09:00 Lois and I hurry into the back garden. Lois cuts
back some of our more aggressive shrubs, while in the meantime I start
collecting all the fallen apples - both eaters and cooking apples, many of them
completely rotten - and stuff them into one of our 4 compost bins. Afterwards,
I dig out our rake forward and rake up many of the fallen leaves covering our path
and lawns: it is yet another phase of our current mini-project to put the back
garden to bed for the winter.
Lois starts cutting back some of
our
more aggressive shrubs: the latest phase of
our current project
to "put the garden to bed" for the
winter
Unfortunately, the weather girl has said that the death throes
of Hurricane Lorenzo will hit us tonight, so there will be even more apples and
leaves on the ground tomorrow - damn!
11:00 We come back in the house and relax with a cup of
coffee on the sofa.
Lynda's U3A Middle English group is holding its regular
monthly meeting tomorrow at 2:30 pm in the bar of the town’s Everyman Theatre,
and the group's current project is "the
biggest event in the English language since Geoffrey Chaucer", i.e.
the so-called Great Vowel Shift, in which, between 1400 and 1600 or thereabouts,
most English long vowels changed their pronunciation, completely without
warning: for example, the word "house", which was previously
pronounced "hoose", acquired its modern pronunciation at this time,
together with hundreds of other words.
”Hoots Mon” – life before the Great Vowel
Shift
Lynda has asked all of us group members to come up with 5
“pub quiz questions” about the Great Vowel Shift, and she plans to use all of
our “pub quiz questions” as an informal way to kick-start the discussion.
I sit down with the computer and begin to formulate my 5
"pub quiz" questions, and I add in the answers too, because I have a
bit of a bad memory, to put it mildly.
My secret ambition is to amaze the other members of the
group so much with my challenging questions that I quickly become the most
popular member of the group, simultaneously knocking Joe off his perch ha ha
ha! But I'm just kidding, Joe, if you read this ha ha ha (again) !
1. Q: Why do scholars think the GVS
(Great Vowel Shift) took place? Name one theory.
A: Possible answers: (a) Northerners
flooding down south into London and making everybody confused, (b) people
wanted to sound more French, because it made them sound classy, and (c) people
wanted to sound less French, because the French were the big enemy, and nobody
liked them very much at the time.
2. Q: Who coined the term GVS?
A:
Otto Jespersen (1860-1943), a Danish professor of English. Fun fact: the
wikipedia article doesn’t even mention GVS! (nb second fun fact: Jespersen also
devised an Esperanto-style language, which he called “Novial”).
3. Q: Are there any other languages that
have gone through similar changes?
A: Possible answers: (a) Danish developed the
English long ‘a’: the long ‘a’ in Danish
“bade” (to bathe) is the same as in English; (b) German e.g. hus=>haus, bizen =>
beissen (to bite) .
4. Q: Is the GVS now irrevocable, i.e.
will any changes of the GVS ever be reversed, do you think?
A:
Maybe. Actually ‘hoose-weef’, which after the GFS turned into ‘housewife’ as we
pronounce it today, has been sliding back to ‘hoose-weef’ in parts of Canada
and elsewhere in the English-speaking world (the so-called “Canadian raising”).
5. Q: Give examples of words that escaped
the changes of the GVS, and are pronounced the same today as Chaucer would have
pronounced them.
A:
Possible answers: father, broad, swear, bear, dead, head, bread, threat, wealth,
room.
My 5 pub questions about the English language's notorious "Great Vowel Shift"
Incidentally, these answers are top secret until tomorrow
afternoon at 3 pm, needless to say ha ha ha (again again) !!!
13:00 Lois and I have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and
take a gigantic afternoon nap. Meanwhile, Lois drives over to her friend
Mari-Ann's house to take back our shopping bag on wheels.
Yesterday (Wednesday), Lois met with Mari-Ann and other
members of her sect to walk around one of Tewkesbury's residential neighbourhoods
and deliver leaflets to residents' letterboxes: leaflets publicising the sect
and its activities: worship services, meetings, seminars, illustrated presentations
on biblical topics and the like. And Mari-Anne borrowed our shopping bag on
wheels because she and Alf, her husband, were planning to deliver even more
leaflets last night in another residential neighbourhood. Good grief, what
madness !!!!
a typical shopping bag on wheels of the kind we
old crows love
to be seen pushing here and there in the
neighbourhood: this one is by Ikea
The sect's leaflet has been designed by Andy, the most
active member of the sect's local leadership. The front page is very
impressive, I have to say.
Cover of the leaflet
The corresponding advertisement in a local
free magazine
I tell Lois I think Andy has done a good job with the the
booklet’s cover. I say I admire the way Andy is channelling George
Michael's famous "Faith" album cover here:
However, I have one small reservation about the picture:
there is a slight hint that the man in the picture may be planning to attack
you and perhaps hit you over the head with the large Bible he is holding in his
hand. But I’m going to let that one slide, because Andy has definitely chosen a
front page that is refreshingly different from the norm, and he deserves praise
for that.
15:00 I'm still in
bed when I hear Lois come back from Mari-Ann's house. I get up and we relax
with a cup of tea and a piece of bread with homemade greengage jam - yum yum!
18:00 We have dinner and afterwards Lois wants to see a
documentary about eugenics, but I myself do not want to hear any more about
this sad idea that caused a lot of tragedy, and has now been stuffed into the
waste bin of history, so I sneak into the dining room to listen to a little
radio, the latest episode of BBC Radio 4's "Inside Science" series.
The programme's host is the charming Adam Rutherford.
I hear an interesting feature about a research team led
by Brent Seales, professor of computer science at Kentucky University, which is
currently in the UK working at the Diamond Synchotron near Oxford. Seales's
team is trying to read some of the classical papyrus scrolls found in the ruins
of Herculaneum's library.
Unfortunately, the scrolls were carbonised in the
pyroclastic flow that followed the eruption of Vesuvius in the year 79. And to
make things worse, the ink, the scribes used was also made of carbon, which is
a bit of a shame to put it mildly: black on black, in other words. But the team
has taught its software to recognise which areas of the surface contain ink and
which do not, and is making good progress.
The scrolls were miraculously at just the right distance from Vesuvius to have been carbonised rather than incinerated. And if they had not been damaged at all, they would almost certainly have been lost to us anyway. So Vesuvius has in a strange way "preserved" them, as long as they can be read, that is ha ha!
The scrolls were miraculously at just the right distance from Vesuvius to have been carbonised rather than incinerated. And if they had not been damaged at all, they would almost certainly have been lost to us anyway. So Vesuvius has in a strange way "preserved" them, as long as they can be read, that is ha ha!
The ruins of Herculaneum’s library
The library in happier times, before the
eruption of Vesuvius
Prof Seales's team are working on a massive collection of papyrus
rolls, each with a total surface area large enough to contain all of
Shakespeare's works. A hugely difficult and long-term project - however the team has already managed to scan two complete scrolls using X-ray photography.
Prof. Seales, seen here showcasing one of the
carbonised scrolls,
which looks a bit like a joint of meat that's just come out of the oven
I have to say - but I always like my meat to be "well done" ha ha!
which looks a bit like a joint of meat that's just come out of the oven
I have to say - but I always like my meat to be "well done" ha ha!
Historians hope that success with Seales' methods will
eventually lead to the discovery and reading of hundreds of lost classical
works known to have been in the library at Herculaneum: works by various
philosophers, lost poems by Catullus, Sappho, etc., also, interestingly, a lost
speech, said to have been written by Mark Antony, "De sua
inebrietate" - a response to his critics, who used to accuse him of being
constantly intoxicated. My god, what a crazy world we live in !!!!
Danish translation: torsdag den 3. oktober 2019
09:00 Lois og
jeg skynder os ind i baghaven. Lois beskærer nogle af mere aggressive buske,
mens jeg i mellemtiden går i gang med at samle alle de faldne æbler op – både
spiseæbler og kogeæbler, mange af dem helt rådne – og propper dem ind i en
eller anden af vores 4 kompostbeholdere. Bagefter graver jeg vores rive frem og
sammenrive mange af de faldne blader, der dækker vores havegange og græsplæner
: det hele er endnu en anden fase af vores nuværende mini-projekt til at putte
baghaven i seng til vinteren.
