Off Topic: English Pronunciation

[harry d brown jr]

Not sure of the source of this to give the author due credit (sorry):

That "southern accent" will do ya in every time...!

A good ol' boy had a flat tire, pulled off on the side of the road, and proceeded to put a bouquet of flowers in front of his pickup truck and one behind it, then just stood back and waited...

A passerby from the city studied the scene as he drove by and was so curious he turned around and went back.

He asked the fellow what the problem was.

The fellow replied, "Flat Tire."

In response the passerby asked, "But, what's with the flowers?"

The man responded, "When ya' break down they tell ya' to put flares in the front and flares in the back.........I ain't never understood it neither.

********************

And to Ken Hayes, Who's to say what side of the road is correct? But in naval terms the right (starboard) (on-coming traffic to your left (port)) side of the road (water) is correct (most of the time) - Check this out: http://www.brianlucas.ca/roadside/

Also, doesn't Canada have more English speaking people than Australia??

live free or di e
harry

[Chris Wilshaw]

The BBC have come up with this one today.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3595816.stm

[Ralph Grothe]

Harry,

so you Southerners say flares instead of flowers?

Thanks for the interesting link on the "right" side.
It's funny, but there seem to be a lot of languages that consider right (i.e. starboard) as being analogous to "correct".
This goes of course for the ambigous meaning of "right" in English.
The same is true for German where right (in terms of side) means "rechts", and someting being right "das ist recht".
Also the German word for law or a right is "das Recht".
In German we also say if someone is behaving clumsily "er ist linkisch" ("links" being "left" in German).
As far as I know it's similar in French
where there is "a droit", "droit", "le droit", or "tout droit".

[Ralph Grothe]

Chris,

yesterday I read an article in the German FAZ paper that reported on intentions of various European countries to tighten language tests for citizenship applicants.
As for German citizenship, while the testers weren't stressing proof of national and culural "values" that much (like e.g. British authorities favour) it read that in Germany they intend to claim proof of some 600 hrs. of German lessons from applicants (n.b. the lessons will be sponsored by the government for those needy) before approval.
However I have the suspicion that many native German speakers wouldn't pass the test.

[Rita C Workman]

Interesting post...

superceded is pronounced super-seeded

Relax...listening to Brit's I notice they have as much variety in pronunciation as we folks in the US of A. Often time it is simply a matter of training your ear to the nuance of how something is pronounced locally. Boston vs New York accents can sound as foreign as someone from Maine talking to someone from Alabama. So put up the dictionary Ralph...it doesn't always help.

Speaking as a Northerner (Ohio) who is now living in W.V., it only took me a couple years to translate "j'eet j'et" to "did you eat yet" (phonetically written)...

So buy y'all..
Rita

[MarkSyder]

Rita,

Is superceded the correct American spelling? In England it is superseded.

J'eet j'et wouldn't mean anything to an English person - we'd say "Have you eaten yet?" Another difference between English and American - we have more than one past tense!

Mark

[Ian Dennison_1]

You get some interesting regional variations on pronunciation as well,

Ask an dinkie-die Aussie to say these words, and try to pick the difference,...

Pool and Pearl
Six and S3x
Booty and Beauty

Share and Enjoy! Ian

[Rita C Workman]

Mark,

You are correct that my spelling of the word superseded was and is inaccurate. As is the mistype of 'buy' when it should have been 'bye'.

As for the number of past tenses you possess. I have enough tense in my life, you can enjoy the extras.

Rita

[MarkSyder]

Rita,

Strangely enough, I didn't even notice "buy".

I usually find self-hypnosis is good for tension. Or failing that, beer!

Mark

[Geoff_39]

Superceded is not an incorrect speeling of the word:
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=supersede
Just another example of how the convoluted history of english leads to its inconsistencies.