Death of English

[techweenie]

Is anyone else here bothered by the continuous murdering of the English language by BBS posters talking about their 'breakes', their 'bumbers' and other miscellaneous parts?

The sad thing is that a lot of our ROW posters to whom English is a second language do a much better job with it.

Sure, I mis-type a lot, but I hit the 'edit' button & go back to fix it when I've out-typed my fingers.

The sad part to me, is that as a person who writes for a living, I see so little pride in craftsmanship online.

Jeez, did that sound curmudgeonly?

[DonDavis]

You're (not your) right. It happens a lot (not allot).

Part of the reason is that people don't hand write letters or papers as much these days. Add in the use of text and Instant messaging and "spell checkers" and folks will most likely lose their (not there) touch. Plus, BBSs, et al, are thought of as "talking" and not so much as writing. Isn't that funny?

Now, where's that spell-checkin' thingy?

[RickM]

Someone once mentioned a spell checker that's an add-on for Explorer. Anyone recall the name of it?

It's not just spelling either, it's also punctuation and structure. And (ooops) while I realize I'm not the perfect writer I try to write as good as possible. I do purposely break the rulez every once in awhile.........like this.

[tabs]

I'm Guilty....Spealing is my down fall. I can look a word up and five minutes later have to relook it up. Also I've gotten terribly lazie, and sumtimes I misspeal on purpose, and somethimes I try and use conversational slang in my text and somethimes it's mistiping, and somethimes i just don't know what the fk I'm doing...

[DonDavis]

Here's something I saw recently...

'Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.'

[motion]

I agree, Techweenie. Its painful to read through all the errors. I wish people had more pride and effort when it comes to portraying themselves on the Internet. I'm no English major, but there's no way I'm going to let spelling errors get posted just because I'm too lazy to correct them.

If you're going to do something, do it right, is one of my favorite mottos.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

I always get a kick out of the guys who rebuild their peddle cluster.

[cegerer]

Don, now that is freakin' amazing!!! I could read that paragraph as fast as had it been spelled correctly. -- Curt

[Rot 911]

Originally posted by motion

If you're going to do something, do it right, is one of my favorite mottos.

Shouldn't there be quotation marks around the quoted motto?

[DonDavis]

Curt,

I'm gonna buy you....... a pizza!

signed, StrongBad

[RickM]

"Concourse" makes me cringe every time.

[techweenie]

Mostly it's horrific and makes the skin crawl, but just once, I practically fell out of my chair laughing when somebody promoted their "Moronic ECU."

[Owain]

One of the errors I hate most is when people use 'then' instead of 'than', such as: 'I'm taller then you are.' It goes along with the 'peddle' and 'bumber' thing, I think. Some folks only know how to pronounce something, not spell it. Some of those a spellchecker won't catch, anyway. The words are spelled correctly, but not used correctly.

[Z-man]

I think another reason there is so much 'pseudo-English' floating around the web is because people no longer bother to read the WRITTEN WORD! Stuff like paper-books, magazines, the newspaper are slowly becoming an old-fashioned and neglected media. I bet lots of people who surf the 'net read and type this 'pseudo English' in everything from e-mails, BBS's, and IM's. Unfortunately, this "slangish" is becoming the accepted form of writing English.

Now regarding the appreviation: LOL. (Laughing out loud) I really wonder how many people actually laugh out loud when they type that!

Ok, I'll get off my soapbox now...and go read another chapter of my latest read Advanced Speed Secrets by Ross Bently.


-Zoltan.

PS: I needed to edit this post 3 times to get all the grammatical corrections in!

[RickM]

If I type ROFLMAO I AM Rolling On The Floor Laughing My Ass Off....guaranteed.

[Paco Anton]

From a foreigner's point of view.

I do not speak English on a daily basis. However I do read English every day (i.e. this board) and write quite often.

English, as opposed to (for example) Spanish is a language where there is not a direct bi-univocal correlation between what is written and what is spoken. I think this is the source of most errors I've seen on this board.

Remember that some of this behaviour has already passed onto the accepted English. for example you Americans write "center" when the original word is "centre". But center is closer to the actual pronunciation.

I do not want to generalize, but I think reading is the key here. If you are used to reading a lot, then you make fewer mistakes.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

I'm quite put off by folks that end sentences with prepositions.

[68'911]

Originally posted by Paco Anton

Remember that some of this behaviour has already passed onto the accepted English. for example you Americans write "center" when the original word is "centre". But center is closer to the actual pronunciation.

Don't forget about "behaviour" becoming "behavior"

he..he..he funny brittish words.

[Paco Anton]

Originally posted by 68'911
Don't forget about "behaviour" becoming "behavior"

he..he..he funny brittish words.

Disclaimer: I learnt my English in England

[singpilot]

Write on! Wright on!