Re: Shibbolethisation

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: tgpedersen@...
> To: cybalist@...
> Sent: Friday, March 02, 2001 11:46 AM
> Subject: [tied] Re: Initial d/t alternation
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: tgpedersen@...
> To: cybalist@...
> 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"?

--- In cybalist@..., "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...> wrote:
> 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
>

I quoted the story from memory, since I couldn't remember where I
read it ("The Languages of England"?). Thanks for pointing that out.
One revision coming up.

Torsten