Re: How do you pronounce that, again?

Post #14,575 by hnick 10/22/01 12:56:06 PM Reply	Re: How do you pronounce that, again? Word of the Day for Thursday May 27, 1999: chthonic (THONE-ik), adjective: dwelling in or under the earth; also, pertaining to the underworld "Driven by d\ufffdmonic, chthonic Powers." --T.S. Eliot "The chthonic divinity was essentially a god of the regions under the earth; at first of the dark home of the seed, later on of the still darker home of the dead." --C. F. Keary "The chthonic imagery of Norine's apartment, which..was black as a coalhole and heated by the furnace of the hostess' unslaked desires." --M. McCarthy "Two great and contrasted forms of ritual: the Olympian and the Chthonic, the one a ritual of cheerful character, the other a ritual of gloom, and fostering superstition." From dictionary.com Regards, Hugh
Post #14,595 by jb4 10/22/01 1:42:34 PM Reply	I see...so the 'ch' is silent as in "fred"... All smart-assness aside, thanks for tracking that down. It does, however, reinforce my premise that we will never achieve western-European levels of literacy in the English-speaking world until we bite the bullet and "regularize" english spelling. It is entirely possible that this is the only case of a silent 'ch' en the entire English language. jb4 (Resistance is not futile...)
Post #14,605 by Silverlock 10/22/01 2:07:37 PM Reply	yacht Don Richards, Proud recipient of the ABBA.
Post #14,611 by jb4 10/22/01 2:25:49 PM Reply	Fair enough... ...I shoulda said: The only word in English that starts with a silent 'ch'. jb4 (Resistance is not futile...)
Post #14,623 by Silverlock 10/22/01 2:58:50 PM Reply	Yer rite :-) At least as far as I know (pedantic soul that I am). And I think yacht is the only word containing a silent ch that doesn't start with the ch. Don Richards, Proud recipient of the ABBA.
Post #14,664 by Ashton 10/22/01 7:08:39 PM Reply	Cthulhu._________________________OK OK but it's close! :-\ufffd
Post #14,699 by jb4 10/22/01 10:03:14 PM Reply	:-\ufffd yerself! jb4 (Resistance is not futile...)
Post #14,659 by CRConrad 10/22/01 6:59:39 PM Reply	Uhmm... I think you're overlooking something: (That's pretty much the exact opposite of "overseeing", BTW! :-) Jim Bea...ushmill: ...we will never achieve western-European levels of literacy in the English-speaking world until we bite the bullet and "regularize" english spelling. Speaking of "western-European" -- isn't that exactly what the English are?!? And they can reed and right English! So that ain't it. Christian R. Conrad The Man Who Knows Fucking Everything
Post #14,700 by jb4 10/22/01 10:06:39 PM Reply	Yabut, so can we...equally poorly! In fact, they still can't spell color or defense or theater or specialize... ;-) jb4 (Resistance is not futile...)
Post #14,736 by CRConrad 10/23/01 5:28:41 AM Reply	"emote muah" ... (The LRPD is being contrary: "RESISTANCE IS USELESS!")
Post #14,839 by Ashton 10/23/01 7:05:27 PM Reply	Not so! Below: "We are the superior beings!"
Post #15,065 by Ric Locke 10/24/01 10:15:20 PM Reply	Reredundunduncey -- Robert A. Heinlein suggested that one of the attributes of a successful society is a certain amount of looseness in the corners. The contradictoriness of the English language (in which, as noted, overlooking and overseeing mean something quite different, whereas fat chance and slim chance mean the same thing) gives us all much to think about, even in ordinary discourse. Selection among multitudes of synonyms, and the occasional oddball word like chthonic, give English speakers a certain... flexibility. Rather poetic, in a way. I've considered for years that one of the reasons English is successful over French is that, when it came time to write dictionaries, ours was compiled by a choleric, disorganized party animal, whereas the French appointed a Government commission. Regards, Ric
Post #15,067 by a6l6e6x 10/24/01 10:19:24 PM Reply	Besides, English in some ways includes French. Alex Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. -- Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
Post #15,111 by admin 10/25/01 10:49:43 AM Reply	Same ideas in David Brin's work. The idea that a flexible language is a key differentiator between creative, growing cultures and stodgy, inflexible unchanging ones. Regards, -scott anderson
Post #15,119 by jb4 10/25/01 12:46:42 PM Reply	Re: Reredundunduncey -- Don't misunderstand...I agree with you completely. I just wish we'd figger out how to spell this creative masterpiece we've created/discovered/inherited. jb4 (Resistance is not futile...)
Post #15,183 by Ric Locke 10/25/01 11:32:35 PM Reply	Brin is part of where I got the idea but more a matter of ... phraseology and word choice :-) And yes, English includes French as a subset. Likewise German -- I have German friends who insist that English is just badly-pronounced German. I once listened to some Germans trying to invent a proper Deutsche phrase for "vignetting", meaning in this case the effect that shows up in wide-angle lenses, where the edge of the photo is less exposed than the center; caused by more glass in the light path, plus greater distance from the lens to film on the edges than the center. They hashed it over for several minutes. Finally I told them to adopt the English-language custom of linguistic imperialism -- if you need a word, and somebody else has it, expropriate the sucker! And isn't it interesting that except for "bed", furniture -- sofa, divan, pillow, others -- is Arabic? Regards, Ric
Post #14,955 by tseliot 10/24/01 11:52:30 AM Reply	Thanks for the nod. :) "A stupid despot may constrain his slaves with iron chains; but a true politician binds them even more strongly by the chain of their own ideas;...despair and time eat away the bonds of iron and steel, but they are powerless against the habitual union of ideas, they can only tighten it still more; and on the soft fibres of the brain is founded the unshakable base of the soundest of Empires." Jacques Servan, 1767

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