The Public Shaming of England’s First Umbrella User

Post by BjoernKW » Thu, Jul 28, 2016, 9:59 AM UTC

raverbashing wrote: post #39

BjoernKW wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no letter-to-sound correspondence in English. English probably - at least compared with other European language - is one of the most irregular languages in terms of pronunciation: http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/english1.html This is simply due to the language having been heavily influenced by a host of other - quite different - languages over the centuries, Old Norse and French in particular. There's also the…

English was not "influenced" by Old Norse, rather, they are siblings

Post by philbarr » Thu, Jul 28, 2016, 10:07 AM UTC

Accacin wrote: post #22

oblio wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> At least the English tolerate all kinds of foreign mangling pretty well. That's because they mangle their own language awfully enough. I'm not a native English speaker but I've heard quite a few native Englishmen and their accents are horrible. Received Pronunciation is obviously nice to hear and quite clear, but those local accents... oh my! I'm not saying that my accent is any better, but at least I try to make m…

Some of those "horrible" accents are some of the oldest accents in the UK.

Post by timeout » Thu, Jul 28, 2016, 10:24 AM UTC

Synaesthesia wrote: post #3

"But the famous ‘insularity’ and ‘xenophobia’ of the English is far stronger in the working class than in the bourgeoisie. In all countries the poor are more national than the rich, but the English working class are outstanding in their abhorrence of foreign habits. Even when they are obliged to live abroad for years they refuse either to accustom themselves to foreign food or to learn foreign languages. Nearly every…

Post by justincormack » Thu, Jul 28, 2016, 10:34 AM UTC

omegaham wrote: post #5

Synaesthesia wrote: post #3

"But the famous ‘insularity’ and ‘xenophobia’ of the English is far stronger in the working class than in the bourgeoisie. In all countries the poor are more national than the rich, but the English working class are outstanding in their abhorrence of foreign habits. Even when they are obliged to live abroad for years they refuse either to accustom themselves to foreign food or to learn foreign languages. Nearly every…

Reminds me of the Hornblower books, where Hornblower has to pronounce French cities and landmarks with the mangled British pronunciation rather than saying them in the French. The books repeatedly make a point of him doing it, along with Hornblower's annoyance at having to do so.

Post by rtpg » Thu, Jul 28, 2016, 10:46 AM UTC

CalRobert wrote: post #26

f_allwein wrote: post #8

"In the minds of many Brits, umbrella usage was symptomatic of a weakness of character, particularly among men. Few people ever dared to be seen with such a detestable, effeminate contraption. To carry an umbrella when it rained was to incur public ridicule." This sentiment is very much alive today. I'm always surprised how I seem to be the only person carrying an umbrella in London when it rains. Especially bankers…

In Dublin, I think it's considered, if not rude, at least not the height of courtesy, to use an umbrella in dense areas where you will be bumping in to people and essentially pushing your water on to them. However, my feeling is that the real lunacy here is having very narrow pavements (sidewalks) carrying dozens or hundreds of people while having streets, which might be carrying ten or twenty people along the same s…