it.cultura.linguistica.inglese Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) October 2000 DRAFT Table of Contents Part I: Welcome 1. Introduction Part II: You'd better read this 2. The Newsgroup 2.1 Before posting 2.2 Acronyms/Abbreviations/Signatures/Taglines 2.3 Alternative news servers 3. Where can I find.? Part III: Basic tools 4. The English Language 5. Dictionaries/Reference 6. Dictionaries/Reference - Print 7. Pronunciation 8. Phonetics Part IV: Applying the Tools 9. Where can I find English movies? 10. Literature Online 11. Leisure Online 12. Translation: Information and Resources for Translators Part V: Study, Teach and Work 13. EFL/ESL/TEFL/TOEFL 14. Study holidays abroad 15. Working overseas Part VI: Have Language Will Travel 16. Where can I find a pen-pal to write to? 17. Chat programmes Part VII: The Italians' Most Asked Questions 18. English Usage Part VIII: What Else? 19. Miscellaneous 1. INTRODUCTION Welcome to it.cultura.linguistica.inglese These FAQ serve as an introduction to the newsgroup it.cultura.linguistica.inglese and place, in one location, answers to the most frequently asked questions which appear on the group. The compilation of these FAQ has been undertaken on a voluntary basis with contributions from many of the more regular participants of the newsgroup. Every attempt has been made to ensure that the information and URL's given here are up to date and the sites and references mentioned have been checked for their validity. However, no responsibility for the accuracy of the information contained herein is assumed. Should you come across any dead-end links, find any out-of-date information, or should you wish to make any suggestions or contributions for inclusion in these FAQ, please do not hesitate to contact bambiw@tin.it These FAQ will be posted on a regular basis to the newsgroup. Additionally, they will also be posted to the newsgroup it.faq. Some items do not necessarily constitute Frequently Asked Questions as such, but have been included in the belief that they may be of interest. To all who enter in, Welcome. 2. THE NEWSGROUP What is it.cultura.linguistica.inglese? it.cultura.linguistica.inglese was founded in 1998 by Giovanni Trovato. The newsgroup's charter as originally voted on, can be found at: http://www.news.nic.it/news-it/manif/it.cultura.linguistica.inglese.txt Since its founding, the group has become affectionately known as The Illuminated Realm, and it is our belief that one of our most endearing trademarks is the noticeable absence of arguments, flames, and general ill-will. Which is not to say members do not sometimes hold dissenting views on subjects, merely that we are able to maintain a pleasantly agreeable level of tolerance and decorum when expressing such. We sincerely hope your participation in the group will be in keeping with this spirit. It is a newsgroup open to all who are interested in the English language; a place to write about and discuss this interest, ask questions, seek linguistic clarification and generally enjoy yourself. (Needless to say, humour is never out of place). The newsgroup's home page can be found at: http://web.tiscalinet.it/peltio/TheRealm/index.html Thanks for this permanent residence is owed to our most gallant Knight In Shining Armour, Peltio. (Also on the group's homepage, you will find photographs of some of the members of The Illuminated Realm who held their first real-life gathering in October 1999, in Bologna). Is The Illuminated Realm moderated? No. Whilst there are no moderators for the Realm, there are four democratically elected "Royal Highnesses". In alphabetical order they are: HRH Arianna, HRH Bambi, HRH Isabella and HRH Mary. We are also fortunate in having among us numerous Knights In Shining Armour (K.I.S.A.), an assortment of Privy Counsellors, and other distinguished personages. (For a more fully detailed history you are invited to visit our homepage). What topics are discussed in The Realm? More or less anything and everything is discussed within the group. To be totally In Topic (IT), questions, comments, opinions etc. should in some way have something to do with the English language. Questions relating to grammar, explanations of English phrases/words, discussions of English literature or indeed any matter having to do with English are welcome. Topics which could cause heated debates on matters not related to English (i.e. politics), are not encouraged however. What questions/requests are NOT appreciated? An urgent plea for us to do your homework. Members are more than willing to share their knowledge, render assistance, give opinions and point you in a helpful direction, but requests - urgent or otherwise - for an essay/pr‚cis/dissertation etc. which needs to be handed in to your professor in a few hours time will receive little sympathy and incur the wrath of many. We are not here to do your work for you or make up for your laziness. You have been warned! 2.1 Before Posting: Basic Netiquette Before posting to the newsgroup a few points of Netiquette are listed here so that you might save yourself the embarrassment of committing what is generally considered a faux pas so incurring the ire of Their Royal Highnesses to the point of summoning the Royal Guards to see you off! First Rule of Usenet: Read the FAQ for whatever groups you're trying to start participating in. Since you're reading this, you're already ahead of the game. Congratulations: not everyone does this. Understanding the information contained herein will save you (and the denizens of the newsgroup) some headaches. Second Rule of Usenet: After you've read the FAQ, lurk. Read the group you want to participate in without posting for a while. How long is "a while"? Six months. If you can't wait six months, wait twelve. Seriously, this piece of advice is group-specific, but the spirit is pretty useful to remember - in all truthfulness, everything you're going to ask has probably been asked before. Watching the patterns in the newsgroup will let you see this for yourself. Moreover, reading the newsgroup for a period of time without posting will help you get a feel for what the group is like as a social entity. Third Rule of Usenet: Lurk some more. When in doubt as to the reasons why, see the Second Rule of Usenet above. Fourth Rule of Usenet: Do not take the newsgroup, yourself, or anyone else involved in a discussion too seriously. It's only Usenet after all. You're going to need a thick skin if you're going to survive in the icky cesspool that is Usenet, so get used to being flamed, and try not to take it personally. This particular group however, constitutes an exception in the vast Usenet landscape, for feuds and flames are conspicuous by their absence. Things that will help keep you from getting flamed too badly: DON'T POST IN CAPS, NEITHER SUBJECT NOR BODY OF MESSAGE. This is basic Netiquette. Using caps equals SHOUTING. Save, save, save: you don't own the place. Quote, attribute, and trim. When replying to a post, include text from the previous post, include a name, but don't include the entire post. Trim your posts judiciously. Don't post binaries (graphic images) to non-binary newsgroups. (In case you're wondering, that would be us). Don't post in HTML or with MIME-encoded attachments. To borrow a phrase, "brevity is the soul of wit.'' This applies to both frequency and content of posts. Fifth Rule of Usenet: If you don't know very much about Usenet, ask. But don't ask in it.cultura.linguistica.inglese, you'll be in the wrong place. Try asking in news.newusers.questions, and read the articles in news.announce.newusers. On the Web, you can read about "How to make the best use of Usenet news,'' conveniently located at: http://home.netscape.com/menu/netet/news2.html. If you would prefer to talk to your Italian peers, then you can try it.faq and it.news.aiuto. Suggestions on how to use or 'tune' your favourite newsreader can be found at it.comp.soft.newsreader. Don't forget to read the charters of these newsgroups before posting your questions. Sixth Rule of Usenet: Don't feed the trolls. Trolls are posts that are deliberately inflammatory. If you read something that ticks you off, and it sounds pretty outlandish, don't bother replying. It's just not worth it. Finding old messages/discussions Should you wish to find a previously posted message, an archive of articles posted on it.cultura.linguistica.inglese (and indeed any other newsgroup) can be found at: http://www.dejanews.com/ The site provides an option of searching either a "Current" or "Old" database. "Current" contains articles dating back a few weeks, whereas "Old" goes back to the start of the archive in 1995. 