I'm not usually a nit-picker but this is bugging the hell out of me. by ebonezer

TALK STORY

I'm not usually a nit-picker but this is bugging the hell out of me.

POSTED BY: EBONEZER
UPDATED: Monday, April 18, 2005 13:22
SHORT URL:
VIEWED: 29986
PAGE 3 of 3

Saturday, December 25, 2004 3:45 PM

LEXIBLOCK

Both spellings are correct - true its mostly the British who do it now, but it still correct in "american".

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Saturday, December 25, 2004 4:41 PM

TLACOOK

I adore this whole thread.

My input.

I grew up in Western Oregon (yes there is a huge difference between the western part of the state and the central and eastern parts of the state. Not surprising since it takes about ten hours to drives from the western edge to the eastern edge.)

Carbonated beverages were always, Pop.

French fries can be dipped in anything including, catsup (still pronounced "Ketchup"), mayonaisse, mayo with garlic, ranch dressing, BBQ sauce, special sauce (a mix of about 4 different condiments), tartar sauce, mustard, mustard mixed with mayo (a personal favorite) and of course a chocolate shake or a frostie.

Flip flops were always thongs when I was growing up. I think I was in my thirties before I started calling them flip-flops.

Many of my relatives also pronounced words like "wash" as "warsh". I think this is a german midwestern thing that must have come over to Oregon with my great grandparents' families. I stopped pronouncing it that way in first grade after being mercilessly teased. I still cringe when older people in my family say it.

I spent a summer in London working a few years ago. I could understand what the French, Spanish, Italians, Aussies, Kiwis, and the Danes said long before I could understand people from the UK.

I would usually ask my French friends for translations because I had no idea what was being said unless it was "proper english". I have a suspicion that more often than not it was done on purpose.

Phrases like "pissed" and "top'ad" drove me to distraction.

I never got the whole "coke" thing in the south. I got in several arguments with friends from Mississippi about this. Because I wanted a 7-up, damnit!

And Spanish and Mexican is ridiculously different. I can read Spanish but I would never attempt to speak it. I can get my meaning across verbally in Mexican.

And the craziest thing. When I was in college (40 minutes from where I grew up) everyone always asked where I was from because my accent was so different. This I could never understand except that I had years of drama training so I actually enunciated my words. My older brother slurs all his words and isn't so much understandable unless you are from the west coast or the south.

In grad school I had several professors just assume that I was from New York (a place I have never been). I mostly think that is just because I am a straightforward, bitch and has much less to do with my accent.

And one last pet peeve to end this overly long post. Oregon is pronounced OR-EEE-GUN, not Argon.

Xiexie.

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Wednesday, December 29, 2004 7:32 PM

HISKINDOFSTUPID

Whee! A thread that includes Joss, Eddie Izzard, salt and vinegar on chips and fries in chocolate milkshakes- so many of my favorite things!!! (for reference, I'm a Los Angeles girl who went to school in Britain). Ebonezer and Gunhand, if you find that you are getting obesessive about US/UK English, or the English language in general, I respectfully direct (if no one else has) you to Bill Bryson's excellent books, The Mother Tongue (about the English language itself) and Made in America (a history of English in the US), Actually, fabulous reading for anyone.

I must say that it took me a good six months to be any good at crosswords in England (kerb? tyre????), and that I was in constant fear of failing my A-levels because I could never remember to put in the U's (not sure if they really did mark off for spelling, as my teachers kept saying...). And I got into a huge fight about the proper pronunciation of aluminum... right up until I realized (or realised, if you prefer) that in Britain, it actually had an extra i.

But the most ridiculous moment, I believe, was when a new friend came back from being off in the bushes with a boy, and announced that she had "got off with him," which I felt was far too much information (and had happened rather quickly...). It wasn't until weeks later that I realized she'd meant hooked up with. Or made out with. Or necked. Or kissed. Or french kissed. Or however it's refered to in your part of the world.

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Thursday, December 30, 2004 2:24 PM

JUSTDAVID

Quote:
Originally posted by Naga:
I know Flip-Flops as 'Slippers'. What's slippers to you guys?

Slippers are soft warm footware, often worn with pajamas.
What do you call those?

Quote:
If in American English 'through' is spelled 'thru', then why is 'grotesque' not spelled 'grotes'?

