HI Re

Ken Blake, MVP wrote:
On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 10:44:50 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:


I just heard on the radio a couple of days ago, by no means for the
first time, that "facetiously" is a word in which the English vowels
appear once each in alphabetical order (in the English version of the
alphabet, of course).


Nah, you probably heard that about "facetious," not "facetiously." g


If one is inclined to be arbitrary, then 'y' as a semi-vowel (e.g. used
as a syllable or completing a diphthong) could be included and complete
that alphabetical arrangement.

--
....winston
msft mvp consumer apps

On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 12:14:41 -0700, ...winston?
wrote:

Ken Blake, MVP wrote:
On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 10:44:50 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:


I just heard on the radio a couple of days ago, by no means for the
first time, that "facetiously" is a word in which the English vowels
appear once each in alphabetical order (in the English version of the
alphabet, of course).


Nah, you probably heard that about "facetious," not "facetiously." g


If one is inclined to be arbitrary, then 'y' as a semi-vowel (e.g. used
as a syllable or completing a diphthong) could be included and complete
that alphabetical arrangement.


But if you include "y" as a semi-vowel, you should also include "w."
So it should be "facetiouslwy," but as far as I know. there's no such
word. g

On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 12:05:39 -0700, Ken Blake, MVP wrote:

On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 10:44:50 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:

I just heard on the radio a couple of days ago, by no means for the
first time, that "facetiously" is a word in which the English vowels
appear once each in alphabetical order (in the English version of the
alphabet, of course).

Nah, you probably heard that about "facetious," not "facetiously." g

I can tell - you are being facetiouslwy again...

(Yes, I read your later post!)

But really, w is not quite a semivowel. I can pronounce 'lyric', but not
'lwric'.

OTOH, if I were Welsh...

But staying with pedantry for a second longer, y is not even a
semivowel. It is used both as a vowel and as a consonant, separately.

And for instant proof that I am wrong, look at this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semivowel

I had to laugh at myself...

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 13:44:40 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:

On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 12:05:39 -0700, Ken Blake, MVP wrote:

On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 10:44:50 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:

I just heard on the radio a couple of days ago, by no means for the
first time, that "facetiously" is a word in which the English vowels
appear once each in alphabetical order (in the English version of the
alphabet, of course).

Nah, you probably heard that about "facetious," not "facetiously." g

I can tell - you are being facetiouslwy again...

(Yes, I read your later post!)

But really, w is not quite a semivowel. I can pronounce 'lyric', but not
'lwric'.

OTOH, if I were Welsh...


You would say "looric."

You took the words almost out of my mouth. I was about to cite
"crwth."


But staying with pedantry for a second longer, y is not even a
semivowel. It is used both as a vowel and as a consonant, separately.

And for instant proof that I am wrong, look at this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semivowel

I had to laugh at myself...


If we are being pedantic, as far as I'm concerned, the word "vowel"
basically refers to sounds, not letters of the alphabet. And there are
a lot more than five, so neither "facetious" nor "facetiously"
qualifies as containing all of them.

And while I'm on the subject, "diphthong" also refers to sounds, not
letters. So the "ou" in ""would" is not a diphthong, but the "o" in
"coffee" is, if you're a New Yawkuh.

But you probably know all this.

On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 14:12:07 -0700, Ken Blake, MVP wrote:

On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 13:44:40 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:

On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 12:05:39 -0700, Ken Blake, MVP wrote:

On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 10:44:50 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:

I just heard on the radio a couple of days ago, by no means for the
first time, that "facetiously" is a word in which the English vowels
appear once each in alphabetical order (in the English version of the
alphabet, of course).

Nah, you probably heard that about "facetious," not "facetiously." g

I can tell - you are being facetiouslwy again...

(Yes, I read your later post!)

But really, w is not quite a semivowel. I can pronounce 'lyric', but not
'lwric'.

OTOH, if I were Welsh...

You would say "looric."

You took the words almost out of my mouth. I was about to cite
"crwth."


But staying with pedantry for a second longer, y is not even a
semivowel. It is used both as a vowel and as a consonant, separately.

And for instant proof that I am wrong, look at this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semivowel

I had to laugh at myself...

If we are being pedantic, as far as I'm concerned, the word "vowel"
basically refers to sounds, not letters of the alphabet. And there are
a lot more than five, so neither "facetious" nor "facetiously"
qualifies as containing all of them.

And while I'm on the subject, "diphthong" also refers to sounds, not
letters. So the "ou" in ""would" is not a diphthong, but the "o" in
"coffee" is, if you're a New Yawkuh.

But you probably know all this.

Well, when I imitate a New Yorker, I don't pronounce the 'o' in coffee
as a diphthong. I lack character, though. Oops, I mean I lack the IPA
characters to show what I mean.

