The Vent and Rant Thread - Page 543

Sparrow · 03-02-2010, 02:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

hiccough is hic-cup, just fancier. lough is lew. I didn't know that one until my late 30s and moving to the northwest. there were many signs announcing "such and such lough". I had to ask my uncle who had been resident for about 20 years about both the pronunciation and meaning... it is an area of seawater that is all but landlocked. it receives quite often fresh water as well, but will always have too much seawater to make it potable. the advantage to these that are navigable is that they make dandy sheltered waterways... sheltered from violent water activity that is

In the UK lough is pronounced similarly to loch.

People's surnames can be a nightmare.
I recently read 'Miss Marjoribanks' by Margaret Oliphant and pronounced the name as written.
There was a radio adaptation on over the weekend and they pronounced Marchbanks.

And Dorothy L. Sayers liked her surname pronounced 'sez' apparently.

If you want your name pronounced a certain way, for goodness sake spell it a certain way!!

pdurrant · 03-02-2010, 02:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Beautiful! As bad as I am with foreign tongues, I thank whatever powers that be that I don't have to face the daunting task of having to learn English from scratch!

To make up for it, English grammar is, I am told, simple compared to most languages.

zelda_pinwheel · 03-02-2010, 02:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sparrow

In the UK lough is pronounced similarly to loch.

People's surnames can be a nightmare.
I recently read 'Miss Marjoribanks' by Margaret Oliphant and pronounced the name as written.
There was a radio adaptation on over the weekend and they pronounced Marchbanks.

And Dorothy L. Sayers liked her surname pronounced 'sez' apparently.

If you want your name pronounced a certain way, for goodness sake spell it a certain way!!

heheh !

i won't tell you how my name is spelled / pronounced. it's actually very very easy, but... you have to know the phonetic rules of hungarian. (actually, any slavic language will make it easy for you). anglophones invariably get it wrong. but i would never have guessed how to pronounce "marjoribanks" and i didn't know about miss sez either.

english place names are as bad as surnames (and the same word can frequently be both). i still remember the day i realised bertie wooster's last name was probably a joke on one of those upper-class names like "worcester" (which apparently is pronounced the way wooster is spelled, if i've understood correctly...

). it was the forehead slap heard round the world.

zelda_pinwheel · 03-02-2010, 02:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdurrant

To make up for it, English grammar is, I am told, simple compared to most languages.

i think it's a bit simpler than french in some ways, and (what i know of) german, too. so i don't find that idea too surprising.

pdurrant · 03-02-2010, 02:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sparrow

People's surnames can be a nightmare.

Place names too. My local favourites are

Happisburgh

Spoiler:

Costessey

Spoiler:

and Wymondham

Spoiler:

And it still amuses me that the Taxi driver in Denver, CO, didn't know where the Warwick Hotel was – until I stopped pronouncing it like the English city!

zelda_pinwheel · 03-02-2010, 02:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Place names too. My local favourites are

Happisburgh

Spoiler:

Costessey

Spoiler:

and Wymondham

Spoiler:

And it still amuses me that the Taxi driver in Denver, CO, didn't know where the Warwick Hotel was – until I stopped pronouncing it like the English city!

it baffles me how you get that from "happisburgh" but okay. Wymondham is worse than Worcestshire !

(i used to know a really good one but i forgot it. written down it was something like 6 syllables, but only 2 were pronounced.

)

how is the english city of warwick pronounced ? warrick ?

Sparrow · 03-02-2010, 02:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

english place names are as bad as surnames (and the same word can frequently be both). i still remember the day i realised bertie wooster's last name was probably a joke on one of those upper-class names like "worcester" (which apparently is pronounced the way wooster is spelled, if i've understood correctly...

). it was the forehead slap heard round the world.

