Re: [tied] Re: Creole Romance?

05-07-03 21:32, Brian M. Scott wrote:

>>>> You might even interpret the story to mean that as late
>>>> as in Caxton's time, people in England used one language
>>>> at home and another, more regular one in the market.
>
>>> Whether any of them did or not, there's nothing in
>>> Caxton's story that suggests such an interpretation.
>
>> And there's nothing to contradict it.
>
> There's nothing in the story to contradict the notion that
> the moon is made of green cheese; would you care to draw
> that inference as well?
>
> To the minimal extent that the story says anything about the
> matter, it points in the opposite direction. Clearly
> neither the merchant nor the wife was acquainted with both
> forms of the 'egg' word.

I recommend to Torsten's attention the _whole_ of Caxton's prologue to
_Eneydos_, where the egg anecdote is given. It's instructive as well as
entertaining. Caxton speaks at length about the "dyuersite and chaunge
of langage" and the nonexistence of a standard variety of English in his
times.

Piotr