Foreign Languages / Alpabets

[Hypoxia]

While yes the standard ASCII character set will always work on Lit, if you embed html in your stories like MindsMirror does, using <i></i> for italics and so forth, then there is no reason that using the html code for different letters of different languages should not work.

Yes, limited HTML code can be used in LIT stories, and will show in browsers. But about half of LIT readers use the Android app, which strips out all HTML. Windows (all versions) includes the Character Map app which allows access to the extended character set. Any character there will display on browsers and the app -- select and paste as needed.

 

[NicoleZ]

application, application,

app, app app

That is not even excusable in those who flunked English at primary school level. The proper word is application and there should be a death penalty for those associated with its deliberate injection into the main stream vocabulary. Strewth! The lack of application to the proper usage of language these days is truly frightening. We're not morons, are we?

Application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application, application.

 

[Nezhul]

NicoleZ
I think you are overreacting. "App" is a very common shortening for "Applicating" in the IT sphere. Hey, there's even Apple's and Google's "App store" which is an official names by respectable companies.
It's the part of the language now. You can't always use long words. Sometimes you need to shorten them to make your speech less bulky.

 

[Hypoxia]

I was a computer programmer aka codemonkey. I was trained to write programs. I did write such suckers, even after my job title became "software engineer". Some of what I wrote were systems programs and utilities, some were end-user applications, and some were modules and subsystems for varied use. Per my training, Character Map is a utility and Notepad is an application. But my training is several decades old. In modern vernacular, any software a user interacts with is an 'app'. It's an evolution of the language of which I don't approve but can't really avoid. 'App' is in dictionaries. Live with it.

 

[Bramblethorn]

application, application,

That is not even excusable in those who flunked English at primary school level. The proper word is application and there should be a death penalty for those associated with its deliberate injection into the main stream vocabulary. Strewth!

This seems like a bizarre thing to belittle somebody for.

"App" is no more wrong than split infinitives, women working, and same-sex relationships. Which to say: it's not, but some folk cope badly with necessary change and/or get a feeling of superiority out of setting pointless rules for other people.

Languages evolve continuously. Old words fall into disuse, new words emerge to meet new needs. Once upon a time a "computer" was a person who did calculations, now it's a type of machine. Contraction is a pretty common way for that to happen: I ride a "bus" to the shops, not a "motor omnibus". I tell people "bye" not "God be with ye". Even your "strewth" is a contraction of "God's truth".

As far as I'm aware, all major English dictionaries are published by folk who recognise that their role is descriptive, not prescriptive: when a word becomes established by common usage, it becomes part of the language. "App" certainly meets that criterion.

Here are some major dictionaries that acknowledge "app" as a perfectly cromulent word:
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/app
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/app
https://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=app
http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/app

The lack of application to the proper usage of language these days is truly frightening. We're not morons, are we?

I know what you mean. Why, I noticed one entry in the recent Halloween contest that had a glaring grammatical error in the very first sentence! Gosh, I certainly hope the author of that story never takes it upon themselves to insult other posters here for their English skills. That would look very silly.

 

[oggbashan]

...


I know what you mean. Why, I noticed one entry in the recent Halloween contest that had a glaring grammatical error in the very first sentence! Gosh, I certainly hope the author of that story never takes it upon themselves to insult other posters here for their English skills. That would look very silly.

Discussing English usage is OK. Insulting other posters isn't. It is very easy to make a mistake yourself either just by a typo or because of autocorrect.

Some posters are writing posts and stories when English isn't their native language. That takes skill and dedication but can also lead to some odd grammar and word use. But if the story works? Who cares?

 

[Bramblethorn]

Discussing English usage is OK. Insulting other posters isn't. It is very easy to make a mistake yourself either just by a typo or because of autocorrect.

Muphry's Law is unforgiving that way.

 

[Hypoxia]

Further note re: app vs application -- I trained on Big Iron (IBM mainframes). An 'application' was a big program users interacted with. Background and batch jobs were not applications.

I carried that attitude over when I went to PC micros. Spreadsheets, database managers, word processors, code interpreters, etc were applications. Programs run from the command line with no or little user intervention like code compilers and linkers, compression and analysis programs, scripted jobs, etc were not.

So, to my view, the Windows program Character Map was never an application. MS-Word and Excell and dBase and Firefox are applications. MS-Office and Open Office are systems of applications. Character Map is merely a little utility app.
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Enough. Can we get back to foreign alphabets now?

 

[NicoleZ]

Enough. Can we get back to foreign alphabets now?

"Why certainly sir! Would you like a smørrebrød with your Tuborg Grøn? That's a Danish beer by the way. I'd recommend the Dyrelegens Natmad, sir."

 

[oggbashan]

...
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Enough. Can we get back to foreign alphabets now?

My view, and it is only my personal preference, is to avoid all foreign alphabets, sentences in a foreign language and complex made-up names such as Zaraxphobete.

If I need to indicate that something is in a foreign or alien language I tell the reader that it is but render the meaning in English. An example is my story Where Did I Put The Sex?. Almost all the dialogue should be in German but I have written it all in English without trying to make it Germanic English.

In another story Golem I have a German Professor who uses German sentence structure in English but that is his affectation. He could speak standard English if he wanted to. He is pretending to be the mad scientist but it is an internal joke in his company.

I think that Literotica readers come from so many countries that if an author doesn't use standard and preferably simplistic English many readers will not understand the story. There are some stories posted in Literotica in Indian Sub-Continent English and I find them difficult to follow. I probably could read Literotica stories in French, German, Italian and Spanish but there are so many stories in English that I don't bother. Other languages are hard work - and I try not to make my readers work too hard - except sometimes to find the sex! It's there but might not be obvious.