pig-latin: clarify instructions

[ErikSchierboom]

Preparing for this exercise's #48in24 video, I've found that many people misread the instructions and hard-coded the mentioned examples. This is in large part due to the instructions being quite unclear.

[ErikSchierboom]

I've added this little bit to help non-native English speakers with the terminology.

[ErikSchierboom]

I've added the intermediate step for extra clarity.

[ErikSchierboom]

I've gotten rid of the "sound" references, which made it confusing to me.

[ErikSchierboom]

I've gotten rid of the "cluster" mention, which was confusing.

[glennj]

Really good.

[MatthijsBlom]

The new instructions are inconsistent with the old ones.

The old instructions had the same rule apply to both yeet and union, but the new instructions treat them differently.

[BethanyG]

The new instructions are inconsistent with the old ones.

The old instructions had the same rule apply to both yeet and union, but the new instructions treat them differently.

Do you mean the old rules treated the y as a vowel? Maybe we should single out y as "special handling". I know that in many pig latin versions, y is ambiguous. Something like:

• vowels: the letters a, e, i, o, and u
• consonants: the other 20 letters of the English alphabet, except y
• the letter y is a bit special, read the rules below for how to handle it

I think this is why we got into the "sounds" mess in the first place: the technical definition of vowel vs consonant is the mouth position when making the sound. pedantic reference.

Typically, y represents a consonant when it starts off a word or syllable, as in yard, lawyer, or beyond. Technically, this sound of \y\ is considered a semivowel or glide, which is a less prominent vowel speech sound that occurs in the articulation of two consecutive vowel sounds unequal in prominence. For example, there's a very brief long e sound when articulating \y\ in yes. Air flow is not impeded in sounding \y\ (if it was y would be a true consonant); however, the mouth is not opened as fully as in articulating the vowel \y\ in early. The result is a vowel-like consonant.

By that definition, the y in yeet is not a vowel, but a semi-vowel, which is considered a type of consonant. So I think we might want to add in yeet, yard, and possibly beyond as a specific examples showing how y is special/not special in that circumstance.

[BethanyG]

I think this is a really good re-write, and helps focus on specific patterns and actions in code, rather than the convolutions of English. 😄

[MatthijsBlom]

Do you mean the old rules treated the y as a vowel?

No, I did not mean that, and the old rules didn't necessarily do that.

Old rules excerpt:

• Rule 1: If a word begins with a vowel sound, [...]
• Rule 2: If a word begins with a consonant sound, [...]

yeet and union start with the same sound.
The old rules were unclear on whether this sound was to be considered a 'vowel sound' or a 'consonant sound'.
In any case however, yeet and union would have the same rule applied to both.

The new rules declare u to be a 'vowel' letter and y a 'consonant' letter, and therefore have different rules apply to yeet and union.

Note that the above observation is independent of whatever 'vowel' and 'consonant' are supposed to mean in any context other than this exercise. You could swap out the terms for 'X' and 'Y' or whatever and it would still work. The opinions of linguists are largely irrelevant.

[BethanyG]

yeet and union start with the same sound.

....

The opinions of linguists are largely irrelevant.

Hence the problem with defining things by "sound", necessitating the re-write. Much better to clarify based on category.