<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> </span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">L O W L A N D S - L - 19 April 2007 - Volume 01</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">=========================================================================</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">From: </span><span id="_user_isaacmacdonalddavis@gmail.com" style="color: rgb(0, 104, 28); font-family: arial,sans-serif;">"Isaac M. Davis" <<a href="mailto:isaacmacdonalddavis@gmail.com">
isaacmacdonalddavis@gmail.com</a>></span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Subject: LL-L "Orthography" 2007.04.17 (12) [E]</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">On the subject of foreword/forward confusion, Ron wrote:</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><div style="direction: ltr;">
<span>Kevin, well, if you put it <span style="font-style: italic;">that </span>
way ;-) I guess they <span style="font-style: italic;">are</span>
pronounced alike in rhotic American English. As far as I know, they
are not in most non-rhotic dialects; for instance something like
"foreword" ["fo:w3:d] vs "forward" ["fowOd] ~ ["fO:d], vs something
like ["fOrw3rd]
</span><span> in rhotic American</span><span> for both. Well, right. So it's understandable ... but ...</span></div></blockquote><div><br></div></div><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">I
don't know if this is just personal idiosyncrasy, but I pronounce them
differently when I'm stressing them; 'forward' receives equal stress on
each syllable, or possibly slightly more on the initial, where
'foreword' is stressed on the ultimate. In relaxed speech, though, they
are certainly homophones.
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">My 2 Canadian cents, eh,</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Isaac M. Davis</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" clear="all"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" class="sg"><br>
-- <br><br>Westron wynd, when wilt thou blow<br>The smalle rain down can rain<br>Christ yf my love were in my arms<br>And I yn my bed again<br><br>----------<br><br></span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">From:
</span><span id="_user_globalmoose@t-online.de" style="color: rgb(121, 6, 25); font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Global Moose Translations <<a href="mailto:globalmoose@t-online.de">globalmoose@t-online.de</a>></span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Subject: LL-L "Orthography" 2007.04.18 (04) [E]</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><div style="direction: ltr; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span class="q">Sandy wrote:<br>>Most unusually, I feel I must contradict you all :)<br><br>>I don't think the typist-homonym phenomenon is about concentration. I<br>>think it's about the fact that when you write by hand, you can feel the
<br>>shapes of the words as you write them and to write "to" when you're<br>>thinking "too" (fpr example) would feel quite wrong.<br><br></span></div><div style="direction: ltr; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
But
how would that be contradicting me? I think exactly the same...
although sometimes lately, I've experienced strange cases where I mean
to write "table" and end up writing "clock", or some such thing, either
typed or by hand. Too much on my mind, I suppose. In these cases, even
the "feel" of the written word won't help.<br><br>And Ron:<br></div><div style="direction: ltr; font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span class="q">>But I have misspelled by hand in the manner of "two" vs "two" also.
<br><br></span></div><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Now this one, I'm afraid, is too subtle for me... :-)</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
Gabriele Kahn</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">----------</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">From: </span><span id="_user_obiterdictum@mail.ru" style="color: rgb(91, 16, 148); font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Obiter Dictum <<a href="mailto:obiterdictum@mail.ru">obiterdictum@mail.ru
</a>></span><span style="font-weight: normal; font-family: arial,sans-serif;" class="lg"></span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> </span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
Subject: LL-L "Orthography" 2007.04.18 (04) [E]</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<div style="direction: ltr; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Haai almal,<br></div><div style="direction: ltr; font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span class="q"><br>Ron wrote:<br><br>> Sumth'n' to ponder pr'aps ...
<br><br></span></div><div style="direction: ltr; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Pr'aps.<br></div><div style="direction: ltr; font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span class="q"><br>Hester wrote:<br>> > >Has anyone on this forum noticed themselves
<br>> > >automatically typing one homonym for another?<br><br></span></div><div style="direction: ltr; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Do you linguistically minded guys mean _homophone_, rather? ;)<br><br>(Being a tax lawyer, and an elected judge at one time in the past,
<br>couldn't resist it. Can't help it guys. Sorry ;) )<br><br>Now tell me: Why don't _I_ make homophonic typos in ANY of the<br>5 languages I type, EVEN in Japanese, known, together with Chinese,<br>for its homophonicity?
