Muses from Helsinki (+ live from Washington, D.C.)

[oloriel]

If I want to get finished with my university time, I really, really ought to write a term paper for that Corpus Linguistics seminar.

I just couldn't come up with a topic. That is, I tentatively had one in mind - the advent and disappearance of Latinate relative clauses like who am and who art (as in, "I, who am the least among his ministers" or "Our father, who art in heaven") - but that looked like one of those things for which there is either no data at all, or so much that it'd bust the frame of a 20-page paper, but nothing in between. I could not check since I do not yet have access to any helpful corpora (Cologne University fails in that respect). So the only option was asking the prof what he thought, but without anything to actually show him, planning-wise, that would probably have turned out horrible. (And I couldn't prepare anything to show him because, again, I do not have access to the corpora.)

That was the state of things until today the muse dropped by and pointed a wonderful topic out to me. The muse goes by the name of Terttu Nevalainen (she's famous among people who do Corpus Linguistics), and she did a presentation on Historical Sociolinguistics as Corpus Linguistics and happened to brush the perfect topic for me.

It's so blatantly obvious that I really have no idea why I did not think of it before; there are already some studies on it, but none exhaustive or conclusive; and it makes my inner fangirl squee and giggle childishly.
In Elizabethan times, there was a gradual replacement of the 3rd person singular -(e)th by -(e)s, first only in certain environments and contexts and under certain circumstances, later in every instance. After the reign of Elizabeth I -(e)th was already rather archaic, even though it managed to survive in formal poetic and religious contexts well into the 20th century.
Just when, how and why did that happen?
Well, that's what I'm going to write my paper on, isn't it. :D
The replacement of the interdental fricative by the alveolar. That is going to be SO much fun. (And if I get stuck I'm sure the mad Noldorin linguist in my brain will have a word or two to contribute on the topic.)

- - -

In other "yay" news: Are Malia and Sasha Obama adorable or what? *fangirl*

EDIT: What do you mean, "John William composed this especially for the inauguration"? Half of it is stolen from "Lord of the Dance"!
EDIT-EDIT: "Arranged it" sounds more like it. Stoopid German commentary.

EDIT 2: He forgot the "to the best of my ability" bit altogether - of all things, the safe-word of the presidential oath. Poor nervous man!

But - SQUEE! it's happened!