2.2 Acronyms/Abbreviations/Signatures/Taglines From time to time in various posts within the group, you will come across the following 'in-house' acronyms and might wonder what they mean. Since coming to grips with the English language is an arduous enough task in itself, we thought to clarify at least this mystery for you here. In-house acronyms/abbreviations dtb (found at the end of Bambi's posts) = de-tribalised Brit - an English person who has been away from England (the tribe) for a long period of time ICLI = it.cultura.linguistica.italiano; a sister newsgroup to our own focusing on the Italian language ICLIng = it.cultura.linguistica.inglese a.k.a. The Illuminated Realm K.I.S.A. = Knight in Shining Armour. There are many in the Realm. Internet/Usenet Acronyms Posters often make use of Internet acronyms and the following, more commonly used ones are listed for your convenience. HTH = Hope this Helps IIRC = If I recall correctly IMHO = In my humble opinion [Variation: IMNSHO = In my not so humble opinion] IT = In topic LOL = Laughing out loud OT = Off topic RL = Real Life ROTF[LOL] = Rolling on the floor [laughing out loud] ROTFLMAO = Rolling on the floor laughing my ass off TIA = Thanks in advance URL= Universal Resource Locator - in other words, an address for a Web Site For a more comprehensive list of Internet acronyms, please see: http://www.utopiasw.demon.co.uk/acronyms.htm Where does Mary Cassidy get her great taglines from? Mary's taglines have rightly won renown within The Realm. Often the question is asked "Where does Mary get her great taglines from?" The answer to the question is a semi-trade secret. (Hint: Search Engines - See below) (When the tagline includes a gentleman by the name of Tom, please note that these are known as 'Tom Swifties'. Also note that once Mary has finished with the aforementioned gentleman, IsabellaZ and Bambi - in that order - have requested the pleasure of the gentleman's company for their own delectations) Where does IsabellaZ's signature come from? Another Frequently Asked Question. The signature which appears at the end of Isabella Z's posts is of unknown origin. It was sent to her by a friend who also has not the vaguest notion where it comes from. It is believed to be a verse from a song. If you are able to give a creditable source for it, the group - not to mention HRH Isabella - would be eternally grateful and would very much welcome hearing from you. 2.3 Alternative news servers In the event you experience problems accessing the group via your news server, any of the following alternative servers should be of help: news.tin.it news.cu.mi.it news.interbusiness.it news.diesel.cu.mi.it news.megasys.it Additionally, the following news server from the University of Berlin, which provides access to over 20,000 news groups, has proved a useful alternative for a number of our posters: News.cis.dfn.de You must register with them which can be done by sending an e-mail to: News-register@cis.dfn.de The header/subject of your e-mail should be 'Registration'. And in the body of the message simply state your name and your e-mail address. You will receive confirmation from them of your username and password within 24 hours. The service is free. 3. WHERE CAN I FIND.? Whilst members are more than willing to answer questions where they are able, please note that many of the simpler questions can be answered by conducting an elementary Internet search. Please bear in mind that in all probability your question has been asked and answered before and after a while it can become slightly wearying to be answering the same question again and again. Below is a list of the some of the more commonly used search engines which will prove invaluable in helping you find what you are looking for. You are strongly urged to make use of them. English Search Engines: www.altavista.com www.askjeeves.com www.yahoo.com www.infind.com www.northernlights.com www.looksmart.com www.google.com www.dogpile.com Italian Search Engines: www.arianna.com www.virgilio.com www.google.com www.metacrawler.com 4. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE For matters relating specifically to English and The English Language, we include the following suggestions of useful sites and references. It bears repeating that you are welcome to post your questions to the group, but if your question is likely to have been asked before, you may first want to check the following which might have the answer you want. Looking for an additional forum where you can learn English? misc.education.language.english is a newsgroup devoted to the teaching of English (especially as a second language). The meaning of an Acronym? The following Web site has a searchable list of over 144,000 acronyms, initilisms and abbreviations: www.acronymfinder.com This one, called Babel, contains a shorter list of computer related acronyms all on one page that you can easily download for off-line browsing: http://www.ciw.uni-karlsruhe.de/kopien/babel.html There is also The Network Dictionary of Acronyms: http://www.ucc.ie/info/net/acronyms/acro.html A list of False Friends? A very useful list of false friends can be found at: http://www.infotrad.demon.co.uk Additionally, a list is also included on our home page. Just follow the link. English Grammar An Elementary Grammar at the English Institute's Web site offers help for beginners, intermediate and advanced students: http://www.englishinstitute.co.uk:591/guest_book/default.htm From the Digital Education Network, the rules, plus a clinic and practice pages: http://www.edunet.com/english/grammar/index.cfm More grammar exercises, quizzes, lessons, chat rooms and links: http://www.eslpartyland.com Covering many forms of English grammar with an emphasis on Business English: http://www.better-english.com/grammar.htm A grammar reference and exercise site. For entry levels of ESL classes. http://www.clta.on.ca/grammar.htm The basics, thoroughly explained. http://vweb1.hiway.co.uk/ei/intro.html San Francisco State University ESL site. http://thecity.sfsu.edu/%7Efunweb/ Online English grammar. http://www.edunet.com/english/grammat/index.cfm The following site provides links on the web to help with English grammar. http://www.geocities.com/Atehns/Parthenon/2962/grammar/ English Verbs Verb charts: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/Files/84.html Everything you always wanted to know about verbs but were afraid to ask: ~http://www.gsu.edu/~wwwesl/egw/jones-html Online exercises using verbs: http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/verbtenseintro.html Complete verb tense reviews, designed for intermediate and advanced English learners: http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/verbtenseintro.html English verb tenses: http://deil.lang.uiuc.edu/class.pages/Structure1/tenses Complete description of non-continuous verbs and verb tense irregularities in English: http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/types.html Irregular verb chart for students of English: http://members.home.net/englishzone/study/verbchrt.html More help with those irregular verbs: http://www.gsu.edu/~wwwesl/egw/grlist.htm. Phrasal Verbs A list of the most common English phrasal verbs: http://www.eflnet.com/pverbs.htm The ESL Cafe offers a wealth of information for English learners including a list of phrasal verbs: http://www.eslcafe.com/pv/ P.S. Words, words, words For those who like exploring the subtleties and ironies of the English language may we suggest a visit to the following sites: Richard Lederer's home page. " Ours is the only language in which you drive in a parkway and park in a driveway and night falls but never breaks and day breaks but never falls." If you're interested in the peculiarities of the English Language, this site is highly recommended. ~www.pw1.netcom.com/~rlederer/index.htm Common Errors in English. A site featuring many confusing words and pairs such as affect/effect, adapt/adopt, advice/advise, altogether/all together, etc. http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html Michael Quinion's World Wide Words looking at new words and the reappearance of old ones. http://www.quinion.demon.co.uk/words/ The Word Detective features a large archive in which Evan Morris answers questions on origins of colourful words and phrases. http://www.word-detective.com Foreigners take their best shot at the English language. A site featuring some interesting translations gone slightly awry. http://hearsay.simplenet.com/translation/index.htm 5. DICTIONARIES/REFERENCE Where can I find an online dictionary for.? A general-purpose dictionary, the Merriam-Webster Collegiate: http://www.m-w.com/netdict.htm A versions of an unabridged dictionary published early in the twentieth century by the company that is now Merriam-Webster has been issued by Project Gutenberg. The version is in HTML format (45 Mb when unzipped). And is available from: ftp://uiarchive.cso.uiuc.edu/pub/etext/gutenberg/etext96. It can also be found on the Web at: http://promo.net/pg/ The Macquarie dictionary is accessible online at: http://www.dict.mq.edu.au/ Free, downloadable dictionaries: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/8180 Onelook - Another valuable source searches over 500 dictionaries at one time: http://www.onelook.com English and foreign dictionaries can be found at: http://www.yourdictionary.com/ Babylon A downloadable dictionary that lies under every application and uses an OCRm system to capture the words to be translated. http://www.babylon.com/ Once you have downloaded the main program (840 KB) you can access the twelve language databases online or you can download the dictionaries (3-4 MB each) you prefer (English and Italian, for example). http://www.babylon.com/download/index.html Babylon is a one way dictionary: it can translate only from English to other languages British/American Dictionaries To help you understand the differences between British English and American English: Brit-Speak: http://pages.prodigy.com/NY/NYC/britspk/main.html The American-British British-American Dictionary: http://www.peak.org/~jeremy/dictionary English (British)-American Dictionary: http://www.libertynet.org/~bgmap/us-uk.html English-Italian, Italian-English Dictionaries The Internet Dictionary Project, featuring downloadable files: http://www.june29.com/IDP/ A free, multilingual database is available from: http://dictionaries.travlang.com/EnglishItalian/ From the Dutch Dictionary Project: http://www.freedict.com/dictionary/index.html A large source of language dictionaries: http://www.logos.it/index.html Alternative Dictionaries: Not for those who are easily offended, this site features 'alternative' dictionaries in many languages: http://www.notam.uio.no/~hcholm/altlang/ Specialised Dictionaries: (See also Section 10. Translation: Useful sites for translators) From Agriculture to Textiles a site featuring specialised, technical dictionaries and much more: http://www.yourdictionary.com/diction4.html A very impressive site, the following offers 870 monolingual, bilingual and multilingual resources in the form of either downloadable or online dictionaries including detective slang, casing and packing industry terms, flower names, a cat fanciers glossary, silicon valley slang, model aeroplane jargon and much more besides. Definitely worth a visit. http://www.jump.net/~fdietz/glossary.htm The above mentioned Onelook site is also a valuable aid also for technical translators, since it provides at a glance several occurrences of a technical term in different contexts. Slang: American Slang American Slanguages. "Talk like the locals in cities in America. The hick to hip translation guide". http://www.slanguage.com British Slang A dictionary of English slang and colloquialisms currently used in the UK. http://www.peevish.u-net.com/slang Slang and colloquialisms currently used in Britain with a focus on Manchester and the North of England. With a searchable database. http://www.page27.co.uk/ted A comprehensive list of Slang to English & English to Slang tables with examples of correct usage. http://www.accessv.com/~alderton/slang Australian Slang A collection of Australian slang, sayings and phrases, from the old, disappearing traditional words, to the present day. http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Breakers/8092/ozslang.htm A Collection of Australian slang with translations into American and English. ~http://people.enternet.com.au/~goeldner Cockney Rhyming Slang Dictionary Possibly the largest collection on the Web: http://nrcbsa.bio.nrc.ca/~foote/cock_eng.html Thesauruses Roget's Thesaurus is available from: http://web.cs.city.ac.uk/text/roget/thesaurus Thesaurus Com, as the name implies, is another online source: http://www.thesaurus.com/ Quotations John Bartlett's classic "collection of passages, phrases, and proverbs traced to their sources in ancient and modern literature. This ninth edition contains over 9,000 quotations from Hesiod and Plutarch, through Chaucer and Thomas … Kempis, up to the contemporary statesmen of the day" http://www.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/bartlett/ 5.1 Dictionaries/References - Print English-Italian - Dizionari completi su CD e in formato cartaceo Dizionario Picchi Ed. Hoepli Fernando Picchi "Grande Dizionario, con CD-ROM" Ulrico Hoepli Editore - 1999 Prima Edizione 3328 pp. 175 000 voci, 500 000 vocaboli composti e derivati Flessioni di nomi, verbi, aggettivi e avverbi con inrregolarit… Attributi di numerabilit… di tutti i sostantivi inglesi Indicazione di sinonimi e contrari Appendice: - Numeri cardinali, Numeri ordinali, Segni matematici - Conversione di unit… di misura, Elementi chimici CD-ROM contenente l'intero dizionario che non richiede installazione Commenti: Il programma di consultazione Š molto lento nel caricarsi. A ogni ricerca bisogna chiudere le ultime finestre aperte, cosa che diventa fastidiosa se si vogliono cercare pi— parole in sequenza. Non c'Š una funzione di completamento della parola o di proposta di parole simili. Copertina bruttissima. Dizionario Ragazzini - Ed. Zanichelli Giuseppe Ragazzini Dizionario Inglese Italiano Italiano Inglese Terza edizione, 1998 2400 pp disponibile in versione cartacea, in versione cartacea + CD-ROM e solo in CD-ROM. 138 000 voci, 237 000 accezioni, 4 800 sigle, simboli e abbreviazioni, 3 000 nomi propri e toponimi 32 tavole illustrate in quadricromia con 198 illustrazioni e didascalie bilingui relative a: Agricoltura, Anatomia umana, Architettura, Scienze della Terra e energia, sistema solare, Sport, Trasporti. - Minidizionari su CD con la pronuncia Dizionario 'speakerato' (sic) Garzanti Ô equivalente a un dizionario in formato