Can you beat 'yacht'...

[robjh]

And why is there a silent 't' but no 'u' in Mortgage*?



* - A type of very expensive broad gauge system for railway builders

Glad you're laughing at your own joke - it took me a while to get it and I'm not averse to a bit of railway humour

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Glad you're laughing at your own joke - it took me a while to get it and I'm not averse to a bit of railway humour

It was in an advert set at a railway station a few years back

'What's a Mortgage??'

'I don't know, maybe wider tracks?'


More - gauge?

 

[ColinJ]

Somebody from the old C+ forum told me that a couple of Australians had once collared him and asked the way to loo-ba-roo!




(Loughborough. )

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

Yanks talking about Edingburrow

 

[Dave 123]

I was once reading an article on West Indian folk. The article said they talked in patois...

I read and reread the paragraph at least 10 times before I worked out it was nothing to do with paving slabs.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

I read a lot as a child and so encountered words that weren't in common use around me and had to work out how I thought they were pronounced.

Hence the funny looks when I took my little sister to the zoo and said "Look, an orange ootang"

 

[Ian H]

A French person once asked me the way to "ee-o-wee". (Which is in Somerset).

 

[subaqua]

i am constantly reminded by my dad about asking to play mon oh polly when i was 5. yup monopoly.

 

[robjh]

It was in an advert set at a railway station a few years back

'What's a Mortgage??'

'I don't know, maybe wider tracks?'


More - guage?

gUAge?? You see the problem. That spelling really is a b*stard.

 

[robjh]

doubt and debt. That stupid silent b.
This is a case where English spelling has deliberately been made stupider - the earliest recorded versions didn't have the b, but it was added somewhere in the history of these words by vindictive pedants who wanted to prove that they knew Latin, where the words' ancestors were dubitare and debitum respectively.

 

[winjim]

i am constantly reminded by my dad about asking to play mon oh polly when i was 5. yup monopoly.

Tell him the word derives from the Greek roots monos polein so your way of pronunciation actually makes more sense when you consider the etymology.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Maybe the kids with their text speak are onto something? Word reduction to the nth degree.

Except that it often takes me several times longer to read, therefore defeating the purpose (at this end anyway).

Somebody from the old C+ forum told me that a couple of Australians had once collared him and asked the way to loo-ba-roo!

(Loughborough. )

I have heard from American tourists

'Loog-Booroog'

before.

Yanks talking about Edingburrow

Or even

'Glass-caow'

Talking of Edinburgh, the German tutor I had in my German beginner's class earlier this year just couldn't say the 'burgh' in Edinburgh, he could only say

'Edinburg'.

That said, I don't think they really have that sound in their language.
We also have Italian friends, and they cannot say my Dad's name, Hugh.
Instead, they say

'Oog'

or

'Hyoog'

Which is kinda cute in a strange way. Again, I think it is just a language thing.

Especially Cockburn St.

Is that the voice of experience there?

I read a lot as a child and so encountered words that weren't in common use around me and had to work out how I thought they were pronounced.

Hence the funny looks when I took my little sister to the zoo and said "Look, an orange ootang"

Ah yes, the old 'Orange Utang' was one in our family too.

I read a lot of railway magazines as a kid with no real idea about how certain things, places or words were pronounced, and with my brain damage, I often would misread things which didn't help!

I remember for example that (some of these being written as I would have said or imagined them)

Nuneaton became

'Noon-a-ton'

and later

'Nunnerton' (adding letters again)

Linlithgow was

'Lin-lith-grow'

The word 'Adjacent' when in picture captions was

'Adjanct'

Albeit was

'Al-bait'

Unique was

'Un-i-que'

And train names were just as bad, with 'Pegasus' becoming

'Pea-gus'

And I remember sending a friend and his little sister into fits of laugher by talking about

'Woof-la'

It was in fact 'Wulfruna'

The 1981 Grand National winner, immortalised in the film 'Champions' and the name of an '86, Aldaniti (Auld-dan-eety) was

'Al-danity'

I also remember wondering what

'Kol-happer'

was. It was Kolhapur, an Indian State and the name of a preserved steam loco.

Oh yes and The Brighton Belle became the

'Brigton Belly'

There were loads, some worse than others, but, say what you will, I do think it all helped my spelling in the long rnu!

gUAge?? You see the problem. That spelling really is a b*stard.

Yeah, sorry, I spotted that just there and have edited it.

To be fair, I have the spell checker turned off as it was too much of a pain if any remotely unusual words were typed or if I was working with someone else's post.

Typing this post would have been an absolute mare!!

 

[growingvegetables]

"I before E except after C .... except in Scottish proper names." Keith, Neil, Keir, Reid, etc etc

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Beith and Leith are spelt the same way,but pronounced differently,and as GV said with an ee sound
Leith has a very pronounced "th",but Beith has a very soft "th",quite buzzy.
You would have to hear it to understand that though,as it's hard to put into words.

According to my sister they are all 'a bunch of loonies' in Beith (seemingly she has met more than her fair share of idiots from there), and indeed, I was there once at a talk by a famous old Climber, Doug someone who had been up Everest back in the day and all that, now runs a charity to help the kids in Nepal and is based somewhere in the Lake District...... Anyway, I was there enjoying the sandwiches the catering had laid on, and had started eating some of the salad (as I do), and I turned round to see a middle aged woman actually making a rabbit impression at me, teeth and all.

Yeah, such an attractive look, NOT!
(I really wish I had said that, but I just stood there in a state of surprise and WTAF?).

Seriously, I still can't quite believe it now, but it is perfectly true, that's what she was doing, and a woman of her age too!

I think my sister was right, they ARE a bunch of loonies!

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

We used to vaguely know a family from Dalmellington, and beleive me, they were nothing but a bunch of chancers and a bit obnoxious with it (hence why we used to know them). It was shame, but you could see their kids would never have a chance.

I also remember speaking to a guy in Prestwick and he talked about all the inbred people in the villages in the hill villages up the back (East obviously) and how they all had 6 fingers on each hand and so on!