To the Citizens of the United States of America - Page 2

jerseydevil · 11-09-2004, 06:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nurvingiel

Ironically, about the beer, the author meant to say "gnat's", I'm sure. This is funny because s/he's making fun of Americans for mis-spelling "doughnut" and "aluminium" etc.

We don't misspell them - we have American English which is different than British English. Personally I think we should stop calling it English and call it American. That way brits and others can't say we spell things wrong or pronounce things wrong. I know you are just being evil - but anyway....

sun-star · 11-09-2004, 06:06 PM

I think my reply just got buried there, JD... it's at the bottom of the previous page...

jerseydevil · 11-09-2004, 06:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sun-star

Yes, but you're not a Harry Potter fanfic author. Are you?

Nope - I'm not.

What I find interesting is that Britons pronounce "shire" when it stands alone with a long "i" and prounce it like "sher" when it's part of a name - like Leicestershire. At least that how the people in Leicester pronounced it. This is the way they pronounced it - "lestersher"

sun-star · 11-09-2004, 06:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jerseydevil

Nope - I'm not.

That's kind of a relief.

Quote:

What I find interesting is that Britons pronounce "shire" when it stands alone with a long "i" and prounce it like "sher" when it's part of a name - like Leicestershire. At least that how the people in Leicester pronounced it.

I think that's the usual pronunciation here, too. Mostly we don't get much occasion to say "shire" on its own though, unless we're Tolkien fans. The only time it's used independently is in the phrase "the shires" (like "Conservatives have a lot of support in the shires") where it basically means rural England.

**Nurvingiel** · 11-09-2004, 06:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jerseydevil

We don't misspell them - we have American English which is different than British English. Personally I think we should stop calling it English and call it American. That way brits and others can't say we spell things wrong or pronounce things wrong. I know you are just being evil - but anyway....

And I have Nurvingiel English, where "teh" and "relaly" are not misspelt. j/k!

I was just kidding, I know American English isn't actually a series of random misspelt words.

Thanks for clearing that up about who "they" was referring to Sun-star. That's even funnier now!

I really can't picture JD as a fanfic author, but I've been wrong before.

EDIT: Ironically, I can't spell "misspelt".

Mercutio · 11-09-2004, 10:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Falagar

15. Please tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us crazy.

the fashion industry!!!

ok, if you don't get that go watch "Zoolander," lol.

BeardofPants · 11-09-2004, 10:49 PM

Zoolander freakin' rocks. And it's so hard to be ridiculously good good looking.

Durin1 · 11-10-2004, 05:26 AM

One thing that could have been added was that Americans should start playing a sensible, intelligent game like Cricket!

Then again... perhaps we should let them play meaningless "sports" like American football and baseball.

BTW, there is a world outside London in Britain, and not just aristocrats as a lot of Americans believe. And why do American TV producers insist on having a British actor on their shows to be 1) a Londoner 2) with either a "posh" accent or cockney 3) stuck up??

Shelob's Hubby · 11-10-2004, 08:45 AM

Although I think that most british sit-coms should burn in the afterlife of your choice, I do like Red Dwarf a lot.

BoP, in your avatar, is the rabbit strangling the cat or kissing it?

jerseydevil · 11-10-2004, 12:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Durin1

One thing that could have been added was that Americans should start playing a sensible, intelligent game like Cricket!

Then again... perhaps we should let them play meaningless "sports" like American football and baseball.

We have two cricket fields in Plainsboro - how many American Football or baseball fields do you have? I find it rather funny how Europeans say that Americans have no understanding of them, and make these kind of snide comments - when Europeans actually seem know very little about America. It seems like we are the more accepting of other's differences and aren't afraid of other's heritage.

Insidious Rex · 11-10-2004, 02:14 PM

ha ha it was just a matter of time.

**Nurvingiel** · 11-10-2004, 02:45 PM

Lol.

People play American football in Sweden, though real football (soccer) is much more popular. Sweden has very good football teams too.

I think sports are universal.

Linaewen · 11-10-2004, 03:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Falagar

3. You should learn to distinguish the English and Australian accents. It really isn't that hard. English accents are not limited to Cockney, upper-class twit or Mancunian (Daphne in Frasier). You will also have to learn how to understand regional accents - Scottish dramas such as "Taggart" will no longer be broadcast with subtitles.

I have to ask, is the Australian accent that hard to understand? I was watching this American show which had subtitles for this Australian person on it! We're not that bad, our English and yours is actually mutually intelligible you know!

(Though admittedly, you may need subtitles for Kiwi accents, as similar as they are to ours. Fush n chups

)

jerseydevil · 11-10-2004, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Linaewen

I have to ask, is the Australian accent that hard to understand? I was watching this American show which had subtitles for this Australian person on it! We're not that bad, our English and yours is actually mutually intelligible you know!

