The Historical Ponderings Society

[EverySongbirdSays]

Following on from the thread "What questions do you have about stuff from History or am I the only one?" Which is here

Ever wondered how we got from the clothes of Cave people to the clothes of today?

Who was the first person to make and eat Cheese? Or cake?

How ideas became widespread

Why the Aztecs didn't have the wheel?

Why Elizabeth I never married?

How accurate historical fiction is?

Then this your thread and we are your people.

PROCEED HISTORY LOVERS

I still want to know who discovered (and how) that things like kidney beans which kill you raw are edible after boiling for hours...

And why did it take so long to realise that shoes should be L and R not identical?

Hooray! So glad this is continuing - love a bit of history chat.

On a history/linguistics note - does anyone know if there are any ancient Brythonic loan words in English? I'm aware of quite a few place/river names but wondered if any everyday words survived the language shift...

Apart from espadrilles!

Lurking

To continue from your post in Thread 1. I'm at a loss - what is the issue with the filming?

Joins society

And after looking up 'Brythonic', I'll leave comments on those particular loan words to the area inhabitants. (Although I should imagine there are a good many.)

I don't know what "Brythonic words" are

I've sometimes wondered what era we are in now?

So eg what this era will be referred to when it is in the past

So we have "the Victorian era" the "Regency" "Georgian" "Edwardian" "Elizabethan"

but as well as the "Renaissance" "The Dark Ages" "The Iron Age" etc

but I doubt this era will be known by Liz II as we are in a time were society is less dictated to in terms of evenys and styles by the "current royals"

So Executioner what's your preferred method?

So many of you Mortificados around now. It's a positive invasion!

Nothing useful to contribute but reading with great interest 😊

boldly - there are some even older than that. e.g news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7911645.stm

Linguist attempts to recreate the sound of Proto Indo European: www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/28/proto-indo-european-language-ancestors_n_4005545.html

A very long time ago I used to look at a list of very old words, perhaps in a children's encyclopaedia, one I remember was "apal"; the research has moved on somewhat but there is more detail about that one here: en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h%E2%82%82%C3%A9b%C5%8Dl

I have been wondering about lip balm today. People used to spend a lot more time outdoors and their lips could have got very chapped. My guess is they used lard, but perhaps there were other options or particular recipes. I don't have any lard in the house to try this out (actually, I don't know if I've ever bought lard) but if I had I might! Anyone know?

Language can survive even though people don't realise it. I recall, many many years ago, a girl I knew who came from a village in the Black Country, told me that - while she had perfectly understandable English - when 'down home', she and other locals used to speak in a seriously localised dialect. Unfortunately, she let some of it slip to someone she knew who became very excited and - almost within hours - they had half of the local University's Department of Linguistics surrounding the village taping.

It turned out that this 'dialect' they were speaking was actually Anglo Saxon.

She said it was a PITA.

Axe for the everyday, sword for those with the ooh la la pretensions.

Song bird, I think we're known as the 'new elizabethans' but I could be mistaken!

Thanks, TipTop! Very interesting links there.

Love the idea of Black Country dialect being Anglo-Saxon.

I've been told to ask who decided crisp butties were a good idea because whoever it was was a genius

I should like to apply to join this most excellent society please.

I can offer 'brock' (country word for badger) and 'dunnock' as Brythonic words surviving into present day. (Brythonic = ancient British)

My grandfather, now long gone, was born at the end of the 19th century and spoke broad Bristolian all his life. His speech was full of 'thee' and 'thou' and very anglo-saxon sounding, e.g. 'Ow bist?' (how are you?)

Apparently Newfoundland dialect is very similar to Old Bristolian - many of the original settlers came from Bristol.

On the subject of lip balm, I definitely saw a post-apocalyptic film where someone kills a cat and uses the fat (cat lard?) as lip balm.

Didn't we establish in the last thread that chips started as a way of filling miners?

Hence Chip butties, then Crisp butties.

Northerners Fatty obviously

I love threads like this.

songbird genius us northerners

How far back in time would I have to go for my accent to really stand out?

And how far back before I was not able to express complicated concepts?

And how far back before I was not even able to communicate the basics?

(watching The Crown I think even in the middle of the last century my voice might sound "wrong")

When did marriage become a thing?

Tiptop there were recipes for lip balm through the ages depending on what was available. Definitely in the Tudor age there were some that would be lightly tinted, because balms and skin creams were socially acceptable but face paint wasn't so much.

When did marriage become a thing?

Whenever men first wanted to control women's sexuality.

Can I hand over my Historical Ponderings Club subs please: 💷

This thread has got me hooked.