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Don't you know that language changes over 350 years? Why do you say it is a misspelling? Why do you judge them by today's rules?
by radiator 2y ago
Don't you know that language changes over 350 years? Why do you say it is a misspelling? Why do you judge them by today's rules?
- marcel_hecko 2y agoIts explicitly said in the article that its a misspelling.
- radiator 2y agoYes, I read that, and I obviously disagree with the article as well.
- gjm11 2y ago(I'm not the grandparent poster, but:) OED https://www.oed.com/dictionary/hen_n1?tab=forms#1717329 https://www.oed.com/dictionary/hen_n1?tab=forms#1717329 says "hean" was never a standard spelling of "hen". 350 years ago would be the late 1600s when there were "hen" and "henn" and "henne". (I don't know exactly when in the 1600s the latter two stopped being used; 350 years ago might actually be too late for those.) On the other hand, the idea that for every word there is a single Correct spelling, as opposed to "write it however you like so long as it's clear to the reader", wasn't so well established in the late 1600s. But I think most 17th-century English folks would have regarded "hean" as wrong, not merely unusual. (The article itself calls "hean" a misspelling, though of course that doesn't prove much.)
- zozbot234 2y agoWell, it's an attested spelling now so it will have to be added to future dictionaries. After all, the girls were probably native speakers.