It's still 'through' in our dictionaries, just not very often in online posts.

Quote:
Can someone explain to me why a torchlight is call a flashlight? I understand torchlight because it lights the way like a torch does, but it definitely don't 'flash', unless you're trying to send a signal.

That goes back to when they were first invented, their batteries weren't as good and they couldn't be left on, so you had to make do with brief 'flashes' of light. The Brittish way makes more sense now, that was good linguistic planning.

"Light it."

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Wednesday, January 5, 2005 12:56 AM

NAGA

Quote:
Originally posted by JustDavid:
Quote:
Originally posted by Naga:
I know Flip-Flops as 'Slippers'. What's slippers to you guys?
Slippers are soft warm footware, often worn with pajamas.
What do you call those?

We call any footwear that you can simply slip into and go, slippers. Simple, logical.

Quote:
Originally posted by JustDavid:
Quote:
Originally posted by Naga:
Can someone explain to me why a torchlight is call a flashlight? I understand torchlight because it lights the way like a torch does, but it definitely don't 'flash', unless you're trying to send a signal.
That goes back to when they were first invented, their batteries weren't as good and they couldn't be left on, so you had to make do with brief 'flashes' of light. The Brittish way makes more sense now, that was good linguistic planning.

Yes the Brits are quite good with their linguistic planning, most of the time...

Another thing I would like explaination on: Why is a figure like 1,200 referred to as 'twelve hundred' in USA and not as 'one thousand two hundred'?

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Wednesday, January 5, 2005 3:45 AM

DUCESTECUM

Just caught this thread and had to tell the story of my trip to St. Lucia (West Indies) back in the 80's. I was a thirty-something from the South but living in Connecticut at the time. There were lots of Brits there. One couple in their late sixties or so usually sat at our table during meals. I had the unfortunate habit of saying "I'm stuffed" after a meal to which my husband corrected me and told me that in Britain that means "I'm f**ked". I had a difficult time refraining from using the term in order not to give the elderly Brits heart failure.

Also, born in Tennessee raised in Chicago, always said soda instead of pop, never heard of putting french fries in Chocolate shakes until today and always put ketchup on fries. Only ketchup and mustard on a burger, only relish and mustard on a dog.

Also, I learned a great deal from the thread about spellings and made me realize why there are so many different ones (guess I never really thought about it before).

"Very interesting but stupid." (from '60's Laugh In)

"And I'm thinking you weren't burdened with an over-abundance of schooling." Mal - Train Job

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Wednesday, January 5, 2005 5:54 AM

ANOTHERFIREFLYFAN

Wow, I'm bored at work today, see this thread. Read the whole thing. Somehow I missed it the first time around, but as it's been bumped ANYWAY, may as well reply. :)

Quote:
no no no. you've got it all wrong. you put RANCH dressing on them.

HELL YES. Especially Outback Steakhouse Ranch. OMG, you so need to try Cheese fries there - they've got bacon, melted cheese, and the best ranch you've ever had.

And my normal favorite fries topping that I oddly have not seen mentioned yet, Old Bay and Malt Vinegar. You gotta have the Old Bay! (It's a Maryland thing). A few summers ago I was in Belgium - terrific fries over there, I was so sad that there wasn't any Old Bay to be had. I swear, I'll bring my own if I ever go there again. ;) (For those that don't know, Old Bay is a spicy seasoning best known for it's use on crabs)

Ok, now to the other item. It's soda. Somehow the use of the word 'pop' grates on me. And calling it 'coke' is ridiculous, coke is coca-cola, one specific type of soda.

I can't speak for people that live where I do, I kind of develop my own dialect based on words and sayings that I like from all over. ;) And lately it's been becoming very Joss Whedon inspired. There is just so much goodness in the dialog of his shows.

~AFf

Keep flying

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Wednesday, January 5, 2005 5:55 AM

ANOTHERFIREFLYFAN

Quote:
Originally posted by Naga:
Another thing I would like explaination on: Why is a figure like 1,200 referred to as 'twelve hundred' in USA and not as 'one thousand two hundred'?

I don't think that's true. I say both, depending on what I feel like. Twelve Hundred is just easier to say, less syllables.

