Melvill's mystery American |
Color |
John Young
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Paul,
It was not uncommon for the British to use that spelling then, one that springs to mind is Colonel Glyn. John Y. |
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Keith Smith
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Paul
As JY rightly says above, the use of honor/labor etc was commonplace in the period. It is extremely likely that the (now) US spelling was derived from that, rather than being aninvention of the New World. Just as early English pronunciation stressed every 'r' in a word, ans is still an American (and Canadian) feature, but has been lost in many regional English pronunciations. KIS |
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Mike McCabe
Guest
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Raises the attractive possibility that Col Glyn chose and wrote the original inscription and that it was faithfully copied - spelling mistake included - out of consideration to his wishes.
Glyn would probably have been taught English, and spelling, at school before the 'modern English' orthography of the 1870s was standardised and settled upon. Or, could just be a simple error. or compromise, in the limited space left. As an aside, there are those who allege that the original 'hand-cut' Commonwealth War Grave Commission headstones retained the abbreviation 'Sjt' (for 'Sgt') for WW1 and WW2 stones simply because it was quicker to cut - despite having lapsed in all but Rifle and some Light Infantry regiments years previously. MC McC |
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Peter Ewart
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Mike
As John & Keith have mentioned above, that version of the spelling was not at all uncommon and although it could well be that Glyn had composed the wording and that his spelling was followed, even in 1879 the "Color" version would not have been considered wrong or mistaken in any way, so common was it. I've often wondered about the IWGC/CWGC spelling of sgt/sjt. Intriguing! As another aside, and apropos the possible following of Glyn's spelling above, is the story about Qn Victoria & Welsh/Welch correct? Peter P.S. Quite apart from the spelling, Glyn would seem to be a prime candidate for the inscription anyway, along with - perhaps - Frere? |
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Melvill's mystery American |
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