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Path: ...!weretis.net!feeder8.news.weretis.net!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: Aidan Kehoe <kehoea@parhasard.net> Newsgroups: sci.lang Subject: Re: national lowercase day (14 october) Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2024 16:46:29 +0100 Lines: 48 Message-ID: <87ikttz7vu.fsf@parhasard.net> References: <veiocf$152u5$1@dont-email.me> <slrnvgr8cu.1ua4.naddy@lorvorc.mips.inka.de> <vel1f0$1jsnv$1@dont-email.me> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: individual.net 0k4zuL3HnZWKYZaeVrg3SwLESw7FLvYDX0bws9+6Ev/cCIMxtq Cancel-Lock: sha1:/hCmjtKDSxm5Yv76309NU48UH8c= sha1:e3Ki4Uc5BGeofKxVljxUxuoHR6Q= sha256:K/IT7TRE3neIP/6ZLqj27wDcCQi5Sz2kJ6Ozp3C6A7M= User-Agent: Gnus/5.101 (Gnus v5.10.10) XEmacs/21.5-b35 (Linux-aarch64) Bytes: 3263 Ar an cúigiú lá déag de mí Deireadh Fómhair, scríobh Ross Clark: > On 15/10/2024 11:56 a.m., Christian Weisgerber wrote: > > On 2024-10-14, Ross Clark <benlizro@ihug.co.nz> wrote: > > > >> but bicamerality did not become general in europe until 1300 > >> and took some time to more or less stabilize in english > >> you probably noticed in the text quoted yesterday from the time of henry > >> iv, all nouns capitalized (as still in german) > > > > In the 19th century, there was a fashion in the German linguistic > > literature, I think, to abandon noun capitalization. Notably the > > _Deutsches Wörterbuch_ (German Dictionary) started by the Brothers > > Grimm stuck to this. > > > > I meant to mention that something like this capitalization practice persisted > in English at least until late in the 18th century. I noticed it when reading > narratives of voyages to the Pacific at that period. More particularly, it > shows up in (carefully transcribed) journals of voyagers such as Cook. An > example from George Robertson at Tahiti, 1767: > ---------------------- > All the way that we ran allong shore we saw the whole coast full of Canoes, and > the country had the most Beautiful appearance its possible to Imagin from the > shore side one two and three miles Back their is a fine Leavel country that > appears to be all laid out in plantations, and the regular built Houses seems > to be without number, all along the Coast, they appeard lyke long Farmers Barns > and seemd to be all very neatly thatched, with great Numbers of Cocoa Nut > Trees.... > ---------------- > > This looks roughly like capitalization of lexical words for emphasis, rather > than on any grammatical basis. I wonder have any studies been done comparing uneducated German-speakers to uneducated English-speakers and the skill in determining parts of speech. It wouldn’t shock me if the English-speakers were worse at it, given less need to decline nouns and adjectives. I suppose these days it would have to be done on pre-literate children. > By contrast the published accounts, even when based on journals, seem to have > completely modern usage of capitals. -- ‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out / How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’ (C. Moore)