If I were you…

eberntson
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If I were you…

Postby eberntson » Mon Sep 05, 2011 6:36 pm

So apparently this is a corruption of a very old sentence where the word "were" is not what it should be. It supposed to be "wehm", or " verem" which supposedly means "in your place". The sentence is a hold over of an old English word no longer I use, anyone know what I'm trying to ask?[/code]
EBERNTSON
Fear less, hope more;
eat less, chew more;
whine less, breathe more;
talk less, say more,
and all good things will be yours.
--R. Burns

Audiendus
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Postby Audiendus » Mon Sep 05, 2011 7:34 pm

I haven't heard this suggestion before. So was there no verb in the original phrase?

Perry Lassiter
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Postby Perry Lassiter » Mon Sep 05, 2011 11:43 pm

Any relation to "as it were"? Which I've always assumed needed an "if."
pl

bnjtokyo

Postby bnjtokyo » Fri Sep 09, 2011 5:03 am

It likely that " verem" is incorrect. [v] in Old English is supposed to be an allophone of [f] that occurred only between vowels and voiced consonants, similar to what we see in modern English with knife/knives

Also, the few Old English dictionaries I've found on the internet do not have any entry for "wehm" or something similar.


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