Re: NB 8 (Trial version)

[David Auerbach auerbach@xxxxxxxx]

On May 8, at 5:30 PM, Patricia M. Godfrey wrote:
> Robert Holmgren wrote:
> Replying to Bill TeBrake, who had written
> > > Indeed, I often wish there were no electronic spellers at all.
> > I agree. They're worthless, and people should just learn how to
> > spell. It's
> > part of being civilized.
> On the whole, yes. One may have a personal blank spot, where a
> spell checker can be useful (e.g., in my case, words in -ant or -
> ent, -annce or -ence: I know the Latin roots, but some came into
> English by way of Norman French, and suffered change of the final
> vowel, so I'm glad to have those checked by an algorithm and save
> me the trouble of looking them up). But all too often unless I stop
> and customize, half the words I want to use are ones the
> spellchecker never heard of. (Some of the suggested substitutions
> can be hilarious: lenitive for genitive, say. [Well, well: Tbird
> knows genitive!])
I forbear (or, as my students might have it: forebare) from those
student examples of spelling and syntax that enliven these grading
(grating) days. I will mention my favorite early (circa 1981)
spelling suggestion: I typed Rockefeller, it offered racketeer.





David Auerbach
Department of Philosophy & Religion
Box 8103
Raleigh, NC 27695-8103                  http://
slowfoodusa.org
auerbach@xxxxxxxx                  http://
slowfoodtriangle.org