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1.  

   Have you ever studied French?

   

   Petréa Mitchell, Jul 7th, 2006 @ 10:23am

   
   

   "[S]pelling rules are really consistent across French"... say what??? It's got the second-worst orthography in the world after English!

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2.  

   

   Grood At Engrish, Jul 7th, 2006 @ 10:46am

   
   

   The extensibility of English is why I can say "FRiST p0st" and everyone knows what I mean!

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3.  

   

   Grood At Engrish, Jul 7th, 2006 @ 10:49am

   
   

   aw crap

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4.  

   Nice try

   

   Kratos, Jul 7th, 2006 @ 10:57am

   
   

   If only you had made first post. Alas, now that joke is worthless. :P

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5.  

   

   Parad0x, Jul 7th, 2006 @ 10:59am

   
   

   It's only a matter of time before "PWN3D!!!one!!eleventyone11!" makes it into a dictionary somewhere.

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6.  

   Spanish is another structured language

   

   Jamie, Jul 7th, 2006 @ 11:01am

   
   

   The royal academy in Spain organizes the Spanish language just like the French do. I don't know how successful the French are in keeping their language consistent, but Spanish is remarkably consistent in its spelling and grammar rules.
   So much so, that I was able to teach myself to read and write it without needing any instruction. As a child I was bilingual in Spanish and English. Moved to the US while still very young, and learned to read in English. I retained the ability to speak Spanish, but never read it (my parents did not speak it). As an adult, I suddenly realized that I could read Spanish perfectly. Not only that, I could write Spanish words even if I had never seen the word written down, since the spelling always matches the pronunciation.

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7.  

   Then this means that Bush......

   

   DeadlyOats, Jul 7th, 2006 @ 11:17am

   
   

   Then this means that President Bush speaks Extensible English rather well.
   
   When he say stuff like, "misunderestimated."
   
   Check out the President's Extensible English skills.
   
   http://www.bestofgooglevideo.com/video.php?video=235

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8.  

   Re: Spanish is another structured language

   

   Howard, Jul 7th, 2006 @ 11:51am

   
   

   Hmmm... I'm currently studying Spanish, and while it is mostly phonetic, certain exceptions are giving me fits. For instance, since the 'h' is never pronounced, how do you know when to write it? Or since the 'g' and the 'j' sometimes have exactly the same sound, how do you know which to choose? Or for that matter, the 'x' is sometimes pronounced the same as 'g' or 'j' -- and there doesn't appear to be any dependable rule on that: "Mexico" is pronounced "meh'-hee-co", but "exitos" is pronounced "ek'-see-tose".
   
   There also appears to be a large difference in the way certain letter-pairs are pronounced. Listening to native speakers pronounce 'll', I have heard at least four distinct sounds used, varying from a soft 'y' to a hard 'j', and sometimes like a combination of 'j' and 'ch'. I've even heard the word "calle" pronounced "cahd-jeh". Likewise, the sound for 'v' varies on a smooth continuum from a 'v' to a 'b'.
   
   Since I am a musician, it's possible that I'm hearing differences that native speakers do not notice, or do not regard as being different.
   
   Another explanation for this was given to me by a Columbian native. I listen to a Spanish radio station in the Dallas area, so I hear a lot of TexMex. According to the Columbian, TexMex is bad Mexican, and Mexican is poor Spanish.
   
   At any rate, Spanish does NOT appear to perfectly phonetic.

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9.  

   Doesn't anyone remember the definition of Google?

   

   Rodney, Jul 7th, 2006 @ 12:27pm

   
   

   First of all google was a word before the company used it as a name. The word should have already been in the dictionary - it refers to a very large number specifically a one followed by one hundred zeros.

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10.  

    

    Anonymous, Jul 7th, 2006 @ 12:34pm

    
    

    Google was already a word? Like googley-eyed? Or do you mean "googol"?

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11.  

    Don't you mean...

    

    Justin, Jul 7th, 2006 @ 12:36pm

    
    

    The Colombian would be upset if you wrote "Columbian" (I know my friend was when I misspelled it ;p )
    
    also, the number 10^100 which you are referring to, is called a "googol", not "Google".

