4 ms·

Could be, but I stand by my point that we mangle language the least when we speak. No pronouncing college like "callage" etc. I wonder if the schools really tea

Could be, but I stand by my point that we mangle language the least when we speak. No pronouncing college like "callage" etc. I wonder if the schools really teach that.

lukev 16y ago
Language's are impossible to mangle. Dictionaries only describe, not dictate. If the majority started to say "callage," then "callage" would become the "correct" (i.e standard) form.
- nkassis 16y ago
  Except if you live in a place like France or Quebec. They have white beards in some tall towers creating the one true French (I swear they look like Saruman). One such example is the crap they are trying to implement with the new spelling convention. Wikipedia page about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reforms_of_French_orthography http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reforms_of_French_orthography
  - mahmud 16y ago
    Farsi needs a similar thing, at least on Wikipedia. There is absolutely no effort in translating words to Farsi, so they cheat and transliterate the English version. I have a habit of hovering the mouse over the "فارسي" links and always see the English title with Farsi conjugation, transliterated into Arabic script :-( It's sad because it's such a beautiful and rich language; the young folks doing the translation are doing it a great disservice diluting it in their rush for volume. For Arabic; almost every Arab is a gray-beard language nazi! All traces of foreign influence are removed with urgent and great prejudice. Which is good.
- lkozma 16y ago
  There are examples of "mangling" which were successful. In Hungarian for example in the late 1700s a few writers have coined tens of thousands of new words. Today some thousands of these are so widely used that it's impossible to guess they were invented. Others failed and sound ridiculously funny today. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_reform http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_reform

Could be, but I stand by my point that we mangle language the least when we speak. No pronouncing college like "callage" etc. I wonder if the schools really teach that.

lukev 16y ago

Language's are impossible to mangle. Dictionaries only describe, not dictate. If the majority started to say "callage," then "callage" would become the "correct" (i.e standard) form.

nkassis 16y ago
Except if you live in a place like France or Quebec. They have white beards in some tall towers creating the one true French (I swear they look like Saruman). One such example is the crap they are trying to implement with the new spelling convention. Wikipedia page about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reforms_of_French_orthography http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reforms_of_French_orthography
- mahmud 16y ago
  Farsi needs a similar thing, at least on Wikipedia. There is absolutely no effort in translating words to Farsi, so they cheat and transliterate the English version. I have a habit of hovering the mouse over the "فارسي" links and always see the English title with Farsi conjugation, transliterated into Arabic script :-( It's sad because it's such a beautiful and rich language; the young folks doing the translation are doing it a great disservice diluting it in their rush for volume. For Arabic; almost every Arab is a gray-beard language nazi! All traces of foreign influence are removed with urgent and great prejudice. Which is good.
lkozma 16y ago
There are examples of "mangling" which were successful. In Hungarian for example in the late 1700s a few writers have coined tens of thousands of new words. Today some thousands of these are so widely used that it's impossible to guess they were invented. Others failed and sound ridiculously funny today. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_reform http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_reform