variouis topics

[Tom Zurinskas]

from TZ 12-9-06 regarding topics below

Diagramming.  I had sentence diagramming as a kid and thought it was a good
way to learn and understand sentence structure and parts of speech.  I
thought that way as a 12 year old and still think so today.  Don’t know why
it was ever stopped.

Posh British.  I wonder what it is about the UK accent that indicates the
“poshness”.  The r-dropping?  Perhaps a certain tonality?  Hear UK accent at
http://www.howjsay.com/  Quite a difference in cot/caught.  In fact the
vowel in caught is not said in USA.  Is it posh?

Accent and Dialect.  California gov. Schwartzenegger has a German accent,
but he’s been in USA so long he has picked up on USA vocabulary and
phrasing.  Shall we say he has a California dialect with a German accent?
Also, the newspaper printed a list of 100 favorite phrases.  A TV dialect?

A Very Nice Passage.  “It should be the chief aim of a university professor
to exhibit himself in his own true character - that is, as an ignorant man
[sic] thinking, actively utilizing his small share of knowledge.” Alfred
North Whitehead    Thus, even the most knowledgeable should be open to new
ideas.  Just ask Socrates.

Coventry agreement.  I wonder what is meant by dInIs who says he accepts the
Coventry agreement and will act on it?

Spelling Reforms.  Mark Twain was an advocate of spelling reform.  Andrew
Carnegie together with Theodore Roosevelt gave the last big push to do
additional reforms.  They weren’t accepted.  So I think changes to spelling
will not happen.  But the Simplified Spelling Society is in earnest
developing a new English spelling.  If you’d like to participate, check it
out.  The idea is to make it simpler for people to learn and use.  But then
there’s always texting.

Crank Call.  When someone calls you names, such as “crank”, they have an
obligation to explain why.  Mandel knows my efforts over many years in
spelling USA English phonetically.  He knows my 4 books and sees my
dedication to my life’s work.  I would call his remark the ultimate in
cynicism.

TV Words.  Of interest are also words TV newscasters are not saying, such as
the front part of verbs, dropping “is” and “are”.   To make up an example:
“The government giving thought to mobilizing troops.”

Sammich. It’s samrich in our household.  Does one household consist of a
dialect?  I wonder how many dialect words come from mispronunciations.  Like
“Bubba” for “brother.”

Truthiness.  If a word as contradictory meanings, how does one know which is
meant?
1 : "truth that comes from the gut, not books" (Stephen Colbert, Comedy
Central's "The Colbert Report," October 2005)
2 : "the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true,
rather than concepts or facts known to be true" (American Dialect Society,
January 2006)

Truespel database is available.   Again, for those interested in analyzing
USA English or using truespel for other languages, I will gladly freely
supply the truespel database of 63k words and provide quality overview.  You
can preview the phonetic notation at truespel.com.

Sound emails.  Perhaps we could share sound emails (like from springdoo.com)
so we can use voice to illustrate phonetics.  I tried a springdoo message
but it was not recognized.


Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL4+
See truespel.com and the 4 truespel books at authorhouse.com.

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