01-06-2015, 07:06 AM
But there is a word 'till'! it is pronounced and means exactly the the same as the contraction ''til'! Reading this thread I feel like I must be going fucking insane. It defies reason for no end to use 'til instead of till, unless the person using 'til was unaware of the coomplete word till and that it predates the word until; for, no one could reasonably choose a contraction of a word for which there is a complete word that means and is pronounced the same way, SURELY! And no one who knows anything about how to speak english would pronounce 'til any sharper or quicker than till! (it is an subjective idiosyncrasy).
On the more general point, language is for communication, it is true (is it true? [or troo, t'wit-t'woo?]) and if one wants to be clear then surely using a word that is based on a personal preference of pronunciation works against that principle (a principle that either I am arguing for or against, you decide). It may be fine if the piece as a whole is going for a colloquial sentiment (aw'righ' gov, aas it goin'?), but what you wrote didn't strike me as particularly colloquial in nature; but clarity is king!
But everyone knows what 'til means! true, but you say you used it for a specific reason, a reason that few, if any, would say means much at all, due to the fact that 'til is pronounced the same as till.
And as before, I am not saying (as I previously did) that this is grammatically wrong, or against any rules etc. It just doesn't seem to make any practical sense.
We had this joke in the philosophy department that we would pronounce Descartes DeS-CarT-Es as the undergraduates did; should a poem that treated Descartes as a 3 syllable word rather than a 2 syllable word be acceptable? Maybe. But what good does it do?
Til's my sea'd
till my seed is tilled
I'll ate past nine
'til my belly's filled
On the more general point, language is for communication, it is true (is it true? [or troo, t'wit-t'woo?]) and if one wants to be clear then surely using a word that is based on a personal preference of pronunciation works against that principle (a principle that either I am arguing for or against, you decide). It may be fine if the piece as a whole is going for a colloquial sentiment (aw'righ' gov, aas it goin'?), but what you wrote didn't strike me as particularly colloquial in nature; but clarity is king!
But everyone knows what 'til means! true, but you say you used it for a specific reason, a reason that few, if any, would say means much at all, due to the fact that 'til is pronounced the same as till.
And as before, I am not saying (as I previously did) that this is grammatically wrong, or against any rules etc. It just doesn't seem to make any practical sense.
We had this joke in the philosophy department that we would pronounce Descartes DeS-CarT-Es as the undergraduates did; should a poem that treated Descartes as a 3 syllable word rather than a 2 syllable word be acceptable? Maybe. But what good does it do?
Til's my sea'd
till my seed is tilled
I'll ate past nine
'til my belly's filled