September 11, 2009
This is a copy of something I wrote on another blog, but since it probably applies mostly to computerists, which might end up being the focus of VOXIGO, I thought I’d put it up here too.
There are some common words which are often used in such a random manner that it can be a tedious task to read what was presumably intended to be a communication.
It looks like what many people do is use some kind of phonetic representation of how the words are spoken in their local dialect. Why is that? In a Californian dialect, pan pin and pen could easily be confused when talking, but I don’t see people using those words interchangeably when writing. You might think that is obvious because it’s not how written English works and it would be very confusing if it was. Yet why would someone use to instead of too or two when that would be substituting direction for degree or quantity? The confounding of those concepts by people who successfully write computer code is particularly puzzling. Read the rest of this entry »