Re: Peace proposal [was: Re: "email" vs "e-mail" revisited [was: Re: Evolution of Language]]

William wrote:
> Harvey Van Sickle wrote:
> > It would be in their style guide if there was a need to avoid or
> > encourage a "correct" form, but as I understand it, the BBC allows
> > flexibility when more than one accepted spelling or usage exists.
> > (Presenters can choose, for example, whether to pronounce the current
> > year as "twenty-oh-five" or "two-thousand-and-five"; either is
> > acceptable, so they can use either.)
> >
> > Like it or not, both the hyphenated and unhyphenated are deemed
> > acceptable by various valid sources. To give just one example, Collins
> > heads its definition as: "E-mail, Email, e-mail, _or_ email" -- which
> > suggests that at least that source has judged both the hyphen *and*
> > capitalisation as optional.
>
> Exactly so. Let us never forget that language is primarily a spoken
> form, and the written form is subservient to that, and an outworking of
> it.


I believe Written English adds method to speech's madness. Written
English is mainly "subserviant" only to the spoken English circa 1600,
during the last days when phonics was not a joke(difference betwix
modern orthography and that is piecemeal) -- otherwise, people get
spelling from spelling nowadays, and therefore written English is a
mode of communication in its own right -- it's usage deliberately
paralleling that of speech.

"E' mail" is the nicest representation, I.M.O.


> There may come a time when the form for e-mail / email will be agreed
> upon and standardised, but such a time has not yet arrived. This does
> not mean that one form is invalid, but that both forms are equally
> valid. The BBC is wise enough to recognise this, and to avoid
> proscription.

Proscription should be methodic -- The tiebreaker for validity, IMO
ought to be that.

~Iain

.

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