What are your pet peeves re English usage?

@Old Goat,

I never understood the cowboy moniker, given that they herded steers.

Good God look what I've done, derailed the thread.

And I am South African. It's in my profile if you look. English and Irish on my mother's side, German on my father's side. Quite an un-easy mix, if I may say so meself.
Nonetheless I fully concede that the English are the true masters of English. South African English is mere doggerel.
And Quincy is not my real name. Who uses their real name on the internet?

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If you think this thread was not derailed years ago, especially after the arrival of a self-appointed doyen of the English language, then you've not been paying attention over the years. One thing to which i never object is the derailment of a thread, especially after it has already been trashed.

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@Setanta,

Quote:

Tell me something, oh fount of orthographic wisdom.

This, right after your nonsense on 'iconic', Set.

Hurray, the old idiot is back. He's come to resurrect the Pet Peeves thread that he predicted long ago would be killed by something that he much despises, honesty.

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Don't mind me, I'm just enjoying the show.

http://www.i-mockery.com/minimocks/thriller/25.gif

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It is very entertaining today.

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@Setanta,

Quote:

If you don't want people to slag you for your spelling, don't sneer at others for theirs.

Hypocrisy comes to Setanta as easily as does breathing.

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@OmSigDAVID,

Quote:

How do u feel about run-on sentences ?

Is this going to be another grand opportunity for you to exhibit your ignorance on language, Dave?

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@OmSigDAVID,

Quote:

BULLONEY!!! I know what I have been doing for years n decades.

I have never 1ce been guilty
of what u allege, nor have I heard any of my countrymen do so.

It IS and it has always been perfectly clear: a-LOO-MINum,
with a short i for " . . . MIN. . ." every single time, without fail !

You have shown numerous times that when it comes to language, you really aren't aware of what you do, Dave.

The same goes for Setanta - Although David is correct about the American pronunciation of aluminum,

In fast speech Americans do say a-LOO-mnm just as in fast speech, they say gonna, wanna, hafta, dijya and all the other forms of compressed speech that occur naturally for every speaker of the English language.

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@Quincy,

Quote:

Nonetheless I fully concede that the English are the true masters of English. South African English is mere doggerel.

That is piffle, nonsense, tripe, crap, and more, Quinc. But I concede that the old canard is out there.

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@JTT,

JTT wrote:

The same goes for Setanta - Although David is correct about the American pronunciation of aluminum,

In fast speech Americans do say a-LOO-mnm just as in fast speech, they say gonna, wanna, hafta, dijya and all the other forms of compressed speech that occur naturally for every speaker of the English language.

Well, all my dictionaries must be wrong, then. They all give the American pronunciation as ә-LOO-mә-nәm. Do you really pronounce the 'i' like the one in 'in'?

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@Setanta,

Quote:

If you think this thread was not derailed years ago,

And here we have Setanta spouting his usual nonsense about the demise of a thread he predicted some hundred, hundred and fifty pages ago.

Quote:

especially after the arrival of a self-appointed doyen of the English language

The other "self appointed doyens" weren't able to muster much of a defense for their idiotic ideas on how the English language works. Setanta lasted for about four or five posts before he fled any further discussion on language.

Do you want to know what Setanta's "argument" was for allowing the nonsense that was being spread about language to continue?

This is the pet peeves thread. It's not about being truthful and honest with respect to language issues, it's about people's rights to spread falsehoods about language.

He advanced this ludicrous notion more than once.

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@Setanta,

Quote:

I never understood the cowboy moniker, given that they herded steers.

If they herded only steers, it wouldn't be long before they were out of a job.

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@Quincy,

I wasn't discussing the dictionary entry, Quinc. Obviously, dictionaries choose the slow, careful speech pronunciation. But virtually every word in existence gets smooshed at some time or other in regular everyday fast speech.

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@JTT,

JTT wrote:

In fast speech Americans do say a-LOO-mnm

That assertion is simply false
and it is inconsistent with known fact.
It reflects negatively upon u, J.

JTT wrote:

just as in fast speech, they say gonna, wanna, hafta, dijya and all the other forms of compressed speech
that occur naturally for every speaker of the English language.

We do those all the time,
but we render a good fonetic pronunciation of aluminum in America.
We have no trouble with that.
We 've made many mistakes in America, but not THAT.

