[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Wenham (less, rather than more)



Jime wrote:

"The voices of Carl Conrad:

1. "hafta" is typical passive middle American.
2. "de rigueur" is an elegant middle French motif.
3. "sumer" is evidently a reference to Sumerian hyperactive
4. "is icumen in" is probably active passive middle Hick
5. "Aye" is middle English.

My guess is that this barely scatches the surface of the 
mysterious Carl Conrad - the man of many voices!!

;-)
Jim
-----------------------------------------------------

Jim's takeoff on Carl's delightful mixture of Middle English (which were 
actually numbers 3 and 4), French, and carefully studied (by linguistics
specialists) new American verbs such as gonna, wanna, and hafta (which are 
NOT the same as "going to", "want to", and "have to"), is one more proof 
that Carl was right in saying that finally sumer is icumen in.

	Sumer is icumen in,
	  Lhude sing cuccu!
	Groweth sed, and bloweth med,
	 And springth the wude nu.

I'm tempted to sing cuccu lhude, myself, but a mild stroke has made that
(and many other things) difficult for me just now.  An hour in the MRI 
scanner, with its roar and hammering sounds in my brain, made me realize 
what that adverb "Lhude" really means!

Singing cuccu summit lhude anyway,	["summit" -- adverb from Dickens]

Edward