User:Dvortygirl
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Some notes:
- I am an administrator and bureaucrat.
- When I am around, I am usually reachable on Wiktionary IRC(help). So are many other Wiktionary sysops, contributors, and all-around bright, friendly people all over the world. Drop by sometime and say hello.
- This page doesn't get updated very often, but I do sometimes write in my blog.
- I have hugged several Wiktionarians, which I note here because I tend to enjoy meeting us, even though we are very spread out.
Etymology
From Dvorak (an alternative keyboard layout) + qwerty (a standard keyboard) + girl (hey, that's me!), because I type on a qwerty keyboard with a dvorak keyboard map in software.
Background
I live in Santa Clara, California.
I have long been fascinated with language, words and meaning, and more recently, with education, open source, and the dissemination of thought. May my contributions assist you in your quest for knowledge (or simply your crossword puzzle)!
Present Preoccupations
- Images. While I don't count myself a great photographer, I do have fun uploading photos and linking others' photos into Wiktionary articles. We don't lack for space, so there's no reason why articles like onomatopoeia, aftermath, train wreck and handle with kid gloves shouldn't include suitable images.
- Audio. English is tremendously variable in the way it assigns sounds to letters, and audio is simply more accurate and more accessible than IPA or SAMPA. Compare beard, bead, and bread. More words that don't have obvious pronunciations include knight, malign, impugn, indict, pneumonia, psychology, anything containing "ough" (through, thorough, cough, slough, bough, hiccough) and everything in Category:English heteronyms.
- Idioms and idiomatic usage. I have worked with a number of new English speakers and this seems to be a sticking point. Hence, I have tried to catalog idioms with examples in context. For an example, see related terms section under put. Idiomatic usage is something native speakers take for granted, that we walk over to the store or stand in the rain rather than, say, under it. It's another stumbling block, best cleared with examples and practice. I hereby dedicate my work in these regards to everyone trying to learn the screwball language that is English, and especially to C. and V., who would never have asked me the meaning of wishy-washy had it been obvious.
- Interjections. Wow! These words are weird (and therefore interesting). They are also frustrating to learners, since they are not a particularly regular part of grammar and they are seldom discussed in classes. Oh boy is for V, too.
- Grandiloquent words, mainly for my own personal amusement. I am a verbivore, to borrow a term from author Richard Lederer. If you think you know everything, or just like weird words, look up omphaloskepsis, defenestrate, or infundibulated. Yes, there's a word for that! Some of my more recent favorites from other Wiktionarians include absquatulate and tergiversate.
- Offbeat or just fun, juicy words. See squelch, kablooie, and cha-ching. Also, unusual uses for words and euphemisms.
- Music, a language unto itself.
- Technical jargon. What can I say? I am an engineer and live in an engineering community. The stuff seeps unbidden into the psyche and the conversation.
Languages Known
Excellent English, serviceable Spanish, a very little Greek, and a degenerating, pitiful and rusty tidbit of American Sign Language.