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The Public Shaming of England’s First Umbrella User

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Re: The Public Shaming of England’s First Umbrella User

#101

Post by cafard »

mattmanser wrote: post #31
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…

There's pidgin English in Nigeria. When you first hear it you think it's a different language.

The pidgin ("business") English that has official status in New Guinea is a different language, recognizably derived from English but different.

Re: The Public Shaming of England’s First Umbrella User

#103

Post by tacon »

DonaldFisk wrote: post #73
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…

> There's no letter-to-sound correspondence in English. There is, it's just very complicated (hundreds of rules), as well as accent-dependent, and there are lots of exceptions.

Remember phonics for kids learning to read? And "just sound it out"? I try that from time to time on ESL friends, and the looks I get... I think that is the difference between years of passive intelligible input vs. starting from scratch.

Re: The Public Shaming of England’s First Umbrella User

#104

Post by cafard »

Umbrellas are still taboo in some branches of the US military. The local paper a while back had an article about this. The Air Force wouldn't let some officer carry an umbrella to the Pentagon, but it would pay to replace or repair his hearing aids when they were damaged by the soaking.

Re: The Public Shaming of England’s First Umbrella User

#105

Post by colanderman »

arprocter wrote: post #96
nkrisc wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love listening to the English butcher (assimilate?) loanwords. Sure, other English-speaking peoples do as well, but the English in particular do it with gusto. Even McDonalds gets 'filet' mostly right.

It's kind of strange how the US pronounces French words more correctly than us Brits - I assume it's partly due to our historical disdain for those on the other side of The Channel. In the UK it's called a 'fillit of fish' and a car with 2 doors (coupe) is called a 'koop-ay' as if there was an accent on the e

There is an accent on the "e": https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/coup%C3%A9#English

Re: The Public Shaming of England’s First Umbrella User

#106

Post by cafard »

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…

I guess that I could demonstrate my American superiority by going to the Capitol cafeteria to order some "freedom fries"--or has that term been quietly dropped?

Re: The Public Shaming of England’s First Umbrella User

#108

Post by arprocter »

colanderman wrote: post #105
arprocter wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's kind of strange how the US pronounces French words more correctly than us Brits - I assume it's partly due to our historical disdain for those on the other side of The Channel. In the UK it's called a 'fillit of fish' and a car with 2 doors (coupe) is called a 'koop-ay' as if there was an accent on the e

There is an accent on the "e": https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/coup%C3%A9#English

Hah, I guess the accent got lost crossing the Atlantic then

Re: The Public Shaming of England’s First Umbrella User

#109

Post by amyjess »

gergles wrote: post #86
pjc50 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, this got downvoted into the ground by people who aren't familiar with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghoti The point is that the "letters used in the word" are a really bad guide to pronunciation of English. They're not consistent across words or the place of the letter within the word. It's just consistent enough to make people think that might be the case. Then you get placenames like "Loughborough", "Worceste…

Where the letters ARE in the word does have meaning and makes them a better guide to the pronunciation of English than you're letting on, in my opinion. The wikipedia article agrees: > However, linguists have pointed out that the location of the letters in the constructed word is inconsistent with how those letters would be pronounced in those placements, and that the expected pronunciation in English would sound lik…

See, for example, Mark Rosenfelder's attempt to algorithmically describe the pronunciation of English [0]. In his introduction, he takes ghoti to task:

> Whenever the subject comes up, someone is sure to bring up all the words in -ough, or George Bernard Shaw's ghoti-- a word which illustrates only Shaw's wiseacre ignorance. English spelling may be a nightmare, but it does have rules, and by those rules, ghoti can only be pronounced like goatee.

[0] http://zompist.com/spell.html

Re: The Public Shaming of England’s First Umbrella User

#110

Post by lsmarigo »

Declanomous wrote: post #84
NathanKP wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same crowded street problem happens where I live in NYC, but it generally works out as people get into a rhythm of either raising their umbrella up over the level of the other person's umbrella or lowering it down below the level of the other person's umbrella. But then in NYC you develop a much closer "personal bubble" when you have to endure being crammed onto the train like a sardine during rush hour, so in co…

Screw the personal bubble, I'd prefer it if short people would avoid stabbing me in the head with the ribs of their umbrella. If you can't lift your umbrella high enough to go over the tallest person in the crowd, you should buy a rain coat instead.

yes agreed everyone should cater to you specifically in life.
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