3 ms·

If I were to say those to you, would you be able to tell the difference? Since the answer is probably no (I say all three of them the same), and you can unders

by bane 10y ago

If I were to say those to you, would you be able to tell the difference? Since the answer is probably no (I say all three of them the same), and you can understand the difference in speech when words are flying at you at a 150 words per minute, why is it necessary to have three distinct ways of writing homophone when you have all the time in the world to figure out the context?

colechristensen 10y ago
Yes. If you think you say them the same either you are unaware of the subtleties of your own speech or you speak very strangely. There are very obvious differences in tone, spacing, and emphasis between "back up" and "backup". "up" gets the emphasis on the former, "back" gets emphasis on the latter which is much shorter without a pause between syllables. I don't know that I agree with the parent about back-up. There are significant differences communicating through writing, communicating by voice only (phone), and communicating face to face. Both writing and in-person communicating add quite a lot of bandwidth for information compared to voice-only. Face to face there is a dynamic conscious and unconscious physical communicating going on, and writing – similarly – adds nuance with language features that are either very subtle in speech or not present at all. Speech isn't the language standard that writing aims to copy – they're separate and there's no requirement that each have every feature of the other.
mc32 10y ago
Very likely, but then again, most people filter out mistakes/diffrences due to accents, etc. automatically when people speak, so it proves little. b'ak 'up. b'ak'up. b'akup. difference is slight, but present. Just like writer and rider, there is a very slight but perceptible difference, the d/t not withstading [though, admittedly, for some people they are indeed homophones.]

by bane 10y ago

colechristensen 10y ago

Yes. If you think you say them the same either you are unaware of the subtleties of your own speech or you speak very strangely. There are very obvious differences in tone, spacing, and emphasis between "back up" and "backup". "up" gets the emphasis on the former, "back" gets emphasis on the latter which is much shorter without a pause between syllables. I don't know that I agree with the parent about back-up. There are significant differences communicating through writing, communicating by voice only (phone), and communicating face to face. Both writing and in-person communicating add quite a lot of bandwidth for information compared to voice-only. Face to face there is a dynamic conscious and unconscious physical communicating going on, and writing – similarly – adds nuance with language features that are either very subtle in speech or not present at all. Speech isn't the language standard that writing aims to copy – they're separate and there's no requirement that each have every feature of the other.

mc32 10y ago

Very likely, but then again, most people filter out mistakes/diffrences due to accents, etc. automatically when people speak, so it proves little. b'ak 'up. b'ak'up. b'akup. difference is slight, but present. Just like writer and rider, there is a very slight but perceptible difference, the d/t not withstading [though, admittedly, for some people they are indeed homophones.]