Ah, but can I re-post an utopian semicolon which I only referenced indirectly?

If the answer be nay, then please don't post repeat accusations on the forum.

If the answer be yea, then I respond thus;

In response to heartfelt pleas for (web)Diplomacy-related threads, I bump this one.

Before us we see a chance to improve this site with grammatical fastidiousness. Diplomats! Who is going to help me save webDiplomacy from the scourge of commas that daily rear their misplaced heads on this forum? Do you love your family? Do you love your country? Do you love the webDiplomacy forum? Do you think English would be better off with a governing authority? Hear the call of liberty and help your saviour amend the source-code!

Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college.”

Kurt Vonnegut

I love cooking my family and my pets. (Use commas--Don't be a psycho!)

Here's another problem with English: Some languages, like Japanese and Spanish, are nearly 100% phonetic, meaning that each symbol stands for one sound. In Spanish, for example, the letter "a" always sounds like the vowel in hot, lot, faun, awful (disclaimer--this depends on your dialect, because this sound varies from place to place in the English-speaking world). The letter "o" always sounds like the "o" in vote, note, lope, soap, hotel (disclaimer--the vowel quality is different in Spanish, maintaining its tenseness the whole time instead of sliding to a "u" or "uh" sound as it often does in English), etc. But in English, the actual sounds of a syllable or word are different if the word is stressed or not: "an apple" can be "uh-n (sounds like sun) apple" or "aaan (sounds like man) apple," for example. Another example is the word water: In ordinary conversation (in much of the English-speaking world), the "t" is a flap, somewhere between a "t" and a "d" sound, but in precise communication, "What's this?? I asked for WATER," the "t" is often pronounced as a "t."

@ Mujas

I've been saying "water" to myself for a couple of minutes now, and confess I have no idea what you're on about. Somewhere between a t and a d?!? I don't know if I can even make a halfway t-d noise :p. I've only ever heard it as a distinct "t" sound, or not at all (as in "wa'er")

Octavious I don't know how they do it where you're from but in the midwest USA it's pretty distinct, almost, "wadder."

Really?

I'm trying to work out why someone would do that. Perhaps there is something about the accent that makes wadder flow better than water?

In the South West of England it is quite common to drop t's. Wa'er is something teachers are constantly trying to beat out of their pupils, and is considered lazy speaking by those against that sort of thing. "Wadder" (and indeed "bedder" or "wedder") sounds quite babyish to my ears, so maybe because of that we're culturally inclined to avoid it. It may also go some way to explaining the "stupid American" stereotype... although that's stretching things a tad...

"You are posting too frequently, please slow down."

Kestas, you really need to remove this message for mods.

"In the South West of England it is quite common to drop t's. Wa'er is something teachers are constantly trying to beat out of their pupils, and is considered lazy speaking by those against that sort of thing. "Wadder" (and indeed "bedder" or "wedder") sounds quite babyish to my ears, so maybe because of that we're culturally inclined to avoid it. It may also go some way to explaining the "stupid American" stereotype... although that's stretching things a tad... "

Its not that surprising. Different speech communities, different accents. In the UK you seem to have a different accent in every town.

For example why is it some many people from London sound like they have a speech impediment, saying things like "free" they mean "three". You would think the English would know how to speak their own language.

I'm from New England, and to add to the topic of how to pronounce "water", I would use more of the sound somewhere between t and d. The point is that it's different everywhere, though there is something that sounds more professional in the way the English talk, and something that sounds almost more lazy in the way Mid-Westerners talk. (Not trying to offend anyone, just an opinion).

jmo1121109: No! There are more messages lacking semi-colons? (Gasp/gulp!)

Mujus: I don't know what dialect of English you speak, ha ha, but I neither pronounce 'hot' the same way I pronounce 'hat' nor pronounce 'faun' the same way I pronounce 'fan'.

But as to your argument, in Spanish there are big differences in regional pronunciation too. The differences in pronunciation don't make new spelling of a word necessary. The 'll' is pronounced quite differently in Spain (where it acts like a 'y') and Argentina (where it acts something like a hard 'sh'), for example, but 'rain' is still 'lluvia'.

Octavious and spyman: It does sound a bit like 'wa'er', actually. The 'd/t' sound is almost silent. And the '-er' is also often indistinct, ha ha.

jmo1121109: Actually, jokes aside, these are probably changes I could do to the source code. I know that used to be a common response on the forum to requests for features: 'Oh really? That would be nice? Then code it yourself.' Maybe it will give me a feeling of giving back to the community.

Some people pronounce water as war-ta, what a crazy world we live in.

And some warsh their cahs.

Learning a bit of Vietnamese, I've really started to appreciate that almost no European language seems to pronounce stuff how they weite it or vice versa. Also, we are terribly sloppy when it comes to emphasis in a sentence. Depending on emphasis, the question "Did you take the book?!" can be interpreted in tons of ways.

Did YOU take the book?!
Did you TAKE the book?!
Didi you take THE book?!
Did you take the BOOK?!

Vietnamese, being a very recently transliterated language, is very precise on both counts, while most western languages aptend to accept hugely divergent pronounciations for basically the same letters.

Talk about how things can be interpreted... Here is a Facebook update.

At JFK airport on way to an audition as an impressionist. Really hot, wearing a woolly jumper. Can't wait to take off.

One would assume if the poster meant taking off the jumper, they would have said "take it off" but possibly not.

I assume the wolly jumper is a sexy piece of clothing and they are of the opinion that this makes them hot... (or Haut, as some wouod pronounce it)

I was amused by the Bristol accent's pronounciation of free for the word i mispronounced tree.

But wadder/wa'er/water are three very different things, soft T/silent T/hard T (if that is a good description)
I just think wadder looks like it would be prononced like the word wade - wih an 'ah' sound rather than the 'aw' in water.

emoji is the future anyway when will this site support emoji

Don't forget wadduh. Wadduh! I needs me sum wadduh!

Draugnar: That was what I meant with my last comment to Octavious and spyman, my Cincinnatian.

Just don't axe me a question. I absolutely despise that pronunciation. Don't we teach anything in school anymore?

In Dutch, water can be translated as: water
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_OmhZ_LIXNA/T7qbg6io6EI/AAAAAAAABOI/LhcayqTnBus/s180/bert.gif

Inj German it is Wasser.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/cb73168e550e1fd80e68faba782148d9/tumblr_mkcxgfcKRo1rdd661o6_250.gif

@ orathaic

Free and three is an odd one. I've lived in Somerset most of my life and I honestly can't hear any difference between the two words. To my ears they are identical. I believe it is a similar thing to the Japanese not hearing any difference between r and l sounds.