Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,049
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard at times.
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Weird Granny Slater
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 2,314
Regrettable apostrophe comment from Peter Hitchens:
'No, I won’t weep for the apostrophe, now obviously doomed. I can usually cope with it, but it’s clear that most people can’t, and hateful predictive text often shoves it in where it’s not wanted.
It’s hard to make a stand for this squiggle, mainly because there’s no firm rule about it.
In my childhood, Alice In Wonderland said ‘sha’n’t’ with two apostrophes. Now she says ‘shan’t’ with one apostrophe. Why? Either it’s vital, or it isn’t.'
https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2019/12/index.html
What? An English stylist dissing an essential element of grammar? A 'doomed squiggle'? I should be outraged. Peter Hitchens is often very sensible (like his brother, before the Iraq war thing). But here I'd think some kind of derangement overcame him, were it not for one thing:
his correct use of the apostrophe. Structure subverts content. Hurrah! He's on the apostrophe's side after all. And Lewis Carroll sha'n't be denied.
Button likes this
'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
Button
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 2,024
I'm with you on this WGS, but it seems that English changes, as distinct from grows. Take a look at
https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10157897664139339&id=604134338&set=gm.2725331684155537&source=57, an old Dover electoral roll. Quite apart from Swingfield and Folkstone (sic) being Dover's last territorial claims in Europe, and the laborer (presumably American) living in Above-wall, it seems that streetnames were written with a hyphen: Snargate-street and so forth.
Apologies if I've mentioned this before, but I noted from a recent GCSE exam paper (I did this last academic year, it now being forbidden for invigilators to do such a thing) that the preferred spelling for compound CuSO4 is Copper Sulfate. I really don't remember being consulted on this!
Reginald Barrington
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 17 Dec 2014
- Posts: 3,006
Sulfur and sulfate are the official spellings in the scientific world, the rest of us should stick with the pub!
Arte et Marte
Jan Higgins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,049
I suspect the next generation will all be speaking in a version of text language, 'proper' english will be a thing of the past used only by the oldies who take our place.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard at times.
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Weird Granny Slater- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 2,314
I do a bit of genealogical research, and I’ve seen that street-name format on electoral roles. But since I haven’t found it anywhere else, such as on censuses, I’ve assumed it was simply a printing convention. Odd one though. Perhaps capital letters were too expensive...
As for the sulphur / sulfur debate, I think both have been around for some time, but I only noticed the American spelling recently. Any argument's easily settled, though: it’s brimstone. Alternatively, as Riddley Walker has it, ‘the yellerboy stoan the Salt 4’.
Isn't it a bad idea, though, and futile, to try to fix a language? Spellings change, words come in, fade away, reappear, keeping it alive. But if you take care of the grammar, the words’ll look after themselves. And I'm less inclined now to resist American spellings and usages, as some of those arrived from England on the Mayflower. I guess, anyways.
'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
Weird Granny Slater- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 2,314
'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
Weird Granny Slater- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 2,314
It might have been the dog's bollocks; but it's just a dog's breakfast.
Button likes this
'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
Weird Granny Slater- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 2,314
Photographer in finger trouble finger trouble shock.
'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
Karlos- Location: Dover
- Registered: 1 Oct 2012
- Posts: 2,063
Weird Granny Slater wrote:It might have been the dog's bollocks; but it's just a dog's breakfast.
What a mess that sign is
Bob Whysman
- Registered: 23 Aug 2013
- Posts: 1,842
Reginald Barrington wrote:Unlikely Jan, unfortunately the Port employs a lot of unnecessary senior staff who still find time to take most of a day each week to play golf.
A good number of people who spend there day either looking for work to do or avoid being given a job to do(depending on their own work ethics).
There is also plenty of needless doubling and trembling of roles and responsibilities.
The staffing structure is long overdue an overhaul. It would be nice to think some of the superfluous senior cushy numbers will be in the sights.
Looks like shaking Stevens has also had some input too!
Reginald Barrington likes this
Do nothing and nothing happens.
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,726
bw, who
Bob Whysman- Registered: 23 Aug 2013
- Posts: 1,842
Brian Dixon wrote:bw, who
Brian Dixon likes this
Do nothing and nothing happens.
Weird Granny Slater- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 2,314
No pause for thought as Oxford comma suffers Brexit massacre:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-51269012'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
Button- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 2,024
Try turning it over - no commas at all on t'other side.
Weird Granny Slater- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 2,314
Indeed. Like the Woody Guthrie verse you never hear when 'This Land Is Your Land' gets an airing: 'Sign was painted, it said private property; but on the back side it didn't say nothing'. (Of course, that is a double negative. But I know what he means.)
Jan Higgins likes this
'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
Jan Higgins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,049
Brian Dixon likes this
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard at times.
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Reginald Barrington- Location: Dover
- Registered: 17 Dec 2014
- Posts: 3,006
[QUOTE="Weird Granny Slater"]No pause for thought as Oxford comma suffers Brexit massacre: QUOTE]
Was it a serial killer?
Arte et Marte
Weird Granny Slater- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 2,314
Well, some people think an Oxford comma's as much use as a hole in the head. But boy do we need a hole in the head. Several. How else would we see, hear, smell, speak, breathe, eat, and drink?
'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,726
jan Brexit Friday, watch out for HGV's parked up down your road. see greta tumberg for mymate change.
Button likes this'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
