Pet peeve outburst

[muckefuck]

What the hell can't anyone spell Gandhi? Only six letters and it's easily the most consistently-misspelled proper name I see. I know it's unfair to say that anyone who buttresses an argument with appeals to the principles of "Ghandi" can't be very familiar with them or the life of the man who espoused them, but it's what I think, every time. Would you listen to a "Mraxist"? Take seriously the theories of a "Kenseyian" economist? Or how about a gay activist who quoted the "Kinzie" report, a Black activist who quoted "Malcom X", or a feminist who quoted "Stienem"?

Why would you put the h there anyway? It's not to make the g hard--g is always hard before a. (Fuck off, margarine!) It's not because the initial consonant is fricative, as in Ghaddafy or Ghali. IT MAKES NO SENSE!

Thank you, everyone, for your understanding and support as I ease myself further into the post-literate era. With times, these outbursts will lessen as I give in more and more to resignation and despair.

Comments

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

I feel your pain.

(it's lumpy)

he doesn't deserve to have his name spelled correctly

[alfaboy.livejournal.com]

In 1946, with full knowledge of the extent of the European Holocaust, Gandhi told biographer Louis Fisher: "The Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher's knife. They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs."

Gandhi was scum.

Re: he doesn't deserve to have his name spelled correctly

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Have you ever read the alternate history where the Nazis take Britain and then proceed to gobble up their empire? They're rolling over India with their tanks and Gandhi organises a non-violent protest. So they roll their tanks over him and all of his followers.

Re: he doesn't deserve to have his name spelled correctly

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

That's along the lines of what I always thought he meant by that quote.

Re: he doesn't deserve to have his name spelled correctly

[alfaboy.livejournal.com]

that's hysterical!!

Re: he doesn't deserve to have his name spelled correctly

[cassielsander.livejournal.com]

Yeah, what's a lifetime of work compared to an interview.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I haven't been able to find the full text of the Fischer interview online, but I did scare up this interesting quote from back in 1939:

Herr Hitler is but one man enjoying no more than the average span of life. He would be a spent force if he had not the backing of his people. I do not despair of his responding to human suffering even though caused by him. But I must refuse to believe that the Germans as a nation have no heart or markedly less than the other nations of the earth. They will some day or other rebel against their own adored hero, if he does not wake up betimes. And when he or they do, we shall find that the sufferings of the Pastor and his fellow-workers had not a little to do with the awakening. An armed conflict may bring disaster to German arms; it cannot change the German heart even as the last defeat did not. It produced a Hitler vowed to wreak vengeance on the victors. And what a vengeance it is!

So, by that logic, we're in for an even greater vengence now. Those canny Germans! Giving all the outward signs of having changed since the last defeat (we know they can't really have changed, since armed conflict can't accomplish that), but in reality planning an even more destructive revenge on us all!

[alfaboy.livejournal.com]

That's the whole problem with that non-violence stuff... it presumes on the innate decency of your adversaries. If that decency is lacking, all you've done is clear the way for evil to cross the finish line without breaking a sweat.

[lhn.livejournal.com]

What the hell can't anyone spell Gandhi?

Because they know there's an "h" in there somewhere, and there aren't any consonants that normally have an "h" following them in English. ("Enough" notwithstanding, since it doesn't have a normal "g" sound.) At that, I'm surprised that the misspelling is so frequently "Ghandi" rather than "Gahndi"-- it may be that people know that there's some foreign looking letter combination in there.

[prilicla.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think you're right about what's going through people's heads. ("I know there's some kinda weird-looking "h" in there somewhere, Bob.") Unfortunately, by now I've seen "Ghandi" so many times that every spelling looks wrong to me. Since I'm a mega-geek, I can just remind myself that his name is spelled like BZ Gundhalinu's in The Snow Queen, but I realize that mnemonic isn't going to work for everyone.

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

You're so cool.

But sweeetie, Gandhi was a Foreigner, and Brown!

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

Why can't people spell or pronounce "Pusztai" even when they've been told the easy babytalk version of it dozens of times and have to look at and say it every single day? In my life, it's principally English speakers who do this, and I think it's parochialism and a class thing "...we're going to pronounce and spell it wrong to show that he's Foreign and we're not, and why should we learn to speak some Foreign language?" Imagine it said in a Hyacinth Bucket voice.

Re: But sweeetie, Gandhi was a Foreigner, and Brown!

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

French-speakers get it right more often? Even without your having to tack a little diaeresis over the i?

Re: But sweeetie, Gandhi was a Foreigner, and Brown!

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

Yes, but ... I'm not talking about people getting it right the first or fifth or tenth time. I'm talking about people who have had every opportunity to learn, at least, let's say, 20 trials, and can spell it right when it suits them, such as on forms, or when calling to complain, or when using the phone book ... but whenever there's an audience, they "forget". It's happened to me over and over and over, and exclusively with the English or people affecting being English.

[aadroma.livejournal.com]

Why would you put the h there anyway?

It's a somewhat understandable error -- see "ghost". It COULD be mistaken as an aspirated G, or even the "gutteral g" (see "ghayn" in Arabic); however, it's simple enough that the error SHOULDN'T happen, but hell, I have people mispelling my first name all the time ...

What the hell can't anyone spell Gandhi?

Erm, dear? You complain about spelling but use the wrong question word? :: giggle ::

I'm just givin' you shit, hun ^_^

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I never understand how that happens. I reread every line I write before I post it, usually at least twice, and often again after posting. All in all, I must've seen that sequence of words over a dozen times and every time my brain read it as "Why the hell..." No wonder eyewitness testimony is the most fallible kind!