SE23 Forum

Next thing people will be complaining about is the 'Sharers Special' and the 12" pizza's.
Don't we have anything better to do?

Nope, nothing at all.

But I don't look on it as complaining, just helping a local business improve their publicity materials. Where is the harm in that? I'm a bit like AMFM - sloppy punctuation and poor proofreading on posters / fliers gives me the impression that this is a business that's not bothered about getting things right. As we have seen from earlier posts in this thread, this is far from the case with Question Bar.

The devil is in the details.

Kelly - your comment is unnecessarily rude. I do have a life - it may not be as kerr-azy as yours, but it is mine and I'm rather fond of it.

I happen to think it's important to get the little things right as it can, and does, make a big difference to how a business is perceived.

AMFM, it is in my opinion that if anyone has been unnecessarily rude,the only person you should be looking at is yourself.

I don't know why I look on here sometimes as it's comments like the ones you offer up that actually make me ashamed and embarrassed to not only look at this site, but sometimes ashamed to actually live in an area where there are people like you who can cut down, without thought, people or a local business that are finally trying to strive for better things in their own community, for the benefit of not only themselves but for the people who live in it, shame on you.

To go on and fully back it up with a comment to Kelly that would not be out of place in the playground giving me a bit of insight into the type of person you are should give me some heart though I guess.

I think it's time for me to check out.

So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, good night

....one more thing though, a message to Question bar.

GOOD LUCK!!!!

You'll need it I think

Cheeky - you don't know me, you know nothing about me and have absolutely no insight into the kind of person I am. You have actually managed to upset me quite deeply first thing in the morning - I do hope you're proud of yourself.

My comments were not an attempt to "cut" anyone down. Why is it so awful to want to see things done properly - if Question Bar (and I do think they are) are trying to improve, then where's the harm in pointing out areas for improvement?

I see that the relentless advance of 'bored of', at the expense of 'bored with' and 'bored by', has reached even these august columns.

Why oh why are more and more BBC reporters pronouncing 'comrade' as 'COM-rad', as if it were French or German or Russian or something, rather than the well-established 'COM -r'd' (which is what the Oxford English Dictionary gives' or 'COM- raid'? I heard it again on the news this lunchtime, in the context of WWII bomber crews. Do others find it as irritating as I do?

Robin - you can abbreviate 'Why, oh why' to YOY if you like. It's a new abbreviation popular on forums where people oft come to complain (see, for example, its widespread use on the Archers message board). If you are going to spell it out correctly, don't forget the comma.

I hadn't noticed COMrad. I have noticed, however, many BBC radio presenters saying 'tuh' instead of 'to' which vexes me greatly.

Thanks for your helpful advice, Rachael. I should perhaps explain (but not of course seek to excuse) my omission of the commas in 'why oh why'. It was deliberate, and was intended to emphasize, in what I hoped was an amusingly satirical way, the formulaic nature of the phrase. 'Why-oh-why' might, on reflection, have been better. In fact, perhaps I was moving towards the as yet unknown (to me) 'YOY' without realising it.

I haven't looked at 'The Archers' message board recently. I used to do so regularly - in fact, I once actually joined (under the name 'Theosebeia') , but was kept in pre-mod ('-modd'?) for what seemed to me to be an unreasonable length of time, so I gave up.
I do hope posters are treating the current melodramatic, boring and depressing story line with the scorn it deserves.

I am quite sad about the way the Archers is going. Used to love the carefully crafted, slowly-developing plot lines and the convincing way the feasibly-numbered tragedies and dramas resonated through the decades. Now we seem to just ricochet from one unnecessary, unconvincing crisis to the next.

I knew your omission of the comma was a stylistic choice, made for effect. I was teasing.

As for the Archers - yes, Robin, derision abounds on the message board. I read it but contribute rarely as it is a bit of a closed shop. And yes, Jane, I (and the message board) agree with everything you just said.

Phew! (wipes his brow). Thank goodness for that!

And while we're on the subject of BBC pronunciation, does anyone get as irritated as I do when announcers pronounce Sinai (currently in the news) as SIGH-nigh rather than (as I was brought up to say) SIGH-nay-eye? They all seem to do it. My researches, though inconclusive, suggest this pronunciation may (surprise!) be American in origin. Yet more linguistic defeatism by the BBC.

Do your researches suggest how natives to the region pronounce Sinai? That would be the definitively correct way, I would have thought.

The Arabic appears to transliterate as S?n?’, which I assume is something like See-nah. But in any case I don't think we should be obliged to follow current native pronunciation (or spelling) of names which have been part of our culture for a very long time, e.g. names from the Bible or classical antiquity (or 'Paris', if it comes to that.)

Veni, veni Adonai!
Qui populo in Sinai,
Legem dedisti vertice,
In maiestate gloriae

No doubt you will have sung that in your youth, Rachael.

See-nay or See-nigh would be closest to the Hebrew pronunciation (and would rhyme with Adonay). However, it would be fair to assume that Hebrew/Aramaic/Egyptian pronunciation has varied slightly in the last few millennium. How it would be pronounced in Latin I don't know.

'See -nah -ee', I think, in both classical and ecclesiastical Latin. 'Adonai' would be 'A-don-ah-ee'. Three syllables rather than two, as in my preferred Olde Englysshe pronunciation.

my vote goes to Robin Orten, definately 3 rather than one or two

Given the linguistic origin I think it is a bit moot to debate a correct pronunciation in English.

I'm reminded of the way the Greek dipthong eu (romanised) is said in English. One example of many is Perseus - most correctly/pedantically this rhymes with Zeus and has the same ending stress. Hardly anyone says Zay-yus but if you say Per-soos, people look a bit oddly at you. (Not that I mind that a bit)

Common usage always wins I'm afraid.