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12.  

    Re: Re: Spanish is another structured language

    

    Jamie, Jul 7th, 2006 @ 12:42pm

    
    

    Not sure about the 'h', but the 'g', 'j', and 'x' letters all have different sounds to native speakers. Sometimes to non native speakers the sounds seem the same (or may actually be the same because your voice cannot properly pronounce them). As for the 'll'. You are correct. The pronunciation can vary for different dialects/accents much like British and American English pronunciation.
    The word "exitos" is not proper Spanish. It's slang. Spanish spoken in Texas, and in most of Mexico is filled with slang. So that word is not a good example. Though that doesn’t mean you don’t have a point.
    Spanish is not perfectly phonetic, but it is more phonetic than most languages in the world. Consequently, if you can speak it, you can probably read and write it. Maybe not perfectly, but certainly functionally.

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13.  

    Re:

    

    misanonymous, Jul 7th, 2006 @ 12:44pm

    
    

    In theory, shouldn't all the Romance languages be "similar" in structure?
    
    googol is 10^100
    
    google is a search engine
    
    Check it out for yourself. Google "define: googol" and "define: google"
    =)

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14.  

    Re: Spanish is another Structured Language

    

    Huh?, Jul 7th, 2006 @ 2:29pm

    
    

    Howard, "Since I am a musician, it's possible that I'm hearing differences that native speakers do not notice, or do not regard as being different."
    
    Are they teaching linguistics in music class now?

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15.  

    english doesn't have an official list

    

    raj, Jul 7th, 2006 @ 11:25pm

    
    

    Actually, it does. It's called the Brown's Corpus. There are a couple of other corpora, but Brown's is one of the premiere one's, and created by a university in Britain.
    
    I'm working on a free "Web" corpus, but it's a long-term project, and I haven't finished refiing my corpus-crawler bot yet.

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16.  

    Re: Re: Spanish is another Structured Language

    

    AJ Mancini, Jul 8th, 2006 @ 12:56pm

    
    

    Not necessarily, they say that people who are good at music and are good with complex rythms often encountered in music are inherently better at math and linguistics. Also, the ability to distinguish sounds is honed by practicing music, therefore musical people can better distinguish the sounds of language

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17.  

    Re: Doesn't anyone remember the definition of Goog

    

    Cheryl Geller, Aug 8th, 2006 @ 8:43am

    
    

    I remember that "google" was a mathmatical term used to stand for "the largest number" in the whole world. That when math found what that mythical number was, it would be called a google. I loved that word before it became what it means now. My other favorite "words" are "pyroclastic flow" & "load bearing wall". But they are really phrases. I was trying to find the mathmatical definition for google when I found this blog. I cannot find the mathmatical definition of google anywhere, it is really scary in a way. My computer dictionary has google as meaning the search engine, and looking on internet based dictionaries yielded the same definitions. I thought I was going crazy till I found this blog. I'm gonna go see if google, the math term, is in my dictionary. Somehow, googling google just doesn't seem right.

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18.  

    Anonymous is correct

    

    cheryl Geller, Aug 8th, 2006 @ 8:55am

    
    

    Ah, I was misspelling it. "Anynomous" is right, it is googol.
    It is 10 to the power of 100.
    Thanks Anynomous! My spelling is atrocious, it is why I am such a fan of the national speeling bee. I love watching good spelling since it is an art I never mastered.

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19.  

    The

    

    cheryl Geller, Aug 8th, 2006 @ 9:33am

    
    

    Rethinking my last comment, I realized that I consider spelling an honorable skill; math is the artistic endeavor. I'm no good at either. I think it is sad that most kids are taught math as a set of rules instead of as the intangible set of ideas that it really is.

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20.  

    Re: Re: Doesn't anyone remember the definition of

    

    jerry carter, Oct 6th, 2006 @ 12:26pm

    
    

    I remember seeing the word "google" in a dictionary somr time ago and recall it said something like a "9" followed by about 60 zeros. Does that sound close ?

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