Shibbolethisation

Dear Torsten,

I read you "shibbolethisation" article with interest. Good stuff, and well argued, but you've got Caxton's Egg Story wrong (the relevant fragment from your article quoted below). This is the anecdote Caxton actually tells in his preface to the Eneydos. You probably know it second-hand, with the geographical details confused:

/ For we englysshe men / ben borne vnder the domynacyon of the mone, whiche is neuer stedfaste / but euer wauerynge / wexynge one season / and waneth & dyscreaseth another season / And that comyn englysshe that is spoken in one shyre varyeth from a nother. In so moche that in my dayes happened that certayn marchauntes were in a shippe in tamyse for to haue sayled ouer the see into zelande / and for lacke of wynde, thei taryed atte forlond, and wente to lande for to refreshe them: And one of theym named sheffelde, a mercer, cam in to an hows and axed for mete: and specyally he axyd after eggys: And the goode wyf answerde, that she coude speke no frenshe. And the marchaunt was angry, for he also coude speke no frenshe, but wolde haue hadde egges / and she vnderstode hym not / And thenne at laste a nother sayd that he wolde haue eyren / then the good wyf sayd that she vnderstod hym wel / Loo, what sholde a man in thyse dayes now wryte, egges or eyren / certaynly it is harde to playse euery man / by cause of dyuersite & chaunge of langage.

As you can see, the merchants didn't sail off at all "for lack of wind". The incident took place in the estuary of the Thames, England, and both the woman and Sheffield the mercer were English and spoke English, so the whole misunderstanding was between compatriots, not between an Englishman and a Dutch woman. The merchant used the Northern dialectal plural <eggys> with "hard" <g> due to Old Norse influence, and the woman didn't understand him since she only knew the traditional Kentish form <eyren> (cf. OE <aeg, aegru> with palatalised <g> = [j]).

Piotr

----- Original Message -----
From: tgpedersen@...

To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Friday, March 02, 2001 11:46 AM

Subject: [tied] Re: Initial d/t alternation

The english printer Caxton (late 15th century) tells the following story in a preface to one of his books to illustrate how much the English language had changed in his time: Two friends of his wanted to go to Flanders for business purposes. Because of unfavorable wind they ended up too far North, on the Dutch island of Walcheren. Since they were low on provisions they walked up to a nearby farm where they asked the farmer woman for some "eggs". Whereupon she became very angry and said that she was not French. So the two English gentlemen asked her for "eieren", and got their eggs. So, Caxton continues, what is one to say today, "eggs" or "eieren"?