(Potentially relevant link)

I just thought I oughta mention that for my NaNoWriMo, I have a separate blog. It's full of wit and wisdom and cleverness and nothing at all really, but just let me dream, okay?

It really irks me when people don't tow the line when it comes to the English language. It really begs the question of where they went to school when they can't get simple things right. Admittedly, they'll do the lion's share good, but there are always a few things they'll mess up alot. Occasionally, someone will just do stuff wrong as a joke or something but, most grammatical errors are on accident.

There are some who could care less about grammar, and I wish they'd learn, though I'm not going to take the time to educate them on this. I guess this means I just want to have my cake and eat it.

I could of sworn we had books to teach people English. There's one entitled Essentials of Grammar. Read it. You sound like an idiot right now. I realise we're all equal, but apparently I'm more equal than you.

A cursory run v. a cursory walk. Redundant beats contradictory.

At supper tonight I asked what the french word for soup was, 'cause it'd come up at lunch when no one but me and some unknowing kids were around.

My mom listed 'potage', 'véloute', 'bouillabaisse', and probably one or two others¹.

This being a more-German-than-French² household, I commented that bouillabaisse is good to give people as a gift.

Of course, none of them got it, though if my brother had been paying attention, he might've. He knew what was needed to be known, anyway, even if wouldn't've connected them.

¹ She didn't mention 'soupe'. Odd word, that. 'soup' is obviously of Germanic origin.

² Language-wise. Ancestorially, I think it might be slightly more French. My dad's side was French some ways back and my mom's German probably a longer ways back.

In German, words like 'my' aren't the genetive pronouns, but merely adjectives. I don't know if Anglo-Saxon is the same or not. My textbook isn't extremely helpful.

And I'm still wondering about their helpful 'how to pronounce this stuff' section. I can distinguish the A's in 'has' and 'sat', but the two A's in 'aha'? Maybe the second syllable is chopped short, similar to an apostrophe in Klingon. The first between 'has' and 'cought'?

then there's the y and y|. They're described as being like the 'i' in 'tin', but with lips in whistling position (French 'tu') and as the 'ee' in 'seen', but with lips again in whistling position (French 'ruse'). I don't know French.
And I can't whistle.

I'm a bit of an audial learner. I want to be able to mentally hear the words when first learning them. I guess I'll try to did up a good phonology site later. I'm stymied without.

In Anglo-Saxon (Old English), the 'f' and 'v' were the same character. It was typically voiced ('v') in the middle of words and unvoiced ('f') at the beginning and end. Hence, the voicedness of the plural.

This, of course, explains quite a few English words.