Re: [rp-ml] Am I dreaming?

Thank you Adrian

    I love learning new words.

mellifluous
mellifluent
adj
1. Said of sounds, speech, etc: having a smooth sweet flowing quality.

Thesaurus: resonant, melodious, musical, euphonious, honeyed, mellow,
smooth, soothing, sweet; Antonym: discordant, harsh.

Mike Ervin

> From: Adrian Bowyer <A.Bowyer@bath.ac.uk>
> Organization: University of Bath
> Date: Wed, 07 Jun 2006 11:02:34 +0100
> To: <rp-ml@rapid.lpt.fi>
> Subject: Re: [rp-ml] Am I dreaming?
>
> This recurrent debate, though mildly entertaining, is entirely pointless. It
> is
> predicated on the false assumption that a rather small group of people can
> decide what the word for something should be. As any philologist will tell
> you,
> that is simply not how language evolves. Sure, we can chuck terms into the
> mix,
> but what finally gets used will be decided by journalists, other writers and -
> when the technology becomes ubiquitous - the general public. And they will
> make
> that decision entirely on the basis of ease-of-pronunciation, brevity, and
> euphony. Technical considerations will be completely irrelevant.
>
> If we _do_ want to try to nudge this process (and I can't quite see why we
> care), we should choose a single short word that is unused for anything else
> purely on the basis of its mellifluousness.
>
> Yours
>
> Adrian Bowyer
Received on Wed Jun 07 23:50:35 2006