FreeLists / openbeos / [openbeos] Re: AW: Re: AW: Locale Kit

["Nathan Whitehorn" <nathanw@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> | -----Original Message-----
> | From: openbeos-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> | [mailto:openbeos-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Scott MacMaster
> | Sent: 22 December 2003 18:36
> | To: openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> | Subject: [openbeos] Re: AW: Re: AW: Locale Kit
> | 
> | 
> | > Don't quite get this - what has gender to do with sort order ?
> | 
> | As far as I know, nothing.  The issue of gender was brought 
> | up in reference
> | to searching. 
> Fair enough.  
> | > What appears to be the fly in the ointment in this case is 
> | those strange
> | > little 'accent' thingies some of the southern European 
> | languages seem
> | > to need. Are they really necessary, or can they be ignored ? - 
> and
> | > why are they needed anyway when languages such as English, 
> American
> | > and Australian get along fine without them.
> | 
> | What about that pesky apostrophe?  Other languages like 
> | Spanish seem to get
> | along fine without abbreviations.  Why don't (do not) we drop that
> | apostrophe and simplify English.  It'll (It will) definitely help
> | non-English speakers learn English. 
> As I would have thought you'd realise, the apostrophe has two 
> distinct uses: 
>  - to allow the written language to more closely follow how it is 
> actually spoken; as to say 'we will' instead of 'we'll'. 
>  - to distinguish between a plural and a possessive; as with '(bunch 
> of) grapes' or '(the) grape's (skin)'. 
> Without it, or if used improperly, written English could be quite 
> confusing. 

The point was that the same is true of other languages, with respect to 
accents. Speakers of most other languages couldn't care less about the 
preservation of apostrophes, though.
-Nathan