Talk:Dieu et mon droit
From Academic Kids
Actually, Anglo-French was already a dead language by Henry VI's time. Like Latin, it's a traditional language for things like mottoes (E Pluribus Unum) and legal jargon. The bailiff of the U.S. Supreme court calls "Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!" (the Anglo-French equivalent of the more familiar "Hear ye! Hear ye! Hear ye!") when the court convenes.
I've seen some references to the idea that this motto preserves an archaic spelling (or a simple mispelling) and should actually be read as "Dieu est mon droit" - i.e. God is my right - which makes more sense to me as a motto. Is this verifiable? fabiform | talk 09:09, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC)
- A misspelling is certainly possible, but an archaic form is not. Both et and est are very old, possibly (though I'm not sure) going all the way back to Latin. Xyzzyva 22:23, Dec 21, 2004 (UTC)
