Webster's grave behaviour

["Stuart Rogers" <srogers -at- phoenix-geophysics -dot- com>]

>From Merriam-Webster's Web site:

"One facet of Webster's importance (sic) was his willingness to innovate
when he thought innovation meant improvement... Reasoning that many spelling
conventions were artificial and needlessly confusing, he urged altering many
words: musick to music, centre to center, and plough to plow, for example.
(Other attempts at reform met with less acceptance, however, such as his
support for modifying tongue to tung and women to wimmen -- the latter of
which he argued was "the old and true spelling" and the one that most
accurately indicated its pronunciation.)"

Mr. Webster apparently thought nothing of arbitrarily reshaping the English
language to suit his own inconsistent linguistic biases. If "trial" as a
verb sets him spinning in his coffin, I "verdict" in favOUR of it ;-)

>From a neighbOUR of the Americans, in the centRE of Canada, harbOURing these
colOURful thoughts while balancing his cheQUEbook,

Stuart Rogers
Technical Communicator
Phoenix Geophysics Limited
Toronto, ON, Canada
+1 (416) 491-7340 x 325

mailto:srogers -at- phoenix-geophysics -dot- com

Developers explain How the Product Works.
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-----Original Message-----
From: bounce-techwr-l-88731 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
[mailto:bounce-techwr-l-88731 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com] On Behalf Of Diane Evans
Sent: May 12, 2003 11:21 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: English isn't the native tongue of ...

I was also very shocked to find out that "trial" is a verb in an Australian 
dictionary.  Noah Webster must be turning over in his grave...

Diane Evans
Technical Writer
	


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