Keep flying

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Wednesday, January 5, 2005 2:55 PM

EBONEZER

Quote:
Originally posted by rklenseth:
Then you have theater which to the English is theatre.

Actually, Americans have both. Theatre is the 'art of theatre' if you will (or theatre class), while theater is the building itself, "we are going to the theater." Or you could take a theatre class in the theater. See? I can contribute to the discussion.

It might actually be the other way around, I'm not positive, but there is a diference.

-----------------------------------

Four out of five gynecologists recommend calling Ebo a girl.

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Wednesday, January 5, 2005 3:15 PM

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!"

I was the first person laid off when the company started dying, to my great relief.

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Thursday, January 6, 2005 1:20 PM

LETOV

When my wife was in college she spent a summer working in London. She loves telling people about how one day she was looking for the guy that was training her when she was told: "He's in the bog sucking a fag." ...about killed her...

- Leto_V

"Well, my days of not taking you
seriously are certainly coming to
a middle." - Mal

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Thursday, January 6, 2005 2:03 PM

INEVITABLEBETRAYAL

I've loved British slang ever since I was posted with some Brits in Kuwait just before Iraq kicked off (hell, even "posted" is their word!). Bollocks, dog's bollocks, beaver cleaver--it's so much fun. It was strange when one of them asked if I'd like a fag--till I realized he was talking about a cigarette.

Anyway, had to point out the following:

Quote:
Originally posted by ebonezer:
Every sense i joined this site however long agao i joined it...

I believe that should read, "Ever since I joined this site, however long ago I joined it..."

I mean, seriously, as long as we're on the subject.

Oh yeah, and one more thing. The Brits spell Lieutenant and say "Leftenant", but let's not forget that we Americans spell "Colonel" but say "Kernel".

_______________________________________________
I wish I had a magical wish-granting plank.

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Thursday, January 6, 2005 3:37 PM

EBONEZER

Quote:
Originally posted by InevitableBetrayal:

Anyway, had to point out the following:

Quote:
Originally posted by ebonezer:
Every sense i joined this site however long agao i joined it...

I believe that should read, "Ever since I joined this site, however long ago I joined it..."

I mean, seriously, as long as we're on the subject.

Do as I say, not as I do.

-----------------------------------

Four out of five gynecologists recommend calling Ebo a girl.

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Friday, January 14, 2005 9:19 AM

ZELDA

You know, to get back (somewhat) to the original complaint, the thing that drives me crazy in the quotes up top is the one that refers to the "crased" pipe dream. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that's just a straight-up typo; I'm not aware of any English-speaking country that will accept "crased" in place of "crazed." And Merriam Webster agrees with me, as does dictionary.com.

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Friday, January 14, 2005 9:32 AM

DIETCOKE

It's a British/Canadian spelling. They spell theater, theatre. Whole bunch of words are spelled differently. Too many to name.

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Friday, January 14, 2005 9:47 AM

DIETCOKE

Speaking of mayo, french fries were really created in Belgium and are eaten with a tangy mayo, kind of like Miricle Whip.

Now in Montana the only time you'd have mayo on a burger is if it was a burger with everything (mustart, catsup, lettuce, cheese, tomato, pickle onion.) Then you'd put mayo between the lettuce and the tomato.

That's another one...do you spell it catsup or ketchup? Is that a regional thing?

I came from Montana and every drink is a coke. Had a hard time ordering a "soda" (that's what you mix with Scotch) in NYC in the early days. In Montana we had milk shakes but in NYC it's just flavored milk with no icecream. If you wanted a Montana milkshake you'd have to order a frap.

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Friday, January 14, 2005 10:27 AM

PBI

One point about relying too heavily on American dictionaries and dictionary.com (a US site) when trying to determine if a 'incorrectly' spelled word is, in fact, spelled incorrectly as opposed to using British spellings is that, being oriented more towards ensuring that they have accurate spellings of English as used in the US, they may miss bits that are used outside the US.

Dictionary.com, for example (at least last time I checked), did not know where the phrase 'the whole nine yards' came from. It originated, in English as used in the Commonwealth, from the Great War, where the whole nine yards in question was the length of a belt of machine-gun ammunition. When the enemy got close, or was presenting a particularly lovely target, the order would be given to "Give them the whole nine yards". Presumably, the phrase filtered into American English from British English, but, be that as it may, the fact that dictionary.com doesn't know that makes me wonder how accurate the rest of their material is when it comes to British English.