Google helped. It's this one: É” - which if it doesn't show properly here
is the one that looks a bit like a backwards 'c'.

But that pronunciation might keep me from passing in NYC...

As for what 'vowel' means, I kind of thought people would think I was
talking abut letters, since I was talking about alphabetic order. I
don't even know the alphabetical order of the IPA subset for
English...Or even how many vowels there are in English, even if I limit
it to my own idiolect.

As fro what 'vowel' means, my American Heritage Dictionary thinks it
means:

1. A speech sound, such as (they show two symbols) created by the
relatively free passage of breath ... etc.

2. A letter, such as a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y in the English
alphabet, that represents a vowel.

And we should now hoist a different kind of IPA to celebrate the
incipient weekend.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 16:26:09 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:

On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 14:12:07 -0700, Ken Blake, MVP wrote:

On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 13:44:40 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:

On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 12:05:39 -0700, Ken Blake, MVP wrote:

On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 10:44:50 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:

I just heard on the radio a couple of days ago, by no means for the
first time, that "facetiously" is a word in which the English vowels
appear once each in alphabetical order (in the English version of the
alphabet, of course).

Nah, you probably heard that about "facetious," not "facetiously." g

I can tell - you are being facetiouslwy again...

(Yes, I read your later post!)

But really, w is not quite a semivowel. I can pronounce 'lyric', but not
'lwric'.

OTOH, if I were Welsh...

You would say "looric."

You took the words almost out of my mouth. I was about to cite
"crwth."


But staying with pedantry for a second longer, y is not even a
semivowel. It is used both as a vowel and as a consonant, separately.

And for instant proof that I am wrong, look at this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semivowel

I had to laugh at myself...

If we are being pedantic, as far as I'm concerned, the word "vowel"
basically refers to sounds, not letters of the alphabet. And there are
a lot more than five, so neither "facetious" nor "facetiously"
qualifies as containing all of them.

And while I'm on the subject, "diphthong" also refers to sounds, not
letters. So the "ou" in ""would" is not a diphthong, but the "o" in
"coffee" is, if you're a New Yawkuh.

But you probably know all this.

Well, when I imitate a New Yorker, I don't pronounce the 'o' in coffee
as a diphthong. I lack character, though. Oops, I mean I lack the IPA
characters to show what I mean.

Google helped. It's this one: ? - which if it doesn't show properly here
is the one that looks a bit like a backwards 'c'.

But that pronunciation might keep me from passing in NYC...

As for what 'vowel' means, I kind of thought people would think I was
talking abut letters, since I was talking about alphabetic order. I
don't even know the alphabetical order of the IPA subset for
English...Or even how many vowels there are in English, even if I limit
it to my own idiolect.

As fro what 'vowel' means, my American Heritage Dictionary thinks it
means:

1. A speech sound, such as (they show two symbols) created by the
relatively free passage of breath ... etc.

2. A letter, such as a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y in the English
alphabet, that represents a vowel.

And we should now hoist a different kind of IPA to celebrate the
incipient weekend.

I lived in NYC for a while, back in the 60s and got somewhat familiar
with their dialect. Then I moved to Boston and was completely
overwhelmed. There was that story about John F. Kennedy...He pahked
his cah in Hahvahd Yahd, then gave a lecture on Afirker. Gordon

On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 16:26:09 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:

On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 14:12:07 -0700, Ken Blake, MVP wrote:


And while I'm on the subject, "diphthong" also refers to sounds, not
letters. So the "ou" in ""would" is not a diphthong, but the "o" in
"coffee" is, if you're a New Yawkuh.

But you probably know all this.

Well, when I imitate a New Yorker, I don't pronounce the 'o' in coffee
as a diphthong. I lack character, though. Oops, I mean I lack the IPA
characters to show what I mean.


It's very hard to accurately imitate speech from a different part of
the world. But without IPA, very roughly, New Yorkers say kaw-uhfee,
and most others say kahfee.

I'm an ex-New Yorker, so I'm somewhere in the middle.


And we should now hoist a different kind of IPA to celebrate the
incipient weekend.


LOL! I drink very little beer (I almost always prefer wine), but if I
do drink beer, it's almost never IPA, which I don't particularly
like--too hoppy for my taste.


So I'll hoist my Bordeaux to your IPA. (And be happy we're not
hoisting any petards).

On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 16:41:01 -0700, "Ken Blake, MVP"
wrote:

On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 16:26:09 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:

On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 14:12:07 -0700, Ken Blake, MVP wrote:


And while I'm on the subject, "diphthong" also refers to sounds, not
letters. So the "ou" in ""would" is not a diphthong, but the "o" in
"coffee" is, if you're a New Yawkuh.

But you probably know all this.

