The English Language: A Thread by Dale Wisely
- Nanohedron
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Thank you, semicolon mavens; I like and use them too. Semicolons are very useful. What people might forget is that punctuation serves not only as an indicator of how phrases connect and the rhythm of it, but to a small extent, tone, too, in speech. The naysayers are poor and cowardly and mingey excuses for champions of English orthography. Most likely their discouraging the semicolon is because they have knuckled under to the nasty lie that people are too dumb to learn to know how to use it, and so subtlety is rendered merely an archaic appendage best left to wither and fall away from the body. Pish-tosh, say I.
Punctuation is like anything else: not everyone will have a knack for it. So what? Let those that do make use of their semicolons in peace and without persecution. Fie on the teachers that begrudge semicolons because it is the passing fashion of the shallow day: they stand to be suspected of not knowing how to use them, themselves.
(editde bcause I cnat speel)
Punctuation is like anything else: not everyone will have a knack for it. So what? Let those that do make use of their semicolons in peace and without persecution. Fie on the teachers that begrudge semicolons because it is the passing fashion of the shallow day: they stand to be suspected of not knowing how to use them, themselves.
(editde bcause I cnat speel)
Last edited by Nanohedron on Sun Sep 23, 2007 11:37 am, edited 5 times in total.
"If you take music out of this world, you will have nothing but a ball of fire." - Balochi musician
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mutepointe wrote:the microsoft word grammar check sure has a thing about semicolons.WyoBadger wrote:I am very fond of semicolons; they are sort of like periods, only slightly less intrusive. Very pleasant, agreeable little punctuations; they join together what periods cleave asunder.
Tom
The Microsoft grammar-check is demented, irritating and useable only by those trying to write User manuals in the Microsoft Style.
Try typing a passage of literature into Word and grammar-check it. See how far Jane Austen gets. And MICROSOFT are criticizing HER grammar?
As Charles Dickens used to say (he really did!) "There are two words to that."
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AOL has the Fractured Fairy Tales online for free:djm wrote:Better the semi-colon (with a hyphen) than a fractured sentence.
djm
http://video.aol.com/video-category/fra ... tales/2796
To be on a quest is nothing more or less than to become an asker of questions. -Keen
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On the Chesapeake Bay they're pretty much boo-eed.djm wrote:No, they are more likely to be "bo-eed" up. Interestingly, while buoy may be "boo-ee", a life buoy is more likely to be a life "bo-ee". Go figure.IB wrote:In the U.S. are they booeeed up?
If you sometimes go by the name Ziggy Stardust you might be bo-eed though.
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SoundSpel
Here is an example of a reformed spelling system for english called SoundSpel.
You can read more about it on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoundSpel
To mi it looks more like pidgin English!
Oed to a Nietingael
Mi hart aeks, and a drouzy numnes paens Mi sens, as tho of hemlok I had drunk, Or emptyd sum dul oepiaet to the draens Wun minit past, and Lethe-wards had sunk: 'Tis not thru envy of thi hapy lot, But beeing too hapy in thien hapynes, That thow, liet-wingèd Dryad of the trees, In sum meloedius plot Of beechen green, and shadoes numberles Singest of sumer in fuul-throeted eez. – John Keats
You can read more about it on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoundSpel
To mi it looks more like pidgin English!
Oed to a Nietingael
Mi hart aeks, and a drouzy numnes paens Mi sens, as tho of hemlok I had drunk, Or emptyd sum dul oepiaet to the draens Wun minit past, and Lethe-wards had sunk: 'Tis not thru envy of thi hapy lot, But beeing too hapy in thien hapynes, That thow, liet-wingèd Dryad of the trees, In sum meloedius plot Of beechen green, and shadoes numberles Singest of sumer in fuul-throeted eez. – John Keats
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KatieBell, thank you for going to the trouble to find those excellent explanations about the word "cleave" (I am sure my quotation marks are misused)---I'm sorry it took me so long to get back to this thread. I will bookmark these two websites and then maybe you won't have to do my homework for me!KatieBell wrote:...from http://etymonline.com/?term=cleave.....
....From http://www.takeourword.com/TOW197/page2.html.....
I've always said cue-pon. I guess it must be how my parents said it. I always thought coo-pon was said by sort of high class people on the East Coast or something. I asked my husband how he says it and he says coo-pon . I had never noticed. Anyway, that shoots that theory down.Walden wrote:I've heard coo-pon on television.KatieBell wrote:I've never heard someone say bo-eed or coo-pon.
Boo-ees and cue-pons all around here.
That word "buoy" I have never figured out how to say. I guess I say boo-ee, but in general I try to avoid having to say it at all.
Well, I feel like I'm too old to trouble with changing the entire spelling of my native language . Actually, I encounter quite a number of people who are not familiar with my name and they spell it Sinthia instead of Cynthea---and who can blame them? So maybe we are already there. The one misspelling of my name I just love is Snythia---it's actually happened several times. What a dreadful sounding word!falkbeer wrote:Here is an example of a reformed spelling system for english called SoundSpel.