If you can survive death, you can probably survive almost anything.

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Friday, January 21, 2005 4:37 AM

LAUREL

not that i read all this and picked out bits that bothered me or anything but

Quote:

I once knew a guy who, during his time in England, had a girl ask him to "come round in the morning and knock me up." Always good to know about these little cross-cultural things before flying 'cross the pond.

That's a regional thing, most places it would mean exactly what you think it means

Quote:

When in England don't call the bit on the faucet that turns on the water "A Knob" ... trust me! Faucet 'knobs' are called 'handwheels'. A knob is the end bit of anatomy particular to males!

Handwheels ?

Quote:

Also, one of the big differences (in my opinion) is the American "pants" vs the English "trousers". This too, was originally English which was changed when we wanted to distance ourselves from the French and invented the word trousers instead of pantaloons.

Pants are what men wear under their trousers

Quote:

It's true! It's true! Americans tend to think of British generally as aristocratic British - too many adaptations of Jane Austin, perhaps? But many, many of the British dialects are nearly undecipherable to the American ear. I can't remember which movie it was a couple of years ago (something with "Joe" in the title?), but I think the accents were Glaswegian, and they actually subtitled it in the States because American audiences generally couldn't understand a thing.

To take another example from cinema, a lot of people have trouble for the first section of "Trainspotting," until their ear adjusts, and never end up understanding a word Begby says. (Probably just murdered the spelling of that name.) In college I knew a Japanese girl who was trying to read the book, and she had flawless American English, accent and all, really, really bright girl, and she was just beating her head against the thing because apparently the first chapter(s) are written phonetically in dialect, and she was spending something like 20 minutes a page trying to figure out what anything meant!

Lol nobody from outside glasgow can understand glaswegian. They subtitle things from glasgow to show them in england as well. I find trainspotting hard to read as well i don't think it's the accent it's just it being phonetic that bothers me.

Quote:

I must say that it took me a good six months to be any good at crosswords in England (kerb? tyre????),

Kerb is only spelt like that if you are talking about the edge of the pavement otherwise it would be curb ( unless it was some sort of motoring crossword

)

also they're chips and you have chippy sauce on them, which is some mix of brown sauce and vinegar but only chip shops can get it right

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Saturday, January 22, 2005 1:00 AM

NAGA

Quote:
Originally posted by Zelda:
You know, to get back (somewhat) to the original complaint, the thing that drives me crazy in the quotes up top is the one that refers to the "crased" pipe dream. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that's just a straight-up typo; I'm not aware of any English-speaking country that will accept "crased" in place of "crazed." And Merriam Webster agrees with me, as does dictionary.com.

I think you're right about "crased" being spelled "crazed", even in British English, but then again Brits spell "Realize" as "Realise", "Summarize" as "Summarise", so on and so forth...

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Sunday, February 6, 2005 5:31 AM

MAGICALTREVOR

I once saw a fire extinguisher with the instructions to "squeese" but that was a typo.

Agree with person about that Glasgwegian accent is hard if you're just hearing it. But there's just something about NEDs* saying "Aum goanee chib yee ya bastirt!" that makes my soul swell with national pride....

*NED = Non Educated Deliquant. Those people wandering round wearing sportwear and Jaynesque machetes.

"Regulator, regulator, regulator.... HURGH!" Let The Blood Run Free

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Sunday, February 6, 2005 7:44 PM

EBONEZER

I love how this thread that i started refuses to die. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy all over.

-----------------------------------

Four out of five gynecologists recommend calling Ebo a girl.

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Monday, February 7, 2005 12:05 PM

OLDFAN45

Ebo, where else can we discuss the whole "coke/soda/pop" and mayo-vs-ketchup-vs-godknowswhat on fries?

When I was a kid (American sense, I have never been a goat unless you're the first of my ex-wives) my Texan mother called them "devil water" and her response to my pleadings to have a root beer or whatever was always, "You can't have devil water!" But she was weird in so many ways.

As to fried potato toppings, the correct answer is half mayo/half ketchup stirred until almost combined, then as much Tabasco as your lily-livered non-Texan tongue will endure but a minimum of a teaspoon, insert fried food and chew.

The Outback Steak House things are more like baked potatoes than fries with all that glop all over them.

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Monday, February 7, 2005 12:55 PM

DEBBIEBUK

Thanks for bouncing this one folks.

My contribution: "Put wood in 't hole" which seemed to be near the start is actually Yorkshire, not UK-wide, and lot of (soft) Southerners wouldn't know what you meant. I can say that 'cos I was born in Dover (Kent) which is pretty much South for the UK.

Mayo on chips - definitely a north German, Netherlands and Belgian thing. They have this special stuff in Netherlands which is called mayo but is more like a sauce and has a lot of other stuff in it besides just eggs, oil and mustard.

My kids speak a strange kind of Suffolk/ US hybrid from growing up here in Suffolk UK and watching too much US tv. "Doodie" seems to mean cute/ small/ really neat, that's certainly Suffolk though may have travelled a bit, but they use "pissed" in the US way, i.e. cross, not "pissed" in the UK way - intoxicated.

I fell foul of the "fag" thing once many years ago, it was what we always called cigarettes. One day, hanging around outside a gig waiting for the band, the US bass player, a hero of mine, asked if anyone had a cigarette, we passed the message on, translating it to "fag". He got a bit narked (is that a UK-only word?).

Last bit - even more years ago, my grandmother was a secretary for a large pharmaceutical firm and it was part of her job to actually re-type documents from English into American and vice versa. Apparently executives in those days were less globally aware and found them hard to read in the "wrong" language, a lot of the chemicals gained letters or lost them, e.g. sulphur to sulfur etc.

Weird

Debbie

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Monday, February 7, 2005 3:59 PM

INDIGO

Hee, fun thread! I adore regional language differences.
Responding to dietcoke: I'm a Montanan too ('though I've traveled around quite a bit and now live in Washington State) -- I pretty much remember referring to them carbonated beverages as pop, unless you were ordering a "phosphate" from a real old fashioned soda shop, or yes, having a scotch and soda. I was astounded in Texas to find that folks enjoyed throwing a handful of salted peanuts into thier warm, flat coke. I thought that it mirrored the humidity too much.
Now for a shake, I remember calling them malts -- fraps (or rather frappes) are whipped coffee, milk and ice as we use here in WA. I heard them called frappes in Greece too -- where I got in a rather (several weeks) long mis-understanding over the term "instant coffee" with one of my Greek co-workers. *I* thought that the term referred to the rather nasty reconstituted free-dried coffee called Nescafe, but my friend was referring to filter coffee. To a Greek, if it isn't boiled up on the flame in a certain small pot and served in little cups, it just isn't coffee.
But then again, I niether like sodas, fries (the only way that I would touch them is if they are done thick cut with the skin on and with vinagre), or shakes anymore at all. Still, put my brews in a bag so I can take them up the crick and slog them down.
I joke with my non-MT friends that Montanans have no long vowels -- from a combination of Scandinavians, Native Americans, Germans, Poles, British Islanders, and an odd influx of Confederates we forgot our long vowels. The northern part of the state blurs phonetically with Canada as well.
My stepmother came to Montana from "back east": from NY's the Bronx and upstate. I used to be shocked when she assured me that we had accents, a *drawl* none-the-less. It took getting away to realize that she was right. Everybody does and we all think that we are normal -- and we are all right in that!
I felt completely idiotic one time when I left my train in New Jersey, looking for Newark and couldn't communicate past our accents with the train steward as to whether or not I was in Newark or New York. This was a long day.
Having travelled more since then and made many more faux pax's and mental twists I'm happy to note that my spelling habits and lingua are more nicely intertwined with other parts of the globe. I would really, really recommend to fellow Americans (because I have noticed our overwhelming tendency to be insular) to travel, to spell your words differently, to adopt new phrases!
It's cool to have PinYin interspersed in the (basically) English universe of Firefly.

Woman at reception desk of snooty LA art gallery to artist (said with a seductive sneer): "You make me hangry."
Artist guy, not sure that he's hearing her right: "What? You're angry at me, for what?"
"No, you make me hangry!"
"I don't understand."
She stands up, now frustrated and definately looking angry, but then again rather sultry too: "Stupid! You are beautiful, and I am hangry for you."
"Oh. Oh, OK."
--imperfectly remembered lines from dumb 80's movie. Eurotrash meets LA art crowd.

