NK - Period?

[Marc Carlson]

At 10:24 AM 8/12/99 -0400, Elspeth wrote:
>ok, wait, I got 'fused.. "period" is pre 16th century, right? so... before 
>1500... that's what I understood, but I read today on a web site that it is 
>pre 1600..... which is right?


This is a topic of much discussion, with many people holding different views.
Some people feel that it's "before 1600", some "use "1601" as a cut-off date,
while others push it back as far as 1620 or 1650.

As for the 16th century versus the 1600s, this is a problem in English.  Many 
languages do not distinguish between the two (which can make accurately 
translating foreign texts really annoying).  In English, though, we are in the
20th century, so it's the 1900s.  Sometimes, though, people who don't spend
a ludicrous amount of time messing with this sort of trivia slip up.  It 
happens.

Marc/Diarmaid