By spencer, Tuesday, November 13, 2007 · 8:41 am

So after a brief conversation with DAC [1] today I formed a thought. Those of you that know me know that forming a thought is not only an arduous but more often than not a complete failure. As a result I accept no blame - DAC is solely responsible for this opinion:

Why doesn’t the non-English speaking world start speaking better English? I went out of my way to learn Spanglish, and I continue to learn but figuring out how to add the simple “oh” (long O) sound to the end of words. Yes it is as hard as it sounds. For example, bright urple just doesn’t lend itself to an “O” at the end; however if you drop the “le” and add then add the “oh” you’re in business. Brighto Purpo. Another good example, lets see how many non-English speakers can define Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia [2]. Since their native language is not English they will not know the definition. Now ask me for the definition of the Spanglish version, Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobiao [3]. Spanglish, being a good language, means that the words that now end in “oh” have the exact same defintion as they do in native English.

[1]
The person, not the security model. Although they are interchangeable.
[2]
For those of you enrolled in ESL both variants refer to people afraid of very long words. I learned this back in high school from a English teacher, Mr. Ehrman. English is so bad ass we have a word that drives fear in the heart of those who fear that type of word.
[3]
The Spanglish version is actually pronounced Hippopotomonstrosesquippedalio-fabio, just like the English speaking pimp from the 80s.

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Currently 2 comments

  1. Comment by dac

    If I had any responsibility for this comment it would at least reflect the abilities of an eight year old public school trained US American. Even your “PHP powered” blog engine is smart enough to highlight “urple” and “defintion” as misspelled. The responsibility for these comments are solely yours until you give me full write access to these pages. Oh wait, you’re using WordPress; never mind.

  2. Comment by spencer

    I’ll take responsibility for this post, after all I was trained in private school where they beat me with wet noodles until I became responsible. But, “bright urple” is the correct spelling according to Celebrity Jeopardy. And my blog isn’t powered by PHP, I actually generate each page by hand on request. Comment write access is good enough, perhaps even too much.

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