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Re: CHAT: new names (was: Re: Bopomofo and pinyin)

From:Ed Heil <edheil@...>
Date:Saturday, January 22, 2000, 21:43
John Cowan wrote:

> Indeed. But some poeple here have read enough non-American works > to actually have different association to "gray" and "grey", making > a (mild) semantic distinction where none was before. > Moss caricatures this as "the lure of the mysterious East in > Kipling's spelling of 'pyjamas'", but it's a real effect. > > For myself, "gray" is neutral to mildly negative ("battleship gray", e.g.); > "grey" is positive and associated with mist. The fantasy novel > "The Grey Mane of Morning", originally published in the U.K., > kept the same title when published here.
I was just musing about this fact before I read your post. For me, "gray" is a yellowy, warm gray (the letter "a" is yellow), whereas "grey" is either a pure or a cool/blue grey (the letter "e" being grey itself or perhaps light blue). The first (grey) would better describe an overcast day, the second (grey) a misty night. The second seems also more positive to me, but then the letteer e is more positive to me than a. --------------------------------------------------------------------- edheil@postmark.net --------------------------------------------------------------------- "Bill Gates is a white Persian cat and a monocle away from becoming another James Bond villain. 'No Mr Bond, I expect you to upgrade.'" --Dennis Miller ---------------------------------------------------------------------