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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Lost in one of the threads is a bit about Cockney's and Heagles, and Howls and 'awks.
In part of Appalachia, (US), Its becomes Hits, but only when Its is first word of the sentence, or some other very special circumstances. Which brings me to the one feature of "standardised" US accent that grates like a verbal fingernail across the blackboard of my soul - why do so many Americans, almost all whom I have heard, pronounce herd and herbal as 'erb and 'erbal. Many seem to say yuman instead of human. Does anybody know how this speech pattern developed? P.S. for any who are not familiar with "blackboard" think "chalkboard." I was going to modify it in the body of my post, but then I recalled my encouragement to Avy to celebrate his own unique English, and so decided not to. 
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Carpal Tunnel
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>grates like a verbal fingernail across the blackboard of my soul
what are we to use for a simile when chalk/fingernails on black/chalkboards are totally replaced by whiteboards and markers?
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
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>what are we to use for a simile when chalk/fingernails on black/chalkboards are totally replaced by whiteboards and markers?
oh, tsuwm, it will be a PC expression, as those who are unfamiliar with it, decide it is racial.
A town on Long Island (lawng guylan) recently had to change the name of Guinnie Woods Road, since some 2nd and 3rd generation Italians (new to the area) thought it to be a slur on Italians.
It was named for a woods that provide fine hunting a 100 years ago for guinne fowl– a variety of chicken!
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Carpal Tunnel
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helen, we'll give that one today's Niggardly Award.
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member
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member
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pronounce herd and herbal as 'erb and 'erbal
Do you pronounce the H in herb? I can remember being scolded as a child because I said herb like it was spelled. Then when I met a man named Herb and pronounced his name Erb everyone looked at me as if I were insane. It was quite a challenge for little 6 year old me to figure out why it was ok to call pronounce a man's name different than the plant's name with the same spelling. I don't know why it is pronounced differently on opposing sides of the pond, but my dictionary says
herb \'erb. US also & Brit usu 'herb\
so obviously Websters' acknowleges the distinction between a British herb and an American erb...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Max, Sweetie,
You must not have "herd" any Americans from my part of the
country. I've never heard the word 'herd' spoken as anything but a homonym of heard. I will say that I have heard 'erbal, but herbal too. I have never heard anyone
say yuman.
And, we had blackboards in our classrooms years ago. Now they seem to be green. Usually, the term chalkboard was used to indicate a freestanding one, maybe on an easel.
Er--Helen, my Uncle Bennett had guinea fowl on his farm, so my experience tells me they are not chickens. They never would let me catch them, the little beggars!
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Joined: Apr 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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[jackie, I think "herd" was a typo]
It's a little known fact that, in the early days of TV, a homespun midwestern comedian named Herb Shriner was responsible for changing the pronunciation of 'herb'. Herb made many appearances on the old Ed Sullivan show, the most popular TV show in America back in the 50s. Herb used to like to tell tales about his folks back in Indiana and often peppered his stories with tastes of his mother's and sisters' kitchen talk. He would often use the expression "erbs and spices" to avoid confusion with his own given name.
(hi jazz ;-)
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Carpal Tunnel
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Thanks, tsuwm for that jazzy explanation, and yes, of course, "herd" was a typo. It just seems odd that herb (and derivatives thereof) and human should for some reason be pronounced differently from other words starting with "h."
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Fascinating twu,
You really are loosening up these days - is it medication? Take several doses of meaningless drivel daily and you too can sound like Jazzoctopus.
We did discuss the re-Franglicisation of words in the mists of time. Another usage that non-US English speakers find strange is fillet (feel-lay) rather than our fil-let. There was a rather sensible proposal that if a word has been absorbed into the English language for more than 100 years, then it's just tough - we pronounce it our way. If it's a new word then we'll use the pronunciation from the country which donated the word. (Anyway isn't l'erbe something to do with grass, not herbs?)
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old hand
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old hand
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I must say, tsuwm, quite comendable, but don't you go taking my reputation. You can have your worthless words, but you can't have my piffle.
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