I spent another 4 hours in Pontevedra's main
hospital yesterday, following a request from a friend that I take her
there. On the way, she told me she'd been in touch with a
surgeon friend to ask him to ensure she got preferential treatment.
On the way home, she called him to say she didn't think this had
happened. He stressed that, now he was retired, his influence
was limited. With which excuse she seemed singularly unimpressed.
The time on my hands in the waiting room gave me
an opportunity to continue re-reading Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
This is written in 14th Century English, of course, but after a bit
of practice it becomes relatively easy to read. Firstly, there are
numerous words which are the same in modern English. And secondly,
there are words which are close to their modern equivalents. For
example, from only a couple of pages:-
Same: We, no, wonder, sheep, by, wolf, were, wait, reverence, might, sake, how, on, upon, she, for, rather, remedies, sat, an, foot, feet, whom, an, art, mouth, same, gold, if, that, noble, gospel, figure, clerk, but, man, was, his.
Similar: Pacient, gat-toothed, (gap-toothed), brood (broad), riche, aboute, ofte, reyn, meschief, shal, worde, litel, lerned, paire, caughte, ys (is).
Not that similar: Ferrest (far-est, farthest), ne (never), nat (not), heed (head), seye (see), noon (no one).
But, then there are words which bear not much relation: Nos (is not, isn't), wight (person), nosethirls (nostrils), wiste (knew), mote (must), eek (also), sucefleem (pimply), wood (mad, stupid). hight (was called), morwe (morning), whilom (once), waylayaway (alas), hente (took), sterte (leapt), sheene (beautiful), abood (decay), rit (rides), hem (them), hir (their), ybete (embroidered), leste (wanted), highte (called), ycleped (called).
I don't know enough German to be able to say which, if any, of these final words come from German. Or perhaps Danish. They don't look as if they came from French/Latin.
Two words which jumped out at me were janglere and povre. The former meant 'loud talker' and I'll use it for my neighbour, Nice-but-Noisy Toni. And the latter meant 'poor', as with the French pauvre and the Spanish pobre. But in Spanish povre is pronounced the same as pobre
Same: We, no, wonder, sheep, by, wolf, were, wait, reverence, might, sake, how, on, upon, she, for, rather, remedies, sat, an, foot, feet, whom, an, art, mouth, same, gold, if, that, noble, gospel, figure, clerk, but, man, was, his.
Similar: Pacient, gat-toothed, (gap-toothed), brood (broad), riche, aboute, ofte, reyn, meschief, shal, worde, litel, lerned, paire, caughte, ys (is).
Not that similar: Ferrest (far-est, farthest), ne (never), nat (not), heed (head), seye (see), noon (no one).
But, then there are words which bear not much relation: Nos (is not, isn't), wight (person), nosethirls (nostrils), wiste (knew), mote (must), eek (also), sucefleem (pimply), wood (mad, stupid). hight (was called), morwe (morning), whilom (once), waylayaway (alas), hente (took), sterte (leapt), sheene (beautiful), abood (decay), rit (rides), hem (them), hir (their), ybete (embroidered), leste (wanted), highte (called), ycleped (called).
I don't know enough German to be able to say which, if any, of these final words come from German. Or perhaps Danish. They don't look as if they came from French/Latin.
Two words which jumped out at me were janglere and povre. The former meant 'loud talker' and I'll use it for my neighbour, Nice-but-Noisy Toni. And the latter meant 'poor', as with the French pauvre and the Spanish pobre. But in Spanish povre is pronounced the same as p
Finally . . . RT Watch: This Russian
channel this morning pooh-poohed the suggestion that Putin is now
intent on invading and grabbing other ex-parts of the Soviet Republic
such as bits of Poland and Czechoslovakia. Not mentioned was that
part of the world now considered most at risk - Eastern Ukraine.
Wonder why.
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