Usage rant:

[azurelunatic]

Populous: having a lot of people living there. New York is a very populous city.

Populace: the people in general. The populace seems to find American Idol entertaining.


These words are not the same. They are homophones. They sound the same (at least in my accent). They are not spelled the same, and they should not be used the same.


Also:


Thou: archaic intimate form of "you". Thou art my beloved. Thy eyes are the sky reflected in smoky quartz. When I see thee, my heart explodes.

Though: short form of "although". Though the weather was bad, we still managed to enjoy the game.


Both used properly together: Though my father was Quaker, he did not insist that we use "thou" and "thee" instead of "you", though he did insist that we always say "yes" instead of "yeah".

Comments

[sithjawa.livejournal.com]

I think it should probably be 'thine eyes' ... 'thy' doesn't play well with vowels.

I'm too lazy to check this, but 'thy eyes are' sounds wrong to me, and 'thy name is' sounds fine, so I'm assuming it's the vowel.

[azurelunatic]

Likely. Thine eyes, thy career, thy hamster, thine unicycle, thy rope, thine internet connection, ... thine umbrella? Thy umbrella?

And then there's the round I learned long, long ago: "Why doesn't my goose/ Sing as well as thy goose/ When I paid for my goose/ Twice as much as thine."


I always like to properly translate the line, "Wherefore art thou Romeo?" to "Why the fuck do you have to be Romeo, anyway, goddamnit?!?!"

Re:

[sithjawa.livejournal.com]

Umbrella-U is more like a vowel than unicycle-U. Though admittedly less like a y.

Thine 'amster!

Indeed, that is an apt interpretation.

[azurelunatic]

And thou'rt lovely as well.

[sionainn.livejournal.com]

heeeeyy... I was just gonna say that!

you are correct.. it's like using 'an' in front of a vowel sound.

therefore: thine eyes are much like thy father's

[azurelunatic]

I do better speaking than I do writing. Heh.

[sionainn.livejournal.com]

Though I fully understand HOW to write, I occasionally choose to ignore the rules and write to get my point across... even if that means using way too many ellipses or spelin' werds rong. u kno whut i meeen?

*shudder*

[azurelunatic]

*hits you with the medium-sized halibut*

Re: *shudder*

[sionainn.livejournal.com]

OOoh... yesterday I had the best halibut. It was walnut-herb-pesto crusted and had a fire-roasted tomato vinaigrette. It was served with fried linguine strips and steamed asparagus.

My boss is giving me some filets and I'm going to try making Halibut Olympia. Mmmmm.... And maybe some ale-battered halibut.... *drools*


(yes, purposely ignoring your flailing halibut at me... and if you aren't careful, I'll dialectize and go Swedish Chef on you! *threatening glare* ;-)

Re: *shudder*

[azurelunatic]

Mmmmm yummy yummy.

Even though I dislike fish in general...

[sionainn.livejournal.com]

Whoops, I went off into tangent-land and never actually made my point. heh

One of the best creative writing teachers I had told us to read our stories/essays out loud many times before we submitted it. To this day that is how I edit anything.... I read it out loud to myself. If it doesn't SOUND right, it most likely isn't. Or if it's awkward to read it, there is probably a better way to say it.

But as I stated above, I still like to throw the rulebook out the window and write according to whim of the day.

[azurelunatic]

Yes. There's a balance between correct English and natural language.

Re:

[sithjawa.livejournal.com]

(Thine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the fnord?)

[azurelunatic]

Does one need optical spermicide for that?

[boojum.livejournal.com]

My current disturbed-by is "lazy fare", as in government.

[azurelunatic]

Eeeek.

Though it is descriptive. Paying their way with laziness, rather than consciously deciding to stay hands-off.