John Pendley wrote:
>
> > > Yeah, the one that REALLY P****S me off is architect used as a verb.
> >
> > Good grief, it's worse than I thought (thinked?).... close the
> > borders!... shut down the com sats!.... ban imported literature! we
> > have to stop this, NOW!!!
>
> Sorry, it can't be done. Since there's no "English Academy," the language
> grows like Topsy.
> JP
>
And that's the wonderful thing about english. It was left to us
commoners to play around with for a few centuries, while the toffs spoke
french, and what do you get? A language which has only one word for
'the', and yet has tens of synonyms for any descriptive word you care to
mention. A language which is quite prepared to nich the good bits of
other languages to fill in the gaps (unlike, say, Spanish, where the
only word for deep is 'profundo', and there is no word for shallow so
you have to say 'no es profundo'). So there are a ridiculous number of
irregular verbs and spelling bears no relation at all to pronunciation,
but that just adds to its character.
I once tried to learn Icelandic. Chapter 1 (pronunciation) went rather
well, and I can say the word Kirkjubaejarklaustur without swallowing my
tongue, but I gave up up in disgrace when I got to chapter 2 (grammar).
But talking of pronunciation, and retaining a little bit of Olympus
relevance, can anyone tell me how to pronounce 'bokeh'?
Roger
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
|