Indigo

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Monday, February 7, 2005 4:14 PM

MONTANAGIRL

Yeah, another Montana browncoat! (Although I seem to be the only one still living here.)

I agree, it's pop.

Packer fans welcome.
All others tolerated.

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Monday, February 7, 2005 4:45 PM

THATWEIRDGIRL

Quote:
Originally posted by ebonezer:
I love how this thread that i started refuses to die. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy all over.

I think we can keep up for a year...don't ya?

let's see, I've talked about pop, fries, and thongs, what next...

I've heard PepsiMilk is a fantastic drink. A must!

www.thatweirdgirl.com

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Monday, February 7, 2005 5:10 PM

DIETCOKE

Interesting take on things. Where in Montana were you from? I'm from Glasgow but now live in Englewood, NJ just 25 mins. from midtown.

The more you travel, the more you understand that we simply don't understand....

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Monday, February 7, 2005 5:34 PM

INDIGO

Heya dietcoke;
I was born in Missoula and raised up in the frick'n backwoods of western MT -- uhm, with a liberal schooling in the big towns of Helena, Kalispell, Bozeman, and Deer Lodge among the many and tawdry. I don't know New Jersey much but spent a nicely hellish winter in Cape May for USCG bootcamp.

MontanaGirl, where'you at?

Indigo

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Monday, February 7, 2005 6:00 PM

MONTANAGIRL

I'm originally from central Montana (Hobson), but I've been in Bozeman since college.

Packer fans welcome.
All others tolerated.

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Tuesday, February 8, 2005 5:38 AM

SASJA

Quote:
Originally posted by AKS:
Re: the Swedish/Norwegian discussion.

I'm Swedish, so perhaps I can bring some insight into this.

Everyone's been pretty much right this far. Swedish and Norwegian are different languages. However, not very long ago (we're talking hundreds of years of course) they were indeed as closely "related" as dialects. I have almost no trouble whatsoever understanding spoken Norwegian (unless they're speaking a very strange dialect). However, and this is perhaps interesting for people who're not from Scandinavia, when it comes to *reading*... give me a novel in Danish any day!! Yep, it's easier to read Danish, but I don't understand a word of what they're saying. Odd, perhaps.

There are studies done about this from time to time and the resluts show that Norwegians understand spoken Swedish and Danish very well. Most Danes don't understand spoken Swedish, though, and most Swedes don't understand spoken Danish. However, Danes understand spoken Norwegian rather well, as do Swedes.

The explanation for this is (apparently) that Danes have pretty much the same words for things as Norwegians do and we Swedes have pretty much the same pronunciation (to a certain degree).

I'm betting everyone is *more* confused now. :D

I'm Danish and don't usually have trouble communicating with Swedes and Norwegians. I rarely have trouble understanding them (some regional dialects are impossible, though), but occasionally, I come across someone (usually a Swede) who has real troubles following what I'm saying, but I think it's a question of trying it a few times - it's like when you move from Northern England to Australia: People speak a little funny and some words are different, so on your first day you can have some problems when people speak too fast but you'll get used to it in a few weeks. I think both Danes and Swedes understand Norwegian best, and Norwegians understand Swedish best.

On the whole fries issue - Danes used to eat them with 'remoulade', a bright yellow conditioner which is sort of pickles blended with mayo. But these days most places are more internationally minded and serve them with a choice of ketchup or mayo.

One thing that kept being funny after I moved from London to New York was the word 'pissed' (hope I'm not offending anyone) - in American it means angry, in British English it means drunk (or angry). That always made for some nice misunderstandings. I'd think it could be even more fun going the other way: telling your friends about some outrageous wrong that was done to you and having them believe you were drunk at the time, heh.

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Friday, April 8, 2005 8:52 AM

THATWEIRDGIRL

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?

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Sunday, April 10, 2005 5:54 PM

ASTRAGYNIA

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.

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Tuesday, April 12, 2005 11:00 AM

LETOV

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

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Wednesday, April 13, 2005 11:06 AM

EVILFAITH

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.

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Wednesday, April 13, 2005 12:54 PM

JUKO

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?

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Monday, April 18, 2005 1:22 PM

EBONEZER

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/

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