Shortening The?

Miscellaneous Other Topics.
User avatar
Slava
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 8039
Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:31 am
Location: Finger Lakes, NY

Shortening The?

Postby Slava » Mon Jul 08, 2013 7:16 pm

What a silly suggestion! Gotta love it for it's oddity. Yes, someone has proposed a new character to replace the word the.

Enjoy:

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technolo ... the/66873/
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

Perry Lassiter
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 3333
Joined: Wed Jan 03, 2007 12:41 pm
Location: RUSTON, LA
Contact:

Re: Shortening The?

Postby Perry Lassiter » Tue Jul 09, 2013 10:28 am

Since we steal from Latin all the time, why not steal from Hebrew? They handle both "the" and "and" efficiently with one letter. The Hebrew definite article is similar to our letter H as a prefix. The most frequent Hebrew conjunction is written something like a close parenthesis, ), just a letter stroke. Sometimes they seem to use it like a boxcar coupler, stringing a bunch of words together. Pick up the KJV of the OT and open at random. Or try Genesis 1. All those "and"s in there are waws, also called waw consecutives. They are little more than a quick slash, like the lower case l. So handy they used way too many, and modern translations write around them.
pl

saparris
Wordmaster
Posts: 794
Joined: Fri Jan 22, 2010 5:33 pm
Location: South Carolina USA

Re: Shortening The?

Postby saparris » Tue Jul 09, 2013 11:11 pm

Lts jst frgt vwls. Dh!
Ars longa, vita brevis

Perry Lassiter
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 3333
Joined: Wed Jan 03, 2007 12:41 pm
Location: RUSTON, LA
Contact:

Re: Shortening The?

Postby Perry Lassiter » Wed Jul 10, 2013 11:39 am

Also like the Hebrews. The Old Testament text had no vowels until a group of scholars standardized the vowels between the 7th and 10th centuries. Changing vowels can change the meaning. Try comparing two or three verses in Proverbs in differing translations. You are almost certain to wonder how they can be so different. The answer is most often a dispute about vowels.
pl

Philip Hudson
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 2784
Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2006 4:41 am
Location: Texas

Re: Shortening The?

Postby Philip Hudson » Thu Jul 11, 2013 11:47 pm

As Perry said, ancient Hebrew had no symbols for vowels. English could use a few more symbols for vowels. If we went down that slippery slope, however, we might end up with a plethora of vowels.
It is dark at night, but the Sun will come up and then we can see.

Perry Lassiter
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 3333
Joined: Wed Jan 03, 2007 12:41 pm
Location: RUSTON, LA
Contact:

Re: Shortening The?

Postby Perry Lassiter » Fri Jul 12, 2013 3:29 pm

A plethora or superfluity?
pl

Philip Hudson
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 2784
Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2006 4:41 am
Location: Texas

Re: Shortening The?

Postby Philip Hudson » Sat Jul 13, 2013 12:32 am

A plethora, a superfluity or as the common cant has it, tons. I think tons is a word that has been marred by misuse.
It is dark at night, but the Sun will come up and then we can see.


Return to “Res Diversae”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest