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The disucussion started by dgeigh in Q&A, and our subsequent posts on how we say where we're from made me wonder.
How do you state where you're from?
Me, for example, if I'm talking to somebody from outside of Canada, I'll say I'm from Montreal, Canada. When talking with a Canadian, I'll just say I'm from Montreal. I don't need to state my province, they'll know I'm from Quebec because Montreal is a big city.
Just like people from Moose Jaw don't have to say they're from Saskatchewan or people from Toronto say they're from Ontario.
BUT, somebody from Mont St Michel would have to add Quebec because it's a teeny town nobody but its 250 inhabitants know.
Now, I'd assume that people everywhere do it this way...but from being here at AWAD for many years, I've learned that assuming something like that can be totally wrong.
So, how do you say where you're from? To somebody in your country, and to somebody from out of your country?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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To someone from the UK:
…from Eglwsywrw, Pembrokeshire… yeah, Wales <g>
To someone from the Civilised World™:
…from a little village called Eglwsywrw, on the west coast of the UK
To someone from the USA:
…from Wales: well, yah go to Nu Yoik an make a right. It’s where the sun rises.
:)
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Carpal Tunnel
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To someone from the USA:
…from Wales: well, yah go to Nu Yoik an make a right. It’s where the sun rises.
The sun rises in the south?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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ya gotsa ta face North to be properly orientatatated ;)
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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You din't never say that. Or either that or this Nu Yoik you speak of is some little town in northern Quebec, one. Sounds like a First Nations name, but really more like one in southern Arizona, if you ask me. In which case the sun would be rising in the northwest.
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old hand
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old hand
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> So, how do you say where you're from?
Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. And orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet. That's my home :-)
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Carpal Tunnel
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i have it easy, New York.. City... well i live in Queens.
and right now, almost smack dab between the airports.. South of LaG, and North of JFK.
amazingly enough, most people have heard of the place..
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Carpal Tunnel
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I say, "Vermont".
if I need to go beyond that I say, "in the United States".
formerly known as etaoin...
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old hand
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old hand
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> if I need to go beyond that I say, "in the United States".
Yeah, but where is Vermont? - North east coast, right?
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Carpal Tunnel
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I have it easy: I figure that somewhere around 99% of the civilized world have heard of Kentucky Fried Chicken, so I just say Kentucky to foreigners.
To folks within a radius of, say, 600 miles or so I say Louisville and they seem to know where I mean.
To non-___ender Louisvillians I say either that I live in the __ end of town, or that I live next to ___ park.
To ___enders here in town, I just say the name of my street.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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How many syllables, Jackie?
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Carpal Tunnel
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 Four! Loo-ih-VIL-yuns. The second one is really quick, but there. That's about the only time we give the old king his (semi-)correct pronunciation.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Ms. J, how would a civilized (read Louisvillian) person say hook?
but I digress.
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Carpal Tunnel
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See?! Ms J is entirely average in her sylabbification ~ OK, so sometimes there's one more or less than Outlanders might expect but!
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Carpal Tunnel
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how would a civilized (read Louisvillian) person say hook? First--with the same vowel sound as in put*; just one sylABle: huk. We're not far enough south to say hu-uk. That reminds me: I want to find the Food Channel online today and find the Alabama lady's recipe for marinated salmon w/ pineapple salsa; I'd like to fix that tonight. I love to listen to her talk! *Not as in roof, but as in roof. Woops--make that the Food Network, and Maple-Glazed Salmon with Pineapple Salsa.
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Carpal Tunnel
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>Yeah, but where is Vermont? - North east coast, right? good point. amended to say, "the north east of the United States", but not on the coast... 
formerly known as etaoin...
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Carpal Tunnel
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huk.. not far enough south to say hu-uk.
thanks for that. I feared that maybe you followed this dialectal approach:
hy-uo-ook-kuh
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Carpal Tunnel
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Yet, for some reason, everyone on the *planet knows where Chicago is...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Bien, it's cause you're there, of course.
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Carpal Tunnel
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where Chicago is
For a long, long time the universal reaction to hearing one was from Chicago was to mime holding a tommy gun and saying, "Al Capone." Then it was to say, "Michael Jordan." What is it now?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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> "musick"
swiftly followed by "can I have a bed for the night I fly in dude, and which bar shall we meet in?" ;)
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Carpal Tunnel
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To anyone just about: from Virginia( possibly adding USA, depending upon audience)
To Virginians: from DeWitt (sometimes adding: southwest of Richmond)
To DeWittians: from Rocky Run
Interesting question.
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Pooh-Bah
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To Canadians I say "Vancouver", In the States I add "B C" (or British Columbia) as there is a Vancouver, Washington too.
Elsewhere I say "Vancouver, on the west coast of Canada."
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Carpal Tunnel
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To DeWittians: from Rocky Run
Funny, we allus tell people you're from Dim-witty.
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Carpal Tunnel
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I knew you would bring that out, Faldage. But, no, I generally tell people I'm from DeWitt. I pronounce it: Duh WITT; locals pronounce it: DEE witt
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Carpal Tunnel
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...a bed for the night I fly in...
Nightly rentals of futons with wings?
