Language

I came across Forvo today. It's a community-driven database of word pronunciations which appears to include multiple languages and accents and also accommodates proper nouns such as names etc.

Quite nifty.

While trying to explain the use of the "exclamatory question mark", i.e., the "?!" used at the end of some sentences, I was a little nonplussed when asked if it was really named something so ... verbose. As far as I remember, I've been calling them exclamatory question marks. But it certainly is a mouthful, isn't it?! (sic)

The following are a list of some really cool Text-to-speech (TTS) engines available (for testing) on the web:

Just now, I came across the phrase "in flagrante" while reading a review of Paris Hilton's album Paris. You might ask what the fuck I was doing reading a review of an album by the embodiment of idiocy, immaturity, marketability and a whole host of STDs, but that's a discussion for another day.

Anyway, the sentence in question was the following:

For example, in Year 1 that useless letter "c" would be dropped to be replased either by "k" or "s", and likewise "x" would no longer be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which "c" would be retained would be the "ch" formation, which will be dealt with later. Year 2 might reform "w" spelling, so that "which" and "one" would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish "y" replasing it with "i" and Iear 4 might fiks the "g/j" anomali wonse and for all.

I have, for years now, always pronounced the word cache as kaysh. I have encountered a few people over the years who pronounced it more like cash or even cashay and worse (catch?), and more often than not, I have brought them into the fold—so to speak—by convincing them that kaysh was correct. However, after something close to an argument with a female grammar Nazi (yes, you know it's true!) colleague, we decided to set the matter at rest by doing some research. Desafortunadamente, (and to my keenly felt embarrassment) I lost :/

For those who are already unfamiliar with Ninja words, it's probably best described as a Web Too (sic) on-line dictionary. Fast, no ads, clean interface etc. etc. While the definitions are not the greatest in the world (they are scraped from the Wiktionary project and other free resources), they are good enough for a quick look-up.

Anyone else notice that people are typo-ing lesser and lesser nowadays?

As I am currently well on my way to learning spanish, I thought it might be useful to document some of the resources/approaches that I am using to achieve this.