Off Topic: English Pronunciation

[Steve Steel]

Hi

For a good base even of English look at

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/index.shtml

Even in england a native english speaker differs îf a dialect is used.

In Bristol then can even communicate without words


Steve Ste

[Ralph Grothe]

Hi Ken,

I've almost forgotten this thread,
and was surprised to get more feedback lately.

I would like to apologize if I (inadvertently) offended your Australian feelings.
Honestly, I never would have expected to hurt someones' feelings by my rather sloppy assumptions about Australian ancestry,
which weren't meant too seriously.
Of course would I never assume such a vast country as Australia and its inhabitants to be of this stereotype.
I think I wouldn't have uttered what I had about Australians if I've ever had a chance to visit this fascinating country myself.
Unfortunately, you being virtually "down under" so far away from us in Europe that I fear I will never get that far.

Rgds.
Ralph

[Cheryl Griffin]

I've been tutoring a 2nd grader and never has it been so apparent at the difficulties of learning the English language.

There's a rule for everything:
"The E on the end make the vowel say it's name." Example: name is nAme

But there's multiple exceptions for every rule. Is it live (liv) or live (lIve)

Then are huge pronounciation differences if you live in the north vs south vs east vs west of the States in addition to huge differences if you live in the north vs south vs east vs west of each State.

If you want to speak "southern", be sure to add extra syllables to any word, especially 1-syllable words. The more syllables the more "southern" you are. ;^)

[MarkSyder]

For many years, I have had in my music collection an album called "The Who Live at Leeds".

I recently read an article in which it said this album left the Who's fans wondering which part of Leeds they lived in!

And just to add to the confusion, "it's" means "it is" or "it has". The possessive form (the dog ate its bone) does not have an apostrophe. Yes, I know, nothing to do with pronunciation, but I do tend to be pedantic (although it does depend what you mean by pedantic).

Mark

[Graham Cameron_1]

Mark Syder:

>>"it's" means "it is" or "it has".

Not really. "It's" can only mean "it has" if followed by got.

eg "My waste basket leaks. It's rubbish"
Does that mean it is rubbish, or it has rubbish? Or should that be garbage. Or even trash?

"It's getting warmer" = it is getting warmer.
"It's got warmer" = it has got warmer.

Ok. Prove me wrong someone...

-- Graham

[MarkSyder]

Graham:

"it's been a long time" it's = it has.

Mark

[Simon Hargrave]

Behold, the Apostrophe Protection Society!

http://www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk/

[RAC_1]

A good thread. I have been looking at it for the last few days. We have a saying "the language changes every 10 km" What it means, it changes the way people talk, pronounce, their accsent. In this part of the world- India, we speak British Engilish as a result of colonial past. Most of the people still see it as difficult langauage to learn and master. That is the case, where the language is introduced in the 5th standard.

I have been trying very hard to know, learn the funny ways the English is spoken, And still think I am not good at it.

And after the fact that outsourcing is here to stay, we now must know this language very well.

Anil

[Ralph Grothe]

Simon,

very interesting to find that they dedicated a whole website to the apostrophe.

I guess you wouldn't be too surprised to hear that in the German language the apostrophe enjoys widespread misuse and thus has a fair share in the increase of grammar violation.
Though unless you can read German this link won't be of much use to you, I also immediately googled over this German counterpart:

http://www.apostroph.de/

In German, as probably in many other languages, the apostrophe is used to denote one or more dropped letters to shorten things.
However in German grammar we do not have the socalled Saxon Genetive as you have in English.
But many, many Germans adopted this, maybe to be considered more "international".
So you can read shop signs like

Uschi's Backshop

(apart a funny mixture here of German and English, or "Denglish" as we call it in the word Back which is derrived from the word backen (i.e. to bake), so a bakery is meant

The correct German grammar would be

Uschis Backshop

(if you still insisted on the Denglish Backshop)
because the German Genetive is formed by simply adding an 's' to the subject.

[MarkSyder]

Simon,

Thanks for that link - a fascinating site. I'm just disappointed that Cain's Christmas Ale makes it on to the site as an offender. Cain's is my local brewery and their Christmas Ale comes highly recommended (and as Christmas starts so early these days it should be in the shops any day now!).

Anil,

I'm glad you're enjoying the thread. That means I'm justified in carrying on!

Given that we're all employed in computer maintenance I'm surprised we've got this far without anyone mentioning the word "maintenance". It's neither spelt nor pronounced "maintainance".

Mark