Blind Angel Egg The Dog

A little aside on the topic of linguistics - sort of.  I could think up some parable linking this to data quality, but I'll leave that to you.

Languages vary a lot.  In my mother tongue, English, we separate words with spaces.  In my second language, Dutch, words are grouped together into long strings.  These strings sometimes need a little time to decipher.

On a metro station a few days ago a poster caught my eye, especially the word BLINDENGELEIDEHOND.  I didn't immediately recognise it, so I automatically started splitting up the string in my head.

BLIND|ENGEL|EI|DE|HOND

Blind Angel Egg The Dog.  Sounds great, but it doesn't make a lot of sense. Except that the post has a Labrador puppy on it, so maybe the dog part is close.

Let's try again.

BLIND|EN|GELEI|DE|HOND

Blind and Jelly The Dog.  No, that doesn't make sense either.

BLINDEN|GELEI|DE|HOND

Blinds Jelly The Dog. No, not getting any warmer.

BLIND|EN|GE|LEI|DE|HOND

Blind And You Slate The Dog.  With a Flemish accent. No no no, unless somebody was on drugs when they made the poster.

Oh, hang on ....

BLINDEN|GELEIDEHOND

Guide Dog For The Blind!

It's not just me.  I know quite a number of people who see

BOMMELDING

and read BOMMEL|DING (something that putters along, like an old diesel locomotive) instead of BOM|MELDING (bomb alert).

Well, it kept me amused until the train arrived!