Thank you for the kind welcome. I shall certainly print out the FAQ info' and endeavour to ascertain how diphthongs are achieved! Having tried the spell checker again on this message I am still bemused. It is plainly intended to provoke. Jeff’s suggestion is practical (see Info’ and Announcements – Postings editor hint), and I have used it, but I think I shall still look to see what whimsical suggestions come from the AWAD spell checker. (A spell checker – particularly a whimsical one - really belongs in a Harry Potter book).

On a different subject, not truly etymology, but I don’t know how to, or if you can, link from theme to theme, I have just spent a long weekend in Saudi Arabia and an Indian colleague there had received from an American lady a number of facetious (maybe?) instructions for men on women’s “keywords”. I wont copy it here as it could cause umbrage to be taken – although it is expressed as a woman’s eye view – but it led me to ask him whether the thing translated well into his native language (he tells me there are 26 official languages in India – perhaps there’s hope for us Europeans after all!) in a way that made sense and was still humourous. Apparently it did for the most part – I guess people are much the same the world over. I wonder about examples of humour going wrong due to cultural differences and idiom – Kennedy’s famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” springs to mind. I would be interested to hear if anyone has any other examples or stories?