yonder - English or Irish?

[ronbutters at AOL.COM]

Even if ordinary soldiers did not carry swords, it does not follow logically that a song writer would not make reference to the sword of an ordinary soldier. Poetic license? Figure of speech? Vainglorious hyperbole?
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-----Original Message-----
From: "JAMES A. LANDAU Netscape. Just the Net You Need."
              <JJJRLandau at NETSCAPE.COM>

Date:         Sat, 21 Jun 2008 09:30:13
To:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject:      [ADS-L] Subject: Re: yonder - English or Irish?


On Fri, 20 Jun 2008 09:05:34 Zulu minus 4 "Joel S. Berson" Berson at ATT.NET wrote:

<quote>
James Harbeck's inclusion of spinning wheels in his placement of the
days is incorrect.  Spinning wheels were certainly used later than
the 17th century.  And they were an important element in British land
war of the other continent, namely the Revolutionary war: the
colonials, in their efforts to boycott imports from Britain,
endeavored to spin more.

Which leads me to wonder (rhymes with yonder):  Josh Macfelder seems
to have assumed the song relates to a war on the continent.  Why not
overseas?  Or why not a civil war in England?

However, I have the same view as James about the sword:  an ordinary
soldier in the 18th century would likely not be armed with one
(unless he were Persian, Indian, perhaps Turkish, etc.).
</quote>

You are imputing my sins to James Harbeck, which I suppose is alright since Mr. Harbeck is such a saintly person that one can only impute other peoples’ sins to him.

I said that the song dated from when BOTH spinning wheels and swords were in use.  Yes, swords became obsolete first, but that merely made the spinning wheels irrelevant to the dating.

I think you meant “ponder” rather than “wonder” as the latter does not rhyme with “yonder”, at least not in my speech.

As for why Josh Macfelder attached the song to a war on the Continent against the French, I would guess that the song included words about going to France to fight the French.

OT:  Having Thurmont, Maryland, declare itself monolingual is much more worrisome than for some other town to do so, because Thurmont is the location of Camp David, and this ordinance will forbid any future Camp David agreements (except with other English-speaking countries).

Let’s see now.  George W. Bush speaks at least some Spanish.  Obama must have learned the local language while living in Indonesia.  I have no idea about McCain.

           James A. Landau
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