Re: creolego "cannibalizes" AND "phagocytates" (wasRe: Gaelic

En réponse à Boudewijn Rempt <boud@...>:

>
> I've lived everywhere from Brabant to Leiden to Deventer, but
> apparently
> not in the Netherlands. I'm sorry to have had an opinion and will shut
> up
> now. I have not seen the books my children learn Dutch from, and I
> have
> not spoken to their teachers. I do not know that the method that's
> used
> to teach children is used through almost the whole of the Netherlands
> because
> there are only two left, and Zwijssen is the biggest.
>
Oh my god! I have hurted Boudewijn the Great, who knows everything and cannot
ever be wrong! So I guess I have to apologize. So I'm sorry. I'm sorry to have
eyes open with a sight quality that allowed me to become a fighter pilot. I'm
sorry to be interested in the Dutch "ij" so that I paid attention to it on the
street. I'm sorry to have seen an Albert Heijn supermarket in The Hague with
its name written vertically, and yet the "ij" was put as a single letter, not
as two above each other (but I guess Albert Heijn must be old fashioned and
silly). I'm sorry that even in the Albert Heijns where the name is written
horizontally, the space between the "i" and "j" is about three times as small
as the space between the other letters, making it clear and visible that it is
considered as one letter. I'm sorry to have seen what my friend's nephews were
taught. I'm sorry to have a dozen Dutch colleagues of my age in the laboratory
where I work from quite a few different places in Holland and all using "ij" as
a single letter and considering it so (but I guess they must all be old-
fashioned and silly). I'm sorry to have seen a commercial on the street (I
think it was for the Post, but I'm not sure) using cursive but disconnected
letters using a *connected* "ij", but disconnecting the letters in the
digraph "ou". I'm sorry to have seen that Lingo uses "ij" as a single letter
and that nobody (even players less than 30 years old) ever has a problem
spelling words that way (but I suppose it's all old-fashioned and silly). In
short, I'm sorry to let the facts decide, while it's quite obvious that I
should take what you say for granted and close my eyes in front of the
compelling evidence I get about everyday. I'm sorry, I hadn't realised that the
correct method is to have an already decided opinion and just dismiss all the
evidence against it as "old-fashioned and silly". I should have known that the
place where you live is the most advanced place and that the rest of the
Netherlands are obviously old-fashioned and silly. So I will from now on
write "ij" as two letters, and capitalising it the same way (as "Ij" thus,
since it's the only way to capitalise a digraph) and will dismiss all the
comments I get to do differently as "old-fashioned and silly".

>
> As you wish. No doubt you are correct.
> --
No! No! *You* are correct! I'm wrong, obviously, and all of the Netherlands
are "old-fashioned and silly", except a little place which moves with its
center called Boudewijn Rempt. Where you go, stores probably change very fast
their presentation to write their "ij"s as two letters, in order not to be
called "old-fashioned and silly" by the master of linguistic taste that you
are. And after your passage they go back to using "ij" as a single letter like
about everyone else in this "old-fashioned and silly" country. Against you, you
cannot expect 15 million people to be right, of course not!

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.