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USAGE: Amateurs (was: Language of saurian/reptilian beings)

From:Jan van Steenbergen <ijzeren_jan@...>
Date:Friday, September 27, 2002, 14:29
 --- John Cowan wrote:

> Mild usage note: In English, "amateur" implies that one actually > practices the art mentioned: an "amateur poet" is not merely one who loves > poetry, but one who actually writes poems, though not for money. It may > also suggest incompetence in the art, but by no means necessarily so.
In such a case one would rather call somebody a "dilettant", I believe.
> If, as I suppose, this is not actually the case for either of you, > you might wish to issue a clarification.
No. Although I was a semi-professional singer for a while, I have definitely never practiced Tuvan throat-singing. Very difficult to learn if you haven't done it since early childhood, it seems. I would love to learn it, though. Jan ===== "Originality is the art of concealing your source." - Franklin P. Jones __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Everything you'll ever need on one web page from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my.yahoo.com