What do you assign to Mordor?

[Galadriel]

Annoying words that stick in your head and DON'T go away. I'm learning beginner's Italian, and one of the first words I learned was 'il cocktail'. I want to bash myself over the head with a frying-pan because I can't get it out of my skull

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Galadriel

Annoying words that stick in your head and DON'T go away.

Ooohhh, I so agree. I always have something stuck in my head. Sometimes it's a song, sometimes a random sentence, and sometimes an even more random word. It just repeats itself over and over again.

Just now I have the word "juxtaposition" bouncing off the walls of my skull. I have no idea why.

Originally Posted by Galadriel

Wasting beautiful water? Naughty, naughty!

Befouling it with ink and paper.

[Galadriel]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

Befouling it with ink and paper.

*Le gasp!*

[Rikae]

I assign World of Warcraft to Mordor - let Sauron deal with Deathwing. Oh, and on a totally unrelated note, I also assign my half a year or so absence from the 'downs.

[Galadriel55]

I assign French spelling. Seriously, if you want to say "boku", don't write "b-e-a-u-c-o-u-p". And that's not even the worst of it - there's about an infinity of letter combinations that make "eh" sounds. If you want to say ey, so write ey, don't write é, et, es, est, er, ez, ai, ais, ait, aient,, some more that don't come to mind right now, and, worst of all, eaient! Why so many ways to pronounce the same sound, or almost the same sound? Waste of letters.

/rant out.

Also, accents. Never got the point of having so many. Can't even tell the difference between them: é è ê ë, they're all just eh to me. Though Ëonwë would probably disagree with me on this one.

[Pitchwife]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

I assign French spelling. Seriously, if you want to say "boku", don't write "b-e-a-u-c-o-u-p". And that's not even the worst of it - there's about an infinity of letter combinations that make "eh" sounds. [...] Waste of letters.

English isn't exactly in a position to complain about this, you know?
Besides, doesn't it say something about a language that it expresses the notion of "much" or "many" with a word literally meaning "a fair cup"? Which is of cause lost in a strictly phonetic spelling.

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

Also, accents. Never got the point of having so many. Can't even tell the difference between them: é è ê ë, they're all just eh to me. Though Ëonwë would probably disagree with me on this one.

Äccents åre græt. Äccents åre gôrjeous. We løves 'èm, my prëcious, yés we dó.

[Eönwë]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

Also, accents. Never got the point of having so many. Can't even tell the difference between them: é è ê ë, they're all just eh to me. Though Ëonwë would probably disagree with me on this one.

It's just there to tell you that you're meant to pronounce the vowels separately.
And yes, it's Eönwë.

Originally Posted by Pitchwife

Äccents åre græt. Äccents åre gôrjeous. We løves 'èm, my prëcious, yés we dó.

*cough*

[Galadriel]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

I assign French spelling. Seriously, if you want to say "boku", don't write "b-e-a-u-c-o-u-p".

FRENCH spellings? English spellings are worse. You can never tell if the 'h' is silent, if the 'c' is a 'c', an 's', or a 'k', if 'ch' is actually 'ch' or just 'k', if the 'x' is actually an 'x' or a 'z'...

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Galadriel

FRENCH spellings? English spellings are worse. You can never tell if the 'h' is silent, if the 'c' is a 'c', an 's', or a 'k', if 'ch' is actually 'ch' or just 'k', if the 'x' is actually an 'x' or a 'z'...

No, that's English pronounciation.


I guess I see the languages differently because I learn new English from storybooks and new French from the teacher. And when the teacher says, for example, "spell sais", I'm more likely to write c'est or s'est or just plainly ce or se.

In English, though, I'm ok with spelling the words but sometimes have the wrong pronounciation. I still pronounce "treachery" as treechery, not trechery, and "bury" as bury, not bary. Just because I read those words before I heard them.


Or let's put it simpler. I know English, I don't know French.

[Mithalwen]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

I assign French spelling. Seriously, if you want to say "boku", don't write "b-e-a-u-c-o-u-p". And that's not even the worst of it - there's about an infinity of letter combinations that make "eh" sounds. If you want to say ey, so write ey, don't write é, et, es, est, er, ez, ai, ais, ait, aient,, some more that don't come to mind right now, and, worst of all, eaient! Why so many ways to pronounce the same sound, or almost the same sound? Waste of letters.

/rant out.

Also, accents. Never got the point of having so many. Can't even tell the difference between them: é è ê ë, they're all just eh to me. Though Ëonwë would probably disagree with me on this one.

But if you simplify the spellings you lose the clues to meaning. the e circonflex usually indicate an s has been lost along the way. Th differences make things easier not harder.

Look at the American simplifications. Why bother changing plough to plow if you continue to spell snow snow....

and on that subject, what I really want to assign to Mordor is that the knee I injured over a year ago and thought healed has is clearly only ok in mild weather - Winter has suddenly and finally kicked in and it has become a highly effective thermometer. I know how cold it is by the degree of pain it gives me. Age creeping up on me...

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

But if you simplify the spellings you lose the clues to meaning. the e circonflex usually indicate an s has been lost along the way. Th differences make things easier not harder.

That's true, spelling enhances the meaning. But it makes learning just that much harder.

Originally Posted by Mith

and on that subject, what I really want to assign to Mordor is that the knee I injured over a year ago and thought healed has is clearly only ok in mild weather - Winter has suddenly and finally kicked in and it has become a highly effective thermometer. I know how cold it is by the degree of pain it gives me.

There's something going on with knees around the Downs lately...