ridotto. - Dizionari solo su CD DizioROM Microsoft Include: il Dizionario Enciclopedico Rizzoli, il Dizionario dei sinonimi e contrari, il Dizionario inglese-italiano/italiano-inglese, il Dizionario delle sentenze latine e greche, l'Atlante geografico Encarta in versione compatta e il Dizionario delle citazioni. All'interno Š possibile trovare clip multimediali, immagini e animazioni. Inoltre per il fatto di essere un prodotto di mamma microsoft DizioRom (si dice) pu• essere richiamato da qualsiasi applicazione. Dalle informazioni a nostra disposizione comunque si tratta di una versione non recente che non ha subito gli aggiornamenti degli altri prodotti microsoft, come l'altlante e l'enciclopedia Encarta. Dizionario Picchi Lo si Š trovato in edicola per un breve periodo (la prima settimana di Marzo 2000) associato alla vendita del quotidiano La Repubblica. Con un sovraprezzo di sole 18900. Forse lo si pu• trovare nei remainders centers oppure facendo richiesta all'editore per una copia arretrata. Dizionario Ragazzini Pu• essere acquistato anche il solo CD-ROM. - Dizionari solo cartacei Dizionario Hazon - Ed. Garzanti I Grandi Dizionari Garzanti: Hazon Inglese 2688 pagine 340 000 voci e accezioni 58 000 termini specialistici (scientifici, tecnici, economici, giuridici e di informatica) 2200 Phrasal verbs 2000 citazioni d'autore 4300 termini e locuzioni americane 2600 sigle, abbreviazioni e acronimi trascrizione fonetica e divisione sillabica. informazioni di costume, storia, cultura 70 tavole a colori e in bianco e nero con 2500 vocaboli settoriali 11 appendici (verbi irregolari, nomi propri, cognomi, nomi geografici, nomenclature scientifiche, unit… di misura...) glossario dei termini informatici e di internet con tavole illustrate include un CD-ROM: un minidizionario visuale che non richiede installazione. ***Dizionario - Ed. Sansoni info wanted Solo Inglese American Heritage Dictionary - The Voice of America La terza edizione, solo in CD-ROM si trova a un prezzo decisamente basso, con sole trentamila lire vi potete portare a casa un dizionario di inglese americano con la pronuncia di tutti i termini principali oltre a un dizionario di sinonimi e contrari e un dizionario etimologico. 200 000 vocaboli definizione completa, pronuncia, ortografia, fraseologia, categoria grammaticale, divisione in sillabe, declinazione, espressioni idiomatiche, uso, omografi, etimologia Contiene inoltre: The Roget's Thesaurus Un dizionario ragionato di sinonimi e contrari con una base di oltre 1 500 000 parole The dictionary of Cultural Literacy Che contiene espressioni relative a: la bibbia, letteratura, medicina e salute, filosofia e religione, storia del mondo, storia americana, affari ed economia, scienze fisiche e matematiche. Oltre 8000 schede biografiche e pi— di 13000 nomi geografici. Commenti: L'interfaccia Š particolarmente efficiente (a differenza di quella di certi programmi italiani.) e permette il taglia e incolla (anche questo a differenza di certi programmi italiani.). Gira anche sotto Windows 3.1 Non fatevelo scappare! Ô un must. Collins COBUILD COllins Birmingham University InternationaL Database Helping learners with real English. 1703 pp. 70000 references 90000 examples - detailed treatment to the most frequent 2000 words in English - every definition is explained with a sentence in order to show essential grammar, and to avoid the codes, symbols and brackets that make other dictionary difficult to use - an extra column gives detailed grammatical information about how each sense of each word can be used - the last edition contains information on how frequently a word appears in the English language Available with CD-ROM Collins Millennium Collins English Dictionary Millennium Edition, 1998 1824 pp. 180 000 lemmi, 196 000 accezioni, 16 000 lemmi nuovi o aggiornati 18 500 voci enciclopediche Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary A.S. Hornby 63000 references 65000 definitions 90000 examples 11600 idioms and phrasal verbs Full coverage of American English and pronunciation and 16 colour pages presenting information on cultural topics such as the American legal system and constitution. Available with CD-ROM Webster Webster's New World Dictionary of American English third College edition 1574 pages 170.000 entries 11.000 American words and phrases Dizionari tecnici McGrawHill Zanichelli Il McGraw Hill Zanichelli - small size - con CD-ROM Dizionario enciclopedico scientifico inglese-italiano (italiano-inglese solo rimando al termine inglese) seconda edizione Zanichelli, 1998 2240 pp. 105 000 lemmi ordinati alfabeticamente e tradotti in italiano nel linguaggio della scienza e della tecnica 129 000 traduzioni italiane 122 000 definizioni enciclopediche riprodotte dalla seconda edizione del "McGrawHill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms" 102 settori specialistici dell'astronomia, biologia, chimica, fisica, geologia, ingegneria, matematica, medicina 3000 illustrazioni Commento: Completo nella parte inglese, la parte italiana Š solo un rimando alle definizioni inglesi. Contiene solo termini in inglese US. Marolli Marolli " " tredicesima edizione - , 1996 Disponibile in versione cartacea con CD-ROM o solo in CD-ROM Il CD-ROM funziona su MS-DOS 1872 pp. 195.000 voci complessive 42 tavole fuori testo rappresentanti i vari settori della tecnica Commenti: Rispetto al McGraw Hill, il Marolli contiene pi— termini generici ed Š veramente un dizionario italiano-inglese, inglese-italiano (non di tipo enciclopedico). L'originale orientamento alla meccanica lo rende meno adatto per materie come elettronica, informatica e telecomunicazioni. Non sempre spiega quali termini sono in inglese UK e quali sono US. Gould-Chiampo Dizionario enciclopedico di medicina Inglese-Italiano, Italiano-Inglese a cura di Luigi Chiampo, tratto dal Blakiston's Gould Medical Dictionary edito da McGraw-Hill (New York). Zanichelli, 1988 2274 pp. 78 000 voci con 84 000 definizioni e 26 tavole anatomiche a colori. Delfino Lanciotti Liguri Stefani Giovanni Delfino, Eudes Lanciotti, Gianfranco Liguri, Massimo Stefani "Medicina e Biologia. Medicine & Biology" Dizionario enciclopedico di Scienze mediche e Biologiche e di Biotecnologie Italiano Inglese Inglese Italiano Zanichelli, 1997 2144 pp. Sezione italiano inglese: 41 000 voci, 45 000 accezioni, 70 settorispecialistici, oltre 80 illustrazioni. Sezione inglese italiano: 48 000 voci. Appendici: sigle e simboli internazionali; grandezze, costanti e unit… di misura; dati chimico-fisici; dati fisiologici, biochimici e nutrizionali; classificazioni biologiche. Economics & Business Fernando Picchi "Il Nuovo Economics & Business" Dizionario enciclopedico economico e commerciale Ing-Ita, Ita-Ing seconda edizione Zanichelli,1990 1600 pp. 52 000 voci. Tavole bilingui di nomenclatura. Dizionario di base in 5 lingue. Monete. Unit… di misura. Language & Business Fernando Picchi "Language & Business" Dizionario Ing-Ita, Ita-Ing economico commerciale e di lingua moderna Zanichelli, 1993 1792 pp. sezione inglese-italiano 20 000 voci e 39 000 accezioni sezione italiano-inglese 22 000 voci e 47 000 accezioni Law and Commerce "West's Law & Commercial Dictionary" Dizionario giuridico e commerciale Inglese-Italiano, Francese, Spagnolo, Tedesco, Italiano-Inglese. 