Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 14th Oct 2009 16:00 UTC
In what is about as surprising as the sun rising in the morning, Michael Dell has started talking down netbooks. Dell made his comments about netbooks at the Churchill Club in Silicon Valley, and considering the impact of netbooks on manufacturers' bottom lines, it's really not that surprising.
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Member since:2009-06-23
"Sorry I'm German so I guess I'm biased, reading a word in German, you always know how to pronounce it.
Oh sure you do. If you know the rules. "ch" is pronounced differently in "ich" and "auch" for example. You have to know when to roll an "r" (or treat it as a voiced "h") and when to basically pretend it isn't there (drei vs Mutter). But yeah, if you know the rules it's a lot more consistent than English
"
1. Your examples prove the opposite of your very point. You seem to be confunsing phonology with phonetics. Other examples would have been more convincing (but too exceptional to be taken seriously).
2. Even pretending to compare English to German spelling "consistency" is misleading and unfair.
Member since:2009-06-23
"Sorry I'm German so I guess I'm biased, reading a word in German, you always know how to pronounce it.
Oh sure you do. If you know the rules. "ch" is pronounced differently in "ich" and "auch" for example. You have to know when to roll an "r" (or treat it as a voiced "h") and when to basically pretend it isn't there (drei vs Mutter). But yeah, if you know the rules it's a lot more consistent than English
"
1. Your examples almost prove/strengthen the opposite of your point. (That said, the excuse seems to be that you're confusing phonology with phonetics. Other examples would have been more convincing, albeit yet more exceptional, i.e. mere nitpicking.)
2. Even vaguely pretending to compare German to English spelling "consistency" is misleading stylistic device. I.e. some understatements are downright lies just because of the context one sneaks them in.
Nothing personal, it's just that too many deniers like to imply that every language has its own relevant-to-mention spelling/etc. problems based merely on blindly extrapolating some holistic homeostatic principle. All languages are not equal.
Member since:
2005-11-11
We do the same thing with "team" (My team is the best vs my team are the best). Hard to spin that into a tinfoilhat reflection on the state of things in our society. We just treat mass nouns differently from the Brits (typically, not as an ironclad rule, see below)
Lakers. That S on the end means plural. "The 5 starting Lakers are" etc, as it should be. And your Manchester U example is not typical of British English. Google returns more results for "Manchester United are" than "Manchester United is"
This happens when the language takes in words from many different sources. It's a Germanic language with a large amount of French vocabulary thanks to the Normans, with Viking influences and borrowings from all over the place thanks to the British Empire among other things. You're not wrong of course; the pronunciation is weird.
The Brits like to say (and spell) "pronounciate" since they, like you, feel it more logical. But I don't hear them saying "enounciation"; it's still "enunciation" like it always was.
At any rate, "Pronunciation" is derived from the Latin "pronuntiationem", so there is a history of the second syllable having just the U. It's "pronounce" gaining that second "o" that doesn't make sense.
Oh sure you do. If you know the rules. "ch" is pronounced differently in "ich" and "auch" for example. You have to know when to roll an "r" (or treat it as a voiced "h") and when to basically pretend it isn't there (drei vs Mutter). But yeah, if you know the rules it's a lot more consistent than English
@Thom: Regarding "a number of people" though, it's pretty much a synonym for "many people". It's referring to people in the plural, and I'm fine with treating it as a plural
Edited 2009-10-15 06:40 UTC