RE: Spelling

[Franz Schoenhofer <schoenho@via.at>]

At 15:47 29.02.2000 -0600, you wrote:
>This message is in MIME format. Since your mail reader does not understand
>this format, some or all of this message may not be legible.
>
>------_=_NextPart_001_01BF82FD.F0228396
>Content-Type: text/plain
>
>The x rays from the x-ray machine were discovered by Roentgen, who named
>them X-rays.
>
>Did I get that right?

Yes, you got that right insofar that he named the rays "X-Strahlen" and did
not name them "Roentgen-Strahlung", as they are called ever since in
German, of course using the German letter for the "oe", the "o" with two
dots on top. You did not get it right on the other hand, because he neither
named them X-Rays, nor X rays or whatsoever, because at that time the
language for natural science was simply German and I do not know of any
publication in English - I might be wrong in this respect. Sure some
RADSAFEr will point me to the right direction. 

Having a certain background of the recently announced new rules of how to
write German correctly, which arbitrarily reverses a lot of rules to what
would have been recently a severe grammatical error and leaves a lot of
rules as they were, though they would have been good candidates for being
changed to more reasonable ones I simply refuse to think of whether a
hyphen is appropriate or not. I think that the ultimate decision can be
done only by "learned men" (or women of course), who make a profession out
of such questions. Moreover I believe that 101% of readers will be able to
read a text, which has a wrongly set hyphen or has no hyphen at a place,
where it should be placed. 

What would you RADSAFErs say, if specialists in setting of hyphens would
start a discussion about radiation protection? So please, radiation
protection specialists do not argue about the setting of a hyphen!

Franz


Franz Schoenhofer
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Vienna
Austria
Tel.: +43-1-495 53 08
Fax.: same number
mobile phone: +43-664-338 0 333
e-mail: schoenho@via.at


Office:
Hofrat Dr. Franz Schoenhofer
Bundeskanzleramt (Federal Chancellery), VI/8
Radetzkystr. 2
A-1031 Vienna
AUSTRIA

phone: -43-1-71172-4458
fax: -43-1-7122331

************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html