Eckaslike, all your points are excellent! I enjoyed reading the explanation about the dual meaning. I did not know this about Dickens' writing. I don't think I would have got the 2nd point reading the text on my own.
It took me
a lot, of thought while reading that ending, before the penny finally dropped. It is like a cryptic crossword clue; One clue with two meanings.
It may be, that Dickens deliberately used a word that had possibly become archaic but understood in his era, especially because it would make the reader pause and think. That way they wouldn't miss the dual meaning in the 19th century.
The reason, I believe, the OP had so much problem understanding it was that the literal version of the word "sounder" has completely fallen out of use. I think the word meaning of this old word "to sound"="to issue" may have derived from the fact that something comes forth from something else,
in the same way that sound issues from a bell.
So, without knowing the literal meaning of the word, you are pretty unlikely to get the second, or "musical", meaning and joke.
This is why people don't get most of the jokes in Shakespeare, unless they are performed by good actors. The actors will often provide visual clues, and speech clues, so that the audience gets the jokes even if they don't understand some of the old words no longer used.
It is why much of Chaucer is virtually unintelligible to most English readers and speakers. The language has moved on so much.
Yes, you are correct, that capital "o" makes a big difference in difference in meaning between, "Old English", and "old English"! :up: This is why the Teachers, Moderators and experienced members are trying to help the students understand how important it can be to use correct punctuation and grammar.
For example: "The bottle of champagne was struck upon the side of the ship, and Queen Elizabeth slid slowly into the river". Without the word "the" makes it sound as though the actual Queen slid into the river.
If you use the: "The bottle of champagne was struck upon the side of the ship, and
the Queen Elizabeth slid slowly into the river". This still could mean the Queen, but it is less likely, because would not refer to the Queen in that way in the context of the sentence, and secondly we are used to reading about ships in this way.
However, If you use: "The bottle of champagne was struck upon the side of the ship, and
the HMS Queen Elizabeth slid slowly into the river". It should be immediately clear.
There is an even better example which uses the lack of a single comma in the same way as the missing "the". I can't find it unfortunately, but it is considered a classic.
"Where do you go?" instead of "Where are you going?":
Now I can see why you had a problem with it. I think that, probably all first language English speakers around the world watching the programme would instantly get that sort of thing without thinking. The script writers have been very clever. They have kept what appear to be some of the old forms of speech, in order to make the characters work in their late 18th century setting.
"These included the prefix a- ("I am a-walking") and the infinitive paired with "do" ("I do walk").":
I grew up in a very rural county in the West Country, called Somerset. I remember hearing some people, especially from families that had always been there, still using these forms. "Aaam a-gonna go to the shaaaps" = "I'm going to go to the shops". A bit like an AmE drawl, but with a West Country accent!
Similarly, I remember hearing the "I do" form used that you mention: "I der walk to the shaaps" = "I do walk to the shops" = "I walk to the shops"
For a general accent to go with those examples above try to imagine them spoken by Phil Harding, from The Time Team:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Harding_(archaeologist)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3k4FuKx1aU
He should be pretty understandable, but at its strongest form this sort of West Country accent is
almost like this clip, where they go to see a farmer, who appears at o:26 :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ng3fG1u4Xg It would have usually been spoken by an old farmer, or their children, who would have this heaviest type of accent. The joke revolves around the fact it is a sleepy rural village or small town, where nothing much ever happens.
These are a three classic sentences in the Somerset dialect.
Do you understand them?: "HOW be on? It be a bit dimpsy, bain't it? Gi's a gurt big pint of thee best zider."
I don't, however, remember hearing this form being used: "The house is building" : I expect this form probably died out first, as it is the most confusing because houses can't build, they are built. In addtion, it sounds like a part sentence, "The house is building [up to being knocked down]" and even when you try to use it, it doesn't really work at all.
There a loads of dialect words all over the UK, but one of the two main ones which stick in my head are: "gibbles"="spring onions", and "durn"="a door post", the latter of which I think probably goes back to the Old English period; the time of the epic poem Beowulf.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf
To the English language, it is probably one the classic Old English epic poems, if not
the epic poem; a bit like the Mahabharata and Ramayana are, I believe, in Indian literature:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabharata ,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramayana .
I you want to read it, you definitely want to read a good, modern translation first, so that you enjoy and understand the story. All translations try to focus on keeping the spirit of the original, however, some chose modern English for ease of understanding where all old words are translated. Others prefer to keep the old words, because once you understand them, they believe, it gives more of a flavour of how the original would have sounded.
Here is a good modern translation of part of the poem:
http://alliteration.net/beoIndex.htm (N.b. Beowulf is the hero and Grendel is the monster in the story). I realise that you may only want to read part of it to get a sense of it, which is fine of course. If you have any questions I will be happy to try to answer them. Sorry to go on, but as you can tell I really like topics like this.
Thank you for asking such interesting questions!
