NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/uk/misc/435

Internet Message Format | 1992-11-18 | 1.7 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!spool.mu.edu!agate!netsys!ibmpcug!pipex!cam-cl!pavo.csi.cam.ac.uk!doc.ic.ac.uk!uknet!edcastle!edcogsci!guy
From: [e-mail] (Guy Barry)
Newsgroups: uk.misc
Subject: Re: 29 Feb 2000?
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 18 Nov 92 08:48:14 GMT
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Organization: Centre for Cognitive Science, Edinburgh, UK
Lines: 26

[e-mail] (imcneill) writes:

>I think you've all missed out one important side effect, Barry Norman's film
>program will be called film 00  (pronounced "film nought").

>Will Barry Norman still be hosting it........and why not ?

Yes, I've wondered about how the years of the next decade will be
pronounced.  By analogy with "nineteen hundred", "nineteen oh one",
"nineteen oh two", ... we ought to have "twenty hundred", "twenty oh
one", "twenty oh two", ... but I've never heard anything but "two
thousand" (or "the year two thousand"), "two thousand and one", "two
thousand and two", ... .  By the time it gets to 2020, though, people
start talking about "twenty twenty", so where's the mysterious point
where the naming scheme changes?

Also, we can currently talk about '90, '91, '92, ... for short, and
refer to the entire decade as "the nineties", but how are we going to
pronounce '00, '01, '02, and what on earth will we call the decade?
Even the one after that isn't obvious: "the teens" maybe?  Does anyone
know what happened at the beginning of this century?
--
Guy Barry | Computer Laboratory     | Centre for Cognitive Science
          | University of Cambridge | University of Edinburgh
          | [e-mail]  | [e-mail]
          | [phone]       | [phone]