From where in England do you come, Kitten?

And that's EXACTLY how World War II started!

Really? So it is actually Kitten's fault?

This may explain a great deal....

__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

<Invades Poland>

Does this mean the Kitten's an aggravated Welsh person?

<Starts buying munitions stocks and bonds>

No she got all aggro when the leek harvest failed and she couldn't have one.

Very painful.



I remember many years ago some American claiming that the US still spoke the language of George 111's time. A rather erudite Englishman then commented that the English language had evolved for more than two hundred years since then and is was no wonder American language sounded so archaic.

But the American efforts to simplify/correct/individuate have run into the same problems. You can spell sulphur with an f instead of ph but why don't they spell telephone with a f?

Or philosophy/phsysiology/ etc ad nauseum?

Have to be careful about 'phallic'. Years ago I worked in Hooker House, Fallick Street, Queenbeyan NSW, and years after that in the Hooker Building adjacent to Hindley Street in Adelaide. As it was a data processing centre with an overwhelming majority of female staff non comment was the safest option,

There have been quite a few organised 'pushes' to simplify spelling. Even G.B Shaw headed up one movement early in the 20th Century. The most recent one in Oz was in the 1970's and the idea was to do it in stages. The first stage was to use an 'e' whenever an 'e' sound occured; hence, for instance, it would be 'meny' rather than 'many'. The NSW Teachers' Federation Journal even adopted it as house style.

The idea eventually died either a natural death or was abandoned when everyone realised thet et wed mek New Zelenders end Seth Efricens tetelly elleteret es well es encemprehenseble.

I came across this last night while clearing stuff off discs rarely used:

It's by Mark Twain.

There is a preamble which talks about proposals (by other people) for 'simplifying' the English language and he proposed that the changes should be brought in over several years:

"For example, in Year 1 that useless letter "c" would be dropped to be replased either by "k" or "s", and likewise "x" would no longer be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which "c" would be retained would be the "ch" formation, which will be dealt with later. Year 2 might reform "w" spelling, so that "which" and "one" would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish "y" replasing it with "i" and Iear 4 might fiks the "g/j" anomali wonse and for all.
Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with Iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and Iears 6-12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants. Bai Iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez "c", "y" and "x" -- bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez -- tu riplais "ch", "sh", and "th" rispektivli.
Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld."
- Mark Twain - A Plan for the Improvement of English Spelling


I think this really should be the final word as far as serious attempts to clarify the language go.

And to think that I thought Twain couldn't do comedy.

I saw a similar one that led to a German accent.

And what is wrong with how the Seth Effricans talk?

__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

It's no more wrong than how they call in the ship in Kiwiland. (I can't do accents coz I don't hear them that well.)

Going back to the topic, I read that New Line are a part of Warner Bros now and cause they did such a bad job of the Pullman book the JS&MN film may be in some trouble.....

The Hobbit has been given thumbs up though.

With the Kiwi's all you've got to do is think fush & chups!

Choice, eh brew!

But you could say exactly the same about us Scots (the 'fush and chups' bit) ... well, some of us anyway.

We have choice brews, too.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/31/2008 03:15PM by splat21.

Agreed, give me some Tennents and some Irn-bru.

You are risking a BK David Tennent outburst. (Yes I know it should be ant, but it starts again in just over 2 hours!!!!

<Wonders what would happen if Depp, Tennant and Pitt were all pushed into Jeff Goldblum's telepod at the same time...Decides not to share details of imaginings.>

<Edits unworthy thoughts>



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/11/2008 03:07PM by EgonSpengler.

Skids,


I hadn't thought that it might inflame BK but at some level I expected some effect which is why I asked for the Irn-bru.