4 ms·
> Benjamin Franklin was bemoaning the plight of his fellow Philadelphians: “Wood, our common Fewel, which within these 100 Years might be had at every Man’s Doo
by mysterypie 4y ago
> Benjamin Franklin was bemoaning the plight of his fellow Philadelphians: “Wood, our common Fewel, which within these 100 Years might be had at every Man’s Door, must now be fetch’d near 100 Miles to some towns, and makes a very considerable Article in the Expence of Families,” he wrote.
Unrelated to the main topic, but why does old English writing often have seemingly arbitrary capitalization of words -- like Years, Miles, Fewel (Fuel), Article, Expence, and Families? Ben Franklin was a newspaper editor and printer so I assume he knows what he's doing, but what's the rhyme or reason for it?
- truckerbill 4y agoIt’s all the nouns ( maybe ‘towns’ is a typo? ). German does the same thing, and English is a Germanic language.
- _moof 4y agoProbably not related to English being Germanic; Old and Middle English nouns weren't capitalized, so some other influence had to have sprung up later.
- truckerbill 4y agoThanks, I should have googled before spouting armchair wisdom. Looks like noun capitalisation was ad hoc until things became more standardised with the onset of dictionaries. It was inspired by German typography but much later on