A plea:

[conuly]

Please, please, please, if you're going to kill yourself....


Well, don't kill yourself, that's first. I don't want anybody I know (or, for that matter, anybody I don't know, but I doubt people I don't know care about my opinion) to kill themselves.



But if you are going to kill yourself, and if my request that you not do that is going to go unheeded, then, at the very least, don't kill yourself by hanging.

Because, if you do, the newspaper will inevitably say that you have hung yourself, and my internal red pencil will pipe up as I read it to say "NO! HANGED! GET IT RIGHT!" and then I'll feel incredibly insensitive. And with good reason, because it is insensitive, and the only justification is that you don't know what I'm thinking (unless I post this entry, that is) and anyway, once you're dead my thoughts can't harm you anyway, but still. Hung instead of hanged makes baby Jesus cry, it really does, and it makes me cry too. And then I just feel like I should feel something other than a desire to edit people.

Plus, I feel like a hypocrite. I know, I know, language changes, and I believe that, I really do... but I can't help it.

It just makes me feel bad all over, aside from the fact that suicide is a depressing thing to begin with.

So, to recap: Don't do it, and especially not by hanging.

Thank you.

(Also, don't make posts at ungodly hours. I doubt this post makes much sense.)

Edit: By the way, I don't know what dictionary you (dear anonymous person whose bloggings I've anonymously read) are reading, but mine clearly states that "rhythm" has two syllables, not one. I know, I know, we only write it with one vowel, but we also write island with an s, and that doesn't mean anything either. People very rarely read before they speak, and clearly they speak rhythm with two syllables. I'm not sure how you could make it only one anyway....

Comments

[ironychan.livejournal.com]

Allow me to be the first to quote Maskerade:

"Did they tell you Dr. Undershaft was strangled before he was hung?"

"Hanged. Men are hanged. Dead meat is hung."

"Really. Well, Dr. Undershaft was strangled. And then he was hung."

[conuly]

!!!!!

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

What's the difference?

[carlanime.livejournal.com]

You beat me to it--I was just going to quote that!

[ladyshrew.livejournal.com]

::points and giggles::

[conuly]

I once had a five or six minute long conversation with a four year old trying to explain to her why she had not hanged her doll, but had merely hung it. I understood the futility of this conversation, and even the unfairness of it all, but it was just morbid. Not to mention, of course, incorrect, but that pales in comparison to the fact that it was (did I say this yet) outright morbid and creepifying.

I don't think she got the point, but she did stop saying hanged.

[dr-graffenberg.livejournal.com]

That one doesn't bother me nearly as much as these three:
1. "Irregardless." Why, just why??
2. "I could care less." No, you couldn't care less, if you could care less then you wouldn't find the need to talk about it.
3. The one that has been bothering me the most lately... "could of, should of, would of, etc.." Why does it seem that the majority of people use 'of' instead of 'have' these days? I understand that the 've' in could've can kind of almost sound like 'of' but it's not. What was that, third grade learning, maybe fourth. What is with people? Were we always this illiterate and it's just the internet that's exposing it more or are people getting dumber as time passes. Or is the fault of the schools? Arrgghhhh!
Ha ha.

[conuly]

2. "I could care less." No, you couldn't care less, if you could care less then you wouldn't find the need to talk about it.

Sometimes people claim sarcasm, but honestly, I always think that if you're going to be sarcastic, you should really be over the top in it.

Were we always this illiterate....

Well, yes. The expectation of universal literacy is really a new idea.

[sayga.livejournal.com]

on top of "could of" my husband gets the past participle wrong, and says (rather, he USED o before i got on his case about it) stuff like "i could of went." that really makes my brain hurt!

irregardless drives me nuts too!!

[pne.livejournal.com]

By the way, I don't know what dictionary you (dear anonymous person whose bloggings I've anonymously read) are reading, but mine clearly states that "rhythm" has two syllables, not one. I know, I know, we only write it with one vowel, but we also write island with an s, and that doesn't mean anything either.

Yet another aspect of the confusion of what "vowel" means - the most common definition most people know is related to writing (along the lines of "A E I O U and sometimes Y"), while as you say, speaking came first. Also, writing is a bit arbitrary at times, so "w" can be a perfectly fine vowel in Welsh but isn't in English (except in loan words from Welsh); the point is that saying "a vowel is something marked by one of the following letters: [list]" is not always very useful.

But even if you take a phonological approach to it, it may still not be useful if you're really looking for "syllable nucleus", which could encompass not only vowels but syllabic consonants as in "rhythm" or, for me, "button" or "bottle". And then you have "sonority hierarchy" and all that and it starts getting technical.

To cut a long story short, counting "vowels" is not a useful way of determining the number of syllables if you're using a writing-based definition of "vowel".

[sayga.livejournal.com]

That was my first thought too. Rhythm has 2 vowel sounds, it just isn't SPELLED (spelt? LOL) that way. Ri-thum.

My MIL was complaining about people who say "aks/axe" instead of "ask" and I tried explaining the sonority hierarchy to her, and how it's easier to put the s at the end of a word, and ASK is one of few syllables with an s in the middle, therefore it isn't a case of being uninformed (like "could of went" is) but more a case of rearranging the word to make the pronunciation easier. Although if they were informed and cared that they were wrong, they could pronounce it correctly, but I was trying to explain it's a different KIND of error. I don't think I explained it right, or something, because she didn't get it.

