shed9
establiSHED member
Language, phonetics, pronunciation and etymology...
Discuss.....in a totally non-humorous way...
Knock yourselves out.....
Discuss.....in a totally non-humorous way...
Knock yourselves out.....
Language, phonetics, pronunciation and etymology.
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guineafowl21
Established Member
Often a UK vs US thing. Plenty of arguments both sides, but I think the real reason is, you grow up with a word sounding a certain way, and it hits your ear oddly when pronounced differently.
It’s a bit like lending a tool to someone, and watching them use it differently. It makes you wince. It’s a reaction, rather than an opinion, so it’s hard to defend in argument.
I was watching a US show recently, where they were filleting fish. We say FILL-it, they say fill-EH. Nothing wrong with that, but it gave me a little eyelid tic all the same.
It’s a bit like lending a tool to someone, and watching them use it differently. It makes you wince. It’s a reaction, rather than an opinion, so it’s hard to defend in argument.
I was watching a US show recently, where they were filleting fish. We say FILL-it, they say fill-EH. Nothing wrong with that, but it gave me a little eyelid tic all the same.
Fidget
Trying
GHOTI
Sporky McGuffin
Light entertainer
An interesting one, because that'd never be pronounced "fish"; the argument relies on pretending that the context of those letters still exists when they are removed from it.
Yojevol
Clocking on
Have a look at this:-
AES
Established Member
Phil Pascoe
Established Member
Eye halve a spelling chequer It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.
Eye strike a quay and type a word
And weight four it to say
Weather eye am wrong oar write It shows me strait a weigh.
As soon as a mist ache is maid It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite Its rare lea ever wrong.
Eye have run this poem threw it I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.
(Not mine, btw. I'm not that good.)
It plainly marques four my revue Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.
Eye strike a quay and type a word
And weight four it to say
Weather eye am wrong oar write It shows me strait a weigh.
As soon as a mist ache is maid It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite Its rare lea ever wrong.
Eye have run this poem threw it I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.
(Not mine, btw. I'm not that good.)
Speaking of etymology, I get very confused when hearing a Sleaford Mods song.
I recognize all the words, but it's as if they impart some new meaning to them in the way they construct verse.
Full of colloquialisms, I'm sure, but I never had such problems with an Ian Dury song who also used
informal language.
Do older native English speakers have such problems also?
I recognize all the words, but it's as if they impart some new meaning to them in the way they construct verse.
Full of colloquialisms, I'm sure, but I never had such problems with an Ian Dury song who also used
informal language.
Do older native English speakers have such problems also?
I don't even like tomatoes 
Herbs, both the word itself and the names of many of the herbs.
guineafowl21
Established Member
Certain words and phrases seem to trigger a reaction:
‘You can’t eat your cake, and have it too’, the old-fashioned way around, makes much more sense to me.
‘The proof is in the pudding’ is nonsensical. I wish people would stop saying it. The phrase is, ‘the proof of the pudding is in the eating’. Proof is used in the older sense of ‘test’.
Similarly, ‘the exception that proves the rule’ just describes an exception testing a rule. It doesn’t imply that the exception somehow verifies it.
I’m not sure it’s physically possible to make a cooking show that doesn’t contain the words ‘passion’ or ‘passionate’. It’s become knee-jerk, like saying ‘bless you’ when someone sneezes.
‘You can’t eat your cake, and have it too’, the old-fashioned way around, makes much more sense to me.
‘The proof is in the pudding’ is nonsensical. I wish people would stop saying it. The phrase is, ‘the proof of the pudding is in the eating’. Proof is used in the older sense of ‘test’.
Similarly, ‘the exception that proves the rule’ just describes an exception testing a rule. It doesn’t imply that the exception somehow verifies it.
I’m not sure it’s physically possible to make a cooking show that doesn’t contain the words ‘passion’ or ‘passionate’. It’s become knee-jerk, like saying ‘bless you’ when someone sneezes.
Two annoying things:
speaking with a creaky voice, where people try to lower their speaking voice pitch by so much that that their voice starts to creak, also called vocal fry,
upspeak, where the pitch goes up at the end of phrases as if it's a question but it's not.
speaking with a creaky voice, where people try to lower their speaking voice pitch by so much that that their voice starts to creak, also called vocal fry,
upspeak, where the pitch goes up at the end of phrases as if it's a question but it's not.
guineafowl21
Established Member
Is it my imagination, or is this frequently done by women commentating on men’s sports, eg six nations? It’s a shame that they feel the need. If you know your stuff, that’s all that matters - you don’t need to speak like a female prison warder.
heimlaga
Established Member
That "upspeak" is typical for Norwegians and Swedes from the southern half of Sweden. Whatever language they speak you always recognize the melody.
Adam W.
A Major Clanger
Oh yes, a pedants corner!
How about "All mouth and no trousers" instead of the correct "All mouth and trousers". Or where one comes from "All maauf n traaazers"
Phil Pascoe
Established Member
Too many Australian soaps.
thetyreman
Established Member
I have been trying to understand mancunian for over 30 years but I love some of our weird words, scran for example 'our kid' lol but I hate the nasal character of it as well, I remember my grandmothers sister, my great aunt who was born in the early 20th century and how different her accent was from modern mancunian, she used to say boohk, coohk and loohk, same way as people from the north east say it and at times she sounded similar to somebody from lancashire, the way old mancunian sounded was also much softer and less hard edged, it has definitely changed massively in the last 100 years, she passed away in her 90s in the mid 2000s.
Phil Pascoe
Established Member
Someone commented the other day in the Press that the only accent appearing to be exagerated now is Liverpudlian - he had ancestors born and bred 100 years or more ago whose accents were nowhere near as bad/harsh/different/strong as the accents there are now. Forty years ago I knew people living twenty miles west of me whom I couldn't understand ................. much further west of me you're in the sea.
Back in the 1980’s I taught computer programming. I had a young Scottish boy in a class and we could not understand each other at all. My West Country accent lost him completely and his Scottish accent might as well have been Martian. The thing I found funny about it is that we simply communicated via writing on a pad and we both understood that just fine. How is it that the same written language can be rendered unintelligible by a persons accent.
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Trainee neophyte
Established Member
Or to paraphrase - "Get your filthy hands off our Joke Thread!"
I once worked with someone from the Isle of Jura. At least, I think he was - I never understood a word he said. He never understood anything I said, either. Edit: I originally spelled it "Dura", which says everything about our inability to understand each other.
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