User:Ro Thorpe

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Use in English
Alphabetical word list
Retroalphabetical list
Common misspellings

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Articles I started

English, using special accent pronunciation system:  Apostrophe: in cluster; in lists  British and American English English irregular nouns  English irregular verbs  English phonemes  English spellings (many thanks to Chris Day for the above objet d'art; to find out what 'retroalphabetical' means, coined by me in 1995,  OED please note, click on one of the blue squares)  English verbs  French words in English  Hyphen  Silent letters in English  Spelling pronunciation  A  B  C  D  E  F  G  GH  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z; General language:  Alphabet � Artworks known in English by a foreign title  Back-chaining  Colon (punctuation)  Commonwealth English  Cyrillic alphabet  English alphabet  Galician  Glottal stop  Homophone  International Phonetic Alphabet  Italian  Minimal pair  Nynorsk  Okina  Persian  Principal parts (verb)  Schwa; Music:  Cover version  Mezzo TV  Rock music  Skiffle  Instant Karma;  Bob Dylan  Captain Beefheart  Domenico Scarlatti  Frederick Delius  Howlin' Wolf  Jean Sibelius  Kraftwerk Leevi Madetoja  Ludwig van Beethoven  Miles Davis  Nico; Novelists:  Franz Kafka  Ivy Compton-Burnett  Marcel Proust; Places:  Burma  Cyprus  Malta; Food:  Crisps  Leitão assado à Bairrada  Portuguese cod casserole (bacalhau à Gomes de Sá); Chess:  Chess960  En passant; Time:  CDT  Universal Time; Miscellaneous:  Alan Odle  Arab  Ceres  Conchita Martinez Daniel C. Dennett  Deutsche Mark  Michael Holding  One & Other

Thorperson

Robert Thorpe, born in London on the 100th day of the 50th year of the 20th century. I have a degree in English from Peterhouse, Cambridge. For many years I worked as a teacher of the language, in Mâcon, France; Mondovì, Italy; Beckenham, England, and finally in various locations in Portugal; I am now retired in Esposende.

Wikipediana

Although already aware of its existence for some years, I was just becoming an enthusiast for Wikipedia when I stumbled across its article on Citizendium. So, while I saw the obvious advantage of an unvandalisable alternative, I have never entirely shared the disillusionment (if not disgust) that many CZns feel for WP—though their diagnosis of its frailties is quite accurate.

And one small thing...

Ro-bot

removes Incorrect or Unnecessary Capital Letters like These. Proper capitalisation is important to distinguish the general from the particular: the Earth goes round the Sun, and if there's too much sun the earth dries out and develops cracks. Fans of different types of music often capitalise them, from jazz to jungle, a habit which may stem from referring to the names of music charts ("#51 Country", etc.). Some people capitalise the names of currencies, probably because many of them sound like proper nouns, franc, for example, or mark. Of course those two have now (almost) vacated the scene in favour of the equally capitalised-sounding euro.

I think Wikipedia's prohibition of inessential capital letters in article titles is a Very Good Thing, for two reasons: a didactic one, since there are many readers for whom English is a foreign language; and a practical one, as it serves to distinguish regular article titles from those of books and other artworks, which must have title case. It ought to be official policy here, too.

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>CZ:What's Your Message?/World Alphabetical Time

>Spelling reform

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