Why Do Protesters Gather at the Spelling Bee?

[xxChrisxx]

How about platinum, molybdenum, lanthanum, and tantalum? You want to rename those also? How about renaming bismuth, cobalt, copper, iron, manganese, nickel, silver, tin, tungsten?

Aluminum is the older of aluminium and aluminum (but lumium predates both).

Kind of killed the jovial overtones there DH.

In reality I couldn't care less.

 

[magpies]

Do these people use signs with correct spelling or...?

 

[Char. Limit]

Kind of killed the jovial overtones there DH.

In reality I couldn't care less.

Remember... of all of the intellectual arguments in the world, one of the most important and possibly one of the most incendiary (but that's not saying much) is the aluminum/aluminium debate. It's serious business...

(Or I may just be messing with you. But I wouldn't do that... and aluminium really doesn't roll off my tongue like aluminum does. Plus, the PF spell checker is calling "aluminium" wrong... and PF is the highest authority.

 

[stevenb]

What's wrong with making communication as simple as possible? Think organic chemistry.

There are pros and cons to everything, but now that I've struggled my whole life to try and learn all the crazy English rules for grammar and spelling, it's not fair that anyone else should get off easy while I have to then work even harder to unlearn what I already learned.

If only we could start over from scratch an devise a logical language system, but that's not how language typically works.

I'm probably going to screw this story up badly because I know almost nothing of Korean history. Maybe there are some Koreans here that can correct me. But, years ago a Korean friend of mine told me that centuries ago a King reinvented the Korean alphabet and made it simple and logical. Many scholars objected and were executed for that, and the result is that today, Korean is one of the easier Asian systems to learn. This seems like a relevant story to the topic. Hopefully a Korean expert can tell a more accurate version for our edification.

 

[cristo]

Plus, the PF spell checker is calling "aluminium" wrong... and PF is the highest authority.

PF has a spell checker? You sure it's not just your American spellchecker on firefox?

And finally, to end this debate once and for all, I ask you what is the name of the language you're speaking, or the name of the class where you learned (yes, that's a word) said language in school? That's why what we say goes!

 

[magpies]

PF has a spell checker? You sure it's not just your American spellchecker on firefox?

And finally, to end this debate once and for all, I ask you what is the name of the language you're speaking, or the name of the class where you learned (yes, that's a word) said language in school? That's why what we say goes!

You mean "AMERICAN"?

 

[rewebster]

PF has a spell checker? You sure it's not just your American spellchecker on firefox?

And finally, to end this debate once and for all, I ask you what is the name of the language you're speaking, or the name of the class where you learned (yes, that's a word) said language in school? That's why what we say goes!

ah, the British, still teaching---we still think of you as a mother over here

 

[Proton Soup]

(Or I may just be messing with you. But I wouldn't do that... and aluminium really doesn't roll off my tongue like aluminum does. Plus, the PF spell checker is calling "aluminium" wrong... and PF is the highest authority.

everybody knows that the more syllables or letters you use, the smarter and more enlightened you are. heck, whoever named tin was obviously a bigot.

 

[leroyjenkens]

everybody knows that the more syllables or letters you use, the smarter and more enlightened you are. heck, whoever named tin was obviously a bigot.

I call aluminum tin. I thought they were interchangeable. Tin foil, aluminum foil, same thing.

 

[Pengwuino]

Ignoring all the discussion about whether or not aluminum should be spelled this way or that way... does anyone else think that this article is just another example of how there are indeed people that want to just make everything in life easy?

 

[magpies]

You say that like you want to make things in life harder?

 

[Pattonias]

I think that we should just assign all words to the system of Word1 Word2 Word3 etc. eventually most everyone that bothers will memorize them and spelling will never again be a problem. Illiteracy may sky-rocket though. We may also have to make other writing illegal otherwise those people who took the time to learn to spell may resist or start suicide bombing or something.

 

[magpies]

Actually I think it would be best if we just stopped using words all together. I mean really what do they do for us anyhow?

 

[Pengwuino]

You say that like you want to make things in life harder?

No... actually yes, good idea.

In all seriousness though, you get the point. Next thing you know, people won't even be required to take tests in school. It's almost becoming an annual tradition for me to look back and realize how the poor standard of education has hindered me in the past that makes things more difficult now.

 

[zomgwtf]

LOL JIMMY That post was amazing! HAHAHAHA

But in all seriousness, I don't see how changing the way words are spelt in English will make people better spellers. I have NO troubles spelling new words even if they have hidden letters in them. Unless they are extremely difficult words that you would only ever know how to spell by using a dictionary or goolgle . People sit there all the time asking me how to spell out words, normally I have to write them out or I get confused but it just comes out and it makes perfect sense how the letters are placed and how the various other letters around it make it sound a specific way. I feel confident that as long as I can say the word, I can spell it.

 

[maudlynne]

LOL JIMMY That post was amazing! HAHAHAHA
I feel confident that as long as I can say the word, I can spell it.

Truthfully now zomgwtf, did you have a Catholic school education?

 

[DaveC426913]

Has it occurred to anyone that these protesters may have been being deliberately ironic?

If they had protested for proper spelling, would they be all over the news?

And what is the outcome of their spectacle? Here we all are, talking about how important proper spelling is...

 

[CompuChip]

What's wrong with making communication as simple as possible? Think organic chemistry.

You mean, every high school student's nightmare ("draw the following molecule: 18-bromo-12-butyl-11-chloro-4,8-diethyl-5-hydroxy-15-methoxytricos-6,13-dien-19-yne-3,9-dione").

Uhhu, that will make things easier, definitely.

 

[Phrak]

English spelling is a juggernaut promoted by English professors with misplaced enthusiasm for their arcane art. No cause or conviction can defeat the atrocity. Only the nimble thumbs of those who text have half a chance.

 

[BobG]

I'd be more sympathetic if they were protesting against uncontrolled immigration. How many foreign words are we going to allow in the English language?

Why do we use the Italian word for zucchini when we already have an English word for it - courgette?

And why do we allow words in the English dictionary such as rodeo, coup, or putsch? That just leads to half breed words such as television.

If we want to make English the official language in the US, shouldn't the English language be composed of American words?

 

[TubbaBlubba]

Kind of like Chinese? now, that's an easy language.

It's not really difficult, just different.

For a comparison, Chinese usually have an easy time learning the Kanji of Japanese, which is pretty similar to Chinese in that it's a character with a bunch of different meanings and readings. On the other hand, they frequently struggle with kana, which is two writing systems using syllables to make words, which is fairly similar to western languages. I've heard testimonies from native Chinese speakers about this.

Obviously, most speakers of non-Oriental languages have a hard time learning kanji but a fairly easy time learning kana.

 

[DanP]

I'd be more sympathetic if they were protesting against uncontrolled immigration. How many foreign words are we going to allow in the English language?

Sure, because that protest fits your political agenda :P

Why do we use the Italian word for zucchini when we already have an English word for it - courgette?

And why do we allow words in the English dictionary such as rodeo, coup, or putsch? That just leads to half breed words such as television.

Languages evolve naturally, as the vast majority of speakers will start to favor a certain word over another to convey meaning about something.

There is no need for a language purity nazi group to force stagnation in the evolution of a language.

 

[TubbaBlubba]

If we want to make English the official language in the US, shouldn't the English language be composed of American words?

I agree. Replace all loanwords with "liberty".

 

[BobG]

Languages evolve naturally, as the vast majority of speakers will start to favor a certain word over another to convey meaning about something.

There is no need for a language purity nazi group to force stagnation in the evolution of a language.

I'm not against the evolution of language. I'm just against uncontrolled dilution.

Take the new words added to the Oxford English Dictionary this year.

Abdominoplasty is a perfectly fine word. I can even see how admitting hoody to the dictionary improves our language. It refers to a particular type of garment that really needed its own word.

But agroterrorism? Another half-breed word.

And celebutante, obesogenic, crunk and therapise all sound like words Rich Hall would have invented (not that that's all bad - I do think that doork should be an official word describing people who try to go in the out door).

And riffage! Riffage?! Did Bill and Ted invent that word during their excellent adventure?!

And what's with adding new definitions to old words. Now when someone uses the word "rendition", how will we know what they mean?

Adding new definitions to old words makes life so complicated they had to invent a new word just to deal with the problem - retronym. So you can't just say a word like "guitar" anymore. You have to say "acoustic guitar" or "electric guitar" so the listener will know what kind of riffage you're talking about.

And I think it's time we reined in all of these fitness fanatics. They're corrupting our language with new words like aerobicized and yogalates.

http://www.askoxford.com/worldofwords/newwords/?view=uk

 

[DanP]

And I think it's time we reined in all of these fitness fanatics. They're corrupting our language with new words like aerobicized and yogalates.

http://www.askoxford.com/worldofwords/newwords/?view=uk

I see. Well yes I agree that such words should not enter a dictionary until they are not widely used by the majority of the speakers in the realm. That it, a word should become naturally adopted in the language first.

What bothers me is that we have in Romania a group of retarded ppl from academia (mostly old farts) who try to block any usage of foreign world who gained extremely wide natural usage. Take for example the word "mouse" as used to indicate the computer peripheral device. They insist never to use it and instead use the Romanian translation which is "soarece". You know what ? Some things sounds natural when translated. We use them. This is not one of them :P Noone but brain damaged humans will go in a computer store and ask for a "soarece" :P

 

[lisab]

I agree. Replace all loanwords with "liberty".

aaaahahahahaa...

 

[CompuChip]

Why do we use the Italian word for zucchini when we already have an English word for it - courgette?

Wow, yeah, that sounds really English :P

 

[BobG]

Why do we use the Italian word for zucchini when we already have an English word for it - courgette?

Wow, yeah, that sounds really English :P

Face it, it's hopeless. We'll have to give immigrant words already part of the language amnesty and just try to stem the invasion from here on out.

 

[DaveC426913]

If we want to make English the official language in the US,
shouldn't the English language be composed of American words?

Face it, it's hopeless. We'll have to give immigrant words already part of the language amnesty and just try to stem the invasion from here on out.

Sounds a lot like American White Supremacy.

 

[zomgwtf]

Sounds a lot like American White Supremacy.

Sounds like a person doesn't like other people meddling with their language. How's that connected to white supremacy?

There are already other 'forms' of English spoken, I don't think that people need to continually mess around with the original language.

I though 'American' was supposed to invoke thoughts of 'freedom' and 'mulitculture' etc.. However in your case apparently when someone says 'Amerian' it invokes thoughts of intolerance and hate?