Solar liseuse charger (or: "Enjoyable descent into unutterable silliness.")

[Cthulhu]

Sublimating crystalline water? No wonder Paris is so romantic; everyone is so freaked out by the misty vapor that they choose to fall in love with reckless abandon in their last moments of life.

As for Shoggoths at the Shedd, I told you giving you the power to dream was a bad idea. Those fish-shaped chicken tenders, beyond being tres ironique, are a fabulous idea.

@ Harry T: We indeed say Van-Go, and it seems that only recently have peeps wised to the V-8 goodness of Dvorzhyak. Even a girl on whom I had a crush and shared the same piano teacher pronounced her family name "Divorack."

@ Slayda: We fought a war to avoid paying taxes. Language had little to do with it.

[vivaldirules]

Sublimating crystalline water in Paris? Think lys au jus.

[slayda]

Originally Posted by Cthulhu

@ Slayda: We fought a war to avoid paying taxes. Language had little to do with it.

Not even sure I can speak American English. My first language is Southern.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Cthulhu

Sublimating crystalline water? No wonder Paris is so romantic; everyone is so freaked out by the misty vapor that they choose to fall in love with reckless abandon in their last moments of life.

yep... Boris Vian said (i'm paraphrasing rather loosely) that "nothing is as perfidious as water, therefore [those who have any sense] will take precautions never to drink it pure..."

"rien n'est aussi perfide que l'eau ; aussi, nos indigènes [de St.-Germain-des-Près, ndlr.], pénétrés de cet axiome, se gardent bien de la consommer pure."
--Boris Vian, "Manuel de St.-Germain-des-Près"

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by slayda

Not even sure I can speak American English. My first language is Southern.

Texan for me, naturally.

[Taylor514ce]

"I never drink water. Fish do nasty things in it." W.C. Fields.

Actually, I'm pretty sure that's a paraphrase.

[slayda]

Originally Posted by NatCh

Texan for me, naturally.

Close enough, NatCh. Actually I think that is just a dialect of Southern with some Spanish thrown in for seasoning.

[NatCh]

That's 'cause, like the rest of them there Yoo-Nited Statesers, you cain't hear the difference 'tween a drawl and a twang.

My wife and I laugh at "Law & Order" every time they have a character on there who's supposed to be from Texas: invariably he'll be dressed like a drug-store cowboy (translation: flashy, usually expensive, stereotypical 'cowboy' clothes that no actual Texan would ever wear), and sounds like he's from Atlanta.

It's very distinctive when you're used to the accent, just like y'all in Alabama can easily tell when someone "ain't from around here."

[Taylor514ce]

I was Born in Texas, raised elsewhere in the "midwest", have lived on both US coasts, in Montreal, Europe, and Asia (very briefly). I have no accent. I am the norm from which everyone else deviates.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by Taylor514ce

I am the norm from which everyone else deviates.

That is a very scary thought, Taylor.

[NatCh]

Everybody has an accent, oh unutterably silly one, at least everyone else does.

When I was living out in California (or as I like to call it: The Left Coast of Darkness), I would regularly get the comments, usually within a few minutes of each other: "Oh, you're from Texas? You don't have much of an accent." and, "Oh, you're from Texas? I can tell by the accent."

I find as I get older, my accent actually gets more pronounced, and my speech patterns get more colloquial. Some things you just can't say without the accompanying accent, I suppose.

The funny thing is, I was born, and spent the first two years of my life in the hills of East Tennessee, then moved to Houston for the rest of my "growing up" years. According to my mother, I was saying complete sentences by about 18 months, so by rights, I ought to have an East Tennessee accent. But I was raised by rampaging English teachers, so I guess the regular pronunciation-related beatings took, as I really don't have all that much of an accent, though I can adopt several that feel pretty natural more or less at will.

[Taylor514ce]

Nope, no accent, or to express it another way, my pronunciation is as close to dictionary-primary as it gets.

I even pronounce "our" as it should be (sounds like "hour") instead of like "are". The way I pronounce "bedroom" irritates my children for some reason. Hint: there is no "j" in "bedroom".

What's odd is that I play guitar (thus my forum handle) and sing. Certain songs I just can't bring myself to do because of the mangled language. I "un-chew" all the "you's" - but for example, Garth Brooks "The Dance". For the longest time, I wondered who Ida was and why she had to miss the dance.

I don't even know how you'd write that line:

I'd'a had to miss the dance, meaning "I would have had to miss the dance. <shudder>

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by Taylor514ce

I even pronounce "our" as it should be (sounds like "hour") instead of like "are". The way I pronounce "bedroom" irritates my children for some reason. Hint: there is no "j" in "bedroom".

I'm with you on "our" but I'm totally lost on "bedroom" -- where the blazes would you put a "j" sound?

Originally Posted by Taylor514ce

I'd'a had to miss the dance, meaning "I would have had to have missed" the dance. <shudder>

I think that would be written "I'd've had to miss the dance." But you're right, it's not pronounced that way, it wouldn't fit with the meter, for one thing.

I too am peevey about the "chew" thing, but mostly I guess that I don't think to try to apply my own efforts at correct pronunciation to other folks' speech.

[Taylor514ce]

Everyone around me says "Beh-jroom". I say "bed room". I simply cannot listen to some people. I start to laugh whenever I hear the currently popular female country singer who sounds like a duck quacking whenever she tries to make the "I" sound.

"Wh[quack] dohn chew stay..."

And I become physically ill whenever I hear Reba. I think the US military should weaponize her voice.

When I learned French in school, I was in a very small farm town... the books we used were British. So to get the French pronunciation correct, you had to read the phonetics in a phony English accent. It was great fun.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by NatCh

But I was raised by rampaging English teachers, so I guess the regular pronunciation-related beatings took, as I really don't have all that much of an accent, though I can adopt several that feel pretty natural more or less at will.

heh, i also was raised by a teacher (primary school), so there was no latitude whatsoever for mis-pronunciation when i was growing up. when i was 2, my mother would impress her friends by asking me "what's that fish eating the algae in the aquarium ?" and i would reply (correctly enunciating) "it's a plecostomus." (i did have to check wikipedia just now to find how to spell it correctly !).

i have always been amazed by people who can imitate accents ; i have no talent for that. however i have little patience for people who speak lazily or badly (like in Taylor's quacking example, although i cannot for the life of me imagine what that could really sound like).

in french, there are the words "dénoter" (to denote) and "détonner" (to be out of tune, to jar). people are *always* saying "détonner" when they mean "dénoter" and it drives me crazy. especially since the meaning seems so obvious to me in each case, if you just think about it : "dénoter" like a note you would make to indicate something, and "détonner" like the "tone" of a sound or a color, which you are going against.

using "mythical" when you mean "legendary" also drives me crazy.

my friends often want to give me a good smack.