I'm not usually a nit-picker but this is bugging the hell out of me.
POSTED BY: ebonezer
UPDATED: Monday, April 18, 2005 23:22
VIEWED: 36713
PAGE 14 of 14
For Ebo, I hope this lasts a year.
Is it speciality or specialty?
It seems we drop the u and the i in the states. I kinda like the i.
One things for sure, aluminium is much more fun to say than aluminum.
www.thatweirdgirl.com
---
Can we not revel in our cyber-love?
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
As somebody who grew up in a British family in the U.S. and now lives in Canada, I find this all very interesting.
I've heard the aluminium/aluminum difference is because the first textbook to publish the newly-named element in the States misprinted it (but I heard that from relatives in the UK, so they may have been biased).
And I've found the "Aboot"/"Eh" things vary a lot within Canada, based on where people come from and individual tastes (a girl from Toronto I met used it in every sentence, but she's the exception). At first the "eh" seemed very foreign, but I've been here less than two years and already I can barely imagine doing without it. I mean, the American "huh?" which might replace it in some cases just doesn't compare.
NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Here's one that I'm curious about. Way back when, I spent a while in Japan and befriended a local who had learned his English from an English (as opposed to American) dictionary. One day we got into a big argument about how many syllables are in the word Strawberries. Being a native speaker I just assumed he was confused when he insisted it was pronounced Stro-bries (forgive my attempt at phonetics), two syllables. I insisted that no, the "berries" should be two syllables and that the "straw" should be more of an "aw" sound then an "o". Hilarity ensued until he actually produced his dictionary which appeared to support him. Any of you UK folks feel like weighing in?
- Leto_V
"Well, my days of not taking you
seriously are certainly coming to
a middle." - Mal
NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by CapnEric:
Hey, y'all, Yank living in the UK (10 years now).
9 years ago, on my first job, my boss was a very well-spoken chap with a "cut glass accent", very posh (and stuck up). He wanted to use the pc with internet access (we only had one) for personal use but didn't want to disturb my work. When I realized this I stood up and said he should have said something, if he wanted the pc he "should just toss me off". I then went to lunch.
I hadn't then learned that anything with the word "toss" in it referred to masturbation. I'm told my boss stayed in a state of shock for about 5 min until my British colleague begged for mercy for me, saying "he doesn't know what he said!"
Excellent thread. I’ve just read through the whole thing and laughed so hard at that story. There's a line in Lord of the Rings where Gimli says: "Nobody tosses a dwarf". That got quite a few laughs when I first saw that in the cinema.
I’m English, my parents are from Portugal and I only tend to watch US TV shows, so my pronunciation varies. For instance, with the word schedule, I pronounce it the American way skedule as opposed to the British shedule, as it just sounds better that way.
A few other American to English differences:
Fall = Autumn
bangs = fringe
jelly(doughnut) = jam(doughnut)
jello = jelly
Season = Series
I remember in the early days of Buffy, I used to refer to Season 1 and would have to correct myself to say Series 1 so that my friends knew what I was talking about. Although now with the recent influx of US TV shows on DVD, people have begun to say Season.
With reference to the strawberries question, I pronounce it straw-berries, although I’ve actually heard it as straw-bries as well, but have never heard stro-bries.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Also, keep in mind that America does not solely = the US. There are more than one country in both Americas.
Does Blue Sun sponser the Blue Man Group?
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I would just like to point out that this loverly thread that I started probably takes the cake for being the longest lasting thread on the site. I posted the origonal post Wednesday, May 12, 2004.
*sniff*
I'm just so proud. 
-----------------------------------
Four out of five gynecologists recommend calling Ebo a girl.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/yeabig/
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME