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#17395 02/02/01 05:03 PM
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Carpal Tunnel
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Hey, fellow Kentuckian! Didja know there are three of us signed up now?

Hey, anyone got change for a $200 note? - I want to collect an ice cream


#17396 02/02/01 06:02 PM
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If the gin gives you a cough then try a Van Gogh (it rhymes)

In that pseudo-Dutch Anglicisation poular in the British English part of the world. I've always that that attempting to pronounce the name in Dutch is itself cough-inducing, rather like Llanelli.


#17397 02/03/01 09:58 PM
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jmh Offline
Pooh-Bah
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>rather like Llanelli

Actually, I'm rather good at pronouncing llanelli , it's all in the throatelli



#17398 02/03/01 10:05 PM
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jmh Offline
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and "Van GO" (which is what the vehicle does if the brake's not set

I think that Van Go might have agreed with you but he didn't get chance to express an opinion so the answer in the meantime is in the lap of the gods,

PS In my youth "Van Go" was a pet peeve but now I've grown up I'm not so sure, perhaps I've mellowed!


#17399 02/04/01 05:31 AM
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journeyman
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In reply to:

In my youth "Van Go" was a pet peave but now I've grown up I'm not so sure, perhaps I've mellowed!


I'm not sure I'm peeved by this pronounciation or not. Just know that for most Americans it is what we can manage to spit out. If I pronounce Van Gogh with a soft German/Dutch "ch" at the end I'm looked upon as an elitist snob. So, when in Rome... (Yes, yes, I know, what do I care what they think.....)



#17400 02/04/01 09:00 AM
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if I pronounce Van Gogh with a soft German/Dutch "ch"

It's interesting that you pair the German and Dutch pronunciation of "ch" - they can be very different things indeed. A close friend of mine comes from Scheveningen, a Dutch town whose name was used by the Dutch Resistance to weed out German spies, as native German speakers could almost never get the sound right, pronouncing it in the German manner, rather than the much more throaty Dutch. The sound varies considerably from region to region among the Dutch. When I was first taught the Dutch word "gek" meaning crazy, it was by a Flemish speaker, who pronounced the guttural "g" almost as "h" so, when I tried to say "I am crazy" to some Dutch friends, they thought I was saying "I am gate" - and then kindly schooled me in the tricky art of mastering Dutch gutturalisms.


#17401 02/04/01 09:53 AM
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and then kindly schooled me in the tricky art of mastering Dutch gutturalisms.

Ouch! I bet that hurt, Max. I was in Holland for some weeks a few years ago, and because I'd learned German, I pronounced most of the names in the German manner (with the limitations of my ability to speak German, too). I got some very old-fashioned looks, particularly when I was in the eastern part of the country. I think I was weeded out as a German spy - until they heard my German!



The idiot also known as Capfka ...
#17402 02/05/01 12:30 AM
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journeyman
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they can be very different things indeed

You are so right, Max. My only defense is the time of day I was posting (2:30am by my clock) and the hopped up state of my slightly inebriated brain.


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