...... "Whither or Wither ?" (referring to the subject of this message) for example makes NO sense whatsoever to me.
Whereas, for a native English speaker, this is a clear, and succint, while being a clever play on words.
Whither is a slightly archaeic word meaning "where to?" wither - to shrivel up, atrophy, and eventually die.
So, Where are we going to on the development front, or shall we do nothing and just die through natuaral wastage? Whither, or Wither is a much neater way of saying the same thing. I wish I'd thought of it!
The problem is, Phoebus, is that, you, Marcel, Nasta, Wolfgang, not to mention Per, Thierry, and others write so well in English,that it's difficult to appreciate that English is not your first (or even second - in some cases) language. Just take it as a compliment that it doesn't occur to us that we should modify our language use for this list. (And if ANYONE doesn't understand something, whether its technical, or linguistic, I'm sure that no-one will hold it against them if they use the list to ask for an explanation).
Native English speakers are also just a bit more lazy when expressing themselves ...
I am always impressed by the quality of the contributions in English from people for whom it is not their native language.
-- Malcolm Cadman _______________________________________________ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
