To Bee Built

I'm guessing it's a typo.

It's a quote.

see:

http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2001/03.01/02-harvardhistory.html

http://www.bbrown.info/writings/html/dunster.cfm

Eh... Craven de Kere, the contents offered by the two links seem to give us a hint:

"To bee built" being a typo is unlikely?

It has surprised me.

Perhaps a typo or misspelling in it's original text. But not in any of the subsequent quotes.

I have often read the copies of original writing of those such as John Adams, his wife Abigail, and T. Jefferson. Misspellings are common and often a word would be spelled two different ways in the same body of text. Perhaps the writers realized they were unsure of the correct spelling and were "hedging" their bet. Interesting but quite understandable if one (such as I) comes from an ancient era that possessed no spell checkers.

Noteworthy is that when reading such personal handwritten correspondence between two individuals it seems the authors did not feel it necessary to point out each other's "mistake". I always like to think this noble overseeing was due to the fact the authors had better things to worry about. Although misspellings abounded it was the thought of the author that warranted attention.

JM

It is also noteworthy that there has never been, for English, an institution equivalent to the French Academy, which would have regularized spelling. It is not at all unlikely that the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony considered that the correct spelling.

Oristar, agreements as to how English was to be spelled have changed over hundreds of years. The current spellings of most English words were not fully codified until dictionaries were in wide-spread use. As you probably noticed, the quote you've found is from 1639. While Chinese used ideograms which don't have such odd changes in spelling, English and most other European languages do.

This, for example, is how a poem was written in (late) Middle English published about 131 years before the quote you've posted. I can barely read it!

"The tretis of the twa mariit women and the wedo"
published in 1508
Dunbar, William, 1460?-1520?

1: Apon the Midsummer evin, mirriest of nichtis,
2: I muvit furth allane, neir as midnicht wes past,
3: Besyd ane gudlie grein garth, full of gay flouris,
4: Hegeit, of ane huge hicht, with hawthorne treis;
5: Quhairon ane bird, on ane bransche, so birst out hir notis
6: That never ane blythfullar bird was on the beuche harde:

Another problem arises, as well, from the dialects of English, which were still very dissimilar well into the 18th century. William Caxton began printing books in London in the late 15th century. He used many of Chaucer's works, and thereby began the process in which the East Anglian dialect became enshrined as "correct English." He translated himself many works from French, and subsequently printed them. He seems either to have been a user of the East Anglian dialect, or imitated Chaucer. However, when he prints Le Mort d'Arthur in 1485, he apparently used an original manuscript, or a copy of an original manuscript, which he did not subsequently revise--the language of that book is considered by scholars to have been the English used in the north of England, in particular, Yorkshire, in the 15th century.

Quite apart from the obvious observation many others have made in this thread about errors which could well be made in manuscript documents, it is well to remember that there were many acceptable variants, and that whoever transcribed a document was likely to have spelled words as it occurred to him or her were the correct forms.

Hi all.




What were they saying, Piffka?

Roughly:

Upon a midsummer evening, merriest of nights
I moved forth alone, as midnight was nearly past
Beside a goodly grown garden, full of gay flowers
Girt with hawthorn trees of a huge height
Upon which a bird on a branch, burst out with his note . . .

As for the final line, i'm lost altogether in deciphering that one . . .

Very clear now. But how could you figure out them? It seems that the author was a "redneck poet" who had never learned how to spell. He just followed the dialect to spell out anything as he wished.

Oristar, "redneck" is a term i would advise you not to use.

I studied both Anglo-Saxon, and old and middle English in university. However, that was 35 years ago and more. I could be wrong about parts of that "translation," although i think i've got it basically correct. It used to be easy for me do that, but no longer . . .

...Thanks Setanta, I guess I've made a mistake because "redneck" might be a disparaging term for peasant while I just thought that is a humorous term.
If I've made such a mistake I am sorry.

Hmm, I got it now from AHD ( I learned the word "redneck" from jokes in a forum, and my English-Chinese dictionary indicated it meant a peasant, and didn't indicate it is a disparaging term):
Redneck
n. Offensive Slang
Used as a disparaging term for a member of the white rural laboring class, especially in the southern United States.

Sorry Setanta.

No need to apologize, Oristar, you did nothing wrong. I just wanted you to know that it would probably best best to avoid using the term. It was first applied to Irish by the English, and was a term of contempt for those who spent their days bent over the fields, causing the skin of their necks to burn read from the exposure to the sun. In the United States, the term was applied to poor Southerners by other Southerners, and then began being used by Northerners as a term of contempt for all Southerners. It is a term which can get people in the U.S. upset very quickly.

I meant no personal criticism of you Oristar, i just thought i ought to warn you.

Thanks for warning. Such a mistake should be utterly avoided.

I did feel you got upset when you saw that word, and I got a bit nervous. Now it is a relief.

Good translation, Setanta. I had no idea what "quahiron" meant.



I think this is along the lines of --

That never a beautiful-ler* bird on the bush was heard.

*or the less rhythmic, more beautiful


Here is my take on Redneck, for what it is worth ---
I think, Oristar, that the word redneck would be better used by you, if you were willing to refer to your own self as one. It is a very descriptive term and while it is most-definitely a slur against Southerners, there is plenty of redneck-mentality in the west, as well. I would say that the insult can run the gamut of meanings from the hot-headed recklessness of ill-brought up teenagers and the havoc they cause with vandalism and more -- all the way through to the well-earned sun-darkened skin on the neck of a man or woman who works outside, with the concurrent belief that someone who works outside doesn't read or speak well or enjoy the "finer" things and probably has a very reactionary and conservative stance.

There are a few, my husband being one, who is pleased when he finds that his neck has become dark red from the summer sun, and may jokingly refer to himself as a redneck. In China I have heard that everyone spends some time learning how to work outside, including students, teachers, high-powered officers and executives. If so, then you may understand that a red-neck might also be a badge of honor.

If you have long hair you don't usually get a redneck unless you pull your hair back in a pony-tail. For that reason among others, a long-haired hippy is usually considered the antithesis of a redneck. In both cases it is an insult or it had better be said with a big smile.

Piffka, i would not use beautiful in that line (and good job deciphering that, by the way), simply because the word did not exist at that time . . . how about "bythe-fuller" or "more blythe."

I may be incorrect, but i believe i have read that the word beautiful was invented by Shakespeare . . . excuse me, Snakeshit . . .

Nice translation indeed, Set. I loved studying Chaucer and Anglo-Saxon as well. Soon we shall have OristarA reading 'The Faerie Qveene'.

http://www.uoregon.edu/~rbear/fqintro.html