Members joncyberboy Posted June 7, 2011 Author Members Share Posted June 7, 2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RadioSilence Posted June 7, 2011 Members Share Posted June 7, 2011 There's a town near here called Coon Rapids, and when a contestant on a TV show (American Idol perhaps) was going to talk about where she was from, she was instructed to say she was from Minneapolis, which is the nearest major city. Not because it mattered where she was from, but because you can't say "Coon" on TV. Someone might get offended. But there's a history of shying away from potentially embarrassing/insulting words in America, even if they've got nothing, etymologically speaking, to do with the offensive word. For instance cock meaning male chicken was replaced with rooster, as it was seen to be more polite. The same with titbit; it is usual to hear tidbit in America, even though it never had anything to do with breasts. There's a whole section on this in Bill Bryson's book Made In America - it's a history of how American English developed, and very good it is too. Highly recommended if you're into that sort of thing. On the other hand you have a range of mountains called The Tetons which, in French, means The Tits Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members V Posted June 7, 2011 Members Share Posted June 7, 2011 Ha ha didn't know that about the Tetons. Makes perfect sense, though. Speaking of humor differences, my room mate is from Paris and she really doesn't understand the humor of pranks and trolling much at all. I tried to explain Andy Kaufman to her once. No effect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ItchyFingers Posted June 7, 2011 Members Share Posted June 7, 2011 What a great thread, man. Here's an interesting one...I work with a few Brits (not racist, right?) and I've noticed when they are speaking: if a word ends in a vowel, and the next word starts with a vowel, they'll throw in a magic "r" sound!For a recent example..."it is usual to hear tidbit in America, even though " comes out "it is usual to hear tidbit in Americar even though "Its almost like the "r" is purposely or possibly unconsiously thrown in to separate the two vowels. I've also noticed some folks in New England will do this as well, which leads me to believe that its a linguistic evolution of sorts, as it doesn't pervade the speech those of us who were raised on the West coast. So (if I'm not imagining this) I gotta ask, is this just an unconsious thing or something they teach in school? I tried to explain Andy Kaufman to her once. No effect.No no, she got it, its just that Kaufman is not funny in the slightest... :poke: I keed, V.Oh and also: Wild Haggis = Snipe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ChuckNorris1982 Posted June 7, 2011 Members Share Posted June 7, 2011 I work with a few Brits (not racist, