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)
On 2024-10-14, Ross Clark <[email protected]> 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.
On 15/10/2024 11:56 a.m., Christian Weisgerber wrote:
On 2024-10-14, Ross Clark <[email protected]> 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.
By contrast the published accounts, even when based on journals, seem to have
completely modern usage of capitals.
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.
Not trying to be snide but, .... There are some questions about how, when, and if our American children do become literate. I suppose that many other countries are asking the same sorts of questions about their youngsters. The electronics and media influences might be even stronger than those of linguistic differences.
another day of unknown origin and insubstantial observance
may be (sez crystal) a reaction against use of SHOUTY CASE in digital communication
anyhow, the subject (of 'bicameral' scripts) is interesting;
see especially the history
old roman cursive (1st century ad) shows the beginnings of some lower
case letter-forms
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)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_case#Bicameral_script
I meant to mention that something like this capitalization practice
persisted in English at least until late in the 18th century. [...]
This looks roughly like capitalization of lexical words for emphasis,
rather than on any grammatical basis.
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