261–270 of 275 posts
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It isn't striking for speakers of German nor for speakers of Romance languages. These are the vowels that these letters originally stood for in the Latin alphabet, and they still do in many languages. But English obviously isn't one of them.
I’m a native speaker of both English and German and it was striking to me when I was learning to write.
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This is cute, up until the point where it starts reaching and makes changes which are important for the sound of the language. The e in many words isn't silent, it's a modifier. Kit and kite are different words. "th", "z", "w", and "v" are all really different sounds. While certain accents (or children) do occasionally conflate them, in basically every case, it's technically incorrect. Zebra, Webra, Vebra, and Thebra…
Because 'Kite' should be spelt 'Kait'. The English I/E/AI vowel sounds are a massive mess. I realised this only after starting lessons in Japanese, where the vowel sounds are almost entirely regular. Ke always sounds like Kelp, and Ki always sounds like Kit and Ka will always sound like Kart.
But really, it should be kite because that's what it is :)
This what frustrates me about grammar fanatics. Clearly language changes and evolves, and grammar is defined as standard usage, not some rule formed 50 years ago that no one follows in common speech. In short, grammar is fundamentally descriptive, not proscriptive.
It's both. Language changes, but at any particular time, there's some consensus about what's correct and incorrect. You can ignore it if you want, but people will think you're ignorant.
For example, in linguistics studies AAVE (or “Ebonics”) is considered like other dialects to basically have a grammar of its own that is internally consistent, and it is the first English of a fairly large population.
That’s before we get into which English is the “correct” one; there’s British English, American English, etc. for the US and CANZUK, but there’s also Indian English, Singaporean English, Euro English, etc.
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Huh, glad that is real, and not just my ears. I’m an American, recently back from 2 years in Toronto, and the Toronto accent is just not the stereotypical Canadian accent that I imagined I’d hear. Far less Minnesota, a bit more New Jersey.
Go to Calgary for that stereotypical Minnesota - with a bit of Texas for fun.
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It's both. Language changes, but at any particular time, there's some consensus about what's correct and incorrect. You can ignore it if you want, but people will think you're ignorant.
There may be an elite consensus, but more often than not that can differ from what is actually being spoken. For example, in linguistics studies AAVE (or “Ebonics”) is considered like other dialects to basically have a grammar of its own that is internally consistent, and it is the first English of a fairly large population. That’s before we get into which English is the “correct” one; there’s British English, Americ…
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> I still have many English words I know (and use correctly in writing) that I'm not sure how to pronounce. Do you mind sharing some examples? As a native English speaker, I'm so curious! Do you think that if you heard them without seeing the word you'd realize what the written form was? Or might there be words where you know the written form and the spoken form and don't realize it's the same word?
For me it was "awry" and "lichen". I didn't even recognize "lichen" when I first heard it spoken (on an episode of QI). There are quite a few others that tripped me up over the years like "cleanliness". In general, "Chaos" aka "Dearest creature in creation" shows this problem (I would still struggle to read it even if I know every word there): https://pages.hep.wisc.edu/~jnb/charivarius.html
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> especially its very large vocabulary Vocabulary isn't a problem IMHO. The fact that I have to learn each word twice (how to write it and how to say it) - is. I was learning German for 3 years at school. After the first month I had no problems with pronunciation. Now after almost 2 decades of not using it I can still pronounce any German word I see. I've been learning English since I was 10 or so. I'm 36 now. I stil…
So, the good news is that lots of native English speakers don't know how to pronounce things either. Of course I know how to say all the words I speak frequently and hear others using - but if I use a word I haven't heard there's a risk I'll say it wrong. You just learn not to worry about it (the biggest problem really is when you unconsciously try to correct somebody else and realise you've got not basis for your as…
I don't know why but a lot of people my age do worry about it and get very uncomfortable guessing at a pronunciation of a new word. Doubly so for names. I guess it's an insecurity thing? I have no problem just going for it, with a little question tagged on or just an upward tone if I'm really unsure.
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And yet, people experience changes in accents during their own life; they hear recordings from themselves from the 70's and think "did I really talk like that?". One thing though, take older movies with a grain of salt; in old movies, actors were taught a specific accent (called the Mid-Atlantic accent, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_accent ).
It's a sequence of shifts. I guess, significant numbers of people get to experience maybe one shift in a chain. Modern example. Router. Two forms, the British one rooter is being deprecated strongly for rowter. Etc is etcetera. Now, its etsy.
I can't say I've ever heard that, anywhere.
Definitely have heard a lot of "esetra" / "esedra", though.
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It's a sequence of shifts. I guess, significant numbers of people get to experience maybe one shift in a chain. Modern example. Router. Two forms, the British one rooter is being deprecated strongly for rowter. Etc is etcetera. Now, its etsy.
> Etc is etcetera. Now, its etsy. I can't say I've ever heard that, anywhere. Definitely have heard a lot of "esetra" / "esedra", though.
/tmp is pretty much temp to everyone. /var vahr not vair. and luckly, we all think soodoo is pronounced the same. Oh wait, soodough. Damn.