Ardith Hinton wrote to James Bradley, "Rules...  2." on 06-20-05 12:14

 AH> Hi again, James!  Much cheered by the thought that you
 AH> probably didn't notice the errors in my last message, I
 AH> shall continue bravely on the same path:

Who... Wa... Me?

 JB>  I'm excited about having a palace, and even more
 JB>  flattered I've reached Sainthood, but to have an
 JB>  infirmary named after me... Apropos, I guess.


 AH>           Hmm.  At least it's not something like "King
 AH> Charles's head", i.e. a recurrent & irrational obsession,
 AH> from a novel by Charles Dickens... [grin].

But we also have a Dickens' Pub.

 JB>  I'm just afraid the guide will only confirm my
 JB>  distaste for the language, not increase my curiosity.

 AH>           Perhaps... but what did I say about decisions
 AH> based on fear?  One of the best *and* worst features of
 AH> English, IMHO, is its hybrid vigour....  :-))

Ah... "Don't let beer and common sense stop you?" I mean "fear".

 JB>  why differentiate between syllable count on Pronouns,


 AH>           I didn't say anything about pronouns.  In the

Ah... WHA? A persons' name identifies them *properly,* as a noun? Ah, shoot. My
head hurts. Can I go to the washroom?

 AH> absence of examples as to what you wanted to know about, I
 AH> guessed it had to do with "James".  If you wanted to know
 AH> about pronouns... possessive pronouns don't use the
 AH> apostrophe.

What apostrophy? I know it's not a tilde, but there is a name to the thing. I
heard it once. It's likely a Spanish word. 

 JB>  and I've heard some Brits pronounce Charles with two.

 AH>           I've also heard Canadians pronounce "film" with two
 AH> syllables... but their pronunciation doesn't change the spelling!  I

Neither does Charles. I just know that "e" isn't there to augment
the "a"! Two
vowels... My head hurts.  Teacher, can I go to the washroom? I REALLY gotta
go! 

 AH> didn't mean to suggest the number of syllables is the only
 AH> important factor.  It's just that one-syllable names don't
 AH> include certain complexities you might not care about
 AH> anyway.  You might prefer to avoid the whole issue by using
 AH> the American spellings....  ;-)

Wash your mouth out with soap! Young lady, I'll have you... My oh my!!!

 JB>  Why do I *have* to place that punctuation mark inside
 JB>  the quotations?

 AH>           You don't have to do it if you're quoting a single word in
 AH> isolation as you did with "syllable".  I'd place the

See, a communication major (Just about wrote a Doctoral!) insisted to me the
opposite. Guess either she failed the test, or I know what question to ask. <-:

 AH> question mark outside the quotation mark, as I've done with
 AH> the period here... but that's not what I was taught to do
 AH> in school either!  The Americans do as you describe.  The
 AH> British apply the rule of common sense, which makes much
 AH> more sense to me.  I did the latter for quite some time

Ah... Maybe she noticed my Yankee twang, d'ya think?

 AH> Canada, eh?  Pity... [chuckle].

You know... I've been using that quite a bit!

 AH>           Okay... so here's my capsule summary of the history of the
 AH> language. England was a "green & pleasant land", and
 AH> various people came along & decided they'd like to have
 AH> some of it for themselves.  They all contributed something
 AH> to what we now know as the English language.  There are
 AH> inconsistencies in the way we use the language because of
 AH> its mixed origin.  But you & I are carrying on this fine
 AH> tradition in Canada.  We use British & American English
 AH> together. I've also seen signs with descriptions like
 AH> "Chinese smorgasbord", "Vietnamese cuisine",
and "BLT on a
 AH> bagel"... another aspect of the cultural mosaic.  :-))

That *is* rather funny! Can't say I don't play with "Vas is das?"
It's mostly
German, so I've heard?


 JB>  I've been trying to learn a bit of Russian. I hear that
 JB>  language is easier to understand. 

 AH>           I don't know.  Russia is a pretty big country... they may
 AH> have local dialects just as we have in English-speaking
 AH> countries.  I understand somebody was trying to start up a
 AH> RUSSIAN_TUTOR echo not too long ago, however....  :-)

If the target audience was Russians, there'd be three hundred posts a day. I
picked up a few web sites to discover pronunciations of different symbols, and
how sentence structure works... All four Grand-parents spoke Ukrainian, and
knew little English at all. There were times when the only sitter on short
call...

I can ask for food, sleep, money... I can also call you a few choice
descriptions, after confusing me again with my English. 



... If you're not confused, you're not paying attention.
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