Wheel of Fortune THIS

[CoyoteChris]

I dasn't dish the English language too much but I think a common grammer is fast disappearing. Ever hear a TV reporter adlib? Remember when we used to diagram sentence structure in school?
There is serious talk about not even teaching script writing anymore. And its not only us and its not only grammer. Half the young people in England cant tell you what war the "Battle of Brittian" was fought.
But ask those same people what LOL means.....then ask them what a dangling participle is....
Chris who unthaws frozen meat

 

[Olympia]

foe-ah on the flow-ah....

Thanks for clearing that up, Chris.

And thanks for the info about coyote. I was afraid I had been mispronouncing it (I say ky-o-te also), and I'm relieved to learn that I've been saying it the right way.

I studied sentence diagramming! I loved it. (Act surprised.) To me it was like an architectural drawing of a sentence. I'm especially fond of the diagrams for infinitive phrases and gerunds. We've actually included diagramming in recent textbooks, though I'm sure teachers don't present it with the same devotion as my junior high school teacher did.

 

[Tonichelle]

As long you don't use pockabook, pissketti, chimbly, or prolly!

prolly's another that drives me nuts.

pissketti is only cute when it's little kids, or adults mimicking their cute little kid (though I say PAH-sketti when I was little)

 

[Olympia]

The thing is that we're all readers, so we know the true shapes of words. People who rarely pay attention to words written out aren't likely to realize that they're leaving half the bones out of the words when they say them.

The parts of words that really vary wildly are the vowel sounds. Once when we worked on a phonics-based program, we didn't teach the word dog through the whole program. We used it as a special word but never taught it as we presented /o/ sounds. There are people who pronounce dog with short /o/. (Remember Margaret Hamilton in The Wizard of Oz yelling, "And your little dog, too!") These people might write a poem using dog and log as rhymes. Some people, including me, pronounce dog with the sound you hear in all. I never rhyme dog and log. In one program we gave up and just called it "the dog vowel."

English is especially frustrating in terms of vowel sounds. My Spanish-speaking friends tell me that vowels in Spanish have just one sound value each. I don't even think they teach phonics. The lucky ducks.

 

[Scrufflet]

As long you don't use pockabook, pissketti, chimbly, or prolly!

It took me a minute to get the last two. Don't forget "lye-berry"!
And weathermen often say "temp-it-yurr".
And since it is Jan. 1st, my husband if guaranteed to flip out over the pronunciation of "auld lang syne". Not "zein" but "sign"! Happy New Year everyone!

 

[Tonichelle]

I still stumble on ambulance, my mouth just will not form it correctly! lol for the longest time I said "amblance" and then "ambalance" drove my mom up the wall.

 

[Olympia]

This is the time of year when I attempt to fight a losing battle defending the true pronunciation of February. In the U.S., even journalists now pronounce it Feb-u-ary, without the first /r/. Drat, anyway.

 

[Tonichelle]

I say it the way you want it said, Olympia!

 

[Olympia]

Toni, I always knew that you were a Woman of Impeccable Standards. We've got both coasts covered, then! I bet we can count on Doris and Iluvtodd also.

(I must confess that because my godmother was Jamaican, I apparently pronounce envelope in the less preferred way. I say enn-velope--short /e/ sound--whereas I think more Americans say ahn-velope. I also say ahnt instead of ant for aunt. My contribution to speaking the Queen's English.)

 

[CoyoteChris]

Wouldnt you just DIE if George Bush were on WOF and he had to solve the puzzel.... "Nuclear Energy" and he said his usual "newcular"?????

 

[Olympia]

Oh, goodness, you're right, Chris. I forgot that one. It's such a common error that a lot of people would flunk it. I'm sure people don't even think twice about pronouncing it that way, and assume they're saying it right.

 

[Tonichelle]

Toni, I always knew that you were a Woman of Impeccable Standards. We've got both coasts covered, then! I bet we can count on Doris and Iluvtodd also.

(I must confess that because my godmother was Jamaican, I apparently pronounce envelope in the less preferred way. I say enn-velope--short /e/ sound--whereas I think more Americans say ahn-velope. I also say ahnt instead of ant for aunt. My contribution to speaking the Queen's English.)

I say it both ways... though most of the time like you...

when I was little it was an "emma-lope"

 

[Olympia]

Oh, that's a lovely one, Toni.

Kids come up with some wonderfully picturesque pronunciations.

I bet many of us have relatives whose family nickname came from the way a younger sibling pronounced their name, or the way they said their own name when they were too young to make it come out right.

 

[Scrufflet]

Homer: The Sturgeon General says we shouldn't smoke.
Lisa: A sturgeon is a fish, Dad.
Homer: And a very smart fish.

 

[Olympia]

>giggle<

 

[Tonichelle]

I bet many of us have relatives whose family nickname came from the way a younger sibling pronounced their name, or the way they said their own name when they were too young to make it come out right.

That's how I got "Tonichelle"... I introduced myself as Toni 'Chelle reitter all one word really fast lol

 

[CoyoteChris]

whups! I think I need to go and get my prostrate checked out.....I have a slight speech impediment. I couldnt say "available" till I was 40. I still cant say burgalary...cant spell it either...

 

[Olympia]

There's a sizable number of people in the Northeast who say "Italian" without the i: "Itayan."

I love this language! It's so full of textures and idiosyncrasies.

 

[Scrufflet]

"Stragedy"!
And I have never been able to manage "anthropomorphization" and I'm sure I have that wrong.

 

[Olympia]

I was just thinking today that my workmate Megan has three names, all spelled the same way. I have always called her "Meegan," with a long /e/--don't know why. Everyone else calls her "May-gan," with a long /a/. She doesn't seem to mind either pronunciation (I've asked very apologetically). She calls herself "Meggan" with a short /e/.