Spelling!, OK, sorry, it's driving me f'ing crazy! Options

[J P Stein]

Gustl:
I have no second language.....I only have enough knowledge to butcher one. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)

There are many...ah.. dialects in American english.

I spent about a year in a small detachment overseas. I was born and raised in the Northwest part of this country where we speak accent free ...American.....except for the R in warsh.
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif). After about 6 months of exposure to guys from all over the country, we all ended up sounding like someone from the South....not deep South.....maybe Texas....God. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif)
That type of speach just kind of rolls off the tounge.
It took me years to get over it.....but typing it is fun (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[lapuwali]

To the original point, spelling and grammar checkers don't catch everything. For example, the usage "break" for the bits on the car that make the wheels stop, would not be caught by any spelling checker, and not by many grammar checkers.

Anyone who's upset about spelling should take up reading some English texts from the 15th to 18th centuries. Spelling was a good deal more "flexible" then. The point was to get the idea across. There were still good and bad writers, those who could turn a nice phrase, or get a point across more clearly than many. Rigidly adhered to rules. however, didn't really come into play until well into the 19th century, and even some of those rules are being reconsidered by the types of books that lay down those rules today. Dangling prepositions, for example, aren't really considered bad usage these days unless you write for the New Yorker (which is so anal it still puts an umlaut in cooperate). The English language isn't dead, despite repeated attempts to ossify it by academics and busybodies.

What gets me aren't the bad spellers or those with sloppy grammar, but the people who can't string together simple sentences to get a point across. I can only imagine what it's like to talk to these people in person.

[skline]

OK, We should all relax now, in a garage, we would be talking not spelling out each word. I had a boss that could not spell worth a crap and would send out memo's without spell checking. Used to crack me up. I finally told him to use a spell checker and since he was too lazy, he used to give the memo's to me to proofread them first before he sent them out. I no longer try to correct people's spelling. It just isnt worth it. Just use your higher intelligence to figure out what they are trying to say.

Get over it and get along. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[lapuwali]

we speak accent free ...American.....except for the R in warsh

Er, you speak "American" with an American accent, not "accent-free" anything. Anyone who says someone "has no accent" is simply saying they have the same accent as they do.

The English invented the bloody language, so if anyone has a right to define a given accent as a "non-accent", it's them. However, they themselves have so many accents and subtle variations on accent caused by regional and class differences that they can't even agree on what that "non-accent" should be. The BBC even went to considerable lengths in the 1920s to define a "BBC accent", and forced all of their presenters to adopt that accent on the air. This policy was enforced until the late 1970s, when regional accents finally managed to get on the air, at least for some presenters.

There are enough variations in US usage that there really isn't an "American" accent, either. TV and radio presenters are, again, the usual standard, but not to the extent the British have gone in the past. However, if you've ever heard a British comedian affect a mock "American" accent, you'll quickly hear just how hilarious a "non accent" can sound.

[Series9]

I started a fight! Right on!

Thanks for pointing out my 'type-o', Mer. I knew if there was anything wrong in that post, I was going to get a ration of shit.

Just to be clear, I don't think we should have rules of any type regarding spelling and grammar, and I hope I don't need medication because 'tires' spelled 'tiars' bothers me.

I just meant to say that spelling matters to me and wondered if anyone else felt the same.

[slivel]

Where I grew up they were pronounced "tars". (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Steve

[SirAndy]

The English invented the bloody language, so if anyone has a right to define a given accent as a "non-accent", it's them. However, they themselves have so many accents and subtle variations on accent caused by regional and class differences that they can't even agree on what that "non-accent" should be.

actually, they do. it is called "Oxford English" and that's what they teach kids in school in germany ...

problem with this "accent-free" english is that it doesn't really get you anywhere.
after 7+ years of "Oxford English" in school i went to the UK for the first time and i couldn't understand a bloody word!
same when i first came to the US ...

i think they should teach a more "close to real life" version of english in the schools ...
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif) Andy

[Allan]

Being that this is a garage environment and we are just hanging around drinking beer and talking about cars, I imagine after a couple of hours (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer.gif) I wouldn't be able to understand alot of you while you were speaking directly to me.

[914Timo]

I don´t know why, but this has been very interesting and amusing topic.

Andy is 100% right about that "Oxford English". They teach it in schools in Finland too. The real English is quite a different and they have talked a lot here that they should teach more the real one. I don´t believe they will ever do that. So, you have to get used to that we foreigner aliens will sound weird in the future too (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

BTW, there is many different dialect in Finnish too. So, I understand very well that some of you write a little different. I think it could be very boring if all here starts to write in the same way. I like to heard and read different Finnish dialects here too.

[GTeener]

I thought 'tiars' was intentional.
I read it with a Southern accent and it works for me (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol2.gif)

I know I am guilty of writing in "slang speak".

Wudup wid dat?

'proly 'nuff said...

