Re: txt msgs & BrSc

At 12:42 am -0500 18/6/01, Eric Christopherson wrote:
>On Sun, Jun 17, 2001 at 6:36:24PM +0100, Raymond Brown wrote:
[snip]
>> If all youngsters who indulge in web chats & ICQ messaging were familiar
>> with this use of {txt}, I would agree.  But I can assure you, that as a
>> lecturer in Computer Science I am painfully aware that now (unlike 10 years
>> ago) on this side of the the vast majority of my students have no idea what
>> filename suffixes are and are hopelessly lost outside their Windows
>> environment
>
>Hmm, I hadn't realized Chairman Bill's sinister plan had achieved that much
>success.
'fraid so over here.

>  But anyway, I hardly ever see anyone online type <txt> when they
>mean <text>; usually they just type out the whole word (even people who say
>"how ru? im fine"). And I don't usually hear such messages called "text
>messages," since (presumably) it's assumed they be text.
"text message" is the normal phrase over here; and they do write it as
'txt', tho the final -t tends to be lost in pronunciation.  The verb I hear
used among students is "to tex [somone]", with present participle "texing".

>> - and as for other operating systems, forget them; and as for
>> trying to teach them to program, I think I'd have more success if I tried
>> teaching them Sanskrit.  As a programmer, I find it depressing so few are
>> interested - but I'm getting a bit off topic now.
>
>There, there.
...and thanks to Chairman Bill, if any do get round to anything resembling
programming it's as likely as not to Visual Basic - ach!
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At 12:39 pm -0400 18/6/01, Roger Mills wrote:
>John Cowan wrote:
>>Here too.  I even know some Javiers who think the English version of
>>their name is /Eksejvi@r/!
>>
>
>?????  Isn't it?
This side of the pond, at least, 'twas always /"zejvi@(r)/ when I was young
and, indeed, still is so among those of us who still say /"zaijl@f@wn/.

I guess from John's mail that 'twas so once so in the US also.

Of course in the original old Spanish name the initial {x} represented /S/
which, together with {j} = /Z/, has become /x/ in modern Spanish, hence the
modern spelling 'Javier'.

Ray.

=========================================
A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
                   [J.G. Hamann 1760]
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