User:Tabletop/Acadamy of English
Name[edit]
So that the name of this Acadamy appears close to an long existing Academy of another language, it is suggested that the name be Académie Anglais.
Jealousy[edit]
The French Académie française gets annoyed when English words are used instead of French words, and tries to make up new French words if they do not already exist, such as Baladeur (Walkman). .
The English language is quite happy to borrow French words, when say shades of meanings need to be expressed, such as Balise.
2012-01 Suggested change from "No." to "Nr."[edit]
"No." looks rather like "No" causing possible misinterpretation, at first glance, such as
- "No. 5-star treatment for refugees -Abbott" - yes, 5 star treatment.
- "No 5-star treatment for refugees -Abbott" - no, possible 2 or 3 star treatment.
The abbreviation "Nr." as in German would be better.
1978 New word "byte"[edit]
Prior to about 1978 when personal computers popped into existance, the word "byte" meaning "8-bits" did not exist. "Bite", "Bight" and "Bit" = 1 binary digit did exist. The popular computer press at the time thought that a new word for a new thing was desirable, and this was repeated often enough that the new word "byte" was adopted.
Number of Letters[edit]
English has more phonemes (44 IIRC) than it has letters.
- adding more letters to the ASCII code is impossible.
- adding to keys to a PC key would be impractible.
- adding acute, grave, and circumflex marks to letters would be ugly.
- Capital letters might help distinguish different sounds??
So English is stuck with some letters having more than one sound.
- When words of different meanings should have different spellings and/or sounds:
- such as pair/pare/pear.
- Propers names are often spelled differently than the underlying word: a hazard & Mr. Hazzard.
If spelling is reform, using one of hundreds of proposals, new text may not be compatible with old text.