From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!uwvax!jon Newsgroups: net.nlang Title: offffffffff Article-I.D.: uwvax.461 Posted: Sun Jul 4 14:19:06 1982 Received: Mon Jul 5 00:45:04 1982 Let's go around again, stating our positions without modification. A string of letters is a word only if the community of language users agrees that it is a word. "Ov" falls not into the class of "words" nor into the class of "nonsense strings" but into the class of "misspelled words." (I confess I haven't made a scientific study of this particular question.) The fact that a string of letters or syllables is understandable doesn't prove that string is a word. Jon Mauney (By the way, many people have suggested revisions of English orthography. Their efforts have been more thorough, more consistent, more amusing, and equally doomed to failure. I suggest that Mr. Alliende switch to an endeavor where his contribution is likely to be noticed.)