nuances of emoticons

[inhumandecency]

I used to be staunchly opposed to emoticons and other improprieties common to online writing (like, I used to use single line breaks between paragraphs and indent them by typing . I had a special button on my mouse for it. But even when I was away from home, I could bang it out in about 2 seconds). I've changed my view on that in the last few

Comments

[artricia]

I can tell you that the thorn, whatever else it is, is also English. Middle English. It's a th- sound. I forget which. The other is represented by ө, and I forget what it's called. I forget which th- each symbol is, but I do know it's now hard for most English speakers to differentiate between the two.

[artricia]

That theta? I think it's ð in lower case. It's an "eth" It's bilabial rather than dental. Say th- with your tongue in each position and you'll hear the difference.

YOu might be interested in the International phonetic association's chart:
http://www.langsci.ucl.ac.uk/ipa/IPA_chart_%28C%292005.pdf

[artricia]

or dental rather than bilabial.

I'm doing great today.

[cherdt]

According to The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, both the thorn and the eth (also known as that) were Old English letters, and that thorn was interchangeable with the sounds of θ or ð (as described by atricia). The text says that although use varied across regions and times, there was often variation even within a single manuscript by a single scribe.

I have a (predictably kooky) book, The World Atlas of Divination, that suggests that the Futhark runes didn't appear until the fifth or fourth century BCE as Germanic languages and more northernly runes combined with Alpine alphabets. It only discusses in any detail divination with the Futhark and later Norse/Icelandic forms. If I may venture a guess, I would say that Futhark is preferred, not because it is the oldest form, but because it is the oldest form with any standardization.

;þ

[nerotika]

i thought :P was more nyah-nyah playful taunting than ugh!

i smell a personality psychology study....

[inhumandecency]

Dude! It's good to hear from you. It's been much too long since we talked. Can you ever forgive me?

I got your IM earlier this week, but I was dying from NIH grant at the time and militantly not dealing with anything...

My router is about to kick me offline for the night, but I'll talk to you soon! <3