Not about flight simming...

[birdguy 3,943]

Bill, how close is Gaelic to the Middle English of Chaucer's time?  When I was in high school I had to read the prologue to Chaucer;s Cantebry Tales in Middle English...'Wan that Aprila with his shoures sota, the drought of march has pierced to the rote.

[birdguy 3,943]

Me too Sue.

In the early days of my Air Force career I was stationed at Selfridge AFB in Michigan.  I was on the base rifle team and we were called upon to do the firing squad honors at military funerals.

One of the saddest parts was after the ceremony family members always came up to us asked if we knew the one that was just buried.  We had to tell them no, we didn't.  They were desperate to talk to someone wo knew him.

Noel

[scianoir 610]

8 hours ago, birdguy said:

Bill, how close is Gaelic to the Middle English of Chaucer's time?  When I was in high school I had to read the prologue to Chaucer;s Cantebry Tales in Middle English...'Wan that Aprila with his shoures sota, the drought of march has pierced to the rote.

The two languages were not close at all Noel. English is a language of Germanic/Frisian/Norse origin, which came to Britain across the North Sea with Anglo-Saxon settlers from Northern Germany around the fifth century. With the Middle English of Chaucer's time you can see some similarity to modern English but there really is almost no similarity to Gaelic or any other Celtic language. Gaelic (and Welsh and Breton) are the remaining surviving examples of Celtic languages that were spoken across much of Europe during the first millennium BC, including Ireland and Britain, much of present day France, Spain, Switzerland, Southern Germany, Northern Italy and in regions as far across as the Black Sea. 

Just to give you an example, here are the first four lines from an Irish (Gaelic) language poem, which we had to study in school, called Cúirt an Mhean Oíche (The Midnight Court) by Brian Merriman (born 1747) :

 

Ba ghnáth mé ar siúl le ciumhais na habhann

Ar bháinseach úr is an drúcht go trom,

In aice na gcoillte i gcoim an tsléibhe

Gan mhairg gan mhoill ar shoilseadh an lae.

 

And here is the English translation:

Twas my custom to stroll with the river in view

Through the fresh meadows covered with dew,

By the edge of the woods on the wild mountain-side

At the dawn of the day I'd cheerfully stride.

 

As you can see there is almost no similarity between the two. As an aside, this poem was something of an epic running to around 1000 lines but it was banned by the Church when it was written as it was felt to be quite racy with veiled descriptions of all sorts of midnight shenanigans. This made it about the only poem that us school kids ever wanted to read right through to the end!

Bill

[birdguy 3,943]

I went to a Jesuit high school for 3 1/2 years Bill.  That's where we read The Canterbury tales.  And it was rather racy for it's time too.

My mother was a Catholic and my brother and I went to Catholic schools until I got booted out of St. Ignatius after a theological debate I had with one of the fathers over eating meat on Friday.

My Dad, a non-practicing Lutheran, kept feeding me books banned by the church at the time and told me not to let my mother see them.  The two I recall and remember are Penguin Island by Anatole France and Mark Twain's Letters From the Earth. 

Noel

[scianoir 610]

Jesuit education here too Noel!  However many of our teachers were fairly broad-minded for the era certainly compared to those in other schools run by religious orders. I can remember that our religious education teacher was always trying to get us to question things but I heard that he subsequently left the priesthood so perhaps he did a little too much questioning himself! Overall though my experience of a Jesuit education was a good one - I feel it prepared me well for the life ahead and am glad I had the opportunity to have it.

Bill

[birdguy 3,943]

There were three big influence that started me out on life Bill.  My father, the Jesuits, and the United States Marine Corps.

I had a speech impediment problem in high school and on of the fathers, I've forgotten his name, forced me to join the debating team.  Despite the speech impediment I overcame my fear of seeking in public.  He also taught me how to research and how to argue either side of issue.  I recall one debate where my opponent called me an SOB and left the podium.  The father was sitting in the back of the classroom grinning from ear to ear.  I owe him a lot.

My father who just laughed when I got thrown out of the Jesuit high school when I told him why; The father that forced me into the debating club; and the Marine Corps where I learned not only team work but also not going by the book when situation called for it and not to take things personal even when they are.

Noel