US English Vs the World..(Split from Compo4all Discussion)

[Binky]

How about an argument over place name pronunciation?

Godmanchester is pronounced "Gump-ster"

Droitwich is pronounced "dur-rich"

 

[Fzero]

Leicester Square...





Always makes me smile when I hear Americans around town mentioning there


Still, if you read it, their pronunciation does seem more correct than ours. Though it ain't.

 

[Kumaki]

Vegemite may be an acquired taste... but we acquire it young. (usually on sandwiches with cheese)

I've heard that the mistake most yanks make with vegemite is to slather it on thick as if it was peanut butter. You need to spread it thin, as a little goes a long way.


- Neelix

I'll keep that in mind, should I ever be brave enough to try it.

They DO say we are the home of the brave...just not sure I'm THAT brave...lol.

As a native English speaker I'm in the rare position of actually preferring Aluminum to Aluminium, for some reason it just sounds nicer to my ear.


There is a rather interesting back story, in lexicographical terms, as to the origin of the confusion over the name. Fellow Brits may be surprised to learn that Element 13 was officially called Aluminum before it was renamed Aluminium.

I've always said "aluminum" not "aluminium"  That last sounds like a George Dubya Bushism.

 

[Kumaki]

Leicester Square...




Always makes me smile when I hear Americans around town mentioning there


Still, if you read it, their pronunciation does seem more correct than ours. Though it ain't.

Personally, seeing that...I would pronounce "LEESTER Square"

Do I win the cigar?

Incidentally, my heritage is Welsh...and THAT is a whole bunch of fun to try to pronounce!

Always LOVED it...to watch folks try to pronounce the name of a town near Philadelphia...which is Welsh named..

The town is "Bala Cynwyd"

It is pronounced, correctly, as "Bala Kinwood"

Another one I loved is...when I lived in Kentucky for a while.

They have a Versailles there.  And they pronounce it "VER SAILS"  Not "Ver Sigh" as it should be.

Of course...now you're talking about a place where, along the highway, I-64 to be exact...you can see signs warning "Fallen Rock Zone"  FALLEN...as in past tense...I don't know about you guys, but I am more worried about FALLING rocks...not the ones that have already fallen!!  Everywhere else in the country it is "FALLING Rock Zone"...but not in Kentucky.

Of course...as many of you know, there are some places where English completely dissapears...in Kentucky, they haven't used it in years!!  (hat tip to "My Fair Lady" on that last bit,)

 

[sswam]

But, seriously, do Australians eat Spotted Dick too

No.

We eat food.

Oddly, I am an Australian with an British-drawn-but-future-American avatar!  America is really fucked up in 2100 AD, so beware.

 

[monstercameron]

if you guys think american english is hilarious, then you should listen to  jamaican english -or better yet patoise.

eg.

I went out last night to this new bar, I went with a few friends and it was fun.

Mi did go a won new bar laas nite, mi go wid sum a mi fren dem an it did fun.

 

[Kumaki]

But, seriously, do Australians eat Spotted Dick too

No.

We eat food.

Oddly, I am an Australian with an British-drawn-but-future-American avatar!  America is really fucked up in 2100 AD, so beware.

America is really fucked up NOW...what you talkin' bout, Willis?

 

[sswam]

America is really fucked up NOW...what you talkin' bout, Willis?

It's very far from Judge DREDD / 2000 AD level fucked up!

What I'm talkin' bout Willis? Go read the comic and fear the future.

 

[Kumaki]

Well, maybe...but it isn't very far from George Orwell / 1984 fucked up!!

 

[Franko]

Good Lord....  I'm not touching this thread with a ten-foot pole...(poke, poke).

 

[Binky]

Perhaps that's a 3 metre pole?

 

[Franko]

Ahh, that's fairly close.  About 9.84252 feet, no wonder I poked something on this page - my pole was too long....I needed a 3 metre pole.  Not me personally....hey don't look at me like that ...stop filming .....(runs away)....

 

[monty]

As a native English speaker I'm in the rare position of actually preferring Aluminum to Aluminium, for some reason it just sounds nicer to my ear.


There is a rather interesting back story, in lexicographical terms, as to the origin of the confusion over the name. Fellow Brits may be surprised to learn that Element 13 was officially called Aluminum before it was renamed Aluminium.

Interesting read. I would much prefer if we used his first choice; alumium.

The British/American English mix up is partly our fault (I'm English), partly theirs.