<br><br>Yeah, to be honest, I'm butterfinger enough to select the wrong<br>kanji now and them--but I see and respell in hiragana and reselect<br>the right one right away.<br>Ok, then, I sometimes type absentmindedly "c" instead of "s" in a languages
<br>that use the Latin alphabet (Russian "c" [s] and Latin "c" are on<br>the same button in QWERTY.). But again, I see that immediately--<br>without any spellchecker.<br><br>Finally, I mistype "cant" for "can't"--just like in the sentence
<br>"Can't help it guys" above. But, since I never use "cant" in my writing,<br>I set my Autocorrect option to insert the apostrophe.<br><br>And that perhaps takes us to the contentious notion of "innate/inborn/inherent literacy."
<br><br>Could homophonic typos be evidence of sum't'ing... antonymic ? ;)<br></div><div style="direction: ltr; font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span class="q">> Sumth'n' to ponder pr'aps ...<br><br>
</span></div><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Recpectfully cubmitted by</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
Butturfingur Lee</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">---------</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">From: R. F. Hahn <<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com">sassisch@yahoo.com</a>></span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
Subject: Orthography</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">OK, OK, you guys! Those were just demonstrations of how not to do it.
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">"two" vs "too"</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">"homophones"</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
So there!</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Mr. Butterfinger ...</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 0, 51); font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
> Ok, then, I sometimes type absentmindedly "c" instead of "s" in a languages</span><br style="color: rgb(51, 0, 51); font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 0, 51); font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
> that use the Latin alphabet (Russian "c" [s] and Latin "c" are on</span><br style="color: rgb(51, 0, 51); font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 0, 51); font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
> the same button in QWERTY.).</span><br style="color: rgb(51, 0, 51); font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">The bain of the existence of one of my Russian instructors was when beginning students would refer to Cyrillic
<span style="font-weight: bold;">с</span> (standing for /s/) as "cee." It would send him right over the edge, which would then perpetuate the problem.</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Reinhard/Ron</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">P.S.: By the way, we have an ever-growing number of English teachers on this list. One of them joined today, from Tehran, Iran. (!خوش آمدید) Exchanges of experiences among them might be educational for the rest of us also.
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">----------</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">From: </span><span id="_user_luc.hellinckx@gmail.com" style="color: rgb(0, 104, 28); font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Luc Hellinckx</span><span style="font-weight: normal; font-family: arial,sans-serif;" class="lg">
<<a href="mailto:luc.hellinckx@gmail.com">luc.hellinckx@gmail.com</a>></span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
Subject: LL-L "Orthography"</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
Dear Sandy,</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
You wrote:</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<blockquote style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" type="CITE">
<font color="#000000">From: Sandy Fleming <<a href="mailto:sandy@scotstext.org" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">sandy@scotstext.org</a>> </font><br>
<font color="#000000">Subject: LL-L "Orthography" 2007.04.17 (10) [E]</font><br>
<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" type="CITE">
<font color="#000000">> From: Global Moose Translations <<a href="mailto:globalmoose@t-online.de" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">globalmoose@t-online.de</a>></font><br>
<font color="#000000">> Subject: LL-L "Orthography" 2007.04.17 (08) [E]</font><br>
<font color="#000000">></font><br>
<font color="#000000">> Heather wrote:</font><br>
<font color="#000000">> >" there are 30 copies listed for sail "</font><br>
<font color="#000000">> >I cannot believe I wrote that! </font><br>
<font color="#000000">></font><br>
<font color="#000000">> >Has anyone on this forum noticed themselves</font><br>
