Thursday, January 4, 2024

Reflections on Shavian


There's a better English alphabet.
RobWords | 22 Dec. 2023
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D66LrlotvCA


2:05 Is this* the context in which he spelled "fish" as "ghoti"?

16:50 Learning a new language** is kind of going back to kindergarten too ...

I ask someone how you say "put the cart before the horse" in French.

If I had done so in a classroom setting for immigrants to France, using French taxpayer money, everyone would have understood, except the most macho fellow students.

I was already an EU citizen, so I saved France that money, asked the question in the setting of a day shelter for the homeless.

I used it in an essay, which I was writing later that day.***

Unfortunately, the guys receiving me were volunteers in caring for the homeless, and they were business like ... to them that meant I was insecure and childish.

Even more unfortunately, such people have been able to follow me up with that kind of reputation.

* Shaw's argument for making a new alphabet.

** In the video, Rob was speaking of learning a new alphabet.

*** Actually, I was just updating the essay, not writing it, and it was a shortie:

En français sur Antimodernism : "Putting the cart before the horse"
https://avantlafermeturedantimodernism.blogspot.com/2008/10/putting-cart-before-horse.html

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