the inevitable corruption of tongues

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#187513 - 10/29/09 07:37 AM Re: archiphonemes dancing on the tip of a tongue [Re: BranShea]
Faldage Carpal Tunnel Registered: 12/01/00 Posts: 12524	Next thing you know they're going to start spelling iland with an S stuck in there somewhere, a napron will become an apron, and dout will get a B between the U and the T. As Nuncle Z points out, we've already lost the valuable art of having adjectives agree with their nouns in case and gender and lost all hint of case in nouns except for the genitive. It's a wonder anyone can understand a word anyone else says anymore.
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#187514 - 10/29/09 10:52 AM Re: archiphonemes dancing on the tip of a tongue [Re: Faldage]
zmjezhd Pooh-Bah Registered: 08/13/05 Posts: 2451 Loc: R'lyeh	spelling iland with an S stuck in there somewhere "The only good linguistic change is one that happened before the peeved grammarian was in knee-pants and which contributes to the erratic and irrational nature of English orthography."
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#187515 - 10/29/09 11:26 AM Re: archiphonemes dancing on the tip of a tongue [Re: Faldage]
BranShea Carpal Tunnel Registered: 06/23/06 Posts: 3737 Loc: Netherlands, the Hague
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#187519 - 10/29/09 06:11 PM Re: archiphonemes dancing on the tip of a tongue [Re: BranShea]
dalehileman Pooh-Bah Registered: 07/10/05 Posts: 1773 Loc: Apple Valley, CA, USA	zm I'd amend your position by suggesting that when a new or novel gadget or concept appears that it's usually better to coin a new word than adapt an old one. By applying more and more meanings to an old word we dilute its meaning until ultimately anything one says can come to mean anything at all Thus a drive drive drive drive is the flight of a ball in a baseball game, the outcome of which results in an automobile trip by the all-time home-run champion to a venue in which culturally-acquired concern for the proliferation of a keychain semiconductor memory is sponsored through the profits of a lumber mill whose continued existence depends upon the legalization of dredging a shallow river intended to convey logs downstream for further processing _________________________ dalehileman
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#187520 - 10/29/09 07:04 PM Re: archiphonemes dancing on the tip of a tongue [Re: dalehileman]
Faldage Carpal Tunnel Registered: 12/01/00 Posts: 12524	Ya know dale, it's easy to find some process that you don't like and invent an example of that process doing something that makes no sense. Natural language change doesn't work that way. There's a Latin example involving repetitions of the string malo that translates out to something about wanting to be in an apple tree, but no one would have ever spontaneously said it in quotidian speech. You might claim that using the term drive for something that doesn't have a bunch of wheels spinning around is going to cause confusion, but to the computer and to the computer user the thing sometimes known as a flash drive or a thumb drive looks exactly like a hard drive or a floppy drive or a tape drive in every sense but the literal. And nobody's going to be confused by using the word drive to talk about it.
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#187526 - 10/29/09 10:42 PM Re: archiphonemes dancing on the tip of a tongue [Re: Faldage]
olly addict Registered: 12/18/06 Posts: 662 Loc: Auckland, New Zealand	"I have never seen a language corrupt. " Does anyone argue this? Language in itself is as innocent as the bullet in the gun.
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#187527 - 10/29/09 11:31 PM Re: archiphonemes dancing on the tip of a tongue [Re: olly]
latishya enthusiast Registered: 11/24/07 Posts: 387 Loc: कहीं &...	Originally Posted By: olly "I have never seen a language corrupt. " Does anyone argue this? Language in itself is as innocent as the bullet in the gun. i do not think that is a good analogy since the only purpose of a bullet is destructive. Even unfired(?) the bullet is waiting to cause harm.
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#187531 - 10/30/09 09:12 PM Re: archiphonemes dancing on the tip of a tongue [Re: latishya]
Jackie Carpal Tunnel Registered: 03/15/00 Posts: 10392 Loc: Louisville, Kentucky	Even unfired(?) the bullet is waiting to cause harm. And/or to save a life.
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#187535 - 10/31/09 11:43 AM Re: archiphonemes dancing on the tip of a tongue [Re: olly]
BranShea Carpal Tunnel Registered: 06/23/06 Posts: 3737 Loc: Netherlands, the Hague	Language is as innocent as the one who uses it.
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#187545 - 10/31/09 03:11 PM Re: archiphonemes dancing on the tip of a tongue [Re: Faldage]
tsuwm Carpal Tunnel Registered: 04/03/00 Posts: 9569 Loc: this too shall pass	Originally Posted By: Faldage You might claim that using the term drive for something that doesn't have a bunch of wheels spinning around is going to cause confusion, but to the computer and to the computer user the thing sometimes known as a flash drive or a thumb drive looks exactly like a hard drive or a floppy drive or a tape drive in every sense but the literal. And nobody's going to be confused by using the word drive to talk about it. ya know, it's sad in a way that the floppy drive (and floppy disk) is going the way of the dodo bird. link it was fun to explain (with props) to a group of neophytes why a 3½-inch floppy disk was called floppy. -joe (show & tell) friday
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