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Re: OT: The vagaries of English [Was: Re: calibre ebook project?

From Dan Purgert <dan@djph.net>
Newsgroups linux.debian.user
Subject Re: OT: The vagaries of English [Was: Re: calibre ebook project?
Date 2018-09-26 13:50 +0200
Message-ID <wCgul-6tG-3@gated-at.bofh.it> (permalink)
References (4 earlier) <wC0fT-5qN-3@gated-at.bofh.it> <wC0IW-5Ai-9@gated-at.bofh.it> <wC0SB-5SO-13@gated-at.bofh.it> <wC12h-5VS-7@gated-at.bofh.it> <wCfRE-6hg-11@gated-at.bofh.it>
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Erik Christiansen wrote:
> On 25.09.18 20:19, Brian wrote:
>> On Tue 25 Sep 2018 at 14:08:23 -0500, Nicholas Geovanis wrote:
>> 
>> > Brian wrote:  Note to non-English speakers....natural English politeness
>> > will get you a nod of the head but there will be incomprehension
>> > in the mind
>> > 
>> > That also works with Americans who are native English speakers, that same
>> > mute incomprehension. I think that works with Australians too...... :-)
>> 
>> Americans? Are you referring to the ones who live in Patagonia?
>> 
>> Are Australians native English speakers?
>
> That depends. Youth less so¹, I find, but those of us who had the benefit
> of schoolteachers who were educated prior to WWII retain a certain
> mastery of English - even realising that it once had a grammar.

Hey now, we were still taught grammar (and cursive[1]!) in the 1990s.

Granted, since life in general has gotten considerably less "formal"
(for lack of a better word) since the 1940s; I wouldn't even begin to
argue that in general, that increased informality hasn't also slipped
into our use of language.  Or, perhaps it's always been this bad, and
the comparative ease of global communications today simply sheds light
onto how impaired the general population's grammatical skills are.

NOTE - I'm spefically talking about the typical errors in short, yet
"proper(tm)" methods of communication (mainly email); rather than the
evolution of "txt-spk", which was originally a workaround for clumsy
interfaces (i.e. 0-9 keypads).


[1] I am quite thrilled that I now have a secret method of communication
that my children will likely never be able to decipher. Not that they're
likely to ever be able to read my chicken-scratch handwriting anyway.


-- 
|_|O|_| Registered Linux user #585947
|_|_|O| Github: https://github.com/dpurgert
|O|O|O| PGP: 05CA 9A50 3F2E 1335 4DC5  4AEE 8E11 DDF3 1279 A281

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calibre ebook project? Karen Lewellen <klewellen@shellworld.net> - 2018-09-23 22:30 +0200
  Re: calibre ebook project? john doe <johndoe65534@mail.com> - 2018-09-24 08:00 +0200
    Re: calibre ebook project? Karen Lewellen <klewellen@shellworld.net> - 2018-09-24 16:40 +0200
      Re: calibre ebook project? Darac Marjal <mailinglist@darac.org.uk> - 2018-09-24 17:20 +0200
        Re: calibre ebook project? Eric S Fraga <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk> - 2018-09-24 18:00 +0200
      Re: calibre ebook project? Bob Bernstein <poobah@ruptured-duck.com> - 2018-09-24 19:50 +0200
        Re: calibre ebook project? Karen Lewellen <klewellen@shellworld.net> - 2018-09-24 20:00 +0200
          Re: calibre ebook project? Cindy-Sue Causey <butterflybytes@gmail.com> - 2018-09-24 20:20 +0200
          Re: calibre ebook project? Anders Andersson <pipatron@gmail.com> - 2018-09-24 21:10 +0200
            Re: calibre ebook project? Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> - 2018-09-24 21:20 +0200
            Re: calibre ebook project? Karen Lewellen <klewellen@shellworld.net> - 2018-09-24 21:40 +0200
          Re: calibre ebook project? David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2018-09-24 21:20 +0200
        Re: calibre ebook project? Jonathan Dowland <jmtd@debian.org> - 2018-09-24 20:40 +0200
          Re: calibre ebook project? Bob Bernstein <poobah@ruptured-duck.com> - 2018-09-24 22:10 +0200
            Re: calibre ebook project? Jonathan Dowland <jmtd@debian.org> - 2018-09-26 11:20 +0200
      Re: calibre ebook project? Brad Rogers <brad@fineby.me.uk> - 2018-09-24 22:10 +0200
        Re: calibre ebook project? Karen Lewellen <klewellen@shellworld.net> - 2018-09-25 02:20 +0200
          Re: calibre ebook project? David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2018-09-25 03:30 +0200
        Re: calibre ebook project? Étienne Mollier <etienne.mollier@mailoo.org> - 2018-09-25 20:30 +0200
          Re: calibre ebook project? Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2018-09-25 21:00 +0200
            Re: calibre ebook project? Nicholas Geovanis <nickgeovanis@gmail.com> - 2018-09-25 21:10 +0200
              Re: calibre ebook project? Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2018-09-25 21:20 +0200
                OT: The vagaries of English [Was: Re: calibre ebook project? Erik Christiansen <dvalin@internode.on.net> - 2018-09-26 13:10 +0200
                Re: OT: The vagaries of English [Was: Re: calibre ebook project? Dan Purgert <dan@djph.net> - 2018-09-26 13:50 +0200
    Re: calibre ebook project? Curt <curty@free.fr> - 2018-09-24 16:40 +0200
      Re: calibre ebook project? Karen Lewellen <klewellen@shellworld.net> - 2018-09-24 17:10 +0200

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