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From: gam@amdahl.UUCP (G A Moffett)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: 'through' -> 'thru'
Message-ID: <2827@amdahl.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 22-Feb-86 22:02:53 EST
Article-I.D.: amdahl.2827
Posted: Sat Feb 22 22:02:53 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 26-Feb-86 03:29:45 EST
Reply-To: gam@amdahl.UUCP (G A Moffett)
Organization: Amdahl Corp, UTS Products Group
Lines: 28

I posted here awhile ago saying that I spelled 'through' as
'thru', I don't care to correct it, and in fact I *want* the
standard spelling to be 'thru'.  I admitted that I had one
exception: I still use 'through' for formal papers and (outgoing)
business business mail.

I noticed that I have yet another exception: use 'through' in
informal mail to Europeans whose first language is not English,
and who are not otherwise masterful as a native American/English
speaker.

I wonder if that is really necessary.  I am being more formal
with them only because they might not know what 'thru' was
homophonicly (by how it sounded); they might try to look
it up in a dictionary and, of course, not find it.

Am I being too cautious with non-native speakers?  More generally
speaking, are homophonic spellings of common words easily
understood by non-native speakers?


PS -- I couldn't find a better word here than 'homophonic',
	and wasn't sure if that was really want I wanted.
-- 
Gordon A. Moffett		...!{ihnp4,seismo,hplabs}!amdahl!gam

 ~ And each day I learn just a little bit more ~
 ~ I don't know why but I do know what for... ~