You still see some such things like that even today I think. Here in the U.S. for example depending on where you are one person might call soft drinks 'soda' and another might call them 'pop'. Of course the language is always changing I guess and with the net to help change probably happens faster than ever before. Don't recall where I read the actual story but it could have been an online version of the story by Mr. Caxton.
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Originally Posted by HarryT
It was a story related by William Caxton in the preface of a book printed in 1490. He tells how a ship sailed from London bound for the Netherlands, but was forced to put into shore in Kent (on the south coast on England) because there was no wind. A merchant from the ship went ashore, and went to a local house, and asked to buy some eggs. The woman in the house didn't understand him, and thought that he was French. Luckily, another person who was with him, understood the local dialect and asked for "eyren", which was understood. Caxton goes on to complain that this makes like very difficult, because what is a printer to do when English varies so much from one part of England to another. Should he print "eggs" or "eyren"?
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