OT- Spelling is out.

[Loser]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
I forget what the agency is called... but it is in charge of maintaining the offical French language and determining what words are allowed in it and what words are not. I do not know if it is still around, but it was started in the 1600s or 1700s IIRC.

Les Imortals, I think they call them. I don't know what the real name of the institution is, but once someone it appointed to the board they are on it for life. I believe it was started during the French Revolution and I'm pretty sure they just recently curbed the term 'email'.

I await correction/calification from the appropriate source. UE?

[Alneyan]

Originally posted by Loser:
Les Imortals, I think they call them. I don't know what the real name of the institution is, but once someone it appointed to the board they are on it for life. I believe it was started during the French Revolution and I'm pretty sure they just recently curbed the term 'email'.

I await correction/calification from the appropriate source. UE?

It should be "Les Immortels", I know, I am nitpicking there. Then they are really the "French Academy" (not sure how it should be properly translated in English), but as for the real power of these "not really young" academicians, I will let UE speak about such matters if he knows more of this oddity.

Incidentally, the translation of email is supposed to be "mél" in French, and it only occurred two or three years ago. But according to them, we shouldn't be talking about "e-mails" in French. (According to them being hopefully the key word)

[Slynky]

Well, one thing I am fairly certain of, I don't like the French. It's rare that I make such a sweeping remark, but of the many encounters I have had with them (in their country and in news reports), I don't care much for them at all.

If you care about my opinion at all (which I will certainly understand if you don't), I'll give you my opinion where I think things really turned to s--t.

Not knowing the date, but sometime in the sixties, there was a worldwide effort to come to agreements over a "universal" language. One of the foremost reasons was due to planes needing to land at airports. I'm sure there were other reasons. After a while, it came down to French and English. English won out. That's why most every airport in the world speaks english to the pilots. In my opinion, the French got pretty sour about it. And since then, they have been on a personal vendetta to stop English from "gaining ground" in their country. Among other hostilities.

I don't speak from just news reports, but I speak from visiting their country. Even the big blue "I's" (standing for Information) in tourist areas...the people staffing the counters would not speak English. Contrast this to MANY other tourist areas where the "country" endeavored to cater to English-speaking tourists. Yes, I don't speak another language. I studied French in high school (boy, am I sorry!). I used to have a vocabularly of 2,000 - 3,000 words in (spoken) German and I was the company translator when I was posted in Thailand (where I lived for over 3 years and became pretty fluent in spoken Thai). So, don't label me as a "stuck-up" American.

To me, to get back on track, there is a difference in allowing a piece of slang to be added to the dictionary. For instance, "dog" (meaning a good friend) or "hacker" (I think everyone understands this). That's fine. NEW words and meanings are OK. But to take an existing word and mispronounce it and have the dictionary change to accept it...that's a bastardization of the language.

To assume, stepping on the "speaker's stand" for a moment, for example, that African-Americans who were born in the US, grew up in the US, and educated in the US are unable to speak correct English because of their heritage (verb tense and so forth) is ludicrous and therefore have to have their bastardization of the English language "approved" by suggesting we call their (I am generalizing) gross use of the English language, Ebonics, is nothing more than a showing of "thin skin" when faced with the various black "power" Groups who's mission is to seek out those who would DARE to hint at predjucice.

And before I get labeled a racist, I don't like the ineptitude in grammar and English I encounter each day while living in the southern part of the US. "The South" It should be SUCH an insult that others speak one's own language as a second language better than they do! I'd be ashamed!

And, having said this, I know Fyron will hop in and try to start a "Geo" discussion/argument with me. But I don't care. I've said my piece and what I SHOULD do is get another website where I can issue my rants like my hero, Dennis Miller.

PS: Sorry for such a long post.

[Fyron]

And, having said this, I know Fyron will hop in and try to start a "Geo" discussion/argument with me.

What the hell does that mean?

[oleg]

Still, can anybody test the original hypothesis to be a true and universal universal statement of human mind function or an another anecdotal freak of English language ?

Please, scramble a similar text in German and see if anybody here can read it

[Mephisto]

Here is the translation into German. You have to scramble it on your own.

Forschern an einer englischen Universität zufolge spielt es keine Rolle, in welcher Reihenfolge die Buchstaben eines Wortes angeordnet sind, wichtig ist lediglich, daß der erste und der letzte Buchstabe an der korrekten Position sind. Der Rest kann ein totaler Buchstabensalat und trotzdem lesbar sein. Der Grund dafür ist, daß wir nicht die einzelnen Buchstaben sondern das Wort als Ganzes lesen.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

"dog" (meaning a good friend)

Last time i ran into dog used to mean other than a type of furry animal, it was negative.

[ September 15, 2003, 22:22: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[oleg]

Originally posted by Mephisto:
Here is the translation into German. You have to scramble it on your own.

Forschern an einer englischen Universität zufolge spielt es keine Rolle, in welcher Reihenfolge die Buchstaben eines Wortes angeordnet sind, wichtig ist lediglich, daß der erste und der letzte Buchstabe an der korrekten Position sind. Der Rest kann ein totaler Buchstabensalat und trotzdem lesbar sein. Der Grund dafür ist, daß wir nicht die einzelnen Buchstaben sondern das Wort als Ganzes lesen.

Impressive Now we need a reaction of other German speaking people to this gibberish

Still, even German has a lot of 3-4 letter words. I can do a similar test in Russian but wonder if anybody here can respond

[Krsqk]

Originally posted by oleg:
Still, can anybody test the original hypothesis to be a true and universal universal statement of human mind function or an another anecdotal freak of English language ?

FWIW, I found the English scrambled by native English-speakers to be easier to read than that scrambled by second-language speakers. *shrug* Maybe English speakers scramble into patterns which still make some sense in the language (like vowel/consonant placement, potential syllables, etc.).

[Mephisto]

Remember, you have to scramble it first. The below german text is spelled correctly (well, at least I hope so ).