(Almost) Useless English Trivia

[dreamchaser]

I say "Left Coast" to refer to the political leanings of those states.

LOL at Rheba,,,tooooo cute!

 

[DragonYoga]

I say "Left Coast" to refer to the political leanings of those states.

Count FL in - too damn many yanks live here!

Find one person whose family has been here for more than a generation, and it's a shock!

 

[VamPyroX]

d. We hear of people coming from "up north" or "down south", but never "left west" or "right east".

And... East often refers to those from Asia.

 

[DragonYoga]

pretty vague, I admit.

Where I live, we say "west/east coast" to mean US, "far East" to mean Asia... *shrug*

*gobbling a cup of Wendy's chocolate frosty* MMMM

 

[Chase]

Trivia of Change (continued)

11. While the British struggled to order a language many thought crude and barbaric, the American colonies in the mid-1700s progressively rejected anything British, including the language. Only by a narrow margin was English selected as the official language of the states over German. The spelling, punctuation, and grammar here were notoriously chaotic.

Noah Webster was a veteran of the Revolutionary War and proudly patriotic. For example, his dictionary purged the “u” from colour and honour and changed around the final letters in centre and theatre. He also wanted thru instead of through and tung rather than tongue, but many of his changes were rejected by patrons.

However, the dictionary and grammar guide which emerged simplified the rules and satisfied publishers, though many Tory-minded schools were slow to teach the differences. Today, all major U.S. publications and the majority of publishers in Canada use the “American” system for over 75% of the world’s commercial printed matter.

 

[Matilda]

The dot over the letter i is called a "tittle".

315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.

The original name for the butterfly was ‘flutterby’.

A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.

Rulership by words is called logocracy.

 

[Chase]

Additional trivia (anti-trivia?)

315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.

I don't know about the others, but I do know the one saying "315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled" is definitely not true. That "factoid" is in countless "lists of facts" going around the internet, but it's lifted and missquoted from a statistic example:

If 99.9% is "good enough, then . . .
. . . 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.
. . . 114,500 mismatched pairs of shoes will be shipped each year.
. . . 18,322 pieces of mail will be mishandled/hour.
. . . 2,000,000 documents will be lost by the IRS this year.
. . . 2.5 million books will be shipped with the wrong covers.
. . . 315 entries in Webster's dictionary will be misspelled.

The examples go on and on, and several made the bogus lists going around.

I look up entries in my Webster daily, and though I'm statistically aware there may be two or three, I haven't found a misspelling yet.

 

[mandy]

Palindromes : A MAN,A PLAN, A CANAL - PANAMA!
Fingerspell THAT 5x fast for finger cramps

 

[Bottesini]

7. Came across these common gripes on-line: Stupid English teachers make English too hard. It’s all crazy with no rhyme or reason: There’s no egg in an eggplant and can’t find a bit of eggs in an eggroll . . . Hamburger is made of beef, not ham . . . Why is it the same when your house burned up or burned down? Sheese, why?

It's all in the trivia:

a. English teachers don’t make up the language or its rules. People have produced both over several centuries through talking and writing. Good English teachers explain it; great English teachers inspire it's use.

b. The fruit of an eggplant is ovoid. That means in the shape of an egg. Duh. Egg roll (two words, not one) is a translation of a Chinese dish wrapped in a thin pancake made mostly from eggs and water. Double duh! They could have called it "water roll," but that would upset as many complainers.

c. English is a pot of many languages. Hamburger is a German term meaning “from Hamburg” (a German city). In that city, they were known for grinding meat and making patties of it. The name has nothing to do with the type of meat. The same is true of frankfurters. In Frankfurt (another German city) lots of butchers prepared ground meat in sections of tubes (don't ask what they used for the tubes).

d. Actually, correct English is “Your house burned.” Period. Adding an unnecessary preposition to the end of a phrase is poor grammar, so again, don’t blame English teachers.

It’s like “Where are going to?” should be simply “Where are you going?”

“That’s where it’s at” would more correctly be “That’s where it is.”

You mean a preposition is a bad word to end a sentence with? (That is a joke)

 

[Chase]

Palindromes : A MAN,A PLAN, A CANAL - PANAMA!
Fingerspell THAT 5x fast for finger cramps

That's a good one. Most palindromic phrases seem contrived, but yours makes a good slogan. Here's my favorite: NEVER ODD OR EVEN

 

[Chase]

You mean a preposition is a bad word to end a sentence with?

No, the preposition "with" is usually a great word to end a sentence with.

Here's one that always starts a fight with die-hard Trekkees: Gene Roddenberry's " . . . to boldly go where no man has gone before" is a mass of errors.

1. First, "to boldy go" is a split infinitive. It's better as "to go boldy" or "boldy to go."

2. Surely in the 2200s, the sexists "man" will have been replaced to include the other half of earth's population.

3. "Before" is an unnecessary preposition.

A better line might have been: ". . . to go boldly where no earthling has gone."

 

[Reba]

No, the preposition "with" is usually a great word to end a sentence with.

Heh, heh.

"This is the kind of arrant pedantry up with which I will not put."
-Sir Winston Churchill, in response to his secretary correcting his grammar

Here's one that always starts a fight with die-hard Trekkees: Gene Roddenberry's " . . . to boldly go where no man has gone before" is a mass of errors...

A better line might have been: ". . . to go boldly where no earthling has gone."

But which one sounds better?

