OK, Last week was egg week here at Ferrebeekeeper where we looked at home-made egg-art and astonishing primordial mythology. Unfortunately, due to budget constraints and temporal vicissitudes, egg week only had 4 posts—yet we also need to keep moving on. Today’s post is therefore somewhat egg-themed….even if the real theme is more about the changing nature of language. It is a bridge from past to future—but a humorous one which has eggs at its center.
Here is a story from the late 15th century, when English was changing from Middle English to Modern English. The author, William Caxton, was a merchant, diplomat, and writer…and probably England’s first printer. He wrote this story in 1490 to marvel at how quickly the language was changing (indeed he relates how he can’t understand truly old English which seems like a completely foreign tongue). I have transcribed the story, as best I could, from the Gothic black letter manuscript (try reading some of the beautiful—but incomprehensible–Gothic calligraphy and I think you will appreciate my effort).
The story is a vignette about how language changes, seemingly on its own. This point is particularly poignant to modern readers who don’t speak with quite the same idiom and usage as the upstanding William Caxton! The story is about some merchants from the north who say eggs in the Norse fashion “eggys” as opposed to the South English way of saying it “eyren.” Misunderstanding ensues. It is interesting to note that contemporary English speakers talk about “eggs.” If I went to the C-town and asked for “eyren” they would probably look at me funny (or tell me where to get an iron or Irish whiskey). The Norse word for “eggs” clearly won out over the old Anglo-Saxon word when English went global. Anyway, here is my transcription of the story. Kindly help me out if you can figure it out better and enjoy the eyreny…err…the irony of Caxton’s words:
Fayn wolde I satysfye every man, and so to doo toke an olde boke and redde therin and certaynly the englysshe was so rude and brood that I could not wele understande it.
And altho my lord abbot of Westmynster ded do shewe to me late certain evydences wryton in olde englysshe for to reduce it in to our englysshe now usid.
And certainly it was wrton in suche wyse that it was more lyke to dutche than englysshe.
I could not reduce ne brynge it to be understonden.
And certaynly our language now used Uaryeth ferre from that. Which was used and spoken whan I was borne.
For we englysshe men ken borne under the domynacyon of the mone.
Which is neuer stedfaste, but ever waverynge wexynge one season and waneth & dycreaseth another season
And that comyn englysshe that is spoken in one Shyre varyeth from a nother.
In so moche that in my dayes happened that certayn marchauntes were in a ship in tamyse for to have sayled over the see into zeland
and for lacke of wynde they taryed atte Forrlonth, and wente to lanthe for to refreshe them
And one of them named Sheffelde a mercer cam in to an hous and axed(!!) for mete, and specyally he axyd after eggys.
And the goode wyf answerde that she could speke no frenche.
And the marchant was angry for he also could speak no Frenche but wolde have egges and she understode hym not.
And thenne at laste a nother sayd that he wolde have eyren then the good wyf sayd that she understood hym wel
Loo (?) What sholde a man in thyse dayes now wryte egges or eyren, Certaynly it is harde to playse every man that is in any
reputacyon in his contre. Wyll utter his comynycacyon and maters in suche maners & terms that fewe men shall understonde theym…
ferrebeekeeper 
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July 28, 2019 at 6:02 PM
Andrew Kovnat
Here is a version I wrote up myself just now, from the image of the text to modern English (I simplified/translated some phrases to make the word-flow better):
Also, the source continues both forward and backward, so the context before and after this one page are unknown to me.
… I would happily please everyone and take an old book and read it. The English was so old that I couldn’t understand it. Also, my lord Abbot of Westminster showed me certain texts written in Old English, so I could translate it into modern English. It was written like it was more like Dutch than English. I couldn’t translate it or make it understandable. Our language today is far from what was used and spoken when I was born. We Englishmen have been born under the realm of the Moon, which is never steadfast, always wavering; waxing one season, and waning and decreasing another season. Common English that is spoken in one town deviates from another town, insomuch that,-
—This is where the eggs story starts.—
-in my days, some merchants were on a ship in the Thames to sail over the sea into Geland. Because of the lack of wind, they halted at Forlond, and went to land to refresh themselves. One of them, named Sheffeld, a merchant, came into a house and asked for meat, specifically eggs. The woman answered that she couldn’t speak French, but would have had eggs. She didn’t understand him. Then, at last, another man said that he would have eyren. Then the woman said that she understood him well. Oh, what should a man write now-a-days. Eggs or eyren? It’s hard to please everyone because of the diversity and change of language. Because today, everyone that is in one part of his country will speak in a way that few people will understand them, and somehow. . .
July 30, 2019 at 11:52 PM
Wayne
Thanks Andrew! I really appreciate your elegant translation (although I like “domination” for “domynacyon” even if “realm” does flow more smoothly). Were you surprised to see “axed”? I still feel like I am missing something to find it being used in English before the discovery of America! Maybe there were a few Old English letters hovering around over Caxton’s shoulder (although he seems like a man who would be able to appreciate the importance of “X”).