Category Archives: history

Egges or eyren

Listened to Episode 75: Mixed Languages and Scrambled Eggs

From Old English to early Middle English.

Northern England’s English had Nordic influences. Southern England and Normandy had French influences.

Old English had many dialects.

The  northern Old English dialect used the Old Norse word egges for eggs.  It became the standard word for eggs throughout England. The southern Old English dialect word was eyren. See Kentish dialect. See William Caxton.

“Caxton is credited with standardising the English language through printing—that is, homogenising regional dialects.” (Wikipedia entry on William Caxton)

See Caxton’s egg

The initial page of the Peterborough Chronicle via wikimedia

Peterborough Chronicle

Norman Conquest

Old English dialects: Mercian, Northumbrian, West Saxon, and Kentish.

See Old Norman, and Anglo-Norman.

. Rise of the London dialect. Early Modern English. Use of new printing technologies from China and its influence in the standardization of English.

Japanese Castles in Korea 1592-98 (part 1)

Turnbull, Stephen R., and Peter Dennis. Japanese Castles in Korea, 1592-98. Oxford: Osprey, 2007. Print.

Wikipedia list of Japanese castles in Korea.

Imjin war

via wikimedia

Toyotomi Hideyoshi by Kanō Mitsunobu 狩野光信 (1601) via wikimedia

Invasion led by the daimyo 大名 and general Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-98). p4

Portrait of Yi Sun-shin via wikimedia

Korean Admiral Yi Sun-sin 이순신 (1545-1598).

Invasion began “When the Korean king refused to allow the Japanese” to pass through Korea to invade Ming China .  p5.

Picture of site of wajo 倭城 of Yangsan and Hopo. p.5. (fortress 和城)

Map of castles in Jeolla and Gyeongsang province. p.6.

Picture of site of wajo of Ulsan. p.7.

“Busan Castle, an extension of the city wall on the edge of the sea, was in fact one of the best examples of a Korean fortress,” p. 9.

See Siege of Busanjin.

Dongrae Eupseong 동래읍성 (fortress) may have been just a mountain fortress/sanseong 산성 at the time of the invasion (?) p. 9.

Battle of Dongrae

via wikimedia

Siege of Busanjin

via wikimedia

The Japanese used Arquebuses p. 9.

Sketch of Ungcheon harbour p. 9.

Korean guerrillas p. 10.

Jinju fortress (first siege of Jinju “Korea’s greatest land victory of the war”) p. 10.

Picture of hill of Jaseongdae, Busanjin 부산진지성. p.11.

See wikipedia entry for Jaseongdae.

Yi Sun-shin impressed by the eupseong 읍성 of Ungcheon 웅천 p. 11.

Castles in Japan: “jinaimachi or temple towns associated with the self-governing communities of the True Land sect of Buddhism and defended by their Ikko-ikki armies”  p.13.

Jinaimachi town near Osaka.

Pure Land Buddhism wikipedia entry

Fortress defense: “tora no guchi (tiger’s mouth) gateway passage” with a “90-degree turn” p.13.

Castle of Gupo drawing. p.14.

Clay was used to make the defense structures of a castle fireproof. p. 15.

Three Wajo in Geoje island. p. 16.

Seosaengpo 서생포 (Ulsan) p. 17.

“Seosaengpo was the most important Japanese castle in Korea.”  p. 19.

Japanese fortresses in Tsushima. p. 18.