David

1 Reply

@Quincy,

JTT wrote:

The same goes for Setanta - Although David is correct about the American pronunciation of aluminum,

In fast speech Americans do say a-LOO-mnm just as in fast speech, they say gonna, wanna, hafta, dijya
and all the other forms of compressed speech that occur naturally for every speaker of the English language.

We do that consciously.
I do it sometimes; not always.
Its just a lazy way of speaking; a liberal deviation from the paradigm.

JTT wrote:

Well, all my dictionaries must be wrong, then.
They all give the American pronunciation as ә-LOO-mә-nәm.

I hope that your garbage can is bigger and better
than thay r.

JTT wrote:

Do you really pronounce the 'i' like the one in 'in'?

There is no room for controversy on that point.

IN is part of the word that we foneticly pronounce
when we say alumINum. Its not hard, nor mysterious.

David

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

So now you're asserting that Americans [and others] use completely natural speech patterns for gonna, wanna and the like but they slow down when it comes to 'aluminum' and enunciate it in the dictionary manner.

You are way way dumber than you normally appear, Om.

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@JTT,

JTT wrote:

So now you're asserting that Americans [and others] use completely natural speech patterns for gonna,
wanna and the like but they slow down when it comes to 'aluminum' and enunciate it in the dictionary manner.

I will stand by the way that I expressed it,
which I deem to be clear & simple.

U r welcome to inquire, if u choose.

JTT wrote:

You are way way dumber than you normally appear, Om.

J, please know that I remain unaffected
by praise or by insolence from u.
I have no wish to impress u.
I have no desire to borrow money,
nor to apply for employment from u.

Please note that the topic of this thread
is pet peeves in English usage,
not whether I appear to be smarter nor "dumber" than normal.
That is off topic.

R personal remarks intended to cause me
to modify my conduct in some calculated way (in your opinion)
regarding English usage ?

David

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@OmSigDAVID,

Quote:

We do that consciously.

You seem set on parading your ignorance of language, Dave. You, [that's the plural and general 'you', as opposed to the singular 'you' which you might have noticed, in defiance of the "logic" that you often spout, uses a plural verb] do not do it consciously.

You do not consciously choose the needed grammatical structure for a given situation. You do not consciously [in the vast vast majority of cases] make note of which speech register is needed. All this is done unconsciously.

Quote:

I do it sometimes; not always.
Its just a lazy way of speaking; a liberal deviation from the paradigm.

Another old canard. It's not "lazy" speech. If that was so, then there would be no rules followed but speakers are as fastidious in following the rules relating to phonology as they are in following all the rules of grammar.

Quote:

There is no room for controversy on that point.

IN is part of the word that we foneticly pronounce
when we say alumINum. Its not hard, nor mysterious.

That's false. In fast speech 'aluminum' is also pronounced a-loo-ma-nim or a-lum-num.

1 Reply

@JTT,

David wrote:

We do that consciously.

JTT wrote:

You seem set on parading your ignorance of language, Dave.

Be that true or false: that is off topic.
This is not a thread about "parading".

JTT wrote:

You, [that's the plural and general 'you', as opposed to the singular 'you' which you might have noticed,
in defiance of the "logic" that you often spout, uses a plural verb] do not do it consciously.

Lemme get this straight, J.:
u allege that u KNOW what I do consciously ????
R u asserting that u have telepathic talents??

JTT wrote:

You do not consciously choose the needed grammatical structure for a given situation.

HOW did u acquire this (alleged) information about what I DO??

JTT wrote:

You do not consciously [in the vast vast majority of cases] make note of which speech register is needed. All this is done unconsciously.

David wrote:

I do it sometimes; not always.
Its just a lazy way of speaking; a liberal deviation from the paradigm.

JTT wrote:

Another old canard. It's not "lazy" speech.
If that was so, then there would be no rules followed

That is a non-sequtur

JTT wrote:

but speakers are as fastidious in following the rules relating to phonology as they are in following all the rules of grammar.

Some r, sometimes; not always.

David wrote:

There is no room for controversy on that point.

IN is part of the word that we foneticly pronounce
when we say alumINum. Its not hard, nor mysterious.

JTT wrote:

That's false. In fast speech 'aluminum' is also pronounced a-loo-ma-nim or a-lum-num.

U clutch error, factual error, to your mind.
U r free to do that.
It is not my mission to disabuse u of it; I don 't get paid for this,
and the error is devoid of any harm to me or to my countrymen.
Its not as if u were stealing our $$.

U r welcome to your beliefs, regardless of their falsity.

David

1 Reply

What are your pet peeves re English usage?

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