American English is based on an older version of English that we both shared once. Then, whilst the Americans were busy doing manly things with beaver skins (thats right, isn't it?), the British Upper Classes were spending ill-gotten Imperial wealth on Frenchifying themselves by any means possible, much to the chargrin of the working & lower middle classes, who remained Francophobes to a man. This went on for a long time --- see 'cheque' changing around 1900 --- hence many pompously over-complex words which aren't in American English catching on over here.

Meanwhile, after Independence, the Americans had an enthusiasm for differentiating themselves from Britons by any means possible ("Now I've moved out of my parents house --- God, they were so unfair! --- I'm going to, like, drink a whole bottle of white wine & they can't stop me!"), in the process simplifying & making logical many spellings. See 'plow'. This urge only lasted so long, so some spellings were changed, but other were never gotten around too.

In short, its a beautiful mash up.

 

[Franko]

Very well said and represented, Monty!  Bravo!... I'm practically speechless. 

Edit 1:  I'm afraid that it gets more complicated.  The United States of America is a vast land and has different dialects.  It's true.

Edit 2:  I've done things with beavers...

Edit 3:  Mods, you can go ahead and delete my hot, sweaty, and sensuous beaver talk from edit number 2.

 

[Franko]

Somehow when I saw this wacky thread, I just knew that I'd get sucked into it.  I'm no expert on language...I just try to spell as best as I can.  That was my oral report in 1st grade....just kidding.  But seriously, I know that I'm not going to be correct 100% of the time, I just try to learn 100% of the time.  I'll "pepper" questions sometimes, and try to communicate through klingon...I don't care - I'm not proud.  I'll take a bullet for the team or dive on a grenade, and I can say that because I haven't done that yet.

 

[gunrock]

Kumaki, on 02 May 2013 - 01:15, said:

FZERO, on 01 May 2013 - 23:19, said:


Leicester Square...




Always makes me smile when I hear Americans around town mentioning there


Still, if you read it, their pronunciation does seem more correct than ours. Though it ain't.

Personally, seeing that...I would pronounce "LEESTER Square"
Do I win the cigar?

Nope. It's pronounced 'Lester Square'

 

[Fzero]

Yeah close but no cigar Kumaki


Patoise I'm OK with, Welsh though is next level of confusion.


According to a theory I heard on an old episode of QI, the future of English [probably around 2100AD too] is likely to be Panglish, a Pan-English, consisting mostly of short "txt-speek" and used by large online based communities around the world... maybe...

 

[PokeParadox]

U R gng 2 fil th bk of hand i U tlk Lyk dis!

 

[Monkfish]

Modern English (as spoken in UK) is really an amalgamation of ancient Latin, Norse (viking), Medieval German, Medieval French and Gaelic so as a result theirs no real logical convention for spelling or sentence structure its all quite variable because were such a mash up of various ancient languages - so it can be quite confusing for none-naitive speakers. Most other languages are quite logically ordered and have standard conventions (because they have a single root language rather than an amalgamation of many).

Its true that back in Elizabethan times we used more German and Nordic characters in our written alphabet, for example the sound "th" was written as "Þ" which is often mistranscribed as"Y" hence "Ye Olde Shoppe" confusion, Ye was actually a personal pronoun and never used in place of Þe which is simple the old way of noting "the". Other wierd quirks include "s" being written as "ſ" with the hard s-sound written as "ſſ" and the soft s-sound written as "ʒ". also the characters "u" and "v" were interchangable as were the characters "j" and "i".

This was all intended to make it easy for written text to reflect the way it was to be pronounced before standardisation of spelling and some old quirks still persist in the modern written language. but regarding america's missing U's, in the word "Colour" for example this is perhaps because when we british pronounce "or" or "our" we make a different mouth shape for each of these sounds and they sound different to us, i suspect americans dont use the "our" mouth shape when speaking or notice the difference in sound, in a similar way to how dutch speakers have problems pronouncing and hearing the "th" sound.

Oh and Kumaki, you're supposed to smoke the Cigar after you've eaten all the Spotted Dick

 

[Kumaki]

Well, I was closer, probably, than most Americans get with Lester Square!

But no cigar...no Spotted Dick, either!

Franko speak Klingon, eh??  Me, too, but very limited.

Q'apla!!

Good Lord....  I'm not touching this thread with a ten-foot pole...(poke, poke).

Well, in Texas, where I used to live, they'd say "I wouln't touch that with a ten meter cattle prod" (the "d" left out of "wouldn't" intentionally to capture the dialect.)