Re: Tho (was: Blandness (was: Uusisuom's influences))

<<"Tho" (not "tho'"), like "yr" (your), "shd" (should), "wd" (would), etc. is
an old conventional abbreviation (I believe -- without available materials
to check this now). I don't know whether it dates back to the Renaissance,
when all sorts of abbreviations were very common, perhaps for saving
parchment rather than time, but I do believe it dates back at least to the
19th century, when many people wrote as many letters as we now write emails
(& there were several postal collections & deliveries per day -- in London
at least).>>

This much is true. I can remember the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. It was
hideously annoying with those awful abbreviations. I'd just like to point out
that just because lots of people do something or because people have done
something in the past doesn't make that something right or desireable.

-David

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