Sometimes proper grammar is sacrificed for dramatic effect.

 

[Chase]

But which one sounds better?

Sometimes proper grammar is sacrificed for dramatic effect.

Reba, that's the usual Trekkee response. Before we go into the rebuttal, I'm an original Star Trek fan from the first broadcast on September 8, 1966. I'm also a great admirer of Gene Roddenbury, even though his grammar went where no good writer's should.

What makes Gene's line sound so perfect is we've heard it for over 41 years. As a linguist, I see poor pronunciation and grammar become "the right way" in every little pocket of the world visited.

Bearing in mind this is trivial "what if," I propose that if Gene had penned. " . . . to go boldly where mankind has never gone!" the dramatic impact then and today would be as great, and we Trekkees would thrill to the phrase just as much.

 

[Maninatree]

my english oddities

i've been collecting these for awhile and i finally found a place to post it all

ha ha 14 ways to say 'ough'
1. awe - thought, bought, fought, brought, ought, sought, nought, wrought
2. uff - enough, rough, tough, slough, Clough, chough
3. ooh - through, slough
4. oh - though, although, dough, doughnut, broughm, Ough, furlough, Greenough, thorough
5. off - cough, trough
6. ow - bough, plough, sough
7. ou - drought, doughty, Stoughton
8. uh - Scarborough, borough, thorough (alt), thoroughbred, Macdonough, Poughkeepsie
9. up - hiccoughed
10. oth - trough (alt)
11. ock - lough, hough
12. oc[h] (aspirated) - lough
13. ahf - Gough
14. og - Coughlin (also #5)

and all my favorite words
floccinaucinihilipilificatious - useless
lactomangulation - failure to open a milk carton on the side that says open here and having to try the other side
zyzzyva - commonly means "the last word" but actually it is a type of worm native to the amazon
pulchritudinous - beautiful (don't they both just look stupid)
tyrotoxism - to be poisoned by... cheese?!
nudiustertian - the day before yesterday
defenestrate - to defenestrate is to throw someone or some thing out the window
brachydactylous - short stubby fingers
pumcodoxpursaxomlopar - acronym = pulse modulated coherant dopper effect x-band repetition sythetic array pulse comprehesive side lobe planar array
phtholognyrrh - pronounced 'turner' = phth - t, olo - ur like in colonel, gn - n like in gnat and yrrh - er like in myrrh
hippopotomonstosesquipedaliophobia - fear of long words
hippophobia - fear of horses

and some other things lol
the dove dove into the bush
"here here" said the hairy hare from what i could hear

english has 5 useless letters
c - makes either a 's' or a 'k' sound (makes alot of others but i don't know them all)
q - makes a 'kw' sound and why does it need a 'u' after it?
w - can be made with a 'u' like in ueda
x - makes eithe a 'ks', 'eks' or 'z' sound
y - can be made with an 'i' like in ia (ya)

Blowzy Frumps had quit vexing Jack - all the letters in the alphabet

 

[sweetstarz]

Feel free to add your own trivia about the English language, ASL, or SEE. Make comments on language trivia or ask questions.

1. Know what a “palindrome” is? It’s a sentence, phrase, or word that reads backward the same as it does forward.

These are some palindromic names and words fun to finger-spell:

bob . . . civic . . . did . . . hannah . . . kayak . . . level . . . madam

I actually did know this one. I remembered this because someone once told me the year I graduated from high school was itself a palindrome (2002). Amazing how funny things like that get stuck in your head.

 

[Babyface]

No, the preposition "with" is usually a great word to end a sentence with.

Here's one that always starts a fight with die-hard Trekkees: Gene Roddenberry's " . . . to boldly go where no man has gone before" is a mass of errors.

1. First, "to boldy go" is a split infinitive. It's better as "to go boldy" or "boldy to go."

2. Surely in the 2200s, the sexists "man" will have been replaced to include the other half of earth's population.

3. "Before" is an unnecessary preposition.

A better line might have been: ". . . to go boldly where no earthling has gone."

I thought he meant where no man as in human has gone before man can mean human, mankind, or man

 

[Chase]

I thought he meant where no man as in human has gone before man can mean human, mankind, or man

Of course you're correct, Babyface. Roddenberry did mean man as "mankind." But even back in the '60s women's rights groups were complaining about the use of "he" and "him" to mean both genders.

In many ways, since he was writing about the future, Roddenberry could have both cleaned up his English and perhaps been more foreward thinking.

 

[Babyface]

Of course you're correct, Babyface. Roddenberry did mean man as "mankind." But even back in the '60s women's rights groups were complaining about the use of "he" and "him" to mean both genders.

In many ways, since he was writing about the future, Roddenberry could have both cleaned up his English and perhaps been more foreward thinking.

seeing as the world is now i can see how if it is 2200 year he would say something as "to go where no one has tread or gone before" or something like that to make it sound more universally correct, but I was unsure but I thought he meant mankind or human when he said the original line

 

[Chase]

" . . . to go where no one has tread." is perfect! Roddenberry could have used you as an editor back in the '60s. Where were you?

However, everything after "tread" is unnecessary repetition, finishing with a needless preposition.

 

[Babyface]

" . . . to go where no one has tread." is perfect! Roddenberry could have used you as an editor back in the '60s. Where were you?

However, everything after "tread" is unnecessary repetition, finishing with a needless preposition.

heheheh working on a star wars project due to come out years later