Well, when I imitate a New Yorker, I don't pronounce the 'o' in coffee
as a diphthong. I lack character, though. Oops, I mean I lack the IPA
characters to show what I mean.


It's very hard to accurately imitate speech from a different part of
the world. But without IPA, very roughly, New Yorkers say kaw-uhfee,
and most others say kahfee.

Yeah, and they spell it kawphy, I've been told??? Gordon

I'm an ex-New Yorker, so I'm somewhere in the middle.


And we should now hoist a different kind of IPA to celebrate the
incipient weekend.


LOL! I drink very little beer (I almost always prefer wine), but if I
do drink beer, it's almost never IPA, which I don't particularly
like--too hoppy for my taste.


So I'll hoist my Bordeaux to your IPA. (And be happy we're not
hoisting any petards).

On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 16:41:01 -0700, Ken Blake, MVP wrote:

On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 16:26:09 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:

On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 14:12:07 -0700, Ken Blake, MVP wrote:


And while I'm on the subject, "diphthong" also refers to sounds, not
letters. So the "ou" in ""would" is not a diphthong, but the "o" in
"coffee" is, if you're a New Yawkuh.

But you probably know all this.

Well, when I imitate a New Yorker, I don't pronounce the 'o' in coffee
as a diphthong. I lack character, though. Oops, I mean I lack the IPA
characters to show what I mean.

It's very hard to accurately imitate speech from a different part of
the world. But without IPA, very roughly, New Yorkers say kaw-uhfee,
and most others say kahfee.

I'm an ex-New Yorker, so I'm somewhere in the middle.

And we should now hoist a different kind of IPA to celebrate the
incipient weekend.

LOL! I drink very little beer (I almost always prefer wine), but if I
do drink beer, it's almost never IPA, which I don't particularly
like--too hoppy for my taste.

So I'll hoist my Bordeaux to your IPA. (And be happy we're not
hoisting any petards).

My bad. I don't drink IPA :-)

I do prefer beer and ale, but generally not IPA, to wine. This won't
come as a surprise to you: I said what I did because of the *other*
context :-)

I do my best not to hoist a petard, or worse, to be hoist on one.

Cheers!

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 17:20:53 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:

On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 16:41:01 -0700, Ken Blake, MVP wrote:

On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 16:26:09 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:

On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 14:12:07 -0700, Ken Blake, MVP wrote:


And while I'm on the subject, "diphthong" also refers to sounds, not
letters. So the "ou" in ""would" is not a diphthong, but the "o" in
"coffee" is, if you're a New Yawkuh.

But you probably know all this.

Well, when I imitate a New Yorker, I don't pronounce the 'o' in coffee
as a diphthong. I lack character, though. Oops, I mean I lack the IPA
characters to show what I mean.

It's very hard to accurately imitate speech from a different part of
the world. But without IPA, very roughly, New Yorkers say kaw-uhfee,
and most others say kahfee.

I'm an ex-New Yorker, so I'm somewhere in the middle.

And we should now hoist a different kind of IPA to celebrate the
incipient weekend.

LOL! I drink very little beer (I almost always prefer wine), but if I
do drink beer, it's almost never IPA, which I don't particularly
like--too hoppy for my taste.

So I'll hoist my Bordeaux to your IPA. (And be happy we're not
hoisting any petards).

My bad. I don't drink IPA :-)

I do prefer beer and ale,


As I understand it, there are two kinds of beer--lager and ale,
depending on whether the yeast works on the bottom or the top. And IPA
is a kind of ale, which is a kind of beer. So you can talk about
lager and ale, but not about beer and ale (sorry to be pedantic
again).


but generally not IPA, to wine. This won't
come as a surprise to you: I said what I did because of the *other*
context :-)

I do my best not to hoist a petard, or worse, to be hoist on one.

Cheers!


Hic! Same to you (but tonight it was martinis, not wine). g

On 24/10/2014 9:13 PM, Ken Blake, MVP wrote:
On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 12:14:41 -0700, ...winston?
wrote:

Ken Blake, MVP wrote:
On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 10:44:50 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:


I just heard on the radio a couple of days ago, by no means for the
first time, that "facetiously" is a word in which the English vowels
appear once each in alphabetical order (in the English version of the
alphabet, of course).


Nah, you probably heard that about "facetious," not "facetiously." g


If one is inclined to be arbitrary, then 'y' as a semi-vowel (e.g. used
as a syllable or completing a diphthong) could be included and complete
that alphabetical arrangement.


But if you include "y" as a semi-vowel, you should also include "w."
So it should be "facetiouslwy," but as far as I know. there's no such
word. g


There probably is in Welsh - it's a strange language produced largely by
taking the vowels out of English words and replacing them with "Y"s. :-)
My favourite place name in Wales is Ynysybyl - where all four "y"s are
pronounced differentlwy. Something like "Unissable.

