Re: web site or website; e-mail or email

Subject: Re: web site or website; e-mail or email
From: "Guy K. Haas" <ghaas -at- selectica -dot- com>
To: Christi <christi -at- sageinst -dot- COM>
Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 15:05:02 -0700

Christi wrote:
>
. . .
>
> I am a recent convert to the hyphenated style. I used to be part of the
> "email" camp. Here are some excerpts of the arguments that convinced me.

. .

Hey, Christi--

I'm firmly on your side, and have made the same alphabetized argument
that you have passed along, but have you done some Web searches?

Take T-bill. I found almost 1,000 instances of Tbill (to about 10,500
instances of T-bill). It seems to be gaining.

Any such coinages that deal with SHAPE (A-frame, I-beam, L-shaped,
O-ring...) historically have managed to hold their hyphens. Others,
like "C-rations" are not joined because ordinary English speakers would
expect "crations" to be pronounced "crash-uns" or "cray-shuns".
"F layer" would collapse to "Flayer" (one who skins things).
"S-connector" would be enunciated "scon ec ter"

I think the basic rule should be that if a coinage involves saying
the name of a letter, then another word, running them together is not
an option.

The second reason -- that proliferation of prefix-e would lead to
even stranger terms AND confusion with existing words (like equip)
is a great one!

--Guy K. Haas
Senior Technical Writer / Software Exegete
Selectica, Inc.
E-Mail: ghaas -at- selectica -dot- com





Previous by Author: Re: (OT?) copyright and the web
Next by Author: Re: OT: Conference post mortem
Previous by Thread: Re: web site or website; e-mail or email
Next by Thread: RE: WINDOWS WGL CHARACTER SET ???


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads