States of Glory WA Office wrote:OOC: Interesting, but irrelevant. If you want to write a proposal in Middle English, though, then go ahead.
OOC
This raises an interesting question: Can proposals be written in Middle English?
The format section of the rules states that
Language: Proposals must use understandable English. Conventional legalese and Latin terms are acceptable within reason. Proposals written in incomprehensible English or a foreign language will be deleted.
Middle English is definitely English, no doubt. But is it understandable or incomprehensible English?
At first glance, despite being strange to a modern reader, I would say that Middle English is indeed understandable. Take a look at the first few lines of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales:
Whan that aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of march hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
If you just assume pretty much every word is misspelled, the only real incomprehensible words "soote" and "swich". The translation I am reading renders "soote" as "sweet with fruit" and "swich licour" as "liquor that has power".
Difficult to understand, yes, but not incomprehensible.
Of course, I do not advise anyone to write proposals in Middle English. But I would argue that it might be legal.
Just something to think about.
