 Two familiar letters in unfamiliar places are jarring indications of how things change. This phrase, "the General Assembly," on John Hayward's stone in Acton starts with a Y and e pair, small e above the y, identifying y as a "thorn" that once carried the th sound in the definite article "the." It is never "yee." Assembly contains the long-s which looks like f except the cross-bar is only on the left side. Carvers made thorn and y identical as well as the bodies of long-s and f. Pronounciation was a matter of context. |
 "deth is A det to Natuer due," the badly spelled beginning of a stone-bottom couplet in Taunton, MA. It catches our eyes because we are all readers used to the orthography of our times. Reading was not a critical skill in colonial times and there was no general reference to check spelling. As literacy became more widespread, carvers added verses like the one above to the lower parts of the stones. Many verses were from the children's inspirational reader and all were on the appropriate topic of death. |