You can read more about it on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoundSpel
To mi it looks more like pidgin English!
Oed to a Nietingael
Mi hart aeks, and a drouzy numnes paens Mi sens, as tho of hemlok I had drunk, Or emptyd sum dul oepiaet to the draens Wun minit past, and Lethe-wards had sunk: 'Tis not thru envy of thi hapy lot, But beeing too hapy in thien hapynes, That thow, liet-wingèd Dryad of the trees, In sum meloedius plot Of beechen green, and shadoes numberles Singest of sumer in fuul-throeted eez. – John Keats
Diligentia maximum etiam mediocris ingeni subsidium. ~ Diligence is a very great help even to a mediocre intelligence.----Seneca
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I enjoy etymology (the study of the history of words) and looked it up for fun. Since I had it there, I thought I'd share it with others as well. I'm glad you enjoyed it as well.Cynth wrote: KatieBell, thank you for going to the trouble to find those excellent explanations about the word "cleave" (I am sure my quotation marks are misused)---I'm sorry it took me so long to get back to this thread. I will bookmark these two websites and then maybe you won't have to do my homework for me!
And I hope you didn't apologize about the quote marks for my sake. I never can figure out when to use the single quote, the double quote, or italics. I just switch between them all!
To be on a quest is nothing more or less than to become an asker of questions. -Keen
- Nanohedron
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Huh. I just realised that I pronounce "buoy" according to what I mean: "boo-ey" for the object, and "boy" for the verb. If I said something was boo-ey-ant, I would mean it was rather like a nautically intended floating thingum.emmline wrote:On the Chesapeake Bay they're pretty much boo-eed.djm wrote:No, they are more likely to be "bo-eed" up. Interestingly, while buoy may be "boo-ee", a life buoy is more likely to be a life "bo-ee". Go figure.IB wrote:In the U.S. are they booeeed up?
If you sometimes go by the name Ziggy Stardust you might be bo-eed though.
"If you take music out of this world, you will have nothing but a ball of fire." - Balochi musician
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In England the following cause some confusion or distress to certain subsets of the population. People know that some rules have exceptions, but they seem unable to work out which, so they either ignore rules altogether or they apply exceptions to every case.
A few contentious points, or points of disappointingly widespread ignorance:
Bought/brought
its/it's
The casual avoidance, where appropriate, of ending sentences with prepositions. (But not to the Churchillian point of "This is the kind of arrant pedantry up with which I will not put.")
The insertion of apostrophes into non-possessive plurals taking an "s".
Affect/affect/effect/effect
Commas before "and" or "but"
who/whom (Americans actually tend to get that right more often than the average Brit).
My own preferred source of guidance, rather than the OED (which is, inexplicably, regarded as the gospel) is Fowler's Modern English Usage. An entertaining book in its own right.
A few contentious points, or points of disappointingly widespread ignorance:
Bought/brought
its/it's
The casual avoidance, where appropriate, of ending sentences with prepositions. (But not to the Churchillian point of "This is the kind of arrant pedantry up with which I will not put.")
The insertion of apostrophes into non-possessive plurals taking an "s".
Affect/affect/effect/effect
Commas before "and" or "but"
who/whom (Americans actually tend to get that right more often than the average Brit).
My own preferred source of guidance, rather than the OED (which is, inexplicably, regarded as the gospel) is Fowler's Modern English Usage. An entertaining book in its own right.
And whether the blood be highland, lowland or no.
And whether the skin be black or white as the snow.
Of kith and of kin we are one, be it right, be it wrong.
As long as our hearts beat true to the lilt of a song.
And whether the skin be black or white as the snow.
Of kith and of kin we are one, be it right, be it wrong.
As long as our hearts beat true to the lilt of a song.
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I definitely always say boy-ant. I just think boo-ey-ant would be too much trouble and it sounds sort of awful too. My favorite, and only one I know actually , sentence using "buoyant":Nanohedron wrote:Huh. I just realised that I pronounce "buoy" according to what I mean: "boo-ey" for the object, and "boy" for the verb. If I said something was boo-ey-ant, I would mean it was rather like a nautically intended floating thingum.emmline wrote:On the Chesapeake Bay they're pretty much boo-eed.djm wrote: No, they are more likely to be "bo-eed" up. Interestingly, while buoy may be "boo-ee", a life buoy is more likely to be a life "bo-ee". Go figure.
If you sometimes go by the name Ziggy Stardust you might be bo-eed though.
Dickens' [i]Hard Times[/i] wrote:'Sir,' rejoined Mrs. Sparsit, 'there was wont to be an elasticity in you which I sadly miss. Be buoyant, sir!'
Diligentia maximum etiam mediocris ingeni subsidium. ~ Diligence is a very great help even to a mediocre intelligence.----Seneca