1998, Zanichelli/West. 1856 pp. Oltre 17 000 voci Informatica Otto Vollnhals "Dizionario di Informatica" terza edizione 1996 (?) Gruppo Editoriale Jackson 20.000 voci 4 lingue (EN-FR-IT-DE) Altri dizionari e riferimenti American Slang Richard A. Spears "AMERICAN SLANG Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions" Zanichelli/National Textbook Company, 1989 544 pp 10 000 definizioni di 8500 voci e locuzioni gergali nell'inglese d'America L'inglese in America I. Ferrero - G. Anglesio "L'inglese in America" Dizionario di slang - eufemismi - espressioni colloquiali non ortodosse e proibite Inglese-Italiano, Italiano-Inglese Mursia 1991 861 pp. 9000 vocaboli e 20.000 citazioni (d'autore, da enciclopedie, riviste, giornali, film, dizionari) American Idioms Richard A. Spears "AMERICAN IDIOMS Dictionary of everyday expressions of contemporary American English" Zanichelli/National Textbook Company, 1988 460 pp. Oltre 8000 espressioni idiomatiche frequentemente usate nell'inglese americano: frasi gergali, convenzionali, proverbiali, formali e informali con indicazioni che ne chiariscono il senso, commenti, indicazioni sull'uso ed esempi Odd Pairs & False Friends Virginia Browne, Elena Mendes, Gabriele Natali "Odd Pairs & False Friends" Dizionario di false analogie e ambigue affinit… tra inglese ed italiano 199x, Zanichelli 272 pp. nella sezione inglese: 1000 coppie di voci inglesi e italiane suddivise per accezione e ordinate alfabeticamente, norme d'uso e segnalazioni linguistiche, spiegazioni e commenti, esempi tradotti. nella sezione italiana: 1000 voci italiane con rimando alla corrispondente voce inglese More & More False friends, Bugs and Bugbears Virginia Browne, Elena Mendes, Gabriele Natali "More & More False Friends. Bugs & Bugbears" Dizionario di ambigue affinit… e tranelli nella traduzione fra Inglese e Italiano con Word Games Zanichelli, 1995 432 pp. Oltre 1300 coppie di voci inglesi e italiane circa 180 Word Games Dizionari Visuali Dizionario Visuale Italiano-Inglese a cura di Jean-Claude Corbeil e Ariane Archambault Trad. di Studio Zelig, rivista da A. Suvero Zanichelli, 1998 928 pp. 3500 immagini a colori, 50 000 nomi Duden Inglese Italiano Dizionario illustrato Inglese e Italiano. Pictorial English & Italian Dictionary a cura delle redazioni del Duden e della Oxford University Press Zanichelli, 1995 872 pp. 384 tavole, 28 000 voci inglesi e altrettante italiane. 6. WHERE CAN I FIND ONLINE ENGLISH LANGUAGE COURSES? A useful, free site for those who are just starting out learning English is: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/6403/ The English Page - Free Online English Lessons is good Internet resource for intermediate and advanced learners of English as a foreign language. http://www.englishpage.com Multimedia online ESL course from PlanetEnglish. http://www.planetenglish.com The TESL/TEFL/TESOL/ESL/EFL/ESOL Links page also features links to other sites offering courses http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/links/ Infotech, from the Cambridge University Press, is a comprehensive course for intermediate level learners who need to be able to understand and use the English of computing for study and work. http://www.cup.cam.ac.uk/elt/infotech/index.htm 7. PRONUNCIATION Where can I hear English pronunciation online? The English Listening Lounge. Recordings (in Real Audio format) of English speakers. http://www.EnglishListening.com There is a dictionary with pronunciation sound files at: http://www.allwords.com/ How to pronounce 'ghoti' and why. Remember Bernard Shaw's word ghoti with the gh from laugh, the o from women and the ti from nation and pronounced 'fish'? R. Beard offers a full explanation of this linguistic oddity which has appeared on the group a number of times http://www.yourdictionary.com/phono.html 8. PHONETICS The standard way to represent pronunciation is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Their home page is: http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/IPA/ipa.html A list of the ASCII version of the IPA symbols is available from one of The Realm's own gallant hommes featuring all the symbols necessary for English and Italian in both IPA and ASCII IPA, with examples. http://www.powerup.com.au/~rmottare/ipa.htm 9. WHERE CAN I FIND ENGLISH MOVIES? At your newsagents' The English Movie Collection Films including original script Speak Up As well as the videotapes, you can also buy the magazine On TV Those of you who own a time machine, can travel back in time three or four years and re-live the wonders of the programme which used to air on Sunday nights on RaiTre "Movies: i film come non li avete mai sentiti". Failing which, you could complain to the programme schedulers of the major television networks who seem to think that a repeat of a television series from the seventies is of greater value than showing a film in its original language. But we digress. The only solution for those wishing to view films in English is to purchase a satellite kit. Sad but true. At the cinema Some cinemas make it a practice to show films in their original language on a regular basis. Your local newspaper would be the best source for finding out if you are fortunate enough to live in an area with a cinema under such enlightened management. At your local library Some libraries are furnished with multi-media sectors complete with music CD's, videotapes and DVD. Among these, some even have films in their original language. Unfortunately not many are as enlightened, however it is certainly worth asking to find out. 10. LITERATURE ONLINE We are very often asked for help in suggesting 'interesting' literature or for sources where certain works can be found online. The following therefore, is longer than might perhaps be thought necessary, but it is deliberately so, in the hopes that you might find what you need 'somewhere out there' Akamac Among other things, Marx's Das Kapital is available in English and English-German bilingual versions, in .pdf (Adobe Acrobat) file-format. This site also includes an extensive, alphabetically-sorted directory of online e-text resources of all sorts. http://www.cpm.ll.ehime-u.ac.jp/AkamacHomePage/Akamac.html Alex Catalogue of Electronic Texts "The scope of documents in this collection include items from American literature, English literature, and Western philosophy." This extensive literature archive site is distinguished by the ability to generate on-the-fly Portable Document Format or .PDF (Adobe Acrobat) files which can be (to a limited extent) custom-formatted online and then downloaded for later reading and printing. http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/alex Berkeley Digital Library SunSITE "Builds digital collections and services while providing information and support to digital library developers world-wide." http://sunsite.berkeley.edu Bibliotheca Universalis A G-7 global information society pilot project whose main objective is to make the major works of the world's scientific and cultural heritage accessible to the public. http://www.konbib.nl/gabriel/bibliotheca-universalis/index.htm Blackmask Online Ebooks A very large selection of electronic online texts by a wide variety of authors (including a biography on each author listed) from a wide range of literature; many works can also be downloaded in .zip file-format. http://www.blackmask.com/olbooks/main.htm Books-Online A searchable and browseable database-directory of online electronic texts covering a broad range of interests, from established literary classics to computer how-to manuals. Be warned however that of their current database of 11,301 books, 575 only have 'Sample Chapters', i.e. not the entire book. http://www.books-on-line.com Bookvalley A library of classic novels, literatures, and fictions online. Including the Tarzan Series and the immortal Sherlock Holmes. http://www.bookvalley.com The British Library Digital Library http://portico.bl.uk/diglib/diglib_main.html CARRIE: A Full-Text Electronic Library An extensive link resource, listing texts archived at various locations all across the Internet. Features a searchable database. http://www.bookwebsites.com Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse Bibliography An extensive archive of Middle-English electronic texts (none of which are translated into modern English, however), including works by Chaucer and the ubiquitous Anonymous. http://www.hti.umich.edu/english/mideng/bibl.html Cyberbooks. A growing selection of downloadable, online books in both English and Italian. http://members.xoom.it/cyberbooks/ Grand Library Portal for digital books available online, with thousands of books to read for free. http://grandlibrary.com Internet Classics Archive Repository of searchable works of classical literature. Mainly Greco-Roman works (some Chinese and Persian), all in English translation. http://classics.mit.edu The Internet Public Library Online public library for the Internet community. Includes directories of online texts, newspapers, magazines, reference materials; plus special sections for youth and teens. http://www.ipl.org/reading/books Online Books Directory of over 11,000 books that can be freely read on the Internet. http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/ Perseus Project An evolving digital library of ancient Greek and Latin texts, ancient art and architecture, secondary sources, and links maintained by Tufts University. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu Progetto Liber-Liber Il progetto Liber Liber ha per scopo la realizzazione della versione elettronica, e certificata, di centinaia di classici della letteratura in lingua italiana, gratuitamente prelevabili via Internet. http://www.liberliber.it/biblioteca/opere Also available from the University of Milan via ftp: ftp://manuzio.dsi.unimi.it/pub/Manuzio/ Project Gutenberg Index "Project Gutenberg selects etexts targeted a bit on the "bang for the buck" philosophy. we choose etexts we hope extremely large portions of the audience will want and use frequently." http://www.promo.net/pg/ Shakespeare Stack Project Macintosh hyperCard editions of the works of William Shakespeare, with annotations. http://www.his.com/~z/shakespeare/ Twain Enterprises at Villa Gruntose "Contains a collection of electronic texts including the entire Sherlock Holmes canon." which is really why the link is here. http://www.gruntose.com/Info/Books/Sherlock_Holmes/sherlock.html Under the Sun Contains classic literature in HTML format. Authors include Twain, Shelley and Dickens. New authors are added monthly. http://www.underthesun.cc/Classics Vision of the Artists 1258 classical fiction and non-fiction e-books. 460 authors linked to 1258 author titles of classic literature. http://www.selfknowledge.com Washington University Library - Electronic Texts & Documents Amazing depth of historical subjects available. An impressively large list of what's available on the Internet. http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/Humanities/dr/eltxt.html 11 LEISURE ONLINE Want to find your favourite song's lyrics? Ever wondered what Dr. Frankesteeen said to Igor in "Young Frankenstein"? Here are a few links to help you out. Song Lyrics Some places where you could find that the love song you like the most is the last incoherent cry of a freaking psycho: http://www.songfile.com/ http://www.lyrics.ch/index.htm http://songfile.snap.com/ Movie Scripts Three places where you will find the scripts of your favourite movies, or even the original screenplays (check out Bladerunner, Young Frankenstein, and Pulp Fiction) http://www.script-o-rama.com/trans.shtml http://www.lontano.org/FMA/index-frames.html http://us.imdb.com/ Movie Trailers and Interviews Trailers, in English, of the latest releases to be shown at the cinema can be found at the first of the following sites (updated every Friday), and the second link offers many interviews with stars of the silver screen: http://movies.eonline.com/?plusmovie http://www.hollywood.com/movietalk/ Comics on line The Realm has more than a few die-hard comic enthusiasts, so.Wanna read a few stories featuring Donald Duck in its mother tongue? Go on and help yourself: http://www.fortunecity.com/westwood/blumarine/14/bongo01.htm http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/5038/kites01.htm http://www.mhk.lu.se/home/murry/Moc20/africaframe.html http://marcobar.cce.unifi.it/comics/Censored/AtomBomb/Pagina1.html http://www.fortunecity.com/westwood/blumarine/14/loot01.htm http://www.hamlco.com/gladstone/boatmen/boatmen1.html http://marcobar.cce.unifi.it/comics/censored/MarcoPolo/ http://www.fortunecity.com/westwood/blumarine/14/loot01.htm Radio over the Internet The choice of English radio stations available over the Internet is quite staggering. In order to hear them however, you will first need to install a plug-in (if you don't already have one, of course). Arguably the most popular and available free of charge is Real Player: www.realplayer.com Once you have installed the correct plug-in you can go and look for the radio broadcasting station in the city you most like http://wmbr.mit.edu/stations/list.html TV over the net 12. TRANSLATION: Information and Resources for Translators Where can I find out about Translation, Fees, etc? ASSOCIAZIONE ITALIANA TRADUTTORI INTERPRETI provides a comprehensive fee list for professional interpreters/translators in various fields. http://www.mix.it/AITI/ Generally speaking however, agencies pay about L.22.000 a page where each page is approximately 25 lines of 60 characters each. For private clients it is possible to ask for L30,000 per page and up. Where can I find translation software? There is really no available software - free or otherwise - which can do a creditable job of translating text from English into Italian or indeed from any language into another. While experienced translators are finding uses for those programmes that are available, the inexperienced translator should use them with care. Altavista provides an online translation service. Be warned the results are far from satisfactory. http://babelfish.altavista.digital.com/cgi-bin/translate? If you have something which needs translating, within a reasonable limit, ask the newsgroup, you'll be sure to get all the help you need and it is guaranteed to be more accurate than anything a software translation programme will produce. Having said this, some links for translation software can be found at: http://italian.about.com/education/italian/msubtranslation.htm If you are looking for what is known as translation memory (TM) programmes which store your own translations of frequently used words and phrases such as are used by professional translators, two of the most popular are: Trados: http://www.trados.com DejaVu: www.atril.com The following Web site provides over 350 links to free, online machine translation (MT) engines, translation dictionaries, translation word lists, and foreign language processing resources: http://11design.com/transguide/ What is Babelfish? Altavista's online translation service which leaves much to be desired (See Above) Useful sites for Translators: The newsgroup sci.language.translation is " a major meeting place for translators and interpreters and for all those who are curious about anything to do with these professions. The group provides a forum where for those interested in the problems, issues, and concerns of translators and interpreters." It is not the site where you should be posting or asking for work. A specific work-related site for translators exists for this: sci.language.translation.marketplace The Translator's Home Companion, as it calls itself, offers many useful links and their address is: http://www.lai.com./lai/companion.html Aquarius.net is a large marketplace for translation and interpreting jobs on the Internet. It features many resources for translators in the form of links, reference materials, libraries and more. http://aquarius.net EuroDicAutom - A terminology data base in nine languages including 5 million terms in many official EC languages: http://eurodic.ip.lu/cgi-bin/edicbin/EuroDicWWW.pl A very impressive site offering 870 monolingual, bilingual and multilingual resources in the form of either downloadable or online dictionaries including detective slang, casing and packing industry terms, flower names, a cat fanciers glossary, silicon valley slang, model aeroplane dictionary and a lot more besides. Definitely worth a visit. http://www.jump.net/~fdietz/glossary.htm A Useful page for translators with links to newsgroups, mailing lists, numerous specialist dictionaries and much more http://ireland.iol.ie/~mazzoldi/lang/index.html 13. EFL/ESL/TEFL/TOEFL Where can I find out about. EFL (English as a Foreign Language)? The Internet TESL Journal maintains the following site which contains over 5,000 links for TESL/TEFL/TESOL/ESL/EFL/ESOL Students & Teachers of English as a Second Language: http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/links/ Where can I learn more about ESL (English as a Second Language)? Dave 's ESL Cafe Web site has rightly won great renown..possibly the Internet's Top Site for ESL/EFL Students and Teachers from Around the World http://www.eslcafe.com/ This English as a Second Language Web site, is a starting point for ESL learners who want to learn English through the World Wide Web, listing useful links which offer courses. http://www.rong-chang.com/ Tower of English Online ESL Courses A directory of available online ESL Courses. http://members.tripod.com/~towerofenglish/onlinecourses.htm BBC World Service - Home Page Uses radio, magazines, and cassettes to teach English as a second language. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/index.shtml Where can I find out about TEFL course? (Teaching English as a Foreign Language)? Internet TESL Journal: www.tefl.net Where can I learn more about TOEFL (Teaching of English as a Foreign Language)? TOEFL OnLine The official Web site for Teaching of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) includes online testing, tutorials, practice and sample questions and study material as well as a library of material available for downloading http://www.toefl.org Knowledge 3000 TOEFL preparation via the Internet. http://englishtutor.telecampus.com/descr.html New York University: Toefl Preparation Classroom TOEFL preparation course offered by New York University's American Language Institute. http://www.scps.nyu.edu/dyncon/easl/test.html 14. STUDY HOLIDAYS ABROAD Where can I find out about a study holiday overseas? General & Business English. Home-stay tuition in London. http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~jes (No personal knowledge of the following links are known, but they are included for your information.) English, Russian, Welsh and French by post or through intensive residential crash courses in this 16th century Welsh farmhouse among the hills of Meirionnydd in Wales. http://www.meirionnydd.force9.co.uk The English Institute offers English courses whilst staying with an English family in England. http://62.6.162.42/Italimm.html The EnglishClub Language Holidays is a commercial site which will answer questions and help you find a language holiday in many countries. http://www.englishclub.net/language-holidays/index.shtml Anglo-Continental England is based in the UK and is accredited by The British Council. http://www.anglo-continental.com/en/uk/index-uk.htm 15. WORKING OVERSEAS Where can I find information about working overseas? The following URL offers a wealth of information and advice to help you find what you are looking for especially with regard to short-term employment: http://www.transitionsabroad.com/resources/work/shortterm/index.shtml 16. WHERE CAN I FIND A PEN-PAL TO WRITE TO? We get many posts asking if people would be interested in exchanging correspondence to help improve their English. We offer the following suggestions where you could find a like-minded person. The Student E-mail Exchange site should help you find someone looking for similar friends: www.eslpartyland.com/e-mail/stemailresults.htm Online ESL Club! For students and teachers of English. A wealth of information is provided here where you'll also be able to find pen-pals to write to. http://www.englishclub.net If you can't find anyone from the above sites, you might want to try: http://www.europa-pages.co.uk/penpal_form.html Posting to the newsgroup "soc.penpals is also a good idea if you're looking for someone with whom you can exchange e-mails 17. CHAT PROGRAMMES How/where can I chat online to practice my English? Another request which crops up on the group from time to time is how/where to take part in 'chat'. Two of the most popular chat programs available on the Internet are mIRC and ICQ. They are easy to download and a search through the available channels should lead you to many happy hours of chatting fun on just about any subject you can name. The mIRC homepage: www.mirc.com mIRC is not yet available in Italian but this URL will allow you to download the installation instructions in Italian: http://www.mirc.co.uk/translations/italian.html ICQ, another popular chat program, can be downloaded from: http://web.icq.com To use ICQ in your own language, follow the steps listed on the following Web site which accesses LingoWare - a free downloadable programme to then translate ICQ into Italian http://www.lingocom.com/english/downloadicq.htm AOL IM, the Instant Messenger by America On Line is one of the simplest messengers around: http://www.aol.com version 4 is integrated in the latest Netscape release. You can use AOL IM to chat with your buddies only or to join chat rooms that are listed at: http://www.aol.com/community/chat/allchats.html PowWow, is another interesting messaging software: http://www.powwow.com it has several features (such as the capability to share a screen to draw on or the voice communication option), most notably the compatibility with AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) and Microsoft Network Messenger Service (MSNMS) Other messengers Yahoo messenger http://messenger.yahoo.com Microsoft Network Messenger http://messenger.msn.com MSNM is important for NetMeeting, a part of the application that allows for voice communication over the Internet. It is rumoured to be a trifle better than the one offered by PowWow. iCaster http://www.icast.com/icaster Chat without messenger Eliminating the need to have to download a chat programme, the following suggests many links which should be of help in locating others learning English who wish to chat: http://www.esl.about.com/education/esl/msub1.htm. 18. ENGLISH USAGE: "I don't have" vs "I haven't" - (UK usage vs US usage) When speaking of possession, for example a book, the correct forms are: UK: I've got a car / I haven't got a car US: I have a car / I haven't got a car In British English you can't omit the word 'got' when speaking of possession; therefore you can't say for example: I have a book/ I haven't a book. In certain idiomatic phrases, the word 'got' is not used in England, therefore the negative form must be 'don't have'. UK/US: I have breakfast every day/I don't have breakfast every day The I have/I haven't form is used in England only when the verb ' to have ' is used as an auxillary (and the same for the US) UK/US: I have seen / I haven't seen In this case, it would be incorrect to use 'don't have ' "shall" vs "will", "should" vs "would" The traditional rules for using these are quite intricate, and require some choices. If you're wanting to learn more, you can access the relevant section of 'The King's English' at: http://www.bartleby.com/116/index.html The rules as set down in the American Heritage Book of English Usage can be located at: http://www.bartleby.com/64/C001/056.html "whom" In informal English, one can probably get away with using "who" all the time, except perhaps after a preposition. The prescription for formal English is: use "who" as the subjective form (like "he" / "she" / "they"), and "whom" as a direct or indirect object (like "him" / "her" / "them"): Very few English-speakers make these distinctions instinctively; most of those who observe them learned them explicitly. When to use "the" This is often quite tricky for those learning English. The basic rules can be found in the Purdue University Online Writing Lab's WWW page titled "The Use and Non-Use of Articles": http://owl.english.purdue.edu/Files/25.html and in "An Overview of English Article Usage for Speakers of English as a Second Language" by John R. Kohl of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute: http://www.rpi.edu/web/writingcenter/esl.html The article "the" before a noun generally indicates one specific instance of the object named. For example, "I went to the school" refers to one school. (The context should establish which school is meant.) Such examples have the same meaning in all English-speaking countries. 