I wasn't complaining, but it highlights the point. If I had been using Word it would have flagged the error.
I can't remember the law but it's not Murphy's Law that's "If something can go wrong, it will":
Once all 18 shear head security screws have been sheared it will be found the gasket has been omitted.
All random errors add up unidirectionally for maximum difficulty of assembly,
In message , Ian Jackson writes
I think Frank Spencer started that.
15-love
:-)
There is quite a compelling argument that these are the sort of people who, 20+ years ago, would have never had cause to use the written language once they left school so any use of the written form is an improvement (even if it gets up our collective noses!)
In message , Ian Jackson writes
Come to Hertfordshire and join the *must ovs*
wot abaht "sikth" instead of sixth, is it a speech problem or more likely a brain problem.
I hadn't thought about that angle before - you're very probably bang-on the money with that.
I got fined for parking 'In a prescribed place'
I NEARLY took that one to a higher authority.
Mate we are editing stuff on a daily basis sending back correct grammar and spelling, only to have it returned because it 'doesn't say wot I wrote'.
apostrophe's where there shouldnt be, and none where there should. Plural subjects with singular verbs and vice versa, which we strongly objects to. Have turned to of. Lose to loose and vice versa.
Never mind the pronunciation of a router, that which determines a route as against a router, that which routs wood or metal..
Which bit is Australian? the bro bit is UK or NZ
..like 'appaulingly'
And can also root.
Its actually a sign of certain language speakers not native to England having a real problem..I remember the hoots of laughter trying to get my sisters french au pair to say 'squirrel' it always came out skirrel'.
The QU 'kw' sound is entirely absent from French.
And there was a really good 2 minutes on some Christmas science lecture where two apparently identical words were spoken that no English person managed to distinguish, yet two Hindi speakers immediately identified one Hindi word and one utter nonsense.
the upward interrogative intonations that Australians use is an Irishism, as Irish have the habit of adding 'is it not?' or 'to be sure' at the end of a sentence as we add 'innit?' in order to emphasise the sentence and it's a construction that has crossed from Gaelic without the words it used to contain.
Likewise German uses a different order with subject object verb, that can be carried over into English. Producing Yoda-spik. Of this tolerance should not be practised.
(Note that the last sentence has neatly avoided all responsibility: It is not a matter of what WE might do or not, it is a statement of an inviolable principle. A clue to how the German mind has to work).
All these are amusing in their own way, BUT, they are not STANDARD ENGLISH and its not good enough to say 'well let everyone have their own standard' any more than, once the railways came along, it was good enough for each station to set their clock to midday when the sun was at its highest.
But there you go. Destroy standards and then impose different ones is a good way to smash a culture from inside.
You think so...? Pourquoi?
Germans struggle with that too
and 'fith' for fifth and 'Feb-you-erry' for February.
I'm surprised nobody mentioned 'kil-ommeters'! Ugh!
It's weird. When I worked in a Job Centre (a long time ago, 1991, no better jobs) I was on the AO (Admin Officer) grade. Despite having a degree, this grade actually required only 5 O-Levels.
There was one grade lower - AA (Admin Assistant). AAs were explicitly not allowed to answer the phone - presumably in case they said something silly.
Telephone manner was considered important and any letters issued that were poorly written would have the writer hauled up for a "chat". Though to be fair, most letters were from stock templates out of necessity, but spelling names incorrectly was frowned upon.
And we were definitely NOT allowed to refer to the customers as "claimants" as that was seen as derogatory and condescending.
Which is all very interesting as when I submitted a claim for two broken car springs to East Sussex County Council (honking great holes everywhere), the letter came back with the salutation "Dear Claimant,".
Which reinforces your point - councils are less cultured than the Job Centre, which is saying something ;->
Strayanidol
(Australian Idol)
Heh - we had an Irish teacher at secondary school. When it was his turn to dismiss the years from assembly it was most amusing and always got a muted chuckle:
Foists;
Seconds;
Turds;
Twenty years before (1970s) I remember it as 5 Os = Clerical Officer, 2 As Admin Officer, and I think a degree got you Executive Officer or some such
On 27/04/2014 16:49, The Natural Philosopher wrote: ...
What we may be seeing is a modern equivalent of the great vowel shift of the 15th and 16th century; pronunciation changing from generation to generation. However, mass media, which itself helped create the idea of a standard English, is accelerating the process today.
Colin Bignell
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