2 ms·

> You wrote "it is time we bring back the common usage of the diareses in English." No I wrote "make cases that think it is time". I'm much more ambivalent abo

> You wrote "it is time we bring back the common usage of the diareses in English." No I wrote "make cases that think it is time". I'm much more ambivalent about it than the arguments I had heard from others. I agreed in the post you are responding too that I hadn't realized it was much closer to a modern reform movement than a "bring back". That's my uncritical understanding that I'll admit I was wrong about. Is it the right orthography reform movement to fight for expanding into common use? I don't know and I don't really have anywhere near as strong as opinion on this as you seem to have, but I do know people that think it is a useful reform movement to fight for with existing publication style guides to point to on how/when to use (the New Yorker's) and presumably an "easy win" with good precedence that would do some good, and that is all I was ever pointing out. I'm just pointing out the opinions of other people I've known, whether or not you agree with them is fine. These aren't my own opinions so while I've heard good arguments for them over the years, I certainly never internalized them and can't do justice in defending them. But I appreciate that you seem to be looking for much more of an argument here than I can muster.

eesmith 5y ago
Then I misunderstood your earlier comment " ... there is a strong case to be made that it makes the language better and fell out of favor not because it wasn't useful but because it was more expensive." I don't see how you think there's a strong case. I don't see why you think ö fell out of favor because of cost. I didn't get from your earlier comment that these weren't personal beliefs at all but were forwarded from others. > existing publication style guides to point to That's not the basis for good pedagogy at the elementary school level. Publication style guides are for people with years of experience. In elementary school you learn how to alphabetize names. In 6th grade I learned a new rule - the library collated Mac and Mc together card catalog. (This was in 1981, before computers.) Turns out this was A.L.A. Rules for Filing Catalog Cards, rule 13) b), see https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.15145/page/n19/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.15145/page/n19/mode... . That link goes into far more detail than anything an elementary student should have to know about sorting names. For similar reasons, elementary students aren't expected to format their book reports in MLA style.
- WorldMaker 5y ago
  You keep clipping the point where I very baldly and plainly stated that it was hearsay: "I've known Elementary School teachers make very strong cases that…" The first half of that sentence you keep fragmenting was the more important part of my comment. That's pretty obvious why you keep misunderstanding my intent. I don't really have anything to add about pedagogy or style guides, that's out of my wheelhouse and interest level, sorry. I'm sorry I can't be a more interesting interlocutor for this debate that you want to have.
  - eesmith 5y ago
    I didn't fragment it. The part I quoted is from the first paragraph at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29464486 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29464486 . The part you quoted just now is from the second paragraph. I misinterpreted the first paragraph as being your opinion, and the second as being support for your opinion in the narrower topic of pedagogy.

eesmith 5y ago

Then I misunderstood your earlier comment " ... there is a strong case to be made that it makes the language better and fell out of favor not because it wasn't useful but because it was more expensive." I don't see how you think there's a strong case. I don't see why you think ö fell out of favor because of cost. I didn't get from your earlier comment that these weren't personal beliefs at all but were forwarded from others. > existing publication style guides to point to That's not the basis for good pedagogy at the elementary school level. Publication style guides are for people with years of experience. In elementary school you learn how to alphabetize names. In 6th grade I learned a new rule - the library collated Mac and Mc together card catalog. (This was in 1981, before computers.) Turns out this was A.L.A. Rules for Filing Catalog Cards, rule 13) b), see https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.15145/page/n19/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.15145/page/n19/mode... . That link goes into far more detail than anything an elementary student should have to know about sorting names. For similar reasons, elementary students aren't expected to format their book reports in MLA style.

WorldMaker 5y ago
You keep clipping the point where I very baldly and plainly stated that it was hearsay: "I've known Elementary School teachers make very strong cases that…" The first half of that sentence you keep fragmenting was the more important part of my comment. That's pretty obvious why you keep misunderstanding my intent. I don't really have anything to add about pedagogy or style guides, that's out of my wheelhouse and interest level, sorry. I'm sorry I can't be a more interesting interlocutor for this debate that you want to have.
- eesmith 5y ago
  I didn't fragment it. The part I quoted is from the first paragraph at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29464486 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29464486 . The part you quoted just now is from the second paragraph. I misinterpreted the first paragraph as being your opinion, and the second as being support for your opinion in the narrower topic of pedagogy.