Right, that's it...I can't stand it any longer.

Email's been around longer than most of my students have been alive, and yet we still say "I got an email saying..." when there's no speech....so I'm going for "I got an email and it typed...".

In particular, how can I be a blabbermouth in an email? I have to be blabberfingers..
-- not_morrison_rm, Aug 15 2014

Shakespeare spelling his own http://www.shakespe...hakespearename.html
[not_morrison_rm, Aug 17 2014]

Well it's all about symbols isn't it, so if you're going to accept text in place of speech, why not an analogy between them? I think it's understood that the writing is instead of speech, so relating one thing to the other by using the same word would not be incorrect.
-- rcarty, Aug 16 2014


Acceptably incorrect as it were.
-- Skewed, Aug 16 2014


People read braille and speak sign language so I don't see the problem with saying something in an email. I would also prefer "she/he/they wrote" to "it typed" as it has precedence in typewritten letters.
-- Spacecoyote, Aug 16 2014


blabbergabber.

"Said" has, for quite awhile, been an acceptable alternative to "penned" regarding unique correspondence.
-- FlyingToaster, Aug 16 2014


The use of "says" for written messages predates email by a long way. "What does it say in the papers?", for example.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Aug 16 2014


Pedantry [+]
-- 8th of 7, Aug 16 2014


//use of "says" for written messages predates email by a long way.

Well, people also say "fantastic" and "fabulous" with the meaning of "very good"...is it my fault if this level of terminological inexactitude exists?

It's like "I stand corrected" when the person is not standing up.

//"What does it say in the papers?",

I believe the Royal Society for the Blind used to do audio versions of newspapers*, so you are correct on this bit, except it wasn't paper.

*Also depends on the newspaper, Daily Mail - they do it in the voice of Mr Punch, The Telegraph** - for some reason I'm thinking Sean Connery?

** Obviously there is no telegraph involved these days, but I'll let them off this time.
-- not_morrison_rm, Aug 16 2014


Helena: O my good lord, when I was like this maid,
I found you wondrous kind. There is your ring;
And, look you, here's your letter; this it says:
'When from my finger you can get this ring
And are by me with child,' &c. This is done:
Will you be mine, now you are doubly won?

— All's Well That Ends Well, Act V, Sc. 3

[-] If you're going to be a prescriptivist, at least be correct.
-- ytk, Aug 17 2014


If this were a real beef, you could get round it by using alternative words that don't imply speaking: mentioned; pointed out; referred to; u.s.w.
-- calum, Aug 17 2014


We don't need any new words, "wrote" seems to fit most of the situations.

//All's Well That Ends Well,

I'm not taking guidance from someone who had trouble spelling his own name, from his signatures we get Willm Shakp, William Shaksper, Wm Shakspe, William Shakspere, Willm Shakspere and William Shakspeare.

Judging from the handwriting on the signatures, he was the an early adopter of Absinthe.
-- not_morrison_rm, Aug 17 2014



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