<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif;font-size:12pt">
<meta http-equiv="x-dns-prefetch-control" content="off"><div style="font-family:'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif;font-size:12pt;"><div>Hello Alex Sir,</div><div><br></div><div>I have seen your comment on various websites but I am sorry to tell you that if you will review your own website "<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><span><a target="_blank" href="http://www.evaristesys.com/".There">http://www.evaristesys.com/".There</a> are many spelling mistakes in content of home page of websites,so its better to improve ourself every time and not to waste time to comment on others.</span></span></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span"
style="font-size:13px;">I hope you will not mind my comment
and improve yourself.</span></font></div><div style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt;"><br><div style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><font size="2" face="Tahoma"><hr size="1"><b><span style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span></b> Alex Balashov <abalashov@evaristesys.com><br><b><span style="font-weight:bold;">To:</span></b> Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk Discussion <asterisk-biz@lists.digium.com><br><b><span style="font-weight:bold;">Sent:</span></b> Thu, October 8, 2009 1:25:56 PM<br><b><span style="font-weight:bold;">Subject:</span></b> [asterisk-biz] Capitalisation in English writing from Indian subcontinent<br></font><br>
This recent discussion got me wondering again about something which has <br>perplexed me for a while: the unusual (from an Anglo-American <br>perspective) capitalisation patterns - chiefly of nouns - that seem to <br>consistently occur in technical and commercial copy we see that is <br>authored in India or Pakistan, presumably by speakers of the various <br>native English adaptations and/or dialects. To a lesser but nontrivial <br>extent, I've also seen this from the Middle East.<br><br>I suppose, in the interest of political correctness, that I ought to <br>preface this inquiry with the disclaimer that this is not intended to <br>offend anyone. I realise I am quite known to make jabs from time to <br>time at various people's web sites and solicitations for poor <br>proofreading, bad spelling and grammar, etc. where it is obvious (to me, <br>anyway) that the cause is laziness and inattention rather than something <br>like a genuine
struggle with a foreign language.<br><br>In this case, my interest is purely academic; I wouldn't waste time <br>writing this missive if it weren't. There are far more economical and <br>brief ways to call someone specific out for sloppiness, and non-native <br>English speakers have no kind of monopoly on sloppiness anyway.<br><br>All this to say: if you happen to be a non-native English speaker from <br>the aforementioned regions, don't bristle -- please take the question in <br>the spirit in which it's intended.<br><br>Here are some examples of what I am referring to:<br><br> From <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.ngtlive.com">www.ngtlive.com</a>[1]:<br><br>-----<br><br>"As a well known B2B expert of telecom vertical, we have delivered <br>applications that are meant to address ever emerging business <br>requirements. At NGT live we strive to develop and design world class <br>communication solutions and applications that
offer
operational <br>flexibility to business processes.<br><br>These applications cover various core segments of Telecom verticals. <br>Whether there is a need for B2B Integration, Enterprise Application <br>integration or a Mobile Commerce portal, our globally acclaimed <br>solutions deliver business innovation capabilities and improved customer <br>services to several industry domains."<br><br>-----<br><br> From <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.super-phone.com">www.super-phone.com</a> (front page):<br><br>-----<br>"Use your Favorite Instant Messenger like [icons] to make or receive <br>Phone calls."<br>-----<br><br> From <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://didforsale.com">didforsale.com</a>[2]:<br><br>-----<br>"Say Good Bye to the expensive traditional way of obtaining inbound SIP <br>DIDs (VoIP virtual Phone numbers) through the local telephone companies."<br>-----<br><br><br>I've also seen this for years in correspondence
from Indian technicians <br>on
various mailing lists, as well as intra-organisationally in various <br>past jobs.<br><br>I cannot identify any consistent criterion which the words capitalised <br>in the middle of sentences above meet. It's certainly not nouns; many <br>of the words are adjectives. It's not adjectives; many nouns are <br>capitalised too. In the first example, "telecom" in "telecom vertical" <br>is non-capitalised in the first paragraph, but is in the second <br>("Telecom verticals").<br><br>While I assume that the unconventional and grammatically impoverished <br>aspects are not under dispute, at the same time this tendency is too <br>predictable, consistently visible, and anchored to writers from that <br>part of the world to have the random properties of a truly chaotic <br>system. The distribution is not sufficiently uniform to just chalk it <br>up to ill-grammarred writing. I haven't seen this from other authors
<br>hailing from other parts of the world whose English writing is also <br>certifiably poor, or, at the very least, deviant from curricular <br>standard in the US, Canada and the British Commonwealth. I also don't <br>see this from people in other former British colonial countries in, for <br>example, Africa.<br><br>There are other widespread signature errors from people from other <br>places, but not that particular one. They are easier to explain because <br>they seem - mostly - to fall into the following two categories:<br><br>1) The conscious or unconscious application of syntax, stylistic <br>conventions, habits of expression and formulation, etc. from another <br>language to English.<br><br>2) Written expression of the idiosyncrasies of regional English <br>dialects, pidgin languages, etc.<br><br>Those are all quite understandable. This capitalisation thing has got <br>me stumped, though. There is obviously a deliberate
intent at work <br>here, even if it's being applied incompletely or incorrectly/sloppily <br>even in terms of what must be its own internally consistent rules.<br><br>So, can anyone help me out here? What are the "rules" governing such <br>capitalisation, whether or not they are being properly observed in the <br>samples I chose? Why does this characteristic seem to be particular to <br>India and Pakistan, and not other former British colonial and/or <br>Commonwealth nations?<br><br>If I had to take a wild stab at it, I would guess that the time at which <br>English-language was established in India by the British intersected <br>somehow with an era in which it was fashionable to capitalise nouns <br>other than proper nouns, rather in the German manner - which was the <br>case during the Victorian era, I gather. I'm sure capitalisation <br>practices that seem dubious from a contemporary perspective obtained <br>widely in 18th century
written English as well, and probably before it.<br>But this doesn't explain why the same trend is not seen in other former <br>British colonies that were acquired in the 19th century, nor shed any <br>light on the underlying intent or "rules" -- I certainly can't infer any <br>guidelines from what I see.<br><br>If someone could shed some light on this, I would be intrigued.<br><br>Thanks!<br><br>-- Alex<br><br><span>[1] <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ngtlive.com/inner-left-sidebar/b2b-solutions">http://www.ngtlive.com/inner-left-sidebar/b2b-solutions</a></span><br><br><span>[2] <a target="_blank" href="http://www.didforsale.com/moreinfo.php">http://www.didforsale.com/moreinfo.php</a></span><br><br>-- <br>Alex Balashov - Principal<br>Evariste Systems<br><span>Web : <a target="_blank" href="http://www.evaristesys.com/">http://www.evaristesys.com/</a></span><br>Tel : (+1) (678) 954-0670<br>Direct : (+1) (678)
954-0671<br><br>_______________________________________________<br><span>--Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by <a target="_blank" href="http://www.api-digital.com">http://www.api-digital.com</a>--</span><br><br>AstriCon 2009 - October 13 - 15 Phoenix, Arizona<br><span>Register Now: <a target="_blank" href="http://www.astricon.net">http://www.astricon.net</a></span><br><br>asterisk-biz mailing
list<br>To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:<br><span> <a target="_blank" href="http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz">http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz</a></span><br></div></div><div style=""></div></div><div style="position:fixed"></div></div><br>
</body></html>