"Serbian", noun, 1739; antedating OED2 1848--

[Joel S. Berson]

At 5/18/2012 02:39 PM, Shapiro, Fred wrote:
>I doubt that historical lexicographers would accept a handwritten
>annotation of this sort as a valid citation.

I wondered.  But does the OED accept manuscript letters?  How does it
validate their dates?

I think examination of the year's issues would indicate that the
annotations are definitely 18th-century -- capitalization of common
nouns is the obvious indicator, and I suspect there are
others.  Handwriting analysis might indicate a period.

There are also clues that the annotations were written the same year
as the newspaper.  One annotation is "Acct of Fever in N Engld the
remainder to be in Next".  "To be" in Next seems unlikely if the
annotator was writing in some future year and already had the "Next"
issue; he might rather have written "the remainder is in Next".

On the other hand, the second line of this annotation is "See large
answer in N647", meaning the annotator went back from N647 to this
issue.  But one could argue that this second line of annotation was
added to the earlier issue as soon as the annotator saw N647 and
recognized the relationship.

Some annotations include the phrase "Read it" -- which I interpret as
an imperative, either to the annotator himself or to some
contemporary acquaintance.  Again, unlikely to have been written in
some later year.

The same annotator (at least to my untrained eye it's the same
handwriting) annotated another newspaper of 1739.  One article was
published serially over 5 issues -- March 15, March 22, omitted from
March 30 ("defer'd to the next Week"), April 5, April 12, and April
19.  The April 22 issue is annotated "Continuation of Relation [one
or more words unclear or crossed out] Tate & Brady Version &c /
continued in Next".  But it *wasn't* "continued in Next" -- one week
was skipped.  I think that's good evidence that the annotation was
made promptly, when the April 22 issue was received.  (Tate and Brady
refers to a version of the Psalms.)

Unfortunately, the identity of the annotator appears to be unknown.

Joel

>Fred Shapiro
>________________________________________
>From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of
>Joel S. Berson [Berson at ATT.NET]
>Sent: Friday, May 18, 2012 1:30 PM
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: "Serbian", noun, 1739; antedating OED2 1848--
>
>"Great Battle betwixt Serbians & Turks."
>
>New England Weekly Journal, 1739 Sept. 26, page 1, handwritten
>annotation at top of page.  (It is not known who annotated this year
>of the NEWJ. but it definitely is contemporaneous.)
>
>"Serbian" antedates OED2  Sense B.a. 1848--.
>
>I have copied this to ADS-L so that others may evaluate my
>reading.  The newspaper issue is accessible in Early American Newspapers.
>
>The article the annotation refers to is datelined London, August 8,
>and is introduced as "these farther Particulars of the Action at
>Crotzka, on the 11th ult. [that is, July] O.S. between the
>Imperialists and the Turks."  This is a reference to the "Battle of
>Grocka" (see Wikipedia), July 21-22 N.S., 1739, between the Austrians
>and the Turks.  The battle was crucial -- a psychologically
>devastating loss for the Austrians that led to the Ottoman capture
>of Belgrade.
>
>Grocka is described today as "a suburban neighborhood and one of 17
>municipalities which constitute the City of Belgrade, the capital of
>Serbia" (Wikipedia).
>
>Joel

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