Guinness isn't good for me (off topic)
Lynne Murphy
lynnem at COGS.SUSX.AC.UK
Wed Sep 6 18:48:48 UTC 2000
>Interesting that she used "enquiry," instead of "inquiry." I tend to
>associate "enquire" with an "e" with the NATIONAL ENQUIRER. Don't those
>spell it that way?
>
>bob
>
>> From: Bapopik at AOL.COM
>> Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2000 13:03:22 EDT
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Subject: Guinness isn't good for me (off topic)
>>
>> We are sorry that we cannot be more positive but we thank you again for your
>> enquiry and your interest in Guinness World Records and hope that you are
> > not too disappointed.
To quote Fowler's (3rd ed.):
enquire, enquiry, in-
"...At present, the _in-_ forms are dominant for all senses in AmE,
whereas in BrE the _en-_ forms now tend to be restricted to the
general sense 'ask a question' (_to enquire after her health_) and
_inquire_, and esp. the noun _inquiry_ are used in contexts of formal
investigations (_an inquiry agent, a police inquiry...)..."
Lynne
--
Dr M Lynne Murphy
Lecturer in Linguistics
School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH UK
phone +44-(0)1273-678844
fax +44-(0)1273-671320
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