[nfitz]

Since when being flexible is a good thing for scientific language? Chinese, which doesn't even have a grammar in the real sense, is probably 10 times more flexible than English and it didn't become the language of science.

Any advantage that Chinese grammar (or lack of it) might have is negated by it's relatively inaccessible written form, compared to other simpler systems such as the Greek alphabet (which lead to most European alphabets) or Hangul (Korean alphabet).

 

[Admiral Beez]

I always thought Latin was the language of science. Certainly Latin is the language of the plant and animal sciences.

 

[Dan416]

I always thought Latin was the language of science. Certainly Latin is the language of the plant and animal sciences.

Latin is used a lot in science to be sure, but I don't think it's been the language OF science for a long time.

I think Copernicus and Galileo wrote in Latin right?

I think there's a lot of Greek in science too (or at least in math). I think just taking math for so many years I knew every letter of the Greek alphabet because each one stands for something in science/math!

 

[Admiral Beez]

English can't be the language of science because there are different names for many different things across world. For example, when I was visited the Isle of Wight in the UK in 2005 I visited the botanical gardens there. Whenever I referred to a plant by its common or Canuck-English name that we also have in Canada I was told the plant had a different name entirely in the UK. However the Latin names were the same.

 

[JWBF]

Taronto (tə-ron-toh)

---

The language of science is not English, etc., such languages are not precise enough, that's why numbers are used, and at the moment we use base 10.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

If you're a Torontonian you pronounce it TOR-ON-OH (Drop the second T)

If your not Torontonian its pronounced TOR-RON-TOH (Emphasize the second T)

I can always tell who is from Toronto based on how they pronounce it.

 

[nfitz]

I can always tell who is from Toronto based on how they pronounce it.

I find the dropping the second T occurs well outside Toronto, and into Scarborough, Etobicoke, Mississauga, Pickering and beyond into much of Southern Ontario.

You see similar stuff in other areas ... for example, outside of Quebec, you get people pronouncing Quebec starting with this odd kwa- (qu-) sound instead of ke-

 

[Tulse]

If you're a Torontonian you pronounce it TOR-ON-OH (Drop the second T)

Locals also often merge the first two syllables together, and soften the terminal O to a schwa, to get something like TRON-AH.

 

[Dan416]

I find the dropping the second T occurs well outside Toronto, and into Scarborough, Etobicoke, Mississauga, Pickering and beyond into much of Southern Ontario.

You see similar stuff in other areas ... for example, outside of Quebec, you get people pronouncing Quebec starting with this odd kwa- (qu-) sound instead of ke-

According to Wikipedia that's correct:

Quebec /kwəˈbɛk/ or /kəˈbɛk/ (French: Québec [kebɛk] ( listen)

Speaking of Wikipedia, here's what they say for Toronto:

Toronto (/təˈrɒntoʊ/, colloquially /ˈtrɒnoʊ/)

 

[nfitz]

According to Wikipedia that's correct:

Those inside Quebec certainly don't use the kwa- sound ... well perhaps 70-year old Anglos in Westmount ...

 

[Dan416]

Those inside Quebec certainly don't use the kwa- sound ... well perhaps 70-year old Anglos in Westmount ...

No, but Canadians do.

 

[kkgg7]

Those inside Quebec certainly don't use the kwa- sound ... well perhaps 70-year old Anglos in Westmount ...

what annoys me immensely is that Quebecois pronounce "t" is "ts", and "d" as "dz" or "z". For example, the receptionist was telling me the train station was at "cote du palais", and I couldn't understand it and wrote down something like "zu", and then realized it was a "du".

I once tried to learn French on CBC-french channels but gave up because I am so annoyed by how these consonants are pronounced.

 

[nfitz]

No, but Canadians do.

That comment doesn't make sense. Most Quebeckers are Canadian ... and virtually all of them who are born there. Heck, per capita, there are probably more Canadians in Quebec than in Toronto!

Even ignoring the French pronunciation, most Anglo Quebeckers use the ke- instead of the kwe- pronounciation.

 

[adma]

Even ignoring the French pronunciation, most Anglo Quebeckers use the ke- instead of the kwe- pronounciation.

While talk radio listeners are pretty emphatically "kwee-bec"...

 

[James]

What piques my interest more is how it is widely accepted to mispronounce Etobicoke as "ee-toh-bee-koh" instead of the more correct Indian pronunciation of "ee-toh-bee-koh-kay".