From: kehoea@parhasard.net   
      
    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  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)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)