Re: count2.asm

Frankie say:
> One minor nit to pick... You seem to have solved the "Y question" by
not
> counting 'y's as either vowels or consonants - you've removed it from
> the "vowel strings" (upper and lower), but didn't add it to the
> "consonant strings". Easy to fix. I should fix that in my own code!

Actually, it's not just "y" which is a so-called "semi-vowel"...think
about the sound of the letter "w" - "ooh" - and compare it to the double
"o" in, say, "boot" or "smooth" (e.g. in an odd sense, "what" really is
like "ooh-hot"...sort of)...it's also a "semi-vowel" but in a slightly
different way...it is used and considered to be a consonant in English,
despite the fact that it's actual sound is really a vowel sound...

In a technical sense, though, English treats "y" and "w" as essentially
consonants (or sometimes called "semi-vowels" because of these odd
"actually vowel sounds but treated as consonants" properties), even
though they might be used or sound like vowels in many contexts...hence,
the strange "exceptions" like "sky" or "spy", where we appear to have a
word without a "vowel" in it...

But regards "vowel" / "consonant" distinctions, "w" and "y" are
considered "consonants"...even though, yes, they are actually pronounced
like vowels when speaking...

[ This facet of the English language proves a nightmare when playing the
TV word game show "Countdown" on Channel 4, as contestants would
actually have to ask for an extra "consonant", not a "vowel", for words
like "dystopian", "dysfunctional", "sky", "spy", etc., where the "y" is
clearly acting 100% as a "vowel", even though it's technically
classified as a "consonant" (this is a game show, for the vast majority
who won't know, which is basically "Scrabble" but without a board:
Contestants select 9 randomly selected letters - the only "control" they
have is to ask for a card from the "vowel" or "consonant" pile but it's
otherwise "random" (this "vowel" / "consonant" selection just basically
prevents the possibility of ending up with 9 vowels or 9 consonants that
a totally "random" choice could present, which wouldn't allow you to
make any words at all...and it introduces the most minor element of
"strategy", as you see contestants trying to work out whether it's
better to have a "vowel" or "consonant" for the last few letters,
depending on what they got for the first few letters ;) - and then you
try to form the longest word you can with those letters...it's very
"gentle" cerebral entertainment that seems designed for and popular with
"senior citizens" in the main...anyway, "vowels" are strictly "AEIOU"
(with "consonants" being everything else, of course) in this game
show... ]

Well, I did warn everyone before that English is perhaps the least
phonetic language that exists...the language with the least connection
between its spoken and written forms...considering that it does have
this bizarre thing of classifying what are clearly vowel sounds as
"consonants" (and also uses them in a blatantly "vowel" capacity in many
words like "dystopian" or "sky")...then it's perhaps hardly surprising
that the language does end up slightly "weird" - relative to other
languages - in this capacity, when it's not even sure what letters are
which...

[ There was an interesting thing on the news not too long ago, where
"educational experts" and "linguistics teachers" in English schools
suddenly announced that they found that children taught to read using a
form of "phonetics" (learning the "sounds of the letters" and then
trying to work out what the word was, by just making those sounds one
after the other) were learning to read sooner...and progressing to more
complicated reading books earlier...and this was presented by these
English academics as being some "revelation in teaching"...

What made this interesting, though, was that, over in Wales and Ireland,
everyone was thinking "What?!? Only now you've worked that out?!? What
on Earth have you been doing up to now?!?"...Welsh is nigh-on 100%
phonetic and Irish Gallic similarly, you see...and even when teaching
English, this same "phonetics" method was not at all unusual - has never
been thought at all an unusual approach in the slightest - in Wales and
Ireland...the "shock" over in these countries was not at this
"revelation in teaching" being "new" but that anyone could have ever
thought otherwise...now perhaps the schools in England can begin to
understand why all the bilingual schools in Wales and Ireland always
consistently got slightly better grades _across the board_ year after
year...

It's all just very amusing outside England...because English is so
"different" in many attributes, compared to other languages, the
"revelation" elsewhere is not that these schools have discovered
"phonetics"...but that the English language had, for such a long time,
confused and blinded them into never even considering the idea seriously
before...the other concept that English schools still don't seem to have
realised is that multi-lingual education _IMPROVES_ a child's grades
across the board...and, no, there is no "it confuses the child" nonsense
whatsoever...it confuses adults who've never known any other language
but not children, who have quite remarkable linguistical learning
abilities that multiple languages does not confuse any child brought up
immersed in both...you know, just like, say, a child who grows up in
America and ends up entirely "fluent" in both English and Spanish,
because their parents are only fluent in Spanish but American life is
mostly in English...growing up with both, they end up completely fluent
in both...not "confused"...only people who've never been in this
situation seem to think this could in any way "confuse" a child...on the
contrary, statistics consistently show that multi-lingual education
_improves_ a child's grades...and not just in languages but _across the
board_...

There'll probably be some "revelation" in the news about academics
realising that kicking out "Latin" from the cirriculum actually wasn't a
terribly good idea, in fact...I can tell you this _NOW_...but let's see
how long it actually takes these so-called "experts" to come to the
"revelation" that many elsewhere already know perfectly well as _fact_
(and have done, sorry to say, for centuries, if not millenia)...

It's actually "reverse NewSpeak", if you like: In Orwell's novel,
there's the fictious "NewSpeak" language which is designed in such a way
that you can't think or voice "thought crimes" because the language has
been "edited", so that the vocabulary just doesn't have the words
required to think "rebellious thoughts"...

The language is fictious...and it's doubtful that you really could
produce such a language, where it's "limited in expression" only for
"rebellious thought"...after all, if the language includes "no" and
other "negation" words than, well, any "good thought" can be reversed by
sticking "no" in front of it: "Big Brother" -> "No Big Brother"...and,
hey presto, a "thought crime"...so, the language is fictious and
actually producing a language with such "precise control" seems a highly
difficult, if not impossible, task...

BUT the basic underlying concept is in no way fiction (Orwell
"exaggerated for emphasis" to make the underlying point about thought
control via linguistical manipulation clear)...it's a well established
concept that language very much is bound - part and parcel - with how
people think and what people think...what people are even _able_ to
think...

Hence, basically, multi-lingual education - which can be shown
consistently in the statistics - produces better grades for children
across the board...because, in essence, it coincidentally provides
"anti-NewSpeak"...every concept the child learns, they get more than
"perspective" on it from each language...as languages are rarely 1:1
with each other, these minor differences conspire to produce often
fundamentally different ways of looking at something...it, thus,
coincidentally "expands the mind"...producing, as noted, a consistent
improvement in grades for the child in _ALL_ subjects, not solely
languages...

It doesn't matter if you never speak it ever again in your entire life,
having "Latin" on the cirriculum was NEVER a stupid idea...yes, even
though it's a "dead language" and you'll never actually have to speak it
in any normal context...it shouldn't have been taken off school
cirriculae...

This concept, though, might perhaps reach a more sympathetic audience in
this group because, of course, we argue a similar point for the "dead
language" of assembly language...but the same holds true: Even if you
never use assembly language ever again after learning it, the
knowledge - the new "perspectives" it provides - will improve _ALL_ your
programming in any and every programming language you ever use...

Unfortunately, the ability to learn languages rapidly decays with
age...children have an uncanny ability with learning languages...able to
learn three or four simultaneously...picking up such languages fluently
in only a handful of years...but this disappears quickly as one gets
older...so, there is also a case - be it Latin or French or assembly
language - that this stuff should be put early on in education and
learning...the longer you go without learning alternative languages, the
more impossible it becomes to pick them up (indeed, the point that
languages and the way people think are so tightly bound together, might
be the very cause of this problem: The longer you only think in one
language, the more your thoughts get "stuck" in that way of thinking and
the very ability to "think differently" - think in a different
language - becomes more and more impossible to do)...

This also, unfortunately, "conflicts" with the modern concept that
education is about "making people ready for their employers"...sort of
"worker factories"...where subjects are decided according to "what
employers want"...and, thus, why teach assembly language? Why teach
Latin or French (and when French is actually taught, it's taught solely
in a "tourist" way...phrases about "asking directions" or "ordering
food", bugger all about "grammatical structure")? None of these things
are directly used by "employers"...so, they get knocked off the
cirriculum in preference to teaching something useless like
"interpersonal skills" or "giving presentations" (though, if their
general level of linguistical skill were higher, then this stuff would
automatically be improved...if you're confident in what you're saying,
then your "presentations" will automatically be of a better quality...if
you know how to talk to people - which is a language skill, in the end,
with just a hint of "empathy" thrown in (and, quite frankly, "empathy"
is really an impossible skill to actually "teach" someone) - then you
wouldn't need these "how to function at a minimum level as an ordinary
human being" lessons inserted into their education ;)...

Indeed, there is a noticable statistical trend that, in native
English-speaking countries, there is a consistent and steady decline in
the quality of English education...people can't speak English properly
anymore and it's getting worse...

Now, what I'm about to suggest would sound insane to some...but here in
an assembly language newsgroup, you might be sympathetic to what I'm
saying because the same is true with assembly language...

English education is in decline for one simple reason - indeed, it's the
_SOLE_ thing that's equally true in all native English speaking
countries that all are suffering the same problem, despite very
different educational systems...it's the only true "common factor" that
could be responsible - and that's because _OTHER LANGUAGES_ are not
being taught properly or not being taught at all...

As I say, some would think "What?!? How can English education be in
decline because _other languages_ - not English - are not being
taught...or not being taught well?"...but here, with assembly language,
we already know the answer...even if you never actually use assembly
language ever again, simply learning it makes _ALL_ your programming -
in any programming language - better...so, yes, you can improve everyone
C++ skills by teaching them assembly language...this _FACT_ is not
"unusual" or "insane" here because we know it's true about programming
languages...assembly language helps you see the "underlying machine" and
that knowledge improves all your programming...

The same is essentially true in natural language education, as well...to
improve everyone's English, teach Latin (okay, it doesn't need to be
Latin...but this is a good language from the perspective of being the
basis of most European languages (so, if also wanting to learn French or
German or Spanish, the Latin stuff comes in handy for that too...because
they are all "distorted Latin", in a manner of speaking :)...and it is
sufficiently "different" in structure to require a "different mode of
thought"...it doesn't have to be Latin but, well, there were some good
reasons - which still hold - why it used to be taught in schools and
ever since it was removed, that's really when things started
"nose-diving")...

Academics have been guilty of "over-simplified" thinking...you know,
"employers want C++", so they teach C++...do employers want assembly
language? No...okay, then no-one is taught assembly language
anymore...and much the same with English and Latin and natural
languages...problem is, things are inter-related and interdependent in
this world...a straight line on a curved surface is NOT the "shortest
route", in fact (now, if they only taught the seemingly unrelated
"Lorentzian space" then they'd realise that...and not make this same
mistake in the "geometry" of their logical thinking either)... ]

Beth :)


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