The immovable object - or when push comes to shove!!

[cambrensis]

Thanks Madeleine! What a wonderful example of total illiteracy in a store which appears to be supporting students in some way!

[madelaine]

To be fair, it is run by people whose first language is not English and, probably more important, it sells Scottish souvenirs without charging stupid prices for them. When I need a present for the people who are minding the cat, this is the shop I use.

[cambrensis]

To be fair, it is run by people whose first language is not English .......

But is this true of the whole production chain, including typsetter and subbie? They should certainly notice!

[johnwash1]

Sorry, but I am unable to accept this.Surely, we should always correct anything we know to be wrong. I once, as a young teacher, pointed out to the seputy head that he had several misspellings on his blackboard. (Yes! It was that long ago!)
He in turn reported me to the Chair of Governors, who happened to be in the school at the time. Unfortunately, the Deputy Head had omitted to clean off his board first!!!
He ended up with the "double zowie".... a polite correction from me and a blasting from the Chair!!

I am very good at typographical errors! I am sure some slip through here, although I check what I write and often edit what I have alresady sent. Just now I typed "write" as "wrtie", noticed it and corrected it. I am not "in the fashion" so would not have claimed "dyslexia" in any case...just a simple tangling of the fingers, which is common at my age! Lol! Most of my typographical errors consist of striking a letter alongside the one I should have used. Missed again!

What kind of head is a seputy head?

Off with his head!

[cambrensis]

What kind of head is a seputy head?

Off with his head!

In fact I had noticed, but thought the thread had died a natural death so did not edit! Lol!

Biggest problem I have is when at a meeting I am given a notice to read out. This may have been mistyped my a non native English speaker. I have about 50 seconds to scan it and then I'm on! H-E-L-P!!!

Can be fun though.

I used to enjoy introducing Elizabethan typography to 18/19 year olds then giving them blocks of text to read to each other. If you remember "s" was a final letter; in all other cases it was like an "f" without the crossbar - in fact that is why the bar is there. Some text (Shakespeare for example) is hilarious or even indecent when handled in this way.

[johnwash1]

In fact I had noticed, but thought the thread had died a natural death so did not edit! Lol!

Biggest problem I have is when at a meeting I am given a notice to read out. This may have been mistyped my a non native English speaker. I have about 50 seconds to scan it and then I'm on! H-E-L-P!!!

Can be fun though.

I used to enjoy introducing Elizabethan typography to 18/19 year olds then giving them blocks of text to read to each other. If you remember "s" was a final letter; in all other cases it was like an "f" without the crossbar - in fact that is why the bar is there. Some text (Shakespeare for example) is hilarious or even indecent when handled in this way.

Was this in a class? Why would a knowledge of Elizabethan typography be a useful skill in the modern world? LOL! FTW, innit! Those that don't learn from history are condemned to repeat it, so I guess this guards against them writing f'ing text when they intend writing 's'?

As for typos from non-native speakers, many write more accurately than those born here and subjected to teaching fads like phonetics in the 1970s. Still, it sounds like it keeps your adrenaline flowing, so I'm sure your announcements are fun!

[cambrensis]

Why would a knowledge of Elizabethan typography be a useful skill in the modern world?

As for typos from non-native speakers, many write more accurately than those born here and subjected to teaching fads like phonetics in the 1970s. Still, it sounds like it keeps your adrenaline flowing, so I'm sure your announcements are fun!

In Linguistics (a subject in its own right), it is common to show the route by which particular sounds have been represented, before examining typography in other languages in the same or other groups. It saves hours of explanation later. In fact one of the first things one has to do is to get rid of the notion that "a,e,i,o,u"are vowels and the remainder consonants, i.e. needing a vowel sound to aid their individual pronunciation. Crazy things happen with half-taught or even wrongly taught information on something as simple as an alphabet. To the untutored eye of a monoglot English speaker, the Welsh word "dwfr" is totally unpronounceable as it consists of consonants only. In fact it has a vowel sound "w" (even English calls it "double u"!!!) and "r" is a semi vowel in most languages, although often silent in English and used as a diacritical mark.; so the denizens of Dover need not tremble. Their ancestors had heard and understood a rough approximation of the word, even if they had applied it to the wrong object! I blame the Romans!

As I've said elsewhere, shifts in pronunciation end up with the Elizabethan "By'r Lady" (=by Our Lady) and pronounced "Brladdy" becoming the modern "swear" word. and the River Cam having Cambridge built upon it.

Taking into account the incorrect teaching of basic alphabetical understanding, there is small wonder that the teaching of phonics went totally wrong. In the earlier period phonics were used where possible alongside "look-and-say" as the teaching method. All this might have been avoided had there been an attempt to regularise English spelling in the 19th Century as did other European languages with theirs..

Most people I meet of non-UK origin have learned their English here and that is the problem! Had they learned it in their native country they would be far better at it. One simple example I have before me right now is : "we offend say dis" ("We often say this...") Get half a page of it and my eyes cross!

It's all to do with perception. For example nearly all of us would recognise the the Greek letter Γ, known as "gamma". Very few would know what I was on about if I were to refer to the early Ancient Greek "digamma" (double gamma), yet we use it constantly and much more frequently than gamma itself. It is, of course, "F". We may assign any sound we wish to any letter we wish so long as we are consistent within the language group.

I shall have "ghoti" for lunch!

As for adrenalin...very little allows it to flow these days. It's a thing called "age"!!

[HerMajesty]

Good thread! I never took a class in Typography, but did manage to glean enough from somewhere to be able to read through some old documents, which is handy in doing genealogy.
I'll ask - what's ghoti? I get that it's a phonetic joke...……….fish is it?

[cambrensis]

Good thread! I never took a class in Typography, but did manage to glean enough from somewhere to be able to read through some old documents, which is handy in doing genealogy.
I'll ask - what's ghoti? I get that it's a phonetic joke...……….fish is it?

Yes...one of George Bernard Shaw's from ages ago. Assumed many would know it...well done for working it out!! works as GH as in "cough", O as in "women" and TI as in numerous words..."nation" would do.

[moonwitch]