Spelling anomalies

[plib]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Many adjectives can also be used as nouns. Eg, "male/female" is another example.

Which changes its spelling according to gender?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by plib

Which changes its spelling according to gender?

I was referring in my earlier post to inflected words, not situations where one uses two different words for different genders. Those are extremely common. English has largely lost its inflections; that's what makes "blond/blonde" unusual.

[piperclassique]

There are others that show Latin, Greek, and such. One problem being that these folks where sometimes wrong in their etymology.

Ooops!

[Fluribus]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

You can't regulate a language anymore than you can regulate sex. Those entities you mentioned present recommendations, not rules.

I'm not suggesting that the Språkrådet has a SWAT team.

English, to my knowledge, has nothing similar to any of these groups.

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by Fluribus

I'm not suggesting that the Språkrådet has a SWAT team.

English, to my knowledge, has nothing similar to any of these groups.

There are too many variations of English, something like that would require a neutral organization that the other nations would agree to follow, say New Dehli.

[Sil_liS]

If you want to know about the size of the vocabulary of a language, how about Scrabble?
How many words are in the French game?
There are 378,989 words from 2 to 15 letters-long valid in French.
How many words are in the English game?
There are 267,751 words from 2 to 15 letters-long valid in English.
How many words are in the Spanish game?
There are 636,599 words form 2 to 15 letters-long valid in Spanish.

The official Romanian list approved by our Scrabble federation contains 610.767 words.

The English language doesn't seem that impressive.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

The English language doesn't seem that impressive.

For British English, the official Scrabble list is based on a specific dictionary (Collins), which is far from being an exhaustive one.

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by HarryT

For British English, the official Scrabble list is based on a specific dictionary (Collins), which is far from being an exhaustive one.

And you think that this isn't the case with the other languages?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

And you think that this isn't the case with the other languages?

I have no idea. I'm simply telling you that it's the case for British English, and that therefore one can't draw any particular connection between the size of the Scrabble word list and the number of words in the language.

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by HarryT

For British English, the official Scrabble list is based on a specific dictionary (Collins), which is far from being an exhaustive one.

Imagine whar Scrabble would cost if it came with OED.

[Fluribus]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

There are too many variations of English, something like that would require a neutral organization that the other nations would agree to follow, say New Dehli.

An international group could be set up. Maybe something like they have for Spanish. It might be too late. I'm not sure that it would be beneficial.

I do have this dream...

Some poor fool uses "loose" instead of "lose".
-----BOOM-----FLASH-----BANG-----
"English Language Police! Drop that keyboard!"

Perhaps we could borrow Arthur Lemming from the British Dental Association.

[Conor]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

You can't regulate a language anymore than you can regulate sex. Those entities you mentioned present recommendations, not rules.

Those entities relate to widely spoken languages. Scotland has the Gaelic Orthographic Conventions, used for teaching the language. The written form of Manx is only a couple of hundred years old, and uses the English alphabet, not the Gaelic one.