Klarinet Archive - Posting 000330.txt from 2004/03

From: "noone nonya" <klarinets@------.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] English and American
Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2004 16:40:36 -0500

Actually, we owe all these threads to the Very Late, Noah Webster (not
Merriam) Noah, single handedly "rescued" the english languege and dropped
the "extra letters".... thats one take on it anyways.

basicly in the 1800's people were still sore at the brits and Noah decided
to re-write the dictionary and drop "extra" letters such as the u in
"colour" the e in "shoppe" etc.. etc.. etc..

see, he basicly wanted to get the french "weeds" out of the english
language, so technically, there really is an "american" language it is just
based on UK english

Dave (din't i say i wanted to just talk about clarinets?...)

>From: Joe Fasel <jhf@------.gov>
>Reply-To: klarinet@------.org
>To: klarinet@------.org
>Subject: Re: [kl] English and American
>Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2004 14:25:03 -0700
>
>
>On 2004.03.05 08:34, tony-w@------.co.uk wrote:
> > Just one more example - clarinetist and clarinettist - which is correct?
> > They can`t both be!!
>
>(As he attempts to drag this thread back on-topic...) As I
>understand it, the general orthographic rule in British English
>is to double a final consonant when adding a suffix whenever the
>vowel is short, whereas in American English, there is the further
>requirement that the originally final syllable is stressed. (This,
>I presume, is connected with our appalling habit of turning
>unstressed vowels into schwas.) Now, in my experience, "clarinet"
>with stress on the last syllable is common, but so is stress
>on the first, but I think that "clarinettist" with stress on the
>third syllable is much more common than on the first (probably
>because three unstressed syllables in a row are awkward).
>Thus, even according to American orthography, and certainly,
>British, I would claim that "clarinettist" is to be preferred.
>[Note the "rr" in that last word.]
>
>Frankly, I hadn't noticed this issue with this word before,
>and I think I may have been spelling it the other way.
>I won't anymore. ;-)
>
>Cheers,
>--Joe
>
>Joseph H. Fasel, Ph.D. email: jhf@------.gov
>Systems Planning and Analysis phone: +1 505 667 7158
>University of California fax: +1 505 667 2960
>Los Alamos National Laboratory post: D-2 MS F609; Los Alamos, NM
>87545
>
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