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You most certainly can. a-z A-Z 0-9 and , . ? ! ; : - ' " ( ) should suffice in nearly all cases apart from anything hyper specialized. You could probably write
by nkrisc 7y ago
You most certainly can. a-z A-Z 0-9 and , . ? ! ; : - ' " ( ) should suffice in nearly all cases apart from anything hyper specialized. You could probably write the majority of all English literature with only those characters, and there's more characters I left off.
What other characters are "widely used" in English texts that are missing from ASCII
- chrisseaton 7y agoHow do I write a letter to my fiancé? What do I do when I want to take a break and go to a café? How can I write about that cornerstone of English myth and legend, Bēowulf?
- nkrisc 7y agoPerhaps ASCII itself is to blame, but in my experience the first two spellings you list are less widely used than "fiance" and "cafe", respectively. I wouldn't base a paper on it, but (fiancé versus fiance): https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=fianc%C3%A9%2Cfiance&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cfianc%C3%A9%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cfiance%3B%2Cc0 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=fianc%C3%A9%2C... café versus cafe: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=caf%C3%A9%2Ccafe&year_start=1840&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Ccaf%C3%A9%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Ccafe%3B%2Cc0 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=caf%C3%A9%2Cca... I argue "Bēowulf" is does not fall under "widely used." Even my high school version of it it was printed "Beowulf." I'm not claiming "ASCII contains all characters used at all in English," just refuting the claim that you can't "write proper English" with ASCII and that it is missing "widely used" characters.
- big_chungus 7y agoYou write just like everyone normally writes, by dropping the accent. I only see such spellings when people are trying to convey some sort of sophistication, rather than in casual, day-to-day use.
- nkrisc 7y agoPrecisely. Even when writing by hand, where there are no character encoding limitations, I've never seen anyone add the accents to "fiance" or "cafe" or "resume" when writing in English.
- chrisseaton 7y ago> I've never seen anyone add the accents to "fiance" or "cafe" or "resume" when writing in English. We have café all the way from McDonalds up to Buckingham Palace. https://www.mcdonalds.com/gb/en-gb/menu/mccafe.html https://www.mcdonalds.com/gb/en-gb/menu/mccafe.html https://www.rct.uk/visit/the-state-rooms-buckingham-palace https://www.rct.uk/visit/the-state-rooms-buckingham-palace
- nkrisc 7y agoYou've quoted me out of context. I was referring to handwriting. Besides, I would bet dropping the accent is more common than including it.
- spadros 7y ago"I only see such spellings when people are trying to convey some sort of sophistication" McCafe and Buckingham Palace would want the "sophistication angle". Both spellings work obviously, but IMO (and the majority of English books) "cafe" is the "correct" spelling. https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=caf%C3%A9%2Ccafe&year_start=1840&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Ccaf%C3%A9%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Ccafe%3B%2Cc0 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=caf%C3%A9%2Cca...
- dpau 7y agoit's weird that when i search for "cafe dictionary" in google all the dictionaries except the Oxford Learner's Dictionary spell it as "café"
- nkrisc 7y agoAnd most dictionaries have something to the effect of: Variants: cafe
- tedunangst 7y agoPerhaps ſubſtitute a different letter.
- DagAgren 7y agoWhy, when we can use a proper encoding that actually contains the letters you want to use?
- DagAgren 7y agoAccents and diacriticals are far from "hyper specialised", they are how many people are taught to write, and want to write. And - is not a dash, it is a minus. It does not suffice as a replacement for a real en or em dash in a properly typeset text. This is also not "specialised", it is how English is correctly typeset.
- nkrisc 7y agoAnd yet accents and diacritical marks are not widely used nor any longer exclusively "proper." You're fighting a losing battle. Language is changing underneath you, no matter how tightly you cling to it.
- zuppy 7y agoMy name contains diacritics. Are you proposing that I should change my name? Because if so, that’s pretty condescending.
- nkrisc 7y agoI can only think of no more than a few common English names that use diacritics, and most commonly drop them. Remember, this subthread spawned from discussing ASCII and English, not other languages. I think you'd have to pretty deliberately misinterpret my comment about accents being uncommon in English to somehow think I was suggesting you change your name.
- tuwtuwtuwtuw 7y agoWhat battle are you referring to? A large majority of the world's population is speaking languages containing characters outside of ASCII. ASCII has no relevant future.
- nkrisc 7y agoBut this subthread is specifically about ASCII and English. So you point, while valid and true, is not relevant to this specific subthread. I respectfully suggest you read my posts in this subthread because I don't believe you have. Instead, you appear to have taken my comment on accents in English completely out of context.
- shantly 7y agoI'd be surprised if any one of the 500ish English-language books on my shelves could be typeset entirely in ASCII without some compromises. Most are just fiction, too, and few could be characterized as "hyper specialized".