eftychia: Me in kilt and poofy shirt, facing away, playing acoustic guitar behind head (Default)
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posted by [personal profile] eftychia at 11:40pm on 2004-04-23

I'm not just jealous of [livejournal.com profile] silmaril's groovy grammar geeking threads, honest.

Okay, I just looked it up: the correct spelling according the the 1967 Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (which also contains the word "dingus", by the way) is "whee", with two 'e's.

But it looks wrong to me. Maybe it's just in this typeface (the one in my Telnet window, 9 pt. "Terminal" regular)? I know that extra 'e's get added on for emphasis or certain subflavours of sarcasm, but I can't help thinking that even a 'vanilla' "wheee" looks more natural with three than with two. "Wheee!" So is this a case of usage drift (perhaps caused by supernumerary vowels being used too often? (And would that make them supersupernumerary?) Or is it a subculture/cyber-dialect thing? Or is it just me, and everyone else thinks "whee" looks fine?

[Poll #283756]

In other "news", I just noticed the following:

If you want to disable <lj-cut> tags on your Recent Entries page, but still have the <lj-cut> tag show on your friends' Friends pages, you can go to the Admin Console (http://www.livejournal.com/ admin/console/) and type the following:
    set opt_ljcut_disable_lastn 1
[...]
If you want your Friends page to always display your friends' full entry, without respecting other users' <lj-cut> tags, you can go to the Admin Console (http://www.livejournal.com/admin/console/) and type the following:
    set opt_ljcut_disable_friends 1
[...]
To undo these choices, [...]
Is that new, or had I just missed it before? Whee, I say, and also Ha. Or is that "yee" and "ha"? Oh Hell, next poll...

There are 9 comments on this entry. (Reply.)
 
posted by [identity profile] juuro.livejournal.com at 09:30pm on 2004-04-23
My Native indicates a long sound with a doubled vowel. A triple vowel really should require a hyphen, but even omitting one it is obvious that such a cluster divides into two syllables. So, while I somewhat accept "wheee", it always smears over into "whee-ee". Likewise with "yay": with double-a, the middlemost sound gets lengthened.

While I do understand "huzzah" when I meet it, it is not an active entry in my vocabulary, in contrast with the other alternates.
(deleted comment)
 

wow

posted by [identity profile] anniemal.livejournal.com at 09:47am on 2004-04-24
Cool logo. D'G and I took photos of a slipped sign that she said must mean "beware of falling pedestrians". It's next to a steep embankment. On a major but skinny road. That one's still there. This made me lie back and laugh a lot.
 
posted by [identity profile] dglenn.livejournal.com at 12:49am on 2004-04-25
I'm amused at my luck in stumbling over it by chance so soon then. (Okay, I'm easily amused.) Thanks for the answer.

And I agree with [livejournal.com profile] anniemal about your icon.
gingicat: deep purple lilacs, some buds, some open (Default)
posted by [personal profile] gingicat at 04:11am on 2004-04-24
"Yeah" pronounced "yay" is correct but confusing and archaic.

Extra "e"s in "whee" are acceptable for emphasis is casual writing such as LJ.
redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)
posted by [personal profile] redbird at 06:53am on 2004-04-24
Triple letters aren't English orthography. You can do what you like for emphasis or to indicate pronunciation, but standard English is "whee".

On the last question, I'd use any of the first three, and they're slightly different.
 
posted by [identity profile] malada.livejournal.com at 07:37am on 2004-04-24
The number of 'e's in 'whee' depends on the activity that invokes the expression.

merry-go-round: whee
roller-coaster: wheeee
rocket booster ignition: wheeeeeee!

-m
 
posted by [identity profile] hitchhiker.livejournal.com at 10:12am on 2004-04-24
Says it all :)

p.s. weeest
 
posted by [identity profile] silmaril.livejournal.com at 01:20pm on 2004-04-24
You do realize the only reason I can have cool grammar threads are the commenters, yes?

(And this poll makes me cheery.)
 
posted by [identity profile] dglenn.livejournal.com at 12:51am on 2004-04-25
Well yeah, but you manage to write things that set themus off. ;-)

(And your pun cheers me.)

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