OT- Spelling is out.

[oleg]

Originally posted by Mephisto:
Remember, you have to scramble it first. The below german text is spelled correctly (well, at least I hope so ).

Oh, I see now

[oleg]

I was wrong - it works not only in English.
Here is scrambled Russin translation. I could read it almost like a normal text !!

по рзелульаттам илссеовадний одонго анлигйсокго унвиертисета, не иеемт
занчнеия, в кокам пряокде рсапожолены бкувы в солве. галвоне, чотбы преавя и пслоендяя бквуы блыи на мсете. осатьлыне бкувы мгоут селдовтаь в плоонм бсепордяке, все-рвано ткест чтаитсея без побрелм. пичрионй эгото ялвятеся то, что мы не чиатем кдаужю бкуву по отдльенотси, а все солво цликеом .

[dogscoff]

Oleg, I have to agree with you. I can read that russian text with the exact same level of ease I would read normal russian...

[Slynky]

Originally posted by dogscoff:

quote:

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Toward". Take a look in the dictionary and you will see an acceptable pronunciation of, "twardz", as if there was an "s" on the end of it...sheesh!

Towards is the accepted British use of the word. Same with preventative (I find it hard to believe there is such a word as "preventive")

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Well, referring to Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary (copyright 1985...we have some old stuff in the government... ), "preventative" is listed. The definition is simply, "preventive". So, look a bit lower and you see, "preventive". THERE, one can see the real definition. I happen to know about this word in particular since I started in the computer business over 30 years ago and it was routine business for IBM to schedule preventive maintenance. The additional sylable, IMO, came along sometime afterward due to the inability of people to look at the word, preventive, and pronounce it correctly. And then, people just added it to the dictionary instead of simply saying, "There's no such word as 'preventative'."

[Alneyan]

My own dictionary lists preventive as the "correct" spelling, while it was written in 2000 or 2001 and is rather British. Truth is hard to find when it comes to Languages or even linguistics, so I gather other dictionaries disagree with that I wrote above.

As for your rant a page before, I would partially agree. (And yes, I read it and care about your opinion ) I wrote "partially" because I cannot speak of how English-speakers felt when coming in France for obvious reasons. I don't know about your hypothesis to explain this hostility or at least, this distrust from the French government, which would be linked to the choice of an "universal" language to be used in airports . To use English as the basic language in such cases is sensible IMO, simply because English is speaking much more widely than French to begin with. French was perhaps an universal language before, but that was five or six centuries ago so.

Nevertheless, I have to admit French usually have an issue with English, many barely know this language, and there are some who, even if they are fluent in English, are reluctant to use that language. I'm wondering, is such an attitude common in other countries or is that yet another oddity of France?

[narf poit chez BOOM]

just so we have an opposing arguement, preventative sounds more like a word for something that prevents, while preventive sounds more like a verb.

[rdouglass]

I too had no problems reading it; yes, a little slower maybe by a fraction, but very readable nevertheless.

Just to throw a spin on it, maybe it has something to do with howe we see, not specifically how we read. I read before how our eyes generally recognize the outlines of objects (the areas of contrast) rather than the "fill" areas. Our minds just fill in the outline with the appropriate information. Maybe that has something to do with it. Remember there are a limited number of words that have similar beginning and ending letters and who are the same length as each other. Our minds just quickly calculate the options and "fill in" based on the context of the surrounding words.

Just an observation and hypothesis...