Crucifiction of the English Language

[lone wolf]

On the other side of the coin L.W. perhaps you've noticed that the English are the damndest spellers as is evident in words like "night" "right" and "light". And then you have "might" and "mite". And inconsistencies like "collar" and "holler" and "bough" and "tough"- not only can they not spell but they can't pronounce properly. I think when they were generating words they may have been doing under various degrees of sobriety and then just forgot the next morning. :lol::lol:

I have two words for the English language: Totally screwed. There are way too many roots.

A lot of folks make a big deal about spelling. I tend to be a little fussy about my own too - but not to the point of obsession for Spellcheck unless it's business. I have done a lot of coaching with Literacy Outreach too so I know how discouraged someone can get when petty people knock them for poor spelling skills. I don't profess to make 'em proficient spellers ... but they're able to write their message in some sort of comprehensible form if the reader takes the time to understand. My newly part-literate person can fine tune the ability as he/she goes on and gets confidence.

 

[JLM]

I have two words for the English language: Totally screwed. There are way too many roots.

A lot of folks make a big deal about spelling. I tend to be a little fussy about my own too - but not to the point of obsession for Spellcheck unless it's business. I have done a lot of coaching with Literacy Outreach too so I know how discouraged someone can get when petty people knock them for poor spelling skills. I don't profess to make 'em proficient spellers ... but they're able to write their message in some sort of comprehensible form if the reader takes the time to understand. My newly part-literate person can fine tune the ability as he/she goes on and gets confidence.

I think there is spelling and then there's spelling, if a person puts one "l" in a 14 letter word that is supposed to have 2 "l"s - no big deal. If a person writes "are" when they mean "our" or "then" when they mean "than"- then their credibility suffers, unless of course they are a recent immigrant.

 

[lone wolf]

I think there is spelling and then there's spelling, if a person puts one "l" in a 14 letter word that is supposed to have 2 "l"s - no big deal. If a person writes "are" when they mean "our" or "then" when they mean "than"- then their credibility suffers, unless of course they are a recent immigrant.

I find a recent immigrant probably has a better grasp on the language than most of the kids they're pumping out of schools now. The emphasis is on pushing them on rather than holding them back for a year that would likely do some immense good. It's sad to know someone can graduate high school and still be semi illiterate.

 

[JLM]

I find a recent immigrant probably has a better grasp on the language than most of the kids they're pumping out of schools now. The emphasis is on pushing them on rather than holding them back for a year that would likely do some immense good. It's sad to know someone can graduate high school and still be semi illiterate.

You got that right, when we went to school spelling, grammar and basic math was essential and we learned it or we got flunked, which is as it should be, if a kid can't learn to accept failure and respond to it, he/she never will in later life (when the tests aren't on a piece of paper)

 

[L Gilbert]

I find a recent immigrant probably has a better grasp on the language than most of the kids they're pumping out of schools now. The emphasis is on pushing them on rather than holding them back for a year that would likely do some immense good. It's sad to know someone can graduate high school and still be semi illiterate.

Yeah, our kids were both a bit frustrated that their peers in school were illiterate relative to the grades they were in. Basically, all we did was get our girls interested in reading early. They developed sizeable vocabularies, proper grammar, etc. mostly by just reading.

 

[JLM]

Yeah, our kids were both a bit frustrated that their peers in school were illiterate relative to the grades they were in. Basically, all we did was get our girls interested in reading early. They developed sizeable vocabularies, proper grammar, etc. mostly by just reading.

Yep, reading is definitely the key to good spelling and large vocabulary. Too many people don't read anymore and it's a shame.

 

[Cliffy]

Hard to get excited about reading when most of the "literature" out there is the equivalent of prime time TV.

 

[#juan]

/sigh... :roll:

ANYWAY...

back to the topic, one of my favorite peeves with the English Language: the nefarious use of 'silent' letters...

like knickers, knife, phone, pneumonia, gnat, gnu, .... they're everywhere!

Wreally, I hadn't knoticed. Now my phorehead is getting wrinkled and I'm starting to wring my hands and whine just thinking about this wrenching subject.

 

[JLM]

Wreally, I hadn't knoticed. Now my phorehead is getting wrinkled and I'm starting to wring my hands and whine just thinking about this wrenching subject.

I guess that's bad but what pisses me off even more is people who can't spell the words that are spelt exactly as they sound and in some cases mispronounce them like in "fil-um" and "New Westmin-i-ster" Adver tise ment still grates on my nerves but it looks like we have to accept that one.

 

[#juan]

I guess that's bad but what pisses me off even more is people who can't spell the words that are spelt exactly as they sound and in some cases mispronounce them like in "fil-um" and "New Westmin-i-ster" Adver tise ment still grates on my nerves but it looks like we have to accept that one.

I agree with what you say. For some reason I am always surprised that intelligent people can't spell simple words. I suppose it could be laziness or habit that make a person use then as opposed to than. It is a pervasive thing. Just the other night I heard a fairly well known actor say "There are soldiers and we gotta support them". He was talking about the soldiers in Iraq. He of course meant "They are our soldiers and we have to support them".

 

[JLM]

I agree with what you say. For some reason I am always surprised that intelligent people can't spell simple words. I suppose it could be laziness or habit that make a person use then as opposed to than. It is a pervasive thing. Just the other night I heard a fairly well known actor say "There are soldiers and we gotta support them". He was talking about the soldiers in Iraq. He of course meant "They are our soldiers and we have to support them".

Yep, and it's going to continue as long as they keep graduating illiterates from grade 12. If we spoke like the examples you just gave, when I went to school we would never have passed into grade 5. Another one you see fairly often is "shore" instead of "sure".

 

[Niflmir]

I agree with what you say. For some reason I am always surprised that intelligent people can't spell simple words. I suppose it could be laziness or habit that make a person use then as opposed to than. It is a pervasive thing. Just the other night I heard a fairly well known actor say "There are soldiers and we gotta support them". He was talking about the soldiers in Iraq. He of course meant "They are our soldiers and we have to support them".

What he actually said is sort of ironic.

 

[#juan]

What he actually said is sort of ironic.

Yes on a couple different levels...

 

[Niflmir]

Sometimes I say "Fer shore" to be ironic. The irony being that although I think I am being ironic in a cool fashion I am in reality being ridiculous.