BobPBX's signature

[pinelandpaddler]

I noticed that our yellow beer-drinking friend BobPBX has recently changed his signature, which now reads, "Gabe spells it Tulpehoking like he's choking."

I'm flattered, really. I'm pretty sure that I've seen some old maps that spell it the way I did. I know that there were a variety of English spellings for the Lenape suffix 'hocken', including 'hocking', 'hoken', 'hokin', and, yes, 'hoking' (think Lenapehoking). The same holds true with the suffix 'tauxin', which has been spelled 'toxin' and 'tuxin' among other permutations. Why is this? Were people generally piss-poor spellers back then? Were they not excellAnt spellers like BobPBX?

What do you think, Bob?

 

[Ben Ruset]

Considering that those languages didn't use the Latin alphabet like we do now, any spelling in that alphabet is going to have to be phonetic. I don't think there's a "right" or "wrong" way to spell those words.

 

[pinelandpaddler]

Right, but many of these alternate spellings are widely variable and are phonetically quite different.

Why did I start this stupid thread?

 

[bobpbx]

I'm flattered, really. What do you think, Bob?

Aww, I changed my mind. I think its flattering too.