4 ms·

Accents 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.

Accents 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 ago
And 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 ago
  My name contains diacritics. Are you proposing that I should change my name? Because if so, that’s pretty condescending.
  - nkrisc 7y ago
    I 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 ago
  What 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 ago
    But 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.
    - tuwtuwtuwtuw 7y ago
      I did read the thread. It was about the irony that ASCII doesn't even cover English. Then you start to talk about a loosing battle. Still unclear which battle. Are you referring to the evolution of the English language into a language only using ASCII? Because if so that's completely off topic for the thread.
tedunangst 7y ago
Source for claim many people are taught to use accents and diacriticals? Many people seem to have the opposite experience of being taught there are 26 unadorned letters in English.

nkrisc 7y ago

And 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 ago
My name contains diacritics. Are you proposing that I should change my name? Because if so, that’s pretty condescending.
- nkrisc 7y ago
  I 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 ago
What 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 ago
  But 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.
  - tuwtuwtuwtuw 7y ago
    I did read the thread. It was about the irony that ASCII doesn't even cover English. Then you start to talk about a loosing battle. Still unclear which battle. Are you referring to the evolution of the English language into a language only using ASCII? Because if so that's completely off topic for the thread.

tedunangst 7y ago

Source for claim many people are taught to use accents and diacriticals? Many people seem to have the opposite experience of being taught there are 26 unadorned letters in English.