Vowel Movements
Jul. 3rd, 2012 12:04 pm![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
steepholmI dislike shibboleths - or rather, I like to think of myself as someone who dislikes them, but actually I like them more than most (I'm complex and interesting, you see).
There's no doubt that they save time, at least. Any discussion of children's literature that misspells "Streatfeild" is cast into outer darkness without further consideration, no shriving time allowed. I feel almost as strongly about "minuscule". I was able to read through the Harry Potter series with equanimity largely because Rowling (who's very fond of the word) never misspelt it - or if she did, it was caught by the Bloomsbury house elves as surely as a Golden Snitch in the hand of a Gryffindor Seeker. That counts for a lot.
Yet, when it comes to "onomatopoeia" and its many variations, I'm very forgiving, feeling in my bones that to ask for more than three vowels in a row is just not English, damn it!
I'm complex, see, just like I said.
There's no doubt that they save time, at least. Any discussion of children's literature that misspells "Streatfeild" is cast into outer darkness without further consideration, no shriving time allowed. I feel almost as strongly about "minuscule". I was able to read through the Harry Potter series with equanimity largely because Rowling (who's very fond of the word) never misspelt it - or if she did, it was caught by the Bloomsbury house elves as surely as a Golden Snitch in the hand of a Gryffindor Seeker. That counts for a lot.
Yet, when it comes to "onomatopoeia" and its many variations, I'm very forgiving, feeling in my bones that to ask for more than three vowels in a row is just not English, damn it!
I'm complex, see, just like I said.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-03 04:58 pm (UTC)