LL-L "History" 2012.06.18 (01) [EN]

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 L O W L A N D S - L - 18 June 2012 - Volume 01
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From: Paul Finlow-Bates wolf_thunder51 at yahoo.co.uk
Subject: LL-L "History" 2012.06.17 (01) [EN-NDS]

From: Luc Vanbrabant lucv32 at gmail.com
Subject: LL-L "History" 2012.06.16 (01) [EN]

Hi Paul,

Are you sure? I think the name 'Hollands' was not in use at that itime,
certainly not in Bruges were Caxton once lived. Perhaps it is a difference
between general Dutch, which was called 'Nederduits', and local Flemish.
Even in Köln at that time, he did not hear 'Deutsch' but 'Rijnlands' which
was also a branch of 'Nederduits'.
Old English is closer to our Flemish than Modern English, even after 1500
years.

Groetjes,
Luc vanbrabant

Hi Luc,

"Hollands" is just what I called it (habit I picked up in South Africa,
because "Dutch" gets confused with "Duits" which is German). I don't know
what Caxton would have called it, but he spent many years in the Low
Countries, so whatever it was called then, he spoke it!  But the term
"Dutch" certainly meant "German" to him.

Clearly OE is actually closer to English than German is, but Caxton's point
was, he couldn't read it and neither could most literate English speakers
of the 15th C.  It was effectively a foreign language.  He was addressing
the problem of what form of English to use for his newly introduced
printing, and gave examples of how diverse it was.  He had thought of going
to the source, Old English, but decide against it.

Paul


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