[net.nlang] words

rvpalliende (07/06/82)

A word may be invented, and the comment "it's amazing, but the word 'wvdx'
doesn't appear once in this text" is completely valid.
Anyway, as the very few people who read this newsgroup can see, there
aren't many interesting things going on in this newsgroup.
(All spelling reforms are doomed to failure? Do you still spell "gaol",
or "shew", or "colour"?
I don't think it completely necessary for the spelling to be reformed;
only oddities such as
mute consonants, mute letters other that e, one or two ov a kind
sounds like busy, women, flood, of, colonel)

wagner (07/07/82)

Since we seem to have gotten into spelling reform, what do people on the
net think of other language reforms, and particularly, some of the more
drastic language reforms being proposed by some womens groups.  They 
suggest that our thinking is sexist in part because our language is
unbalanced, i.e. chairMAN, postMAN, etc.  Some of the ones I know insist on
chairPERSON, postPERSON (and the best one, mailPERSON - which sounds like it
should be reformed to PERSONPERSON!).

Michael Wagner, UTCS

jcwinterton (07/08/82)

Anyone know how to pronouce (and derive) the word "ghoti"?
This is an example of the use of alternate diagrams in English spelling, and
is usually given as the horrible example of why the alphabet should be reformed.
On the other hand, the only alphabet reform that I am aware of in recent times
that worked was the one the Mussolini put through in Italy.  This is the reason
that the Italian word for cannibal is spelled "antropofago".  The reform worked,
and if you can say a word in Italian you can write it, and vice versa!

jqw (07/09/82)

	While not quite "modern," some of the American spelling of words like
"colour" come from Noah Webster's idea to simplify spelling. Most of his
reforms failed, however.
	"ghoti" is, of course, pronounced the same as (**SPOILER WARNING**)
"fish." "gh" as in "enough", "o" as in "women," "ti" as in "nation."
Spanish is very much (not quite totally) a phonetically spelled language, too.

mdpl (07/12/82)

A question for the people out there claiming any string is a word as
long as its meaning is clear:
   Would you let me get away with using "ov" or "enouf" in a game
   of Scrabble?  How about "ghoti"?
				Mary Leland

mac (03/09/83)

the importance of vowels

	There are some words that have two opposite meanings.

	let     (1) allow ("let my people go!") <OE lae^tan
		(2) (archaic) prevent ("without let") <OE lettan


	cleave  (1) split, sunder ("meat cleaver") <OE cle^ofan
		(2) adhere ("cleave to him") <OE cleofan

	Fortunately (and probably not accidentally) one meaning is
	archaic in each case.  These used to be distinguished by the
	vowels.  This what happened when English went through the Great
	Vowel Shift.

false analogy

	Consider the verb "rent", which can mean either end of the
	relation, the owner's or the tenant's.  I my youth I recall some
	people using "borrow" in the same way ("can you borrow me a
	sheet of paper?").


leman

        My Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology lists leman as (arch.)
	lover, sweetheart; illicit lover, paramour.

interlingual puns

	I noticed a postcard of a painting titled in French as "Le
	Multiplication des Pains et Poissons".  The obvious English
	translation is "The Multiplication of the Pains and Poisons"

Query

	Reduplication is the doubling of part of a word to indicate
	tense, done in Sansk., with traces still occuring in OE.  Does
	anyone know of an instance remaining in modern English?
	"teetotal" was the result of stuttering, and doesn't qualify.

bj (03/09/83)

	    Neither a borrower nor a borrower be.

					Gummich
					decvax!yale-comix!bj
					Herbison@Yale