[plaid-slytherin.livejournal.com]

So, would you rather I slitted my wrists? ;)

[conuly]

I'd rather you didn't kill yourself at all, see point one :)

And I defy you to find one person who slitted their wrists. Just one! *waits*

[honeybunch2.livejournal.com]

Wow..I didn't know that. Cool...thanks for the knowledge! :) I just love your posts, cause I am guaranteed to learn something knew...and that is always GREAT! :)

[conuly]

Why, thank you. I do hope you never have a chance to use *this* particular bit of information, of course.

[adina77.livejournal.com]

I find it funny as how they would think the Y is a vowel instead of a constanant (sp). And why would someone want to write about how they want to hang themselves at an ungodly hour?

ok I am off now

[conuly]

Well, in the word rhythm, the letter y *is* acting as a vowel, just as it is when you write the word funny or dyer.

[ironychan.livejournal.com]

Allow me to be the first to quote Maskerade:

"Did they tell you Dr. Undershaft was strangled before he was hung?"

"Hanged. Men are hanged. Dead meat is hung."

"Really. Well, Dr. Undershaft was strangled. And then he was hung."

[conuly]

!!!!!

[ladyshrew.livejournal.com]

::points and giggles::

[conuly]

I once had a five or six minute long conversation with a four year old trying to explain to her why she had not hanged her doll, but had merely hung it. I understood the futility of this conversation, and even the unfairness of it all, but it was just morbid. Not to mention, of course, incorrect, but that pales in comparison to the fact that it was (did I say this yet) outright morbid and creepifying.

I don't think she got the point, but she did stop saying hanged.

[(Anonymous)]

That one doesn't bother me nearly as much as these three:
1. "Irregardless." Why, just why??
2. "I could care less." No, you couldn't care less, if you could care less then you wouldn't find the need to talk about it.
3. The one that has been bothering me the most lately... "could of, should of, would of, etc.." Why does it seem that the majority of people use 'of' instead of 'have' these days? I understand that the 've' in could've can kind of almost sound like 'of' but it's not. What was that, third grade learning, maybe fourth. What is with people? Were we always this illiterate and it's just the internet that's exposing it more or are people getting dumber as time passes. Or is the fault of the schools? Arrgghhhh!
Ha ha.

[conuly]

2. "I could care less." No, you couldn't care less, if you could care less then you wouldn't find the need to talk about it.

Sometimes people claim sarcasm, but honestly, I always think that if you're going to be sarcastic, you should really be over the top in it.

Were we always this illiterate....

Well, yes. The expectation of universal literacy is really a new idea.

[pne.livejournal.com]

By the way, I don't know what dictionary you (dear anonymous person whose bloggings I've anonymously read) are reading, but mine clearly states that "rhythm" has two syllables, not one. I know, I know, we only write it with one vowel, but we also write island with an s, and that doesn't mean anything either.

Yet another aspect of the confusion of what "vowel" means - the most common definition most people know is related to writing (along the lines of "A E I O U and sometimes Y"), while as you say, speaking came first. Also, writing is a bit arbitrary at times, so "w" can be a perfectly fine vowel in Welsh but isn't in English (except in loan words from Welsh); the point is that saying "a vowel is something marked by one of the following letters: [list]" is not always very useful.

But even if you take a phonological approach to it, it may still not be useful if you're really looking for "syllable nucleus", which could encompass not only vowels but syllabic consonants as in "rhythm" or, for me, "button" or "bottle". And then you have "sonority hierarchy" and all that and it starts getting technical.

To cut a long story short, counting "vowels" is not a useful way of determining the number of syllables if you're using a writing-based definition of "vowel".

[sayga.livejournal.com]

That was my first thought too. Rhythm has 2 vowel sounds, it just isn't SPELLED (spelt? LOL) that way. Ri-thum.

My MIL was complaining about people who say "aks/axe" instead of "ask" and I tried explaining the sonority hierarchy to her, and how it's easier to put the s at the end of a word, and ASK is one of few syllables with an s in the middle, therefore it isn't a case of being uninformed (like "could of went" is) but more a case of rearranging the word to make the pronunciation easier. Although if they were informed and cared that they were wrong, they could pronounce it correctly, but I was trying to explain it's a different KIND of error. I don't think I explained it right, or something, because she didn't get it.

[plaid-slytherin.livejournal.com]

So, would you rather I slitted my wrists? ;)

[conuly]

I'd rather you didn't kill yourself at all, see point one :)

And I defy you to find one person who slitted their wrists. Just one! *waits*

[(Anonymous)]

Wow..I didn't know that. Cool...thanks for the knowledge! :) I just love your posts, cause I am guaranteed to learn something knew...and that is always GREAT! :)

[conuly]

Why, thank you. I do hope you never have a chance to use *this* particular bit of information, of course.

[adina77.livejournal.com]

I find it funny as how they would think the Y is a vowel instead of a constanant (sp). And why would someone want to write about how they want to hang themselves at an ungodly hour?

ok I am off now

[conuly]

Well, in the word rhythm, the letter y *is* acting as a vowel, just as it is when you write the word funny or dyer.