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Pooh-Bah
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I say "I'm from Irchester ... " Slight pause while listening to incredulous reply. Then "Yes, I know it sounds like something out of the Archers!"
Northamptonshire is a black hole to most people. You go straight from Buckinghamshire to Leicestershire.
To the ignorati - almost anyone who doesn't come from Britain - I simply say "I live 60 miles north of London." They lose interest at that point ...
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Carpal Tunnel
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How many syllables in Irchester? And Leicestershire, for that matter?
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Carpal Tunnel
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How many syllables
Wait, wait, don't tell me.
Three each, yeah?
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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Leicestershire as said here in NZ would have 3 syllables and, or course, no "r"s.
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Carpal Tunnel
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My friend formerly of Birmingham (UK) would have said the locals would say it something like Lst-sh, I think. Apparently Brumsians are a-vowel-ic.
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enthusiast
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I have a friend born in Leicester, and he says the name of the town exactly the way we do - Lest(schwa). I've never asked him to pronounce the county's name.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Okay. Please walk me through Worchestershire again.
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Carpal Tunnel
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> walk me through Worchestershire again
It's a big place - how long have we got?
woos-tah-sh'r
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Pooh-Bah
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I struggled with names ending in -cester when I first got here. For weeks we listened to radio announcers talk about some place called "Toaster" and another place called "Bister". Finally I bestirred myself to look at a map and came up with "Towcester" and "Bicester". Aha, the penny dropped. Where -cester is preceded by one syllable, you get Towcester = Toaster and Bicester = Bister, and likewise Worcester, Leicester and the rest. Where there are two syllables preceding the -cester, such as in Cirencester, the -cester is pronounced more or less as spelled = "Cyrensester".
Irchester, on the other hand, has the "h" which guarantees a full pronunciation of the last two syllables regardless of what precedes it.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Irchester, on the other hand, has the "h" which guarantees a full pronunciation of the last two syllables regardless of what precedes it. Don't you mean irregardless, re: Irchester?  Does -cester mean anything in particular? That is, in the same way that -ton so often signifies Something-Town?
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Carpal Tunnel
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You're on it, Jackie! According to the Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary; Hall (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1960), -cester comes from cćster = castle, fort, town.
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Pooh-Bah
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Yeahbut(c) there are variations: caster, | | | Lancaster
cester, | OE, W (<L) | Camp | Doncaster
chester, | | Fortification | Gloucester
caer | | | Caister
| Caerdydd,
| Carleon
-cester, -ster is a suffix
caer- is a prefix
The "-ster" sometimes simplified to "-ter", e.g. Exeter, Uttoxeter
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Carpal Tunnel
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What!? you mean they weren't consistant in use or spelling? and sometimes used a whole latin word as a suffix, and sometimes used just the latin suffix as suffix, and sometimes didn't even use the whole suffix?
where were all the prescriptive scholar? why didn't they set up rules for how to use suffixes?
yeah gads!
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Pooh-Bah
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Sorry to disappoint you so bitterly, oh great one ...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Thanks, Mav', for Worchestershire. I was correct in my thinking! Amazing.
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Carpal Tunnel
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>How do you tell where you're from?
I generally look at my birth certificate.
[ducking and running for cover-e]
TEd
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Yeahbut(c)[sic]
Ceaster, et al. are from the Latin castrum, fort. I had always thought that caer was Gaelic. I guess I could see it coming from the Latin, too.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Does castrum have anything to do with cutting?
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Carpal Tunnel
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anything to do with cutting?
Nor with beavers, neither.
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Carpal Tunnel
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In reply to:
"can I have a bed for the night I fly in dude?"
Hey! I resemble that remark! I already know which bar, tho'.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Back to the original question:
How do I tell where I'm from?
Just check my birth certificate.
TEd
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Pooh-Bah
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I say "I'm from Kentucky," unless I'm talking to Jackie in which case I just say that I'm from Georgetown.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Just check my birth certificate.OK... Ok, we believe you... but just in case, I'll take a look at that...yep it does *say "Earth".
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I generally look at my birth certificate.I believed you the first time!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Well, you obviously don't know what it's like when you get older! Soon I will be in my sixtieth year, which I had hoped would make me a sexygenerian, but so far it's not looking too good.
TEd
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Carpal Tunnel
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xin my sixtieth year, which I had hoped would make me a sexygenerian
Young punk kids these days …
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journeyman
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journeyman
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I have always loved younger men... and I think you look just fine and dandy. So there!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Currently, I amnow younger than *them...
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journeyman
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journeyman
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addict
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If I'm in Algoma (this region of Ontario) I say "I'm fifteen minutes up the Chapleau Highway, a little place called Wharncliffe." If I'm in Southern Ontario, I say "I'm an hour east of Sault Ste Marie". That one usually works in the States, too, as Sault, Michigan and Sault, Ontario are side-by-side, but I'll add "Sault, Canada" in case my Canadian accent isn't showing that day.
If I'm feeling bloody-minded, I'll say: "You got a map of Ontario? Okay, look at the top of it. Okay, now turn it over; I'm on the other side."
I always say "Northern Ontario". I believe we should separate from the Greater Toronto Area.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Most Canadians think they should be separated from the Greater Toronto Area EC
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