<font color="#000000">> >automatically typing one homonym for another?</font><br>
<font color="#000000">></font><br>
<font color="#000000">> Oh yes, this happens to me all the time. Glad I'm not the only one!</font><br>
<font color="#000000">> Often I have to go through what I typed and correct all the instances </font><br>
<font color="#000000">> where I wrote "to" instead of "two" or "too", for example, although I</font><br>
<font color="#000000">> know exactly how it should be spelled in each instance. This never</font><br>
<font color="#000000">> happens when I write by hand! </font><br>
<font color="#000000">></font><br>
<font color="#000000">> Gabriele Kahn</font><br>
<br>
<font color="#000000">> From: Luc Hellinckx <<a href="mailto:luc.hellinckx@gmail.com" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">luc.hellinckx@gmail.com</a>></font><br>
<font color="#000000">> Subject: LL-L "Orthography" </font><br>
<font color="#000000">></font><br>
<font color="#000000">> Dear Heather,</font><br>
<font color="#000000">></font><br>
<font color="#000000">> You wrote:</font><br>
<font color="#000000">></font><br>
<font color="#000000">> > " there are 30 copies listed for sail "</font><br>
<font color="#000000">> ></font><br>
<font color="#000000">> > I cannot believe I wrote that!</font><br>
<font color="#000000">></font><br>
<font color="#000000">> First stage: when I write something down on a piece of paper, my head </font><br>
<font color="#000000">> is slightly tilted forward, same position as when I'm reading a book.</font><br>
<font color="#000000">> I find this to be the best position for concentration, it allows me to</font><br>
<font color="#000000">> focus well.</font><br>
<br>
<font color="#000000">> From: R. F. Hahn <<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">sassisch@yahoo.com</a>></font><br>
<font color="#000000">> Subject: Orthography</font><br>
<font color="#000000">></font><br>
<font color="#000000">> What we're talking about here is a matter of concentration or the lack</font><br>
<font color="#000000">> thereof.</font><br>
<font color="#000000">></font><br>
<font color="#000000">> But then there are such errors that occur because the writers don't </font><br>
<font color="#000000">> know any better. And, worse yet, these become perpetuated.</font><br>
<br>
<font color="#000000">Most unusually, I feel I must contradict you all :)</font><br>
<br>
<font color="#000000">I don't think the typist-homonym phenomenon is about concentration. I</font><br>
<font color="#000000">think it's about the fact that when you write by hand, you can feel the </font><br>
<font color="#000000">shapes of the words as you write them and to write "to" when you're</font><br>
<font color="#000000">thinking "too" (fpr example) would feel quite wrong.</font><br>
</blockquote>
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
I don't feel that you're actually contradicting any of us. Quite the contrary, you seem to provide the evidence we needed *s*. </span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
Writing by hand seems a more complex activity to me (all these curves
and remembering the order of the strokes) than typing. Especially in
the case of cursive writing, you need more or less continuous
attention; whereas when you're typing, concentration is constantly
interrupted with each keystroke, as typing happens in a sort of
"staccato" movement. Just look how often young kids are sticking out
their tongues when they're learning how to write and you'll notice that
this must be cpu overload for their brains. I have almost never seen
this kind of behaviour among beginning typists...not even among those
that only use two fingers ;=).</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
In some way, writing could be viewed as a continuous function of one
variable (= one pen) and typing a discontinuous function of at least
two variables (>= 2 fingers)...it's the continuity that makes the
process enduring and complex I think (cf. the fine art of calligraphy),
not so much the number of variables...sure, our fingers may get
"entangled" (metatheses) once in a while.</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
Whether that higher brainpower and bandwidth needed for writing will
finally be supplied and how it will be processed is another matter of
course.</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
Kind greetings,</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
Luc Hellinckx</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
PS: Mmm...can't actually remember what I do when I lie down Ron, as I
tend to fall asleep pretty fast...and when I don't: I'll leave that to
your vivid imagination...let's just say I never write in bed...and
Borat is never involved either *s*.
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">