(Though admittedly, you may need subtitles for Kiwi accents, as similar as they are to ours. Fush n chups

)

Don't worry - a lot of shows have subtitles for Southern and Boston accents. There was a thing on the news the other day about how voice recognition systems do not understand Boston accents at all - and how even the human operators can NOT understand the Boston accent - they leave out too many letters when they speak.

Linaewen · 11-10-2004, 03:51 PM

Americans.

At least Aussies can understand each other when we speak and we're a fairly large country too. We just sound like bogans is all.

inked · 11-10-2004, 03:52 PM

Hesh'n you'n mowfs! Ya'aalll cint unnerstan plane Southron Anglixh? Goan 'n' git you'ens a newfanguled kuntri fer yo'selvs.

jerseydevil · 11-10-2004, 03:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Linaewen

Americans.

At least Aussies can understand each other when we speak and we're a fairly large country too. We just sound like bogans is all.

But the US was founded by MANY different nationalities in the 1600's which has affected the accents of various areas of the country. Australia was initially only home to British. We had Dutch, Swedes, English, Scots, Germans, French, etc - all affecting the accents of the areas they settled in. Not to mention that many people in the early days moved westward to the Appalacian areas and didn't have the education - which also affected their accents.

Even during the Continental Convention - there are comments about people not understanding what one another was saying and that it was like listening to a foreign language.

sun-star · 11-10-2004, 04:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Linaewen

Americans.

At least Aussies can understand each other when we speak and we're a fairly large country too. We just sound like bogans is all.

The accent's easy, but the vocab!

What exactly is a 'bogan'?

**Nurvingiel** · 11-10-2004, 04:48 PM

How did a joke turn into a political debate? *cough* JD *cough*

jerseydevil · 11-10-2004, 04:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nurvingiel

How did a joke turn into a political debate? *cough* JD *cough*

Hey - I didn't make any political comment - I just stated why America has the extreme differences in accents. It was more a history lesson than a political statement.

Lin has actually made comments about one section of Australia versus another.

11-09-2004, 06:06 PM	#22
sun-star Lady of Letters Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Either Oxford or Kent, England Posts: 2,476	I think my reply just got buried there, JD... it's at the bottom of the previous page... __________________ And all the time the waves, the waves, the waves Chase, intersect and flatten on the sand As they have done for centuries, as they will For centuries to come, when not a soul Is left to picnic on the blazing rocks, When England is not England, when mankind Has blown himself to pieces. Still the sea, Consolingly disastrous, will return While the strange starfish, hugely magnified, Waits in the jewelled basin of a pool.

11-09-2004, 10:49 PM	#27
BeardofPants the Shrike Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: San Francisco, CA <3 Posts: 10,647	Zoolander freakin' rocks. And it's so hard to be ridiculously good good looking. __________________ "Binary solo! 0000001! 00000011! 0000001! 00000011!" ~ The Humans are Dead, Flight of the Conchords

11-10-2004, 05:26 AM	#28
Durin1 Elven Warrior Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Birmingham, UK Posts: 221	One thing that could have been added was that Americans should start playing a sensible, intelligent game like Cricket! Then again... perhaps we should let them play meaningless "sports" like American football and baseball. BTW, there is a world outside London in Britain, and not just aristocrats as a lot of Americans believe. And why do American TV producers insist on having a British actor on their shows to be 1) a Londoner 2) with either a "posh" accent or cockney 3) stuck up?? __________________ Durin the Sleepless!

11-10-2004, 08:45 AM	#29
Shelob's Hubby Enting Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Somewhere between heaven and hell Posts: 73	Although I think that most british sit-coms should burn in the afterlife of your choice, I do like Red Dwarf a lot. BoP, in your avatar, is the rabbit strangling the cat or kissing it? __________________ Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering? I think so Brain, but without ears, we look like weasels. "The next time I lent an ax to a surgeon, I would pick my century." A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. The Last Alliance of Orcs and Spiders

11-10-2004, 02:14 PM	#31
Insidious Rex Quasi Evil Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Maryland, US Posts: 4,634	ha ha it was just a matter of time. __________________ "People's political beliefs don't stem from the factual information they've acquired. Far more the facts people choose to believe are the product of their political beliefs." "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

11-10-2004, 03:51 PM	#35
Linaewen Fair Dinkum Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 2,319	Americans. At least Aussies can understand each other when we speak and we're a fairly large country too. We just sound like bogans is all.

11-10-2004, 03:52 PM	#36
inked Elf Lord Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: sikeston, MO, usa, earth, sol Posts: 3,114	Hesh'n you'n mowfs! Ya'aalll cint unnerstan plane Southron Anglixh? Goan 'n' git you'ens a newfanguled kuntri fer yo'selvs. __________________ Inked "Aslan is not a tame lion." CSL/LWW "The new school [acts] as if it required...courage to say a blasphemy. There is only one thing that requires real courage to say, and that is a truism." GK Chesterton "And there is always the danger of allowing people to suppose that our modern times are so wholly unlike any other times that the fundamental facts about man's nature have wholly changed with changing circumstances." Dorothy L. Sayers, 1 Sept. 1941

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