I always like the story of the early standardisation of English spelling when a monk decided that "coud" really ought to match the similar word "would". So he stuck in an etymologically incorrect "l" to make it "could". From alt.usage.english
To complicate matters, some scholars, arguing on the basis of etymology, persisted in writing iland for island, sissars for scissors, sithe for sythe, coud for could and ancor for anchor. So, no wonder this led critics like Dryden to raise their hands in horror and exclaim “How barbarously we yet write and speak”. See http://www.dailynews.lk/2008/05/06/fea01.asp
No comments:
Post a Comment