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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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Sorry for back-tracking a few days, but I've just returned from 4 days holiday. [As an aside, Australia virtually stops for a horse race (The Melbourne Cup), which was yesterday (Tuesday). Aus$70 million (~US$35m, and heading south?!) plunged on the ONE race. Melbourne residents get a public holiday, and many people take the Monday as well for that great Aussie tradition "the long weekend".]
why do so many Americans ... pronounce herb and herbal as 'erb and 'erbal.
Somewhere in the last few weeks - and my fruitless search of this board suggests it wasn't here - I read a funny piece about a visitor to the US who was offered "urban cheese roll". She was expecting some kind of metropolitan answer to country cooking.
Many seem to say yuman instead of human.
I, too, have heard people pronounce human as yuman, although I can't recall whether it's a national thing. More common, though, is the proununciation of the name Hugh as Yoo rather than (my preference of) Hyoo. Tends to lead to some ridiculous misunderstandings along these lines:
"Who did that? Was it Hugh?"
"No, it wasn't me, it was Hugh!"
"Was it you, Hugh?"
Have others experienced this Hugh/You pronunciation and is it confined to Americans?
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Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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my profile isn't very helpful either. So I have changed it. It has now become the window to my soul. :)
Avy - is it true that you can sum up the entirety of your soul in the single word, "Female"? Does that word and that condition offer an explanation for all and everything? Is this a declaration or an excuse? Or are you just being gnomic? and, Jackie, of course mav wasn't propositioning me - the Welsh are far more notable as shepherds that as mariners.  
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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You are so right, Anna - Guys and Dolls: the best musical of all time Me - I've always wanted a flat that would flatten the Taj Mahal, but I've never had "all kinds of dough!" - Maybe I'll just develop a cold!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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>are you propositioning (did I just verb a noun?)...
not to worry, Jackie. proposition was verbed (in the U.S.) way back in 1924 -- looks like it first turned up in pulp fiction!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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more notable as shepherds that as marinersMah! he's making eyes at me  That reminds me of oe of the local 'getting own back on the Saes' type jokes: A metallic silver Jaguar glides to a halt soon after coming off the Fishguard ferry from Ireland, and a tweed-capped English gent leans out to speak to a passing shepherd. "Aigh s-hay, Dai, could you tell me the correct road towards Brecon?"The local looks unimpressed: "How did you know my name was Dai, then?""Oh, just a lucky guess" says the Englishman, looking ineffably smug. "If you're so lucky you can guess your way to f*-%£"ng Brecon!" replies Gwillym. PS: Saesneg = Saxon = English this Hugh/You pronunciation Wales has Huw, with a suitably poetic ring that rhymes with pew as in chapel. But there is a perverse local tendency to articulate the name of the ordinal as HAYCHE, which I loathe with a passion...!
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#9247
11/09/2000 12:19 AM
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Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 724
old hand
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old hand
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>is it true that you can sum up the entirety of your soul in the single word, "Female"? Does that
>word and that condition offer an explanation for all and everything? Is this a declaration or an
>excuse? Or are you just being gnomic?
None of the above. It was supposed to be a joke - a cheek that has in it a tongue? :)
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#9248
11/09/2000 12:29 AM
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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>a cheek that has in it a tongue? :)
I have one of those too, Avy. It gets me into a lot of trouble!
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old hand
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old hand
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... When I shove my tongue in my cheek, I invariably bite it!
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old hand
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One that I just remembered, and like a lot, is 'copyleft'. I know it probably isn't in dictionaries, but I love the concept. As far as I am aware it is pretty much an Internet invention, and refers to the notion of asserting ones rights over a piece of text (or software code) without charging for it - in order to ensure that it can, and will, always be distributed for free.
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#9251
11/11/2000 12:13 PM
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Posts: 444
addict
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<Have others experienced this Hugh/You pronunciation and is it confined to Americans?>
Read The Go-Between.
I'd never come across it before reading this book and I was perplexed for quite some time as to what was going on!
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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Read The Go-Between.
Thanks Bridget, I think I'll follow your advice. I enjoyed it as a school literature text at the age of 14. Bits of it are now floating back to me - Leo, Mercury, the soaring temperatures, belladonna - but much of it, including the Hugh/You reference, is lost in time.
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addict
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..and now I'm going to have to re-read it too, because I don't remember anything about belladonna or Mercury. (I hope I didn't recommend the wrong book....)
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#9254
11/15/2000 12:37 PM
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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belladonna ...Definitely the right book Bridget. The beautiful but deadly female is his leitmotif in this (and all the other versions of the same story he also wrote!)
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addict
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belladonna...
quoted, by Ambrose Bierce I believe, as a fine example of the similarity of the English and Italian languages!
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#9256
11/20/2000 11:56 AM
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Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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PS: Saesneg = Saxon = English Thanks for the P.S., mav. I have a Canadian friend of Scots origin who invariably refers to the English as "sassenacks" (I think... never saw him write it, phonetic approximation here) and now, thanks to you, I know the Gaelic origin. This friend also sports a tee-shirt that reads "The only reason Scotland doesn't float off to the North Sea is because* England sucks." --- * bad grammar, I know: just quoting
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#9257
11/20/2000 12:03 PM
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Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I never read The Go-Between, though I think I saw the movie! Thanks for the reference, Bridget.
Yes, certain Yankees (i.e. those who live in the north of this great soon-to-be-ungoverned-if-we-don't-watch-our-collective R'ses country) say You for Hugh, Yuman for human, Yumid for humid.
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#9258
11/20/2000 10:25 PM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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anna, this word is in my backlog of potential wwftd[s]; here is what I have on sassenach:
("s&s@n&x) [repr. Gael. Sasunnach adj. English, n. an Englishman = Irish Sasanach, Sacsanach, f. Sasan-, repr. the Teut. ethnic name Saxon. (Cf. Gael. Sasunn, Irish Sasana, Sacsain, England.)]
The name given by the Gaelic inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland to their ‘Saxon’ or English neighbours. (Sometimes attributed to Welsh speakers: the corresponding Welsh form is Seisnig.)
All loved their McClan, save a Sassenach brute, Who came to the Highlands to fish and to shoot. - 1869 W. S. Gilbert (Bab Ball. 187)
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