Lois går i gang med at beskære nogle af vores
mere
aggressive buske: den seneste fase i vores nuværende projekt
til
at ”putte baghaven i seng” til vinteren
Desværre har
vejrpigen sagt, at dødskampe af orkanen Lorenzo rammer os i nat, og der kommer
til at være endnu flere æbler og blade på jorden i morgen – pokkers!
11:00 Vi
kommer tilbage ind i huset igen og slapper af med en kop kaffe i sofaen.
Lyndas U3A
middelengelske gruppe holder sit regelmæssige månedlige møde i morgen kl 14:30
på baren af byens Everman-teater, og gruppens nuværende projekt er ”den største
begivenhed i det engelske sprog siden Geoffrey Chaucer”, dvs den såkaldte Store
Vokalskifte, da de fleste engelske vokaler, mellem 1400 og 1600 eller deromkring,
skiftede deres udtale, helt uden varsel: for eksempel, ordet ”house”, som
hidtil blev udtalt som ”hoose”, skaffet sin moderne udtale på dette tidspunkt.
HootsMon
Lynda har bedt
alle os medlemmerne om at komme med 5 pub-quiz spørgsmål om den Store Vokalskifte,
og hun planlægger at bruge alle vores pub-quiz spørgsmål som en uformel måde,
at kickstarte diskussionen på.
Jeg sætte mig
med computeren og går i gang med at formulere mine 5 ”pub-quiz”-spørgsmål, og
jeg tilføjer svarene også, fordi jeg har lidt af en dårlig hukommelse, for at
sige mildt.
Min hemmelige
ambition er at forbavse gruppens andre medlemmer med mine udfordrende spørgsmål
og blive omsider gruppens mest populære medlem, samtidigt med, at jeg vælter
Joe ned af sin piedestal ha ha ha! Men jeg spøger bare, Joe, hvis du læser det
her ha ha ha!
1. Q: Why do scholars think the GVS (Great Vowel Shift) took place? Name one theory.
A: Possible answers: (a) Northerners flooding down south into London and making everybody confused, (b) people wanted to sound more French, because it made them sound classy, and (c) people wanted to sound less French, because the French were the big enemy, and nobody liked them very much at the time.
2. Q: Who coined the term GVS?
A: Otto Jespersen (1860-1943), a Danish professor of English. Fun fact: the wikipedia article doesn’t even mention GVS! (nb second fun fact: Jespersen also devised an Esperanto-style language, which he called “Novial”).
3. Q: Are there any other languages that have gone through similar changes?
A: Possible answers: (a) Danish developed the English long ‘a’: the long ‘a’ in Danish “bade” (to bathe) is the same as in English; (b) German e.g. hus=>haus, bizen => beissen (to bite) .
4. Q: Is the GVS now irrevocable, i.e. will any changes of the GVS ever be reversed, do you think?
A: Maybe. Actually ‘hoose-weef’, which after the GFS turned into ‘housewife’ as we pronounce it today, has been sliding back to ‘hoose-weef’ in parts of Canada and elsewhere in the English-speaking world (the so-called “Canadian raising”).
5. Q: Give examples of words that escaped the changes of the GVS, and are pronounced the same today as Chaucer would have pronounced them.
A: Possible answers: father, broad, swear, bear, dead, head, bread, threat, wealth, room.
Mine 5 pub-spørgsmål om det engelske sprogs notoriske ”Store Vokalskifte”
For
øvrigt er disse svar tophemmelige
indtil i morgen eftermiddag kl 15, unødvendigt at sige ha ha ha (igen) !!!
13:00 Vi
spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk
eftermiddagslur. I mellemtiden kører Lois over til sin veninde Mari-Anns hus,
for at snuppe vores indkøbspose på hjul tilbage.
