Finger trouble
- Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 12,188
6 December 2019 09:22360555You all have too/to much time on your hands.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard at times.
------------------------------------------------------------------- - 8 December 2019 10:43360602Regrettable 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: 1,291
8 December 2019 13:22360603I'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: 2,472
8 December 2019 16:54360604Sulfur 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: 12,188
8 December 2019 17:19360606I 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.-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard at times.
------------------------------------------------------------------- - 8 December 2019 17:54360607I 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 - 10 December 2019 07:37360627'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
- 8 January 2020 18:19360967It 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 - 8 January 2020 18:24360968Photographer in finger trouble finger trouble shock.
'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus - 8 January 2020 18:31360969Weird 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: 1,468
9 January 2020 20:21360981Reginald 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 thisDo nothing and nothing happens! - Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 22,892
9 January 2020 20:48360983bw, who - Bob Whysman
- Registered: 23 Aug 2013
- Posts: 1,468
9 January 2020 21:06360984Brian Dixon wrote:bw, who
Brian Dixon likes thisDo nothing and nothing happens!
