Linguistic quirks (was: Don't know what to title this...)

[Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>]

Diane Evans, responding to a camera ad 
(www.fujifilm.com/JSP/fuji/epartners/bin/S3ProBrochure.pdf), wondered: 
<<What's really interesting is that I googled for "pleriminary" and 
found 30 hits!  Must be a new word I haven't heard of before...>>

This is why even skilled writers for whom English is a second language 
should still be edited by editors for whom English is their first 
language. (Same for other languages, of course.) If your job gets 
outsourced overseas, think of this as an opportunity to sell yourself 
as a technical editor and subject matter expert eager to help overseas 
companies fix such problems.

A data point from the field: In 6 years of working intensively with 
Japanese authors, I've found that reversals of "r" and "l" are very 
common indeed; seems to be a problem with phonetic misspelling 
(mispronouncing the word in your head followed by using that 
mispronunciation as the basis for spelling). Similar problems seem to 
arise with the use of articles by Japanese and Chinese authors. My 
recollection is that this is because the Japanese don't have an L sound 
in their language, and neither Japanese nor Chinese uses articles. 
Confirmation or refutation of these beliefs gratefully accepted.

I'd be curious to learn about other substitutions or linguistic quirks 
techwhirlers have encountered in their work with authors, engineers, or 
developers.

--Geoff Hart   ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca
(try geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com if you don't get a reply)


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