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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