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Toast]

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

[Root_Werks]

I had to catch up on this one. Interesting topic really. Working in an office enviroment, I see tons of mistakes in gramar and spelling. When I post here, I type (fast) and don't look back. But at work, I will re-read everything, twice even if it is just to make sure it makes sense. Sort of a cool forum, I have learned a little from it.

Does ubanics (spelling?) bother anyone? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

[Hawktel]

we speak accent free ...American.....except for the R in warsh

Er, you speak "American" with an American accent, not "accent-free" anything. Anyone who says someone "has no accent" is simply saying they have the same accent as they do.

The English invented the bloody language, so if anyone has a right to define a given accent as a "non-accent", it's them. However, they themselves have so many accents and subtle variations on accent caused by regional and class differences that they can't even agree on what that "non-accent" should be. The BBC even went to considerable lengths in the 1920s to define a "BBC accent", and forced all of their presenters to adopt that accent on the air. This policy was enforced until the late 1970s, when regional accents finally managed to get on the air, at least for some presenters.

There are enough variations in US usage that there really isn't an "American" accent, either. TV and radio presenters are, again, the usual standard, but not to the extent the British have gone in the past. However, if you've ever heard a British comedian affect a mock "American" accent, you'll quickly hear just how hilarious a "non accent" can sound.

Actually, IIRC English as a language has drifted more in Great Britan than here in the States.

If you was to pull a person from the 1800 into the present age and question him, he would find it easier to speak to a person with American way of speaking than a British way of speaking.

It was a pretty complex on why, but basically as America had/has a larger population to incorperate into English due to immigration and a larger population, so it lacked any significant drift for a portion of time. So when buzzwords are introduced they don't ussualy become part of the lexicon, where in GB they do, Due to its smaller population thats more homogenous ( for the most part)

But over all who cares, If you don't understand something cause Engrish isn't your first language just ask, No one here has a problem with keeping their mouth shut. Far from.

[TimT]

English is actually a germanic language, Anglo-Saxon, or something like that . Its been way to many years since I sat through all of this in a classroom.

I did a quick google and found this link about the history of the english language

English is a very complex language, probably one of the most difficult languages to master. As has been mentioned, even in the states we have "different versions (dialects) of english" Ask for a soda in NY, you get a can of coke or 7up, ask for a soda in New England you get a blank stare,(they call coke, or 7up "pop")

A hero sandwich is called a hoagie or grinder.

I hope no one takes offense, but I just spent some time in South Carolina, I commented to my friend ( a fellow NY'er) that they speak a different language down here!.. Im sure they were saying the same thing about us NY'ers.

The english language is now morphing even further. chat rooms, BBs's, forums develope there own distinct dialects.

People from all over the world read this forum, mistakes and typos are made, give us, and them a break!


Yikes!! ramble off!!

now its time for

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer.gif)

[lapuwali]

I'd question when, or even if, the language will devolve furthur into dialects. Most of the regional differences in the US are pretty minor, and wouldn't linguistically be called a dialect. A genuine dialect often has a large difference in vocabulary, and sometimes grammar. In Italy, for example, villages just a few miles apart may speak dialects that sound like Italian, but can't be mutually understood. Many Italians speak both Italian as it's taught nationally, and a local dialect not spoken by anyone outside a 10 or 100 sq. mile area. The same is true in many other countries.

This has never really happened in the US, where 99.999% of the language is the same no matter where you go in the US. Differences for things like "hoagy" v. "sub" or "soda" v. "pop" (or soda pop, or soda water, or just coke) are pretty minor, and generally only pertain to names of things, not usage.

The differences between UK English and US English are much bigger, and amount to differences in usage ("in hospital" v. "in the hospital" is a minor example), not just names for things.

The main factor arguing against significant shifts in regional "dialects" in the US and the UK is the levelling factor of the mass media. When dialectical differences in Italy were being formed, it was uncommon for someone to meet or speak to another person from only 100 miles away during their entire lifetime. Only the educated few travelled or wrote to people over such large distances. This was true until only 50 years ago, so naturally, differences in language developed over the thousands of years Italy had been populated prior to that time. Today, I'm "speaking" to 100s of people who are from as far away as Helsinki just by typing this. And it's not like I'm using "public" or "book" dialect, as one does in Italy when a Milanese talks to a Roman; I'm using the only language and usage I know.

[Mueller]

wait till you throw ebonics into the mix (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Aaron Cox]

wait till you throw ebonics into the mix (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

or cyber nerd!

wut ^ mang? dewd.. gawd... OMG LMAO (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif) :finger2:

[Eric_Shea]

Joe, Joe, Joe...

With all the time you've spent reading over this post you could have had those 4 mounts taken out and a proper firewall mount welded in "and" painted fancy "yeller" (IMG:style_emoticons/default/w00t.gif)

[Allan]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif) Quit bitchin and use your time productively!!!!! Remember the WCC is coming and we need your cars. So use your, youre, yoor, yur, yore, you're time well! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Aaron Cox]

hoo kares bout spelin n e weigh?

huked onn Fonix werked 4 me!

ROFLMAO!

whut r yoo taukin abowt mann?