Language Poll of Randomness

[gnomi]

Just because I'm curious... And, yes, I've asked about one of these in the past.

[Poll #892612]

Comments

[byrne.livejournal.com]

Context: It is 'goodnight' unless I'm submitting to an American press, when it suddenly becomes 'good night' via search and replace.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

::snerk::

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

I wish you a "good night," but I give my children a goodnight kiss.

I prefer e-mail (or, better, an e-mail message, where "e-mail" describes the medium or the tool or the collective noun for "that which accumulates in my inbox" but not "an e-mail from Nomi"). But I'll sometimes allow myself to use email, even though it looks and feels wrong. (I think because in English there are few, if any, words spelled with an initial "e" in which it is pronounced as a long e. Then again, I'm also somewhat obsessive about diaereses.)

[byrne.livejournal.com]

I think because in English there are few, if any, words spelled with an initial "e" in which it is pronounced as a long e.

I suspect that regionalisms come into play here. Right off the top of my head I can think of several which I say with a long e: Eden, eventually, essential, even, eclipse, ellipsis, evolve, eternal. Some of those might even be correct, I suspect (and hope. At least even, eclipse and ellipsis).

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

I suspect that regionalisms come into play here.

You're probably right. Of your list, only "Eden" and "even" start with a long "e" for me; the rest start with "ih" or schwa.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Emu. :-)

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

emote, eject, erase, edict...

(there's your ellipsis :-P)

I could do this all day.

[violetcheetah.livejournal.com]

I wish you a "good night," but I give my children a goodnight kiss.

exactly what i was going to say.

[tru2myart.livejournal.com]

Cell phone when I think of a jail cell phone, cellphone when I'm using my mobile.

Goodnight when it's time for bed, good night when...well when I'm having a good night.

[tygerseye.livejournal.com]

"Have a good night." vs. "Goodnight, I'll see you in the morning."

And it's still "goodnight" when I submit it to an American press, unlike my Brain up there. ;-) (Thank you "Goodnight Moon".)

And Email. Actually, I prefer "email" with a lower case "e". "E-mail" is supposed to indicate that the "E" is short for something, in which case it ought to be "E. mail" or some such.

In the case of "Cell phone", "Cell" is an adjective, like "Cordless". Home phone, Work phone, Cell phone. Like that.

[byrne.livejournal.com]

But the e does stand for something as as e.mail isn't a convention anyone uses, we're left with E-mail at the beginning of a sentance and e-mail within.

I hate this language sometimes.

[tygerseye.livejournal.com]

It used to stand for something, but in modern language it doesn't anymore. It's just email, IMHO. E-mail is just clunky looking, especially for Americans who rarely use a "-" for anything and tend to squish things into one word...

Wait. Are you having a Deja Vu here, too? LOL. ;-)

[byrne.livejournal.com]

Noooooo, it still stands for 'electronic mail', I would argue. A meaning can evolve, but it's hardly lost in this case.

And yes, deja vu. But I still think US English uses FAR more hyphens than brit/can, compound words aside.

[byrne.livejournal.com]

and as. Not as as.

Lord.

[tygerseye.livejournal.com]

And I read that "and as" not "as as" anyway. Whoa. LOL

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

E-mail like o'clock. I guess someone could argue it should be e'mail.

[tygerseye.livejournal.com]

Except in o'clock the ' takes the place of missing letters and words (of the) so that's wouldn't be a very good argument. ;-)

email, then cell phone

[taxonomist.livejournal.com]

I first saw the hyphen dropped at O'Reilly & Associates, the computer book publisher with authors at the very front of the curve. I liked it. That said, these days I think it doesn't matter one way or the other. If I'm communicating to someone whose knowledge of the world is practically ancient, I'll use e-mail for clarity -- but only as the exception.

As for cell phone, since when did that get concatenated? Interesting. I think it should stay two words -- a bit of reversal, it might seem -- except the term "cell phone" is old news these days. It's MOBILE phone. Cellular technology is dying in a hurry.

Re: email, then cell phone

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

As for cell phone, since when did that get concatenated?

I've seen it concatenated for a while. For example, Paul Levinson titled his book Cellphone: The Story of the World's Most Mobile Medium and How It Has Transformed Everything! in 2004.

[tsuki-no-bara.livejournal.com]

"goodnight" vs "good night" mostly depends on how awake i am, how fast i'm typing, whether i'm typing a title or not (good night and good luck, say), how closely i'm paying attention, which one i think looks more right, what the context is, and whether or not i'm in the kind of mood that makes me want to squish words together.

"cell phone" is like "web site" - i just think it looks better as two words. "cellphone" looks weird to me.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I prefer "web site" as two words, but I think I've lost the battle on that one. "Website" is the predominant form, I believe.

[twitch124.livejournal.com]

I think e-mail is still formally correct, but strongly prefer email. But you know I'm a descriptivist anyway and can feel free to thwack me.

[violetcheetah.livejournal.com]

on cell( )phone, i took the middle road at work for a while and used "cell-phone." i'm a hyphen fiend. i'm leaning toward one word, now, though.

i am ambivalent on email. i use a hyphen with about every other "e": e-commerce and such. but i see email without the hyphen more often in my editing than with it, so i just go with most common, even though that leads to inconsistency.

on web site, i still capitalize "Web," but quity frankly, i'm getting tired of upcapping it, and the boston globe lowercases is and smushes it into one word, so i'm inclined to say screw it to chicago and follow the globe.

since i edit telecom-related stuff, these all come up a lot for me.

i bid you good night.

[lisafeld.livejournal.com]

For me it's noun/verb: I email someone, but I check my e-mail.

[zsero.livejournal.com]

My favourite needle is space.