Yep, but the U.S. can be just as bad - I spent the first twenty years of my life pronouncing Arkansas the way it is written.

zelda_pinwheel · 03-02-2010, 02:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sparrow

Yep, but the U.S. can be just as bad - I spent the first twenty years of my life pronouncing Arkansas the way it is written.

oh, i won't deny that. i mean, it's more anglophones, right ? in theory, anyway.

Sparrow · 03-02-2010, 02:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

how is the english city of warwick pronounced ? warrick ?

Yes - by george, she's got it!!

zelda_pinwheel · 03-02-2010, 02:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sparrow

Yes - by george, she's got it!!

ooh !! oooh !! what do i win ??? must be something GREAT, right ?

Sparrow · 03-02-2010, 02:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

ooh !! oooh !! what do i win ??? must be something GREAT, right ?

You get to go to the biggest social event of the season, and be passed off as a duchess - no-one must know you're actually a Victorian flower-seller.

Fledchen · 03-02-2010, 02:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I wish I had a nickle for every time I've seen "definitely" spelled "d-e-f-i-n-a-t-e-l-y"!

Def - i - NATE - ly?

With the magic of spellcheck, people frequently type "defiantly" instead.

I see this in newspapers! Are there no copy editors anymore?

zelda_pinwheel · 03-02-2010, 02:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sparrow

You get to go to the biggest social event of the season, and be passed off as a duchess - no-one must know you're actually a Victorian flower-seller.

yes, all right, but will i get to marry the professor, after that ?

badgoodDeb · 03-02-2010, 02:47 PM

If an S and an I and an O and a U
With an X at the end spell "SUE" --
And an E and a Y and an E spell "I",
Pray, what is a speller to do???

Then if also an S and an I and a G
With an H,E,D spell "SIDE",
There is nothing on earth for a speller to do
But go and commit SIOUX-EYE-SIGHED.

Favorite for the last 40 years or so!

Fledchen · 03-02-2010, 02:50 PM

Oh, right, this is what I was originally going to post before I got sidetracked:

Today, I discovered that SD cards do not like being run over by cars

I got tangled up in my headphone cord while crossing the street, and my MP3 player hit the ground with enough force to eject the SD card. I was able to retrieve the MP3 player before the next car came, but had to wait for 5 cars to run over the SD card before I could retrieve it. It looks just fine, but nothing will recognize it. I have other cards, and I can replace the content that was on the card, but it will take me hours to get it organized the way it was! I have backups of the files but not of the way in which they were organized on the card.

The only file for which I do not have a backup was an audiobook in which I had about 45 minutes remaining. The suspense is killing me!

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03-02-2010, 02:47 PM	#8144
badgoodDeb Grand Sorcerer Posts: 8,555 Karma: 64462893 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Harrisburg outskirts Device: Palms, K1-4s, iPads, iPhones, KV, KO1	If an S and an I and an O and a U With an X at the end spell "SUE" -- And an E and a Y and an E spell "I", Pray, what is a speller to do??? Then if also an S and an I and a G With an H,E,D spell "SIDE", There is nothing on earth for a speller to do But go and commit SIOUX-EYE-SIGHED. Favorite for the last 40 years or so!

03-02-2010, 02:50 PM	#8145
Fledchen Guru Posts: 663 Karma: 84658 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Minnesota, USA Device: PB360+, Sony950, VR Stream, iPod Touch, iPad	Oh, right, this is what I was originally going to post before I got sidetracked: Today, I discovered that SD cards do not like being run over by cars I got tangled up in my headphone cord while crossing the street, and my MP3 player hit the ground with enough force to eject the SD card. I was able to retrieve the MP3 player before the next car came, but had to wait for 5 cars to run over the SD card before I could retrieve it. It looks just fine, but nothing will recognize it. I have other cards, and I can replace the content that was on the card, but it will take me hours to get it organized the way it was! I have backups of the files but not of the way in which they were organized on the card. The only file for which I do not have a backup was an audiobook in which I had about 45 minutes remaining. The suspense is killing me!

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