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Stupid Pronunciations


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As someone for whom both english and latin language is still a tool in my profession and were 3 hour written exams are still the status quo I find this very worrying.

 

Using Latin and convoluted English is an excellent tool for ripping off your customers...so don't knock your means of income.

 

 

--See small print--

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What needs updating is people's attitude to English Language.

 

The rot set in when Americanisms started creeping in because society was soaking up yank tv and movies. American words began to soak into the written and spoken language and many younger persons were starting to know no different. Elevator particuarly is heavilly used as is cell phone!!

 

Now we have moved on even further. With the advent of email and text messages hideous text speak and slang started to develop. Which once again many of the young folk seem to think is perfectly acceptable to then use in business and professional correspondence.

 

Add that to the almost complete reliance on auto correct and spell checking and handwritten forms becoming less and less we could soon end up with an entire generation who know no different.

 

I have seen one too many emails written in txt spk and one particular cover letter that actually had the words "cos" and "ta" as part of the sentences.

 

As someone for whom both english and latin language is still a tool in my profession and where 3 hour written exams are still the status quo I find this very worrying.

 

I'm trying to understand if this is meant to be a joke, considering how badly written it is.

 

What needs updating is people's attitude to English Language.

 

This is clumsily expressed - I would suggest using 'The English Language' in this context.

 

The rot set in when Americanisms started creeping in because society was soaking up yank tv and movies. American words began to soak into the written and spoken language and many younger persons were starting to know no different. Elevator particuarly is heavilly used as is cell phone!!

 

The whole paragraph is poorly expressed, but there are some problems that could easily be corrected.

-'Yank' seems like a strange choice of word in a rant about slang words.

-'Younger Persons' would be better written as 'Young People'.

-'Were starting to' should be written as 'started to'

-'Elevator particuarly is heavilly used as is cell phone!!' - this is a terrible sentence, not least because it contains two obvious spelling errors. A comma after 'heavily' would make it slightly easier to read, but even then it barely makes sense. I assume you mean Words such as 'elevator' and 'cell phone' are often substituted for 'lift' and 'mobile phone' respectively.

 

Now we have moved on even further. With the advent of email and text messages hideous text speak and slang started to develop. Which once again many of the young folk seem to think is perfectly acceptable to then use in business and professional correspondence.

 

-'Moved on even further' - from what?

-'With the advent of email and text messages hideous text speak and slang started to develop.' - Factually incorrect, however would benefit from a comma after 'messages'.

-'Which once again many of the young folk seem to think is perfectly acceptable to then use in business and professional correspondence.' - Possibly the worst sentence in the whole post. The 'which' clause needs to be part of the previous sentence.

-'Once again' is totally superfluous - its the equivalent of saying 'as I said'. Furthermore, it doesn't even make sense, as its not restating a point you have previously made, but introducing a new one.

-'Young Folk' is better than younger persons, but still no reason not to use 'young people'.

-'to then use' - 'then' doesn't belong here at all.

 

As someone for whom both english and latin language is still a tool in my profession and where 3 hour written exams are still the status quo I find this very worrying

 

- 'english and latin' should be capitalised.

- '3' should be expressed as 'three'.

- there should be a comma before 'and where'.

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The word 'live' always puzzles me. Obviously it's got two meanings and two methods of pronunciation which are entirely dependent upon the context of the sentence the word is used in.

 

Example:

I enjoy seeing 'live' bands perform on stage.

I want to 'live' my life the way I want without interference.

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not sure if these count as stupid pronunciations, but how many people say "libray" rather than library

 

similarly, febry rather than february

 

my personal bugbear is the variety of different pronunciations of "ough" - cough, through, thought, enough, plough to name just 5 different ways off the top of my head

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The word 'live' always puzzles me. Obviously it's got two meanings and two methods of pronunciation which are entirely dependent upon the context of the sentence the word is used in.

 

Example:

I enjoy seeing 'live' bands perform on stage.

I want to 'live' my life the way I want without interference.

 

A bit like read, or wind.

 

I have 'read' this book.

This book looks good, I think I'll 'read' it.

 

The 'wind' is blowing.

'Wind' ya neck in!

 

 

Posted from Sheffieldforum.co.uk App for Android

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A bit like read, or wind.

 

I have 'read' this book.

This book looks good, I think I'll 'read' it.

 

The 'wind' is blowing.

'Wind' ya neck in!

 

 

Posted from Sheffieldforum.co.uk App for Android

 

Nice observation Leah!...Didn't think of those. I expect there's a lot more examples.

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