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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
eta, come here a minute...
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Anna, 'scuse my putting this here, but I thought it was a funny story, though not worth starting a new thread for:
I'd had some library books that were way overdue. One of those things that the longer you put it off, the harder it gets to go ahead and do what you're supposed to, you know? Well, yesterday morning our dog sounded off with her big deep "something's here that doesn't belong" barks. I looked out front, and there in the driveway was this huge orange truck: the size of those big utility company trucks with the ladders on the sides. Well, this truck had 'Library' on it, and my first thought was, "My God, they've come after the books"! It turned out to be somebody taking a minute to drop off something for my husband, but--in the afternoon, I returned those books.
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
"My God, they've come after the books"!book'em, Dano. 
formerly known as etaoin...
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661 |
Jackie, why do I get the *feeling that there isn't a long waiting list for the books you have out on loan... unless, of course, you're spreading thier reputation around? 
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Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 176
member
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member
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 176 |
I hate to admit it, but I happened to see a few minutes of Madonna’s Truth or Dare movie, video – whatever it was – the other day. During part of the song she was singing, she began to speak. Someone told me she was tying to affect a British accent now, but I was unprepared for the horrible sounds that were coming out of her mouth. I couldn’t get to the mute button fast enough.
British accents are not something on which I am an expert (or even remotely and expert), but I have watched a lot of British comedies over the years, and many other TV programs and movies made in Britain, and I’m fairly familiar with many of the British accents represented in such media, such as the Queen’s English, rural accents, Cockney rhyming slang, Northern, Southern, etc. Madonna’s affectation, however, seemed to me to smack entirely too much of effort. Her over dramatization of the diphthongs, especially, did not sound like a true accent, but lacked the subtleties, and overemphasized the obvious: an accent that when compared with a true accent, would sound harsh and tawdry. (Tawdry? Madonna? That’s so unlike her.)
Also, when she sang, her accent disappeared. Granted, it’s harder to hear an accent when a person is singing, but one can hear it if one listens closely. Her singing voice/accent sounded like it always has in the past.
I got the feeling that her “accent” was not really the result of spending time surrounded by people who spoke with an accent, but, once again, just something to try to draw attention to herself.
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Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
surrounded by people who spoke with an accent???!!! Whaddaya mean?? *We don't speak with an accent!  She's obviously trying to *lose her accent!  It just hasn't quite slipped off the tip of her tongue yet.
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Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 176
member
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member
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 176 |
That was an inaccurate choice of words on my part, dxb: my apologies to our brethren and sistren across the pond, and to all the ships at sea.
By the way, the general public here in the U.S. took a vote and decided they’d be glad to sell Madonna to the lowest bidding country “as is”, no warranty expressed or implied, or to make an even trade for her for a worn-out, old –
No, I’d better not.
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
I can forgive you for anything, absolutely anything!
Anyway, you *were accurate, we all speak with an accent of some kind.
M-W, she say:
Accent: noun: a way of speaking typical of a particular group of people and especially of the natives or residents of a region.
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Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 67
journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 67 |
I remembered hearing a story like this once (I'm not sure if this is the exact same one, but same concept anyway) - a different way of acquiring an accent...but a bit extreme, no? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3235934.stm8-)
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Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 176
member
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Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 176 |
I meant 'inaccurate' in that I failed to acknowledge that more than one accent was involved: Madonna’s accent, and the accents by which she was/is surrounded. I made it seem like Madonna’s accent was not an accent, which could then be construed that it was my intention to imply that Madonna’s manner of speaking was the standard manner of speaking in the English speaking world, and any other accents were non-standard – not at all what I had intended, of course!
I kind of feel like I faux pas-ed in crowded elevator –
or lift.
Bad, bad me!
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Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154 |
I had a patient who was born in France, moved to England at age 5 and 68 years later had the local English accent and spoke very little French. After her stroke she spoke fluent French and no English. At age 73 she started English lessons and her husband of 50+ years started taking French lessons. The strong French accent never went away.
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