--
Bob Tetbury, Gloucestershire, UK

I'd give my right hand to be ambidextrous.

Ken Blake, MVP wrote:
On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 12:14:41 -0700, ...winston?
wrote:

Ken Blake, MVP wrote:
On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 10:44:50 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:


I just heard on the radio a couple of days ago, by no means for the
first time, that "facetiously" is a word in which the English vowels
appear once each in alphabetical order (in the English version of the
alphabet, of course).


Nah, you probably heard that about "facetious," not "facetiously." g


If one is inclined to be arbitrary, then 'y' as a semi-vowel (e.g. used
as a syllable or completing a diphthong) could be included and complete
that alphabetical arrangement.


But if you include "y" as a semi-vowel, you should also include "w."
So it should be "facetiouslwy," but as far as I know. there's no such
word. g

No, it would only apply to the word correctly spelled. One can't claim a
letter is a semi-vowel in word that does not include the letter.


--
....winston
msft mvp consumer apps

On Sat, 25 Oct 2014 09:46:11 +0100, Bob Henson
wrote:

On 24/10/2014 9:13 PM, Ken Blake, MVP wrote:

But if you include "y" as a semi-vowel, you should also include "w."
So it should be "facetiouslwy," but as far as I know. there's no such
word. g


There probably is in Welsh - it's a strange language produced largely by
taking the vowels out of English words and replacing them with "Y"s. :-)
My favourite place name in Wales is Ynysybyl - where all four "y"s are
pronounced differentlwy. Something like "Unissable.



As I said earlier, the word "vowel" really refers to a sound, not a
letter. So Welsh doesn't take out vowels, it just sometimes uses
different letters to represent them. Yes, "y" is common, but so is
"w." My favorite word is "crwth," pronounced "crooth." And by the way,
our name for that letter--double-you--more accurately describes its
sound in Welsh than in English.

Of course many languages use glyphs other than English letters to
represent them; a few examples are Russian, Greek, Arabic, and Hebrew.
So Welsh really isn't strange or unusual in that regard. As far as I'm
concerned, what's strange about Welsh is that it uses the same letters
we do, but some of them are pronounced very differently.

On 20/10/2014 01:57, Gene E. Bloch wrote:
On Sun, 19 Oct 2014 15:39:19 +0100, Norman wrote:

On Sat, 18 Oct 2014 23:28:57 +0100, "whizz"
wrote:

Hi, I have tinnitus, it's like a high frequency noise that disturbs
concentration and sleep. I suffer from this disease for 10 years long.
Is this related with Windows 8?
"Roderick Stewart" escreveu na mensagem
...
No. The noise is coming from inside your head. Even a tinfoil hat
cannot protect you from it.

...

If I put wet cotton in ears, I get about 10% noise reduction, so the source
is external.

Not true. Wet cotton is known to reduce the efficacy of the neural
connections between the ears and the brain.


In the case of the OP, he clearly does not need help from wet cotton.
The short circuit between his ears is proof of no neural connections.

On 25/10/2014 4:12 PM, Ken Blake, MVP wrote:
On Sat, 25 Oct 2014 09:46:11 +0100, Bob Henson
wrote:

On 24/10/2014 9:13 PM, Ken Blake, MVP wrote:

But if you include "y" as a semi-vowel, you should also include "w."
So it should be "facetiouslwy," but as far as I know. there's no such
word. g


There probably is in Welsh - it's a strange language produced largely by
taking the vowels out of English words and replacing them with "Y"s. :-)
My favourite place name in Wales is Ynysybyl - where all four "y"s are
pronounced differentlwy. Something like "Unissable.



As I said earlier, the word "vowel" really refers to a sound, not a
letter. So Welsh doesn't take out vowels, it just sometimes uses
different letters to represent them. Yes, "y" is common, but so is
"w." My favorite word is "crwth," pronounced "crooth." And by the way,
our name for that letter--double-you--more accurately describes its
sound in Welsh than in English.

Of course many languages use glyphs other than English letters to
represent them; a few examples are Russian, Greek, Arabic, and Hebrew.
So Welsh really isn't strange or unusual in that regard. As far as I'm
concerned, what's strange about Welsh is that it uses the same letters
we do, but some of them are pronounced very differently.


Equally interesting (to me, anyway) is the letter "thorn" in old
English. The old runic letter came to be written as "Y" - so "ye old
inn" was actually pronounced "the old inn" at the time, and eventually
came to be written as the digraph that we know now. Etymology is
something I would have liked to have studied, but it's always finding
time, is it not.

--
Bob Tetbury, Gloucestershire, UK

Forced to choose between two evils - pick the one you haven't tried before!