Live data from Hacker News

Why the global elite gave up on spelling and grammar

wsj.com

131–140 of 316 posts

Re: Why the global elite gave up on spelling and grammar

#131

That's just how busy people type. You see it a lot if you communicate with upper managers/Csuite regularly. They don't have anyone to impress in private emails, as long as the message is communicated well enough. Before smartphones/autocorrect/dictation it was worse.

> Before smartphones/autocorrect/dictation it was worse. Not sure I agree. I remember e-mails being capitalized and punctuated. It's not so much typos and laziness as much as incomplete thoughts and distraction. Communication as a whole has devolved from an e-mail with a complete thought and some details to a text or chat message without capitalization, punctuation or context. The lack of capitalization and punctuati…

    Then the original sender gets quiet. Then I get an invite to a meeting to discuss with a
    wider audience.
One of the most infuriating aspects of working in corporate with people where English is not the primary language.

Re: Why the global elite gave up on spelling and grammar

#132

nowadays, if you have correct spelling and grammar people accuse you of being an llm.

I end all of my sentences with periods and I was told that I have a negative attitude at work because of it. Seriously, my manager's advice was to stop ending my sentences with periods.

[dead]

Re: Why the global elite gave up on spelling and grammar

#133
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think native English speaker who had never heard of Vaughan (sure we can find some of those) would likely to pronounce it like "Vog-un" - /ˈvɒɡən/ or "Vog-han" - /ˈvɑːɡən/

No, "gh" is usually silent in English spelling.

Laugh, trough, tough, rough. Maybe it should be "Vawfan"

Re: Why the global elite gave up on spelling and grammar

#134

British aristocracy has been pronouncing their own surnames wrong for centuries on purpose. Cholmondeley is "Chumley" Featherstonehaugh is "Fanshaw." If you read it phonetically you mark yourself as an outsider. The misstake is the membership card. (Heck, even in Portland we locals hear about misprouncing Couch St probably every year in local press as some bar for membership to our own locals only vibe.)

I don't really see that as the same thing as what the article was pointing out. Those are shibboleths that only an insider would know. You have to get the pronunciation of Cholmondeley or Couch "right" to pass for an insider. The random misspellings, missing spaces, sloppy grammar, etc in the examples in the article seem different to me. Misspelling "en route" as "enriewu" doesn't show, "look, I know the secret count…

[dead]

Re: Why the global elite gave up on spelling and grammar

#136

Grammar at its best promotes clear communication but more often is used as a social tool of control and exclusion. When you are already talking to people within your in-group, that impulse isn’t necessary.

[flagged]

people aren’t saying “aks” to make a public statement against you for whatever reason. they’re saying it because that’s how they learned to speak and the dialect of speakers who they were surrounded with.

yeah, people code switch, but i have come across many many people who just say things differently from the majority pronunciation. they’re not misunderstood and they can communicate just fine (see nucular vs nuclear). that’s just how language works, right

Re: Why the global elite gave up on spelling and grammar

#137

British aristocracy has been pronouncing their own surnames wrong for centuries on purpose. Cholmondeley is "Chumley" Featherstonehaugh is "Fanshaw." If you read it phonetically you mark yourself as an outsider. The misstake is the membership card. (Heck, even in Portland we locals hear about misprouncing Couch St probably every year in local press as some bar for membership to our own locals only vibe.)

> misstake I see what you did there. See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry%27s_law

A smelling pistake

Re: Why the global elite gave up on spelling and grammar

#138
post #109
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their schedules are usually quite full, but their work doesn't really resemble an average person's.

Their schedules are full of leisure , and they can't be arsed to extend even the oz of courteous effort that proper punctuation and grammar require. And their class all recognize it. Possibly it's a class marker. Here, I have to carefully articulate my point because I am desperately trying to convince you not to carry water for the Epstein a class.

What's your point? That everyone with a lot of wealth lives exactly the same, and is comparable to Epstein?

I'm not sure I understand.

Re: Why the global elite gave up on spelling and grammar

#139

nowadays, if you have correct spelling and grammar people accuse you of being an llm.

I have used em dashes and semicolons for decades. The LLM appropriation of my writing style has been almost as devastating as their impending vaporization of my career path.

Re: Why the global elite gave up on spelling and grammar

#140
I see this at my $megagorp job. The top brass don't do that much written communication, but when they do they are absolutely shooting from the hip. It's not as bad as Epstein but it's a strong "I've already started reading the next email while I'm typing this one" vibes.

FWIW I don't have a problem with it at all. As the article mentioned there's an aspect of power politics (I'm important enough not to have to worry about formatting). But to me instead of I feel (again, maybe not quite to the level of Epstein, but e.g. capitalisation is just unimportant. Signing off emails with "best wishes" is not a good use of anyone's 500 milliseconds).

Post reply on HN