I går (ønsdag)
mødtes Lois med Mari-Ann og andre medlemmer af sin sekt for at gå rundt omkring
i en af byen Tewkesburys villakvarterer og levere pjecer til indbyggeres
brevkasser: pjecer, der publicerer sekten og dens aktiviteter: gudstjenester, møder, seminarer, illustrerede
fremlæggelser om bibelsk emner og den slags. Og Mari-Anne lånte vores
indkøbspose på hjul, fordi hun og Alf, hendes mand, planlagde at levere endnu
flere pjecer i går aftes i et andet villakvarter. Du godeste, sikke et
vanvid!!!!
en
typisk indkøbspose på hjul, som vi gamle krager elsker
at
blive set t i gang med at skubbe her og der i nabolaget: denne er fra Ikea
Sektens pjece
er blevet designet af Andy, den mest aktive medlem af sektens lokale ledenskab.
Forsiden er meget imponerende, det må jeg nok sige.
Pjecens
forside
Den
tilsvarende reklame i et lokalt gratis-magasin
Jeg fortalte
Lois, jeg synes Andy har gjort et godt stykke arbejde med pjecens forside. Jeg siger,
jeg beundrer den måde Andy ”kanaliserer” her George Michaels berømte ”Faith”
albumomslag på:
Jeg har
imidlertid én lille reservation mod billedet: der er en lille antydelse, at
manden i billedet måske planlægger at anfalde dig og måske slå dig i hovedet
med den store bibel, han bærer i hånden. Men det springer jeg over, fordi Andy
bestemt har valgt en forside, der er helt
anderledes, end normen, og det fortjener han ros for.
15:00 Jeg ligger stadig i
sengen, da jeg hører Lois komme tilbage fra Mari-Anns hus. Jeg står op og vi
slapper af med en kop te og et stykke brød med hjemmelavet reineclaude
marmelade – yum yum!
18:00 Vi
spiser aftensmad og bagefter ønsker Lois at se en dokumentarfilm om eugenik,
men jeg selv har ikke lyst til at høre mere om den der triste idé, der
forårsagede en masse tragedier og nu er blevet proppet i historiens
affaldspand, så sniger jeg ind i spisestuen for at lytte lidt til radio, det
seneste afsnit i BBC Radio 4s ”Inside Science”-serie. Programmets vært er den
charmerende Adam Rutherford.
Jeg hører et
interessant indslag om et forskningshold, ledt af Brent Seales, professor i
computer-videnskab på Kentucky University, der i øjeblikket er i England i gang
med at arbejde i Diamond Synchotron i nærheden af Oxford. Seales’ hold forsøger
at læse nogle af de klassiske papyrusruller, der blev fundet i ruinerne af
Herculaneums bibliotek: rullerne blev desværre karboniseret i den pyroklastiske
strøm, der fulgte udbruddet af Vesuvius i år 79. Og for at gøre tingene værre,
var det blæk, skriverne brugte, også lavet af karbon, hvilket er lidt af en
skam for at sige mildt: sort på sort, med andre ord. Men holdet har lært sin
software til at genkende, hvilke områder af overfladen indeholder blæk og
hvilke gør det ikke.
Ruinerne
af Herculaneums bibliotek
Biblioteket
i lykkeligere tider, før udbruddet af Vesuvius
De arbejder på
en massiv samling af papyrusruller, der hver har en total overflade stor nok
til at indeholde alle Shakespeares værker. Et massivt svært og langsigtet problem
– selvom Seales’ hold allerede har nået at scanne to komplete ruller ved hjælp
af røntgenfotografering.
Seales
set her i gang med at fremvise en af de carboniserede ruller
Historikere
håber, at succés ved hjælp af Seales’ metoder til sidst fører til opdagelsen og
læsningen af mange mistede klassiske værker, kendt at have været i biblioteket:
værker af forskellige filosofer, mistede digte af Catullus, Sappho osv, også en
tale, skrevet af Marcus Antonius, ”De sua inebrietate” – et svar til hans
kritikere, der plejede at anklage ham for at være konstant beruset. Du godeste,
sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!
22:00 Vi går i
seng. Jeg læser ca 20 sider af min sengetidbog, før jeg glider over i søvnen –
zzzzzzzz!!!!!
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