Those Pesky Accents
This is a cross-posting from my LJ writer’s blog
You may have noted that I tend to write ‘café’, rather than
‘cafe’. Writing HTML or TeX documents with accents or umlaute is a
pain, but there’s a handy list of special characters
and you’ll find that it’s amazingly easy, once you get used to it.
But some people don’t see why they should get used to it.
I can see the point with regard to fully anglicised words. A
coffeeshop is now known as a cafe, and why should it have a French
accent? But I still write ‘café’, maybe because my own
language has taught me the use of proper accents and umlaute.
However, this isn’t all. There are increasing cases of outright
language fascism where words are written without the right
spelling—which can change their meaning and does change the way they
sound. Recently, a member of the rasfic group asked for a
German translation of a word and then ranted that she never bothers
with umlaute. Charles Stross has written at least one book (‘The
Iron Sunrise’) which omits umlaute for his deliciously OTT
‘Über’ villains—a book, which I presume has passed across the
desk of an editor, and which I’m almost certain will be translated
into German. Not that editors are immune from language fascism or
that ignorance is a valid excuse. The editor of the 2004 ‘Waitrose
Food Illustrated’ Christmas edition (which is part of my foodie
magazine collection) clearly struggled with his conscience before
deciding to allow the ‘ø’ into ‘Stykkishølmur’ in a
feature about the Icelandic town. He dedicated his entire editorial
to it (‘…where the hell do you find it on the keyboard? I have to admit that I was flummoxed and called for Technical Support.’ Oh, purleeze. Is it a wonder nobody wants to man
the helpdesks?) Not satisfied with that, he continued to rant that
he didn’t have a clue about how to pronounce it. Is it helpful if I
say that ø sound a little but like ö?
Out with language fascism. It should be a requirement for all
English speakers to learn at least one foreign language from
primary school. Perhaps, that way they would also learn respect
for other languages
(Only 877 words yesterday, but on the Zaurus on a crowded train!)
Denni