Heartland

EvilBastard wrote:Believe me, if they'd take the wages that we're offering I'd sooner hire bees than some of the botched genetic experiments that walk through the door.

Just exactly how much are you lot offering?

fries and a shake?

SINsister wrote:Just exactly how much are you lot offering?

Not e-fcuking-nough to put up with the idiots I'm surrounded by.

James Blast wrote:fries and a shake?

Oh, you think you can just walk in and get senior management salary, do you?

well, at my age...

and expeiriancence

see what I did therre, young gun!?
if only I was running MS Werd, all my typing and spelling problems would be sorted, Hell! I might even be a regular guy

James Blast wrote:well, at my age...

I might even be a regular guy

nope

taliabee wrote:there is a rule re plurals of nouns ending in y. if the letter before it is a consonant, then it's -ies, if it's a vowel, then its just -s. only word i've found exception to this is money/monies - otherwise it really works!
*i'll get my (pedant's) coat!*
t xx

There is a rule re: noun plurals ending in y. If the letter before is a consonant then add-ies; if it's a vowel then it's just -s. The only word I've found as an exception to this rule is money/monies - otherwise it really works!
*I'll get my (pedant) coat!* Smile
t xx

Suggest you get it, 'the coat', refitted

your wellcome

and I just say:

an older dafter memember wrote:Why do we live vicariously secondhand through heroes? And ultimately we'll live thirdhand lives through virtual entities. Why?

What's wrong with LIFE?

Funny how life goes. Recently i decided to get rid of my stupid DVD collexion, and just today i read Morrison's the Lord and the New Creatures, which puts in poignant words exactly the phenomena which i became intitutivelly cognizant of a bit earlier.

Time to regain our birthright at firsthand lives and firsthand connexion to our Fair Sister, people!

Why are we so afraid of life that we want to substitute living for peeping? To give up our essence on the promise of a few hours more of comfort.

No more.

You shouldn't be on the internet talking to people you hardly know on the forums, you shouldn't be reading this freaking message. You should be out there, living. Dancing naked.

God, i love life. And i love everything.

And you people, fill me with sadness. But only for a moment, for when the dance moves me away from you, so will you be a distant voice from the past.

just as ye sow, ye shall...

Have a nice day now, you be sure.

itnAklipse wrote:i refrain from commenting, cause i'm polishing my image as a nice guy.

Gawaaan. Nice guys are overrated.

EvilBastard wrote:

SINsister wrote:Just exactly how much are you lot offering?

Not e-fcuking-nough to put up with the idiots I'm surrounded by.

<---most definitely not an idiot...which is why I asked, nitwit!

Ahem.

What is the great vowel shift? Something to do with thee-thou english?

James: Yes, i still stand behind that.

Francis: You're entirely right, i was just hiding my laziness and disinterest in sitting behind the computer explaining what i think of this to people i don't know and who couldn't care less of what i think behind sarcasm. Right now though, i have a hangover and my head spins anyway so i'll say a few werds.

Whoever pointed out that language is always changing is of course correct, but that idiot's suggestion is just the kind of thing an idiot would come up with. Changing the language is altogether a different thing than having no language whatsoever which is in effect half of what he's proposing.
The examples given in the article are stupid, also. Opportunity is not difficult to spell, even if current generation has difficulty learning it. Nor is twelfth. Twelth makes no sense whatsoever.

To use what the "great" (i've no idea if he's great or not, never read any of his garbage) playwright Shaw said to support this particular idea is a low blow, but at least the article didn't even try to pretend neutrality.

What it comes to people wasting their time learning to spell, i think there is some inherent intellectual benefit of learning something that makes and doesn't make sense at the same time, such as a language.

Problem is not that english is difficult to spell, as even someone as stupid as me has learned it reasonably well for the most part, as have most of you! 95% of english is easy to master, but i also agree the language could be made somewhat more sensible which would be natural evolution rather than an idea to destroy the language. The reasons for the difficulty of modern day kids learning anything at all can be found from our cultural values. And i'm not one to (anymore) promote "values" or anything that limits individual freedom, but the values our culture promotes are destructive. It would be better to have no values whatsoever than the values we have.
And i'm not just talking about brainless leisure pursuits, empty social codes, or EVEN just about cellphones or 200 tv channels. i'm talking about much more deeply embedded cancer that permeates every aspect of modern life mutating it from natural to distorted without giving anything but psychosis and neurosis in return for succumbing to it.

Finally: Just for the record, i don't believe this idiocy is the result of a brainstorm in the head of a one idiot teacher, but rather he has been chosen as the one to bring the idea out. If the establishment, or Hidden Hand if you like, wasn't behind this idea, it's f**king obvious this whole thing would've been laughed at by the media. Or rather, ignored.

