[Lexicog] Re: "orientate" (was Frequency ...)

[Mike Maxwell]

David Frank wrote:
> Joseph, did you ever stop to think about what an "intermolar lateral" would
> be?

Maybe I should step in here and make it perfectly clear.

An "intermolar lateral" is a sound which, of course, doesn't exist; it was
a linguistic stand-in for "tongue in cheek", which is an idiom for "I'm
just kidding."

And Henry Higgins wasn't a _real_ linguist, he was a character in the play
"Pygmalion" by George Bernard Shaw, and in the musical version "My Fair
Lady."  In the play and musical, Higgins lamented that English people can't
talk right, by which he meant they don't use the Received Pronunciation.
(Whether he would have preferred "orient" or "orientate", I don't know; of
course, that's a rather odd question, since Higgins was ficticious, but I
suppose even so there might be an answer, given his dialectal persuasion.)

So no, I don't really think that "orient" is correct and "orientate" wrong,
although I freely admit that the -ate on the latter seems either
superfluous or redundant to me, or maybe both :-).

Having said all this, here's an article you may enjoy; it's about how the
Washington DC metro drivers and conductors are being given lessons in how
to _properly_ pronounce the names of stations:
   http://washingtontimes.com/metro/20050610-103311-8295r.htm
If you've ever strained to hear drivers/ conducters announce the next stop,
as I have, I think you'll have to admit, there's something to be said for
getting them to enunciate...

--
	Mike Maxwell
	Linguistic Data Consortium
	maxwell at ldc.upenn.edu



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