I haven't logged on to this thread in ages and ages because of various factors. Now, however, my husband and I are planning a few days in London before going on to Italy next year and I thought I would catch up.
Even though I found it very entertaining, to my amazement I see that it is now 16 pages!!!!
On July 24, 2006, Pauline made a page for a dictionary. I just looked at it and it doesn't seem to have progressed any further. Before taking 3 or 4 days to read through this entire thread, does anybody know if anybody else has done any more on it -- maybe in a different location? Does all that make sense?
US muffin = more or less what we used to call cake or a fairy cake (but increasingly sold under the US name in the UK, and we know all about "muffin top" too)
UK muffin = a round flat bread roll to be eaten toasted and split in two with butter (and there was a TV puppet called Muffin the Mule, but that's another story).
UK muffin = a round flat bread roll to be eaten toasted and split in two with butter
I guess that's why these are called English muffins here in the US, Patrick! Incidentally, Wolferman's originally only had retail stores in the Kansas City area, and when I couldn't restrain myself, I'd go to one. Apparently now they're only online.
I debated whether to start a new thread with this information or just post here, but decided to do the latter, as this is just for information rather than discussion. And, after all, it is about a word game in English.
Free Rice is a website which contains multiple-choice vocabulary questions (in English). The more you get right, the more grains of rice are donated through the UN by sponsors of the site to feed the hungry of the world. Also, the more questions you get right, the harder it becomes.
I've found it interesting and challenging. I've had to do a lot of guessing, so it helps to have some background in other languages, particularly Latin and French.
Try it, have some fun, and help a very good cause!
Hmm! Perhaps we should stay away from differences in pronunciation, as they are so many and varied. But differences in where accents are placed on syllables are very common and, in many instances, consistent. Think "laboratory."
But that's one, Jeff, that isn't a national distinction. People here in the US pronounce it differently all the time. I can find no regional explanation for it.
I'm an American married to a British husband, and we live near London. I think the differences in pronounciations of the same word have brought a lot of humor (humour) to our lives. We are constantly laughing at how different the same word can sound. Some are easy for me to decipher, but occasionally there's a word I can't interpret at all!
Posts: 164 | Location: Surrey, UK | Registered: 28 February 2005
I'm trying to remember the songs from Annie Get Your Gun, but don't recall that one. It's been awhile! I do remember the Gershwins' tune (I think he's the one) about you say potatoe and I say potat-oh, you say to-matoe and I say to-matoh. Back in the early part of the 20th century, many New Englanders spoke very much with the British pronounciations.
The song was 'Let's Call the Whole Thing Off.'
Posts: 164 | Location: Surrey, UK | Registered: 28 February 2005
Come to think of it, you're right...not only do England and US have different words and expressions for similar things, but each country has many regional dialects, colloquialisms, etc. to express similar things.
Case in point (and not meant pejoratively): while working in Berkshire, England, I had a brief conversation with a woman colleague from York and in the interest of being polite I nodded, smiled and peppered the chat with one word answers, etc.. But, I was frustrated at not being able to understand her very well. When she left the circle of people chatting, I mentioned that being from the US, I didn't understand half of what she said. The response was, "Ah, don't worry, mate. We couldn't understand her either, she's from York!"
Posts: 428 | Location: New Hampshire | Registered: 12 September 2006
A minor example I've just noticed is that Australians seem to say "dahta" where we say "dayta". They're being strictly consistent with the Latin pronunciation I was brought up on, which makes we wonder if perhaps Catholic schools are more influential in Australia than the UK? Which is well off-topic, I know, so perhaps I should just shut up.
Well, then, I wonder how many of the people who are planning to go to the GTG in Savannah and haven't spent much, if any, time in the US "Deep South" will have trouble understanding some of the Georgians they encounter. Then, if they were to come up here to the mountains and meet some of the descendants of the original settlers who still have elements of archaic forms of 18th century English in their speech, they'd have problems also. (Didn't we discuss that once, Patrick?)
One of the ways that the religions in Northern Ireland were pinpointed was Protestants pronounced the 10th letter of the alphabet jay while Catholics pronounced it jeye - apparently several undercover agents were spotted that way.
I believe the standard "shibboleth" for that, CDT, is the letter H. English RP says "aitch"; "haitch" is said to be a sign of a Catholic education (or at least, being taught by Irish Catholics).
apparently several undercover agents were spotted that way
I realize this forum is about English CDT, but I was told some years ago that the same tactic was used by the Dutch in WWII to detect Germans who couldn't pronounce the "sch" in such names as Schiphol or Schevenegen as the Dutch do and did.
And Jeff, you might want to take a look at this article. I've finally learned what "rhotic" and "non-rhotic" refer to in speech. Bostonian and much of lowland Southern speech, as well as much of British, is the latter, while Southern Appalachian and Philadelphia speech (and that for most of the rest of the US) is the former.
After 4 years here in the UK, I still laugh when someone British compliments me on my beautiful accent. I never lost my Phila. accent, even after living near NYC for more than 30 years. I've never liked my accent, but now I'm beginning to think it's unique and fine. :-)
We used to make fun of Boston accents when I was a kid. Considering how we spoke, that was really cruel!
Posts: 164 | Location: Surrey, UK | Registered: 28 February 2005
The Boston accent and the unique terminology are somewhat fading with the advent of nationwide/worldwide television, periodicals, music/entertainment distribution and the Internet; plus, people travel farther and wider today: to see friends, to attend college, to vacation, to work and to retire - of course this slowly changes differences in language across those heretofore boundaries; additionally, neighborhoods within cities have have been gentrified or otherwise replaced, further reducing the re-enforcement of peculiarities in language among generations within clusters of extended families, clubs, pubs, and the like.
The Philadelphia/Maryland accent is a "wicked pissah" way to talk, though...
Posts: 428 | Location: New Hampshire | Registered: 12 September 2006
That's funny. You might want to take a look at this article. I alerted Terry to it in a PM. I have referred to it for years as the "Baltimore-Trenton" (or, perhaps - more accurately - "Bawlmer") accent, and I see in that article, that William Labov, the noted sociolinguist at Penn, calls it the "Mid-Atlantic Dialect," though it stays pretty close to the coast. My mother had it bad, talking about the pro football team as the "Iggles." And a college professor at Penn spoke about "liggel insteetutions." Fortunately (?), mine isn't as pronounced. I won't go into the story here about how, as teenagers, my brother and I tried to get a younger cousin to say "go home" without that very nasal "oh" sound.
Thanks for that link, Ann. How amazing that the accent is part of Wikipedia! I'm not sure how my brother avoided having the same accent I do (I sound like my mother did). He never spoke like I did, something we never figured out.
Most of my life I lived near NYC, and thankfully, my two sons didn't pick up that 'chawclit' or 'deddy' way of speaking. They just sound American, period.
I sometimes miss Philadelphia but might get back there this June.. family wedding in Pittsburgh.
June
Posts: 164 | Location: Surrey, UK | Registered: 28 February 2005
