Beowulf (Old English) for comparison:

     Hw=E6t! We Gardena         in geardagum,
     =FEeodcyninga,         =FErym gefrunon,
     hu =F0a =E6=FEelingas         ellen fremedon.
     Oft Scyld Scefing         scea=FEena =FEreatum,
     monegum m=E6g=FEum,         meodosetla ofteah,
     egsode eorlas.         Sy=F0=F0an =E6rest wear=F0
     feasceaft funden,         he =FE=E6s frofre gebad,
     weox under wolcnum,         weor=F0myndum =FEah,
     o=F0=FE=E6t him =E6ghwylc         =FEara ymbsittendra
     ofer hronrade         hyran scolde,
     gomban gyldan.         =FE=E6t w=E6s god cyning!
     [...]

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Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
AIM: Deuterotom ICQ: 4315704
<http://www.angelfire.com/tx/eclectorium/>
"Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."

"Things just ain't the way they used to was."
     - a man on the subway
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