[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Thanks for that Z. It gives me a bit better background context. What you say about evolving language is true in any language when we are discussing technology.

i am very glad to know you read my quite long post, and found it helpful. if you're interested, the original discussion where it came up is here : "E-reader devices", naming.

Also what you say about differentiating between the ebook and the ebook reader is clearly an issue -- one that is not true of pbooks (another invented or adapted word I might add).

yes, it can lead to some confusion. that's why the original discussion took place.

Now I have nothing against any other language or culture, but using a foreign word in an English context when perfectly adequate English words exist is pretentious to me.

well, to some extent i agree with you ; we have french people who like to use completely unnecessary english words because they somehow think it's "cool". on the other hand, we also have many words imported from english which have become fully integrated into french, like "week-end" for example (we could say "fin de semaine" which is the litteral translation, but instead we use that for "the end of the week", i.e. friday). english also has many words with french origins. including "pretentious", as it happens.

I believe in clear communication particularly when speaking of technology, science, emerging technologies, press releases, news. I have no problem if this is the chosen word and is used in the French sub-forums but I don't care for it's use in the English forums when as I said there are perfectly adequate and established words.

no-one is asking you to use it, if you don't like it. i see nothing wrong with that. however, since it is easily understood from context, or at worst can be explained very easily, it seems a bit unnecessary to refuse its use by others, particularly when, as we've seen, there is not one single universally agreed-upon word so far even in english.

One thing that strikes me is that there seem to be strong emotions on both sides of this issue -- well beyond the word itself. It's almost as if it's a major cultural clash, the French (and French sympathizers) forcing the word into the English Language and the English (and English sympathizers) fighting back. I guess this is evolution of language in the internet age.

hm, it seems to me that most if not all of the strong emotions are coming from the people opposing the use of "liseuse" in english. no-one is "forcing" the word into english, i repeat, and i am frankly chagrined to see some of the hostility that people who use the word are encountering, which has no place in an international forum like this one.

but i think you make an excellent point about "the evolution of language in the internet age", as this sort of international conversation is only possible thanks to internet, and recent. i think that too is an amazing and fascinating phenomenon and i'm very happy to be able to discuss with people from all over the world that otherwise i would never have met, and learn about their cultures, and their languages.

i learn many words here, of all sorts, many of them english, from australia, or the US, or Great Britain, which i hadn't heard before. and like kazbates (and probably even lots of other native anglophones, as well) there are also some "internet" terms which i didn't understand when i first encountered them ("ftw", "eta"...), and i learned what they meant. the same can be said of words like "drm", by the way. but i see nothing wrong with learning new words, in fact i love that and i'm glad to have the opportunity here.