19. MISCELLANEOUS What will we call the next decade? " 2001" will probably be called "two thousand and one", under the influence of the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey"; but after that, people will probably gradually switch to calling the years "twenty oh three", etc. What will we call the decade 2000-2009 (comparable to "the eighties", "the nineties", etc.), who knows? Stay with us, and doubtless we'll all find out in good time. What are Telefonini called in English? We have often been asked what is the English for this word. In American English they are usually called cell (cellular) phones In British English however they are called mobile phones (In Germany, so we are reliably informed, they are known as handy ). Regarding English Pronunciation: Two thoughts: The following two pieces have appeared on the group a number of times. They are included here in their entirety as they are amusing, helpful and hopefully of interest. An audio version of "The Chaos" is available on this Web site here and our thanks goes to yet another gallant Knight of The Realm, Martin J. Kenny for recording it and making it available for use. "The Chaos" by Dr. Gerald Nolst Trenit‚ Trenit‚ (1870 - 1946) wrote articles under the pen name CHARIVARIOUS and this poem appeared in a little booklet entitled "Drop Your English Accent". Dearest creature in creation, Studying English pronunciation. I will teach you in my verse Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse. I will keep you, Suzy, busy, Make your head with heat grow dizzy. Tear in eye, your dress will tear. So shall I! Oh hear my prayer. Just compare heart, beard, and heard, Dies and diet, lord and word, Sword and sward, retain and Britain. (Mind the latter, how it's written.) Now I surely will not plague you With such words as plaque and ague. But be careful how you speak: Say break and steak, but bleak and streak; Cloven, oven, how and low, Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe. Hear me say, devoid of trickery, Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore, Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles, Exiles, similes, and reviles; Scholar, vicar, and cigar, Solar, mica, war and far; One, anemone, Balmoral, Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel; Gertrude, German, wind and mind, Scene, Melpomen, mankind. Billet does not rhyme with ballet, Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet. Blood and flood are not like food, Nor is mound like should and would. Viscous, viscount, load and broad, Toward, to forward, to reward. And your pronunciation's OK When you correctly say croquet, Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve, Friend and fiend, alive and live. Ivy, privy, famous; clamor And enamour rhyme with hammer. River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb, Doll and roll and some and home. Stranger does not rhyme with anger, Neither does devour with clangor. Souls but foul, haunt but aunt, Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant, Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger, And then singer, ginger, linger. Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge, Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age. Query does not rhyme with very, Nor does fury sound like bury. Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth. Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath. Though the differences seem little, We actual but victual. Refer does not rhyme with deafer. Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer. Mint, pint, senate and sedate; Dull, bull, and George ate late. Scenic, Arabic, Pacific, Science, conscience, scientific. Liberty, library, heave and heaven, Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven. We say hallowed, but allowed, People, leopard, towed, but vowed. Mark the differences, moreover, Between mover, cover, clover; Leeches, breeches, wise, precise, Chalice, but police and lice; Camel, constable, unstable, Principle, disciple, label. Petal, panel, and canal, Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal. Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair, Senate, spectator, mayor. Tour, but our and succour, four. Gas, alas, and Arkansas. Sea, idea, Korea, area, Psalm, Maria, but malaria. Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean. Doctrine, turpentine, marine. Compare alien with Italian, Dandelion and battalion. Sally with ally, yea, ye, Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key. Say aver, but ever, fever, Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver. Heron, granary, canary. Crevice and device and aerie. Face, but preface, not efface. Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass. Large, but target, gin, give, verging, Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging. Ear, but earn and wear and tear Do not rhyme with here but ere. Seven is right, but so is even, Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen, Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk, Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work. Pronunciation - think of psyche! Is a paling stout and spikey? Won't it make you lose your wits, Writing groats and saying grits? It's a dark abyss or tunnel: Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale, Islington and Isle of Wight, Housewife, verdict and indict. Finally, which rhymes with enough -- Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough? Hiccough has the same of cup. My advice is to give up!!! The European Commission. The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility. In the first year, 's' will replace the soft 'c'. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard 'c' will be dropped in favor of the 'k'. This should klear up konfusion and keyboards kan have one less letter. There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome 'ph' will be replased with the 'f'. This will make words like 'fotograf' 20% shorter! In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expected to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkorage the removal of double leters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of the silent 'e' in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away. By the 4th year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing 'th' with 'z' and 'w' wiz 'v'. During ze fifz year ze unesesary 'o' kan be dropd from vords kontaining 'ou' and similar changes vud of kurs be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters. After ze fifz yer ve vil hav a rali sensibl ritn styl. Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evriun vil find it ezi tu undrstand ech ozer. Zen Z Drem Vil Finali Kum Tru!!