Re: [tuning] Digest Number 1142

Joseph Pehrson wrote:

"I would like to advocate toleration for the different ways people
post messages on this list.

Some people can write in nice, polite English sentences, and there
are some people... more the "math heads" on this list who write great
math abstractions and can hardly spell or write a f...ing thing. So
what."

Joseph:

Each writer is free to choose the style and format she wishes. I'll be the first
to admit to a writing style full of eccentricities and prolix bad habits. I
wouldn't want it any other way. However, the choice - and often I suspect that
it is not a choice but rather plain laziness - of a radically unorthodox style
comes with the risk that one cannot be understood. It is my assumption that
everyone posting to the list has something important to say, and I don't want to
miss a word. Unfortunately, if the text is rendered so casually that it can't be
read by a second reader, and even by a native speaker, words will be missed and
mistaken.

My second assumption was that others on the list respect and dignify music, so
that when they speak or write about music it is done in a manner that shows
respect and dignity. This is pure value judgement on my part, so I withdraw this
with apologies.

Having recently moved to a new country, and one in which the local language was
completely opaque, I have once again experienced myself slipping into the
American conceit that if you speak loudly enough in broken English you will make
yourself understood anywhere. Above and beyond the rudeness of the assumption,
it just doesn't work that way. Non-native speakers do not converse in broken
English, but attempt to understand and be understood in a form of standard
English. People who have learned English in school do indeed learn an
unnaturally correct form of the language, but one that is comprehensible. On the
other hand, the casual usages of a native speaker go far beyond what can be
learnt in school.

If this list were restricted to North America, I wouldn't bother with this
complaint. What the hey, campers, you know, we could like do the whole enchilada
in el-lay dialect. Thataway, 'least Kraig'n'I'd be happy campers.

Later dates dude,

DJW