I know. I understood what they were trying to ask clearly from the phonetics they used. Did you?
My point here is what do you think the purpose of language is?
Is the purpose of language for people to “own” words and they can dictate how they are used?
Is the purpose to gatekeep communication and stop conversations if the language is not used “properly” or “as intended”?
Or is the purpose to communicate ideas, and as long as the idea is communicated efficiently the purpose of language has been served even if the usage is slightly different?
Aluminum has two very different common pronunciations and I understand both just fine. I don’t feel the need to tell people “actually it’s pronounced aluminum.”
Sure. But context matters right? I also wouldn’t correct someone if they said sontimeters instead of cenimeters, but if it was a specific conversation explicitly about how to say centimeters, I might chime in with an opinion and some historical facts right?
I know. I understood what they were trying to ask clearly from the phonetics they used. Did you?
My point here is what do you think the purpose of language is?
Is the purpose of language for people to “own” words and they can dictate how they are used?
Is the purpose to gatekeep communication and stop conversations if the language is not used “properly” or “as intended”?
Or is the purpose to communicate ideas, and as long as the idea is communicated efficiently the purpose of language has been served even if the usage is slightly different?
Aluminum has two very different common pronunciations and I understand both just fine. I don’t feel the need to tell people “actually it’s pronounced aluminum.”
Sure. But context matters right? I also wouldn’t correct someone if they said sontimeters instead of cenimeters, but if it was a specific conversation explicitly about how to say centimeters, I might chime in with an opinion and some historical facts right?
And if it was a conversation about how to say “aluminum” a response of “it’s regional, both are acceptable” would be reasonable.