PS: Einstein certainly would encounter violent opposition from me.

paint it black wrote:

taliabee wrote:there is a rule re plurals of nouns ending in y. if the letter before it is a consonant, then it's -ies, if it's a vowel, then its just -s. only word i've found exception to this is money/monies - otherwise it really works!
*i'll get my (pedant's) coat!*
t xx

There is a rule re: noun plurals ending in y. If the letter before is a consonant then add-ies; if it's a vowel then it's just -s. The only word I've found as an exception to this rule is money/monies - otherwise it really works!
*I'll get my (pedant) coat!* Smile
t xx

Suggest you get it, 'the coat', refitted

your wellcome

I do believe you did that on purpose.

Isn't there a law of the Internet that a pedantic correction of another poster's spelling or grammar will itself contain at least one error?

You're welcome.

paint it black wrote:

taliabee wrote:there is a rule re plurals of nouns ending in y. if the letter before it is a consonant, then it's -ies, if it's a vowel, then its just -s. only word i've found exception to this is money/monies - otherwise it really works!
*i'll get my (pedant's) coat!*
t xx

There is a rule re: noun plurals ending in y. If the letter before is a consonant then add-ies; if it's a vowel then it's just -s. The only word I've found as an exception to this rule is money/monies - otherwise it really works!
*I'll get my (pedant) coat!* Smile
t xx

Suggest you get it, 'the coat', refitted


your wellcome

i dont do caps and ' anymore cos no-one else seems to! i do know what is right but i just dont do it - that's me all over

t xx

EvilBastard wrote:But given that the majority of the emos, twockers, hoodies and chavs leaving school these days couldn't decline a word if their lives depended on it, we're stuck with bad spelling and widespread abuse of apostrophes.

Hear, hear!
I always thought what Brian did there was a real effort of gramatical precision under threat for his life.

You coodn't beet dem kids to that.

James Blast wrote:when the crack became the craic

"The Craigs appear along the wall, wall, wall"

EvilBastard wrote:if I hear one more person using "a propos" as a synonym for "appropriate" there will be rivers of blood.

FFS

EvilBastard wrote:It's a living language

Yes, that's why it's so complicated. It wasn't designed or planned, it just happened and evolved. But evolution takes place naturally, not by agreement.

EvilBastard wrote: At least other languages have hard and fast rules

You should try Gaelic then! Every bit as capricious as English.

nodubmanshouts wrote: The Great Vowel shift completely changed the pronunciation of the language, making the written version ridiculously different from that which is spoken today. To be honest, it probably didn't make that much sense before the shift anyway, though.

There was no standardised spelling back then. That's why Shakespeare couldn't spell his own name.

nodubmanshouts wrote:isn't Chinese the most widely spoken language in the world?

Only in China. And even there they have many vastly differing dialects. I think Mandarin is meant to be the language spoken by the most people, but they're all in one country (and London/Leeds/Hamburg). In fact, in global terms, English is probably still the most widespread language, being the first language in Britain, the US and Australasia as well as the accepted language for international air travel and the most common second choice language for people who don't speak the same first language (mainly because us Brits go abroad and expect everyone else to speak English seeing as we subjugated them all those years ago). However, Spanish and Portuguese would also have a claim as they're probably spoken in more countries than any others.

paint it black wrote:

taliabee wrote:there is a rule re plurals of nouns ending in y. if the letter before it is a consonant, then it's -ies, if it's a vowel, then its just -s. only word i've found exception to this is money/monies - otherwise it really works!
*i'll get my (pedant's) coat!*
t xx

There is a rule re: noun plurals ending in y. If the letter before is a consonant then add-ies; if it's a vowel then it's just -s. The only word I've found as an exception to this rule is money/monies - otherwise it really works!
*I'll get my (pedant) coat!* Smile
t xx

Suggest you get it, 'the coat', refitted

your wellcome

If you're going to correct someone's grammar then at least get it right!

There is a rule re* plural nouns ending in "y". If the letter before is a consonant then change the "y" to "ies"; if it's a vowel then just add "-s". The only word I've found as an exception to this rule is "money/monies" - otherwise it really works!

I'm taking that coat to the dry cleaners.

* This is the Latin word "re", meaning "[in] the matter of" and should not have a colon.

Haha, regarding rigid languages, though the classicist in me admires latin and sometimes wishes that were the norm, the freedom man in me prefers english and its problems in practice.

My favourite language remains russian, though (but i know nxt two nuthing 'bout its grammer). i studied german for 3 years and do understand most of it, but i never grew to like it because of it's rigidity. i never at least learned to use german in a free-flowing creative interesting inspiring manner, even though it probably is possible to native speakers and people like Andy. Nor was i able to read Nietzsche or Goethe in german

EDIT: What i like most about english is it's versatility, i can say it's much more versatile and 'fun' to use than finnish, the only other language i know fluently and a language i dislike quite a bit. i've no idea if other languages are versatile if you know them fluently, but from what i know of them, it doesn't appear to be so, with the particular exception of russian.

i can mention italian language as an exsample and every 10 or so years new dictionaries go out and new words from slang or foreign languages are added, watching the change of speacking and you can now find on italian ictionaries many english words of large daily use.
the grammar never changes, but we haven't the same problems 'cause we read exsactly as we write

psichonaut wrote: 'cause we read exsactly as we write

Not exactly...you speak much faster than read

itnAklipse wrote:Haha, regarding rigid languages, though the classicist in me admires latin and sometimes wishes that were the norm, the freedom man in me prefers english and its problems in practice.

My favourite language remains russian, though (but i know nxt two nuthing 'bout its grammer). i studied german for 3 years and do understand most of it, but i never grew to like it because of it's rigidity. i never at least learned to use german in a free-flowing creative interesting inspiring manner, even though it probably is possible to native speakers and people like Andy. Nor was i able to read Nietzsche or Goethe in german

EDIT: What i like most about english is it's versatility, i can say it's much more versatile and 'fun' to use than finnish, the only other language i know fluently and a language i dislike quite a bit. i've no idea if other languages are versatile if you know them fluently, but from what i know of them, it doesn't appear to be so, with the particular exception of russian.

yay, another classicist! i love latin with a passion - didnt mind greek but, oh, latin is just the best!
t xx

stufarq wrote:
* This is the Latin word "re", meaning "[in] the matter of" and should not have a colon.

thank you, yes, i was aware of 'in re' however i would dispute the need for a colon... the colon thing is perfectly acceptable, at least as far as contract law, so for me at least it will remain

as for the rest, there some body else's mistakes, not my job to proof-read

itnAklipse wrote:i studied german for 3 years and do understand most of it, but i never grew to like it because of it's rigidity. i never at least learned to use german in a free-flowing creative interesting inspiring manner, even though it probably is possible to native speakers and people like Andy. Nor was i able to read Nietzsche or Goethe in german

The sad thing about german classics is: To native german speakers, they sound as much like Emo-Kitsch as does cheap contemporary pop sh*te.
Funnily, some of the most inspired usage of german in arts came from some Hip Hoppers like Die Fantastischen Vier.
Goethe's Faust is pretty enjoyable a read, though. I was very surprised, having gotten appalled by all the "Herz-Schmerz-Liebe-Triebe"-blurp I got tortured with in the german lessons.
Kurt Tucholsky is a great one for playing around with german in an inspired and inspiring way. Or Joachim Ringelnatz. Some writers of the Dadaistic Movement redefined some of the language in an outstanding way as well.

taliabee wrote:yay, another classicist! i love latin with a passion - didnt mind greek but, oh, latin is just the best!
t xx

Coptic's great, too, and trendy to boot! But yeah, transport me back a few thousand years and i'd be extremely happy. Hmm, as autumn rains begin soon enough it'll be time to reserve a few bottles of assorted spirits to watch Rome again.....i'd give anything to live in that time.

eotunun: Interesting, wish i knew german better to get to know the writings of those you mention. (As for Faust, i didn't actually like the book when i read it in english...Svankmajer's animation on it is fantastic, however). But german from police series like der Alte, ein Fall für Zwei or Derrick is far from inspiring to say the least That said, i like listening to Klaus Kinski but fail to notice anything interesting in the way Herzog writes dialogues.

paint it black wrote:

stufarq wrote:
* This is the Latin word "re", meaning "[in] the matter of" and should not have a colon.

thank you, yes, i was aware of 'in re' however i would dispute the need for a colon... the colon thing is perfectly acceptable, at least as far as contract law, so for me at least it will remain

as for the rest, there some body else's mistakes, not my job to proof-read

plus, of course, in business use, re: means regarding.
love the 'black, black, black, black, even blacker' - loved creaming jesus! lost my only (taped) copy of that - would love to hear it again - laughing just thinking about it
t xx

markfiend wrote:Isn't there a law of the Internet that a pedantic correction of another poster's spelling or grammar will itself contain at least one error?

Muphry's Law that is (or McKean's)

I think updating spelling is alright every now and then, just don't go crazy and make simple things difficult. You'll end up having a complete overhaul every other year which will result in nobody being comfortable with their spelling anymore and everyone just giving up. Happened to Dutch and I'm sure every other fellow speaker of that language on here has doubts on whether their sense of spelling still makes any, well, sense...

On top of that, you guys still can perfectly read classic Shakespeare without any trouble, for us it's even pretty hard to read books of, say, fifty years old...

So sure, update it, but don't turn it into a mess guys!