My opinion on the words "dialogue" and "dialog".

[J.E. Sawyer]

"Dialog" has only appeared in American English the past twenty to thirty years, thanks to programmers and Microsoft. "Dialogue" is communication between two groups of people. "Dialog" is a GUI box that pops up to prompt user input. It's as valid to use "dialog" in place of "dialogue" as it is to use "there" in place of "their" or "thru" in place of "through". I.e. the writer will communicate his or her point; my opinion of the writer will simply decrease. The spelling of "dialogue" is one of my pet peeves, slightly ahead of the improper use of the subjunctive mood. When I hear non-native English speakers say things like, "If I only I was eight feet tall," I cringe and know that it is because they hear and see native English speakers mangle their own language with stultifying ignorance.

 

I know that language is fluid and ever-changing, but it is only ever-changing because people accept the changes that others make. It is currency, like any other, and can either be accepted implicitly or rejected explicitly. I reject the use of "dialog" to signify traditional conversations, and will not cease to berate my opponents in this matter until after I have drawn my last breath. It is as valid to me as a three dollar bill.

 

If you are on my side in this battle, I have some good news: the bug I reported to Firefox over a year ago was finally resolved. The newest version of Firefox accepts "dialogue" as a valid spelling. The next step is removing "dialog" as a valid spelling. The step after that involves the public ostracization (in a McCarthy-esque purge) of people who improperly use "dialog".

 

Peace.

[Gorgon]

Amen brother.

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Wonder if my post on the Fallout 3 thread prompted this? Like I said, I had seen it used many times before, but to the best of my ability always used dialogue since that was the spelling I learned as being correct in my younger days.

 

I propose senate hearing to ferret out the culprits. If it works, then we can move on to other areas of concern, such as "rogue" and "rouge" (a pet peeve of mine).

[Enoch]

Nice work on getting Firefox to change. I was always puzzled to see "dialogue" with a squiggly red underline beneath it when I typed it into a text box, but I never bothered to do anything about it.

 

 

 

Edit: Since I'm in grammar/spelling/usage pedant mode, I should point out that the period at the end of your title should go inside of the quote.

Edited December 5, 2008 by Enoch

[Gfted1]

I propose senate hearing to ferret out the culprits. If it works, then we can move on to other areas of concern, such as "rogue" and "rouge" (a pet peeve of mine).

 

 

Wait a minute, are you Cinnabar Dun over at Bioware?

Edited December 5, 2008 by Gfted1

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Uh, no. I only used the Role-Player nick over there.

 

But it really does get to me, for some reason.

[Gfted1]

Ah, just wondering. He/she has the "rogue" / "rouge" thing in their signature.

[Pidesco]

Unfortunately, language is a tyranny of the majority.

[Amentep]

Rogue/Rouge bugs me to no end, but that's because I frequent comics forums where you'd expect fans of the character Rogue to actually KNOW HOW TO SPELL HER CODE-NAME!!!!

[Pop]

I have heard my English compatriots refer to the meat-and-spice based stew as "Chilli". This is not the correct spelling, nor is it an actual word. the word is "chili". Get it right, Britain.

[Slowtrain]

I didn't even know the word "dialog" existed.

[SteveThaiBinh]

I don't really see the problem with dialog and dialogue. It's unlikely to cause confusion or misunderstanding (as 'there' and 'their' would). It doesn't have the problems of appropriacy of style that 'thru' has. Perhaps Josh, working in the computer industry, you are more troubled than others by the inappropriacy of register - 'dialog' belongs to the world of computer language, your own professional world, and you don't like to see it used, or misused, by 'outsiders'. I suppose I would still see 'dialog' (for conversation) as an error, but I can also see the attractiveness to non-native speakers of the simplified spelling (though it would be a shame to lose the similarity with 'monologue', unless we're going to have 'monolog' as well). Perhaps it will become a standard alternative spelling in International English.

 

Rouge for rogue is objectionable because we don't need any more homographs, thank you very much. Plus it's difficult to see rouge supporting the correct pronunciation.

[Slowtrain]

donut or dougnut?

[Pidesco]

donut or dougnut?

 

Neither. It's doughnut.

[Diogo Ribeiro]

donut or dougnut?

 

Neither. It's doughnut.

 

Not sure if Pidesco spotted this one but in Portugal, a chain of supermarket stores called them "Dawnuts", at least for a period of time.

[Gfted1]

Ah, but what about ketsup/catsup?

[Pidesco]

The nuts of dawn? How awesome is that.

[Aristes]

snip

 

My God, thank you. That was soooo funny. I'm seriously busting a gut over it.

 

To be honest, I never realized that dialog existed until the thread in CnC. Good Lord, that was funny. hahahahaha Whew. MUST. BREATH!

[Tigranes]

Ah, but what about ketsup/catsup?

 

Ketchup.

 

I'm usually in support of preserving traditional forms of spelling, but only because so many of them serve a purpose. E.g. doughnut - that's got 'dough' in it. It's actually a lot easier to remember words or understand them if parts of them, or their Latinised prefix/suffixes/etc, are still in place. (Besides, if we changed to thru, so many people will get confused by thoroughfare)

 

some are just anally retentive, of course.

[theslug]

Nice work on getting Firefox to change. I was always puzzled to see "dialogue" with a squiggly red underline beneath it when I typed it into a text box, but I never bothered to do anything about it.

This is the difference between smart and dumb people. I too was overwhelmingly puzzled when I first typed in dialogue and firefox decided it was wrong, however, I did decide to do something about it. I used their correction and from that day kind of just cemented a feeling that I was retarded because I was wondering how I went through life thinking it was dialogue and how I thought it was all frenched up and what not. Very emotionally damaging for me.

[Humodour]

Amen, Josh. 'Dialogue' it is! What I am less certain about is my use of 'programme'.

 

And people, it's not ketchup, it's tomato sauce. Pffft.

 

Edit: Since I'm in grammar/spelling/usage pedant mode, I should point out that the period at the end of your title should go inside of the quote.

 

False. There are different styles, and from memory putting the full stop inside the quotation is the American style. Sawyer used the British style. More power to him!

 

If we're going to be pedantic, you should have used the word 'quotation', since in this context 'to quote' is a verb, not a noun.

[Gorth]

And people, it's not ketchup, it's tomato sauce. Pffft.

I was just waiting for that one

 

I still confuse a few English words every now and then because of English not always being English. Like the Boot/Trunk of a car. It doesn't matter if I ask people for the Ketchup/Tomato Sauce anywhere here, somebody will suggest the other name for it >_

 

Otherwise, I probably share Tigranes position, I prefer the traditional spelling of words.

[Slowtrain]

According to wikipedia ketchup is a thixotropic fluid. That's pretty cool. I thought it was just slow.

[Gorth]

According to wikipedia ketchup is a thixotropic fluid. That's pretty cool. I thought it was just slow.

Who added thixotropic to my Ketchup?!? I'll never touch the stuff again >_

 

Now I have to look up the word I suppose...

[Gorth]

Curses! Now I can't the Ketchup song out of my head >_