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   Hi, Ardith Hinton!   
   I read your message from 15.12.2021 23:56   
      
     DH>> "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" has been parodied on Twitter.   
      
     ak>> IMHO, the main problem is not in commas but in some English verbs   
     ak>> that can be translated in great variety of ways.   
     AH>                         |a great variety   
      
     AH> Understood. If your dictionaries include phrases like "rest easy"   
     AH> & "rest assured" that's close to the mark. If they say "rest" means   
     AH> to be still and/or relaxed... not agitated or troubled... that's   
     AH> also close to the mark.   
      
     AH> WRT "rest" as a transitive verb, I might say I need to rest my   
     AH> weary bones after some physical exertion. This means I'd like to   
     AH> allow or enable my body to relax for awhile. Years ago some people   
     AH> would have said "God rest his soul"... now classified as   
     AH> archaic. "God rest you" is listed in our 1971 OED, but I had to   
     AH> wade through +/- eight pages of detail in small print to find it.   
      
     AH> I feel your pain WRT deceptively short & simple words which are   
     AH> used in various ways. It reminds me of problems I had with the   
     AH> French language. I see an added complication WRT this song,   
     AH> however. As people become more adept at reading (e.g.) they learn   
     AH> to group words into phrases. "God rest ye merry" no longer makes   
     AH> sense to a lot of people our era & some of them try to correct what   
     AH> they regard as an error in punctuation. These amendments are   
     AH> significant in terms of performing arts. The OED cites Shakespeare   
     AH> as having written "God rest you merry, sir." I conclude that those   
     AH> who think the comma belongs after "merry", as it appears in older   
     AH> versions of the song, are probably right.   
      
   OK, "God rest you merry, sir." But not OK, ;-) I am still have a vague    
   understanding of this phrase. Write it in other words.   
      
   Bye, Ardith!   
   Alexander Koryagin   
   fido.english_tutor,local.cc.ak 2021   
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