On 2014-10-28 20:12:53 +0100, "David D S" <inv...@m-invalid.invalid> said:
> Mike Barnes wrote:
>
>> Danny D. wrote:
>>> When you have a road that curves a lot, and you say that
>>> you are on a "one lane windy road", how does the reader
>>> know that it's not a breezy road, versus a curvy one?
>>>
>>> That is, how do you indicate the long "i" versus the
>>> short "i" sound in that sentence?
>>
>> In MyE that would be a "one-lane winding road".
>
> That and context would work.
>
> How about a "eowing club". Is it a club in whichn people
> do things with boats, or is it one in which tempers are
> raised? Again context usually decides.
Do any of you remember Anthony Buckeridge and "Jennings goes to School"
WYWL[1] in the 1950s? There was an episode when Jennings and his friend
Darbishire wanted to write something for the school mag about a teacher
who wasn't very popular (Mr Wilkins) but they wanted to find some nice
things to write. They found out that he had been an oarsman at
university, and started by writing "When Mr Wilkins was at university
he liked to go for a row in the morning", but decided that that
wouldn't quite do. (Getting even more dubiously relevant, the Jean-Paul
Belmondo character in L'As des As responds to the Gestapo man who had
said "Juif, vous avez l'air" by saying "Non, vous avez l'air juif", and
seeing the horrified look on the Gestapo man's face, adds "Si je vous
dis 'con, vous avez l'air', c'est juste, mais c'est pas français.")
I think I heard Jennings on the radio (or wireless as we were supposed
to call it then) rather than reading the books so I'm not sure how the
row/row ambiguity would have worked.
[1] Looks quite plausible, at least to non-Welsh-speakers, as a Welsh
word, though maybe it would be better as "wywll".
--
athel