Thursday, January 3 2019

10:00 I get started reading more pages of "Ayenbyte of Inwyt, which was written late in the 13th century by Dan Michael of Northgate, Canterbury, in the Kentish dialect of Middle English. Lynda's U3A Middle English group is to hold its regular monthly meeting tomorrow (Friday) in the Town’s Everyman Theatre, and this book is the group's next project.

The county of Kent, where Dan Michael lived, is located at England's southwest corner. So far, in Lynda's group we have looked at works written in the other English dialects: especially the northern and eastern dialects, which were greatly influenced by the Nordic languages, thanks to the thousands of Danes and also some Swedes who settled in eastern England, and to the thousands of Norwegians who settled in Scotland and Ireland.

the county of Kent

the writer Dan Michael, at work on his famous

"Ayenbyte of Inwyt" in the city of Canterbury.

Dan Michael's Kentish dialect is to some extent similar to some aspects of today's Dutch language, with the initial consonants 's' and 'f' getting replaced by 'z' and 'v' respectively: for example, the modern English word 'for' appeared as ‘vor’ in Kentish, and the modern English word 'seven' appeared as 'zeven' etc. The modern Dutch word for 'for' today is still 'voor', and the Dutch word for 'seven' is 'zeven' if I remember rightly.

England's various dialects were a bit of a problem in the Middle Ages, to put it mildly. William Caxton (c.1422-ca.1491), who himself was born in Kent, told the story of a ship on its way from London to the Netherlands, which went aground on the Kentish side of the River Thames. One of the passengers, a north country merchant, went into a house and asked "the good wife" if he could buy some "egges" (eggs) from her. She replied, "Sorry, I don’t speak French".

Fortunately, there was a passer-by in the area who explained to the woman that "egges" was the northern equivalent of the Kentish word "eieren" (i.e. eggs). Good grief, what madness!

Caxton included this trivial anecdote in 1490 in the preface to one of his books, and as a result the story has been preserved for posterity. I am quite sure that both the Kentish woman and the northern merchant  would have been very surprised to know that their encounter would still be known and talked about over 700 years later, to put it mildly.

Caxton's point was that he wanted to demonstrate England's dialect problems. And Caxton was actually responsible for reducing these problems for later generations. He established England's first printing press, and published thousands of books, many of them translations of foreign works.

And it was Caxton, a Kentish man, who decided to standardise the English in his books, and he actually chose the London dialect as his standard, which was a version of the East Midlands dialect. As a result, today's English shows many signs of the influence of the thousands of Danish immigrants who settled in eastern England.

William Caxton and England's first printing press, and

the first ever printed books in Caxton's own "standardised" English language

The merchant’s word "egges" was in fact the word's Nordic form, while the woman's equivalent word "eieren" is the Anglo-Saxon form, and resembles today's Dutch word for eggs, "ejeren", if I remember correctly.

Aren’t language and dialect totally fascinating? Who would want to study anything else?

11:00 Lois and I go for a short walk on the local football field. There are not many people around: a couple of young boys kicking a football about the pitch, and a few people walking their dogs. It is cold, and I wear my scarf, a nice warm one, for the first time since the beginning of winter.

12:30 We come home and have lunch. Afterwards I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap. Meanwhile, Gill calls at the door - she is a member of Lois's sect, also a trained piano tuner. She starts tuning our piano.

Gill, our piano tuner, in happier times:  at the sect's Christmas lunch - 

Gill is on the right, and Lois's friends Mari-Ann and Alf 

are numbers 2 and 3 from the right

I am very much into dialects and accents, even though I try to keep this a secret. I have noticed that almost all the members of the sect are from the lower middle class and speak with regional accents. Gill is an exception - she speaks the standard language, which means she is from the actual proper middle class and went to a "good" school, and as a result it is impossible to guess which part of the country she is from.

Aren’t accents totally fascinating? Who would want to study anything else? [You've already made this kind of point already. Three strikes and you're out - Ed]

15:00 I tumble out of bed and jump up on my fitness bike. I cycle my usual 6 miles and afterwards I do a little weight training for 5-10 minutes.

16:00 Gill has to leave and Lois and I relax with a cup of tea on the couch. We listen a little to the radio, an interesting programme about Lady Mary Montagu. The host of the program is the charming Naomi Alderman.

An interesting program that reveals how Lady Mary Montagu (1689-1762) experimented on her own child in an attempt to prove for the first time in the West that inoculation can really protect against disease. Good grief, how crazy !!!

Lady Mary Montagu - she had no medical knowledge

but in the 18th century she demonstrated for the first time ever in the West

 that inoculation can really protect against disease,

which is a little counter-intuitive to put it mildly

She travelled to Constantinople as wife to Britain's Ambassador to Turkey and noticed that many Turks seemed to be immune to smallpox.

She attended special "parties" during which a tiny sample of the smallpox virus on a needle was injected into an opened vein to provide immunity to the disease, which seems a little unbelievable and counter-intuitive to put it mildly. I've never myself been to that kind of party - my mother always warned me against them. "That's not the way to have fun, son", she used to say - ha ha.

After losing her own brother to smallpox while herself surviving the disease with terrible scarring, Lady Montagu personally knew the dangers associated with the fatal disease. And she became the first person to bring inoculation to the West.

And in this afternoon’s programme we also hear the remarkable story of how condemned prisoners were given the opportunity to escape execution under King George I's orders, if they volunteered to be inoculated and then survived. A minority of all patients (about a quarter) died of the inoculation itself anyway.

My god, what a crazy world we live in. It's a little surprising to say the least that Lady Montague is not more famous than she is. All Britss have heard of Edward Jenner (1749-1823), the physician who later used cowpox innoculations to protect against smallpox, a process based on Lady Montagu's previous work, but almost no one has heard of Lady Montagu herself, for some reason.

Lois says this is because she was a woman, while Jenner was a man – my god, what a crazy world we live in !!!!

Dr. Edward Jenner - developed a cow pox vaccine

Interestingly, many Brits were inoculated during the 18th century as the result of Lady Montagu's campaign, but in the American colonies there was no inoculation available at the time of the war of independence. 

Washington's army was in fact decimated by smallpox - the British used smallpox as a weapon against the Americans (the first example ever of germ warfare?). The British infected a bunch of prostitutes and sent them into Washington's camp, and for example as many as 5,000 American soldiers died of smallpox during the Battle of Quebec in 1776.

My god, what a crazy world we live in !!!!

18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening listening to the radio and watching a bit of television. We hear an interesting radio programme, "Great Lives", about the Spanish painter Goya (1746-1828). The programme’s host is the charming Matthew Paris.

Goya was quite a hero for older people - his professional life as a painter lasted 60 years. In his 80’s he drew an old white-haired man leaning on 2 sticks – and next to the drawing Goya wrote "I’m still learning".

There are lots of drawings about old age. One shows an old man falling downstairs. Under the drawing he wrote "Watch your step! Don't forget your age! ”. Also a drawing of an old man trying to climb up onto a toilet - and Goya wrote underneath, "this man eats too much".

Goya’s white-haired old man with the inscription “I’m still learning”.

Two years before he actually died, he was still going on vacations. A friend described him arriving in France, alone, unaccompanied, deaf, tired and weak, but still excited about seeing more of the world.

What a man! And a bit of an inspiration for Lois and me, no doubt about that.

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzzz !!!

Danish translation

10:00 Jeg går i gang med at læse endnu flere sider af ”Ayenbyte of Inwyt, som blev skrevet sent i 13. århundrede af Dan Michael af Northgate, Canterbury på den kentiske dialekt af middelengelsk. Lyndas U3A middengelsk gruppe skal holde sit regelmæssige månedlige møde på fredag i byens Everyman-teater, og denne bog er gruppens næste projekt.

Grevskabet Kent, hvor Dan Michael boede, ligger i Englands sydvestlige hjørne. Hidtil har Lyndas gruppe kigget på værker skrevet i andre engelske dialekter: især de nordlige og østlige dialekter, der blev meget kraftigt påvirket af de nordiske sprog, på grund af de tusindvis af danskere også nogle svenskere, der bosatte sig i det østlige England, og de tusindvis af nordmænd, der bosatte sig i Skotland og Irland.

grevskabet Kent

den kentiske forfatter Dan Michael, i færd med at skrive

sit berømte værk ”Ayenbyte of Inwyt” i byen Canterbury.

Dialekten ligner i vis grad nogle aspekter af nutidens hollandske sprog, med de indledende konsonanter ’s’ og ’f’ udskiftet af ’z’ og ’v’: for eksempel ordet ’for’ bliver til ’vor’, og ordet ’seven’ bliver til ’zeven’ osv. Det hollandske ord for ”for” er i dag ”voor”, og det hollandske ord for ”seven” er ”zeven”, hvis jeg husker rigtigt.

Englands forskellige dialekter var lidt af et problem i midalderen, for at sige mildt. William Caxton (ca.1422-ca.1491), der selv var født i Kent, fortalte historien om et skib på vej fra London til Holland,  der gik på grund på den kentiske side of floden Thames. En af passagerne, en manufakturhandler fra det nordlige grevskab Yorkshire gik i et hus og spurgte ”kvinden af huset” om han kunne købe nogle ”egges” (æg) af hende. Hun svarede, ”Undskyld, jeg taler ikke fransk”.

Heldigvis var der en forbipasserende i området, som forklarede til kvinden at ”egges” var den nordlige ækvivalens af det kentiske ord ”eyren”. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!

Caxton inkluderede denne triviale anekdote i 1490 i forordet til en af sine bøger, og som resultat er den blevet bevaret for eftertiden. Jeg er helt sikker på, at både den kentiske kvinde og den nordlige manufakturhandler ville have været meget overrasket over at vide, at deres møde stadig ville være kendt og diskuteret over 700 år senere, for at sige mildt.

Caxtons point var, at han ville demonstrere Englands dialektproblemer. Og Caxton var faktisk selv ansvarlig for at mindske disse problemer for senere generationer. Han etablerede Englands første trykpresse, og udgav tusindvis af bøger, mange af dem oversættelser af udenlandske værker. Det var Caxton, en kentisk mand, der besluttede at standardisere dialekten i sine bøger, og han valgte faktisk den londonske dialekt, som var en version af den East Midlands-dialekt. Som resultat, viser nutidens engelsk mange tegn på indflydelsen af de tusindvis af danske indvandrere, der bosatte sig i det østlige England.

William Caxton og Englands første trykpresse

Den der manufakturhandlers ord ”egges” er faktisk ordets nordiske form, mens kvindens ord ”eyren” er den angelsaksiske form, og ligner nutidens hollandske ord ”eieren”, hvis jeg husker rigtigt.

Er sprog og dialekt ikke helt fascinerende? Hvem ville ønske at studere noget andet?

11:00 Lois og jeg går en kort tur på den lokale fodboldbane. Der er ikke ret mange mennesker i området: et par unge dreng i færd med at sparke en fodbold om banen, og et par mennesker, der går en tur med hunde. Det er koldt, og jeg går med mit halstørklæde, et dejlig varmt, for første gang siden starten af vinteren.

12:30 Vi kommer hjem og spiser frokost. Bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. I mellemtiden ringer Gill på døren – hun er et medlem af Lois’ sekt, også en uddannet klaverstemmer.  Hun går i gang med at justere vores klaver.

Gill i lykkeligere tider: til sektens julefrokost, Gill er på højre, og Lois’

venner Alf og Mari-Ann er numre 2 og 3 fra højre

Jeg går højt op i dialekter og accenter, selvom jeg prøver at holde dette hemmeligt. Jeg har bemærket, at næsten alle de medlemmer af sekten er fra den lavere middelklasse og taler med regionale accenter. Gill er en undtagelse – hun taler standardsproget, hvilket betyder, at hun er fra selve middelklassen, og gik i en ”god” skole, også det er umuligt at gætte hvilke del af landet hun stammer fra.

Er accenter ikke helt fascinerende? Hvem ville ønske at studere noget andet? [You’ve made a similar  point already, so it’s once more three strikes and you’re out – Ed]

15:00 Jeg vælter ud af sengen og hopper op på min kondicykel. Jeg cykler mine sædvanlige 6 miles og bagefter dyrker jeg lidt vægttræning i 5-10 minutter.

16:00 Gill skal af sted, og Lois og jeg slapper af med en kop te i sofaen. Vi lytter lidt til radio, et interessant program, der handler om Lady Mary Montague. Programmets vært er den charmerende Naomi Alderman.

Et interessant program, der afslører afslører, hvordan Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762) eksperimenterede på sit eget barn i et forsøg på at bevise for første gang i verden, at inokulation virkelig kan beskytte mod sygdom. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!

Lady Mary Montagu – hun havde ingen medicinske viden

men hun beviste i det 18. århundred, at inokulation virkelig kan beskytte mod sygdom,

hvilket er lidt kontraintuitivt for at sige mildt

Hun rejste til Constantinopel som kone til Storbritanniens ambassadør til Tyrkiet og overværede specielle ”fester", hvorunder en lille prøve af en koppervirus på en nål blev indsprøjtet i en åbnet vene for at give immunitet mod sygdommen, hvilket virker lidt utroligt og kontraintuitivt, for at sige mildt.

Efter at have tabt sin egen bror til kopper og selv overlevet sygddommen men med frygtelige skrammer, kendte Lady Montagu personligt de farer, der var forbundet med den dødelige sygdom. Og hun blev den første person til at bringe inokulation til Vesten. Og vi hører i eftermiddag også den bemærkelsesværdige historie om, hvordan fordømte fanger fik mulighed for at undslippe henrettelsen under King George I's ordrer, hvis de fik viruset og overlevede.

Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i. Det er lidt overraskende, for at sige mildt, at Lady Montague ikke er mere bekendt. Alle briter har hørt om Edward Jenner (1749-1823), den læge, der senere brugte kokopper for at beskytte mod kopper, en process, der var baseret på Lady Montagus tidligere aktiviteter, men næsten ingen har hørt om selve Lady Montagu af en eller anden grund.

Lois siger, at dette er fordi hun var en kvinde, mens Jenner var en mand – du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!

Dr Edward Jenner - developed a cowpox vaccine

Det er interessant, at mange briter blev inokuleret som resultatet af Lady Montagus kampagne, men i de amerikanske kolonier, var der ikke nogen inokulation til rådighed ved tiden af uafhængighedskrigen.

Washingtons hær blev decimeret af kopper - briterne brugte kopper som et våben mod amerikanerne (det første eksempel nogensinde på bioligisk krigsførelse?) . Briterne smittede en flok prostituerede og sendt dem ind i Washingtons lejr, og 5000 amerikanske soldater døde af kopper under slaget ved Quebec i 1776.

Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at lytte til radio og se lidt fjernsyn. VI hører et interessant radioprogram, ”Great Lives”, der handler om den spanske maler Goya (1746-1828). Programmets vært er den charmerende Matthew Paris.

Goya var lidt af en helt for ældre mennesker – hans professionelle liv som maler varede 60 år. I 80’erne tegnede han en gammel hvidhåret mand, der lænede sig på en stok – under tegningen skrev Goya ”jeg lærer stadig”.

Der er masser af tegninger der handler om alderdom. En viser en gammel mand, der falder ned ad trappen. Under tegningen skrev han ”Pas på hvor du går! Glem ikke din alder!”. Også en tegning af en gammel mand, der sidder på toilettet – og Goya skrev indunden, ”han spiser for meget”.

En af Goyas gamle mænd, der siger “Jeg lærer stadig”.

To år, før han faktisk døde, plejede han stadig at tage på ferie. En ven beskrev, at han ankom til Frankrig, alene, uledsaget, døv, træt og svag, men begejstret over at se mere af verden.

Sikke en mand! Og lidt af en inspiration for Lois og mig, ingen tvivl om det.

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzzzz!!!