Re: RANT: 'Cause' != 'Because' Re: Changing Language in a Modern Era

On Thursday, July 11, 2002, at 01:14 , Tristan McLeay wrote:

> If you're going to refuse to write 'because', can you please at least
> use 'coz' or ''cause' (or even 'cuz', which I've seen, but always
> reminds me of 'cud')? Coz the two words are pronounced nothing alike for
> me and cause me to have extreme difficult in working out what you meant,
Thanks, Tristan, you've manage to translate one of Abrigon's mails for me!
I genuinely could not understand his first sentence simply because, as you
say, I read "cause" as "cause" [kO;z] and not as [kQz] 'coz it wasn't
spelt like
that.

> requiring a second, third, fourth or even fifth reading before
> I can work it out,
You're more patient that I am.  Not understanding it on second reading,
I trashed it.

> but your job, as a writer, is to make it as easy as
> possible for me, the reader, to understand you.
This is IMHO even more the case now that the number of non-L1
English speakers on this list is happily increasing.

For goodness sake, if L1 speakers like Tristan & myself have trouble
understanding
this self-confessed lazy typist, how much more difficult must it be for
those on this list
for whom English their L2 or L3?

{snip}

> On Thu, 2002-07-11 at 10:03, Abrigon Gusiq wrote:
>> I remember reading years ago, that cause of our modern written language,
>> that the language is less likely to change as fast as it once did, or
>> not change at all. But anyone find anything to the contrary? Seems that
>> lingos change at much the same rate as it does without writting/TV and
>> like?
Umm - and like what?   I'm not certain I fully understand the last
sentence.

I fully endorse Tristan's rant.  Traffic is fairly high on this list at
the moment, but
I don't want to waste my time trying to decipher the delphic messages of
an L1
English speaker.

Ray.