Re: Nobody proposing new uk newsgroups - why ?

On Wed, 21 Dec 2005 12:52:29 GMT, Rusty Hinge 2
<rusty.hinge@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> The message <slrndqi44v.dsj.chris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> from Chris Croughton <chris@xxxxxxxxxxxx> contains these words:
>
>> But they were pressed, not burnt, I doubt if anyone using CDs for backup
>> has the money to get each one pressed (as I recall setup charges for a
>> CD pressing are on the order of a few thousand pounds). I have some
>> paper books which are still readable after 100 years of having been read
>> regularly (ones which have been looked after last longer, many hundreds
>> of years).
>
> Aye, I have one which is still readable after 400 years, FSVO readable,
> unless you are educated and can read Classical Greek. However, for the
> uneducated, it has parallel text - in Latin...

A textbook, or a bible? The English of 400 years ago is still perfectly
readable (apart from spellings, but I've had bosses whose spelling was
distinctly Elizabethan in its variability and lack of adherence to what
any dictionary says <g>). Much over 400 years is pushing it, a lot of
people struggle with Chaucer (620 years or so) and Mallory (around 550),
and relatively few can read Old English easily. I suspect that the
Greek and Latin have changed little in that time...

Chris C (reads Chaucer and Mallory for fun)
.

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