Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/11/07
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]>>>In Old and Middle English, possession is indicated by the ending "-es", so that "Marc's book" would have been "Marces bucu" or somesuch.<<< Right. Which meant WHAT? Why add "-es"? "Marces" = "Marc his." I don't believe most linguistic scholars (great ones or not) rely entirely on textual evidence of early language, since illiteracy was the common condition and written notation was both rare and entirely unstandardized. Of course, I could be wrong. Lord knows it wouldn't be the first time. (You should try being wrong some time, Marc; I'm sure it would be a novel experience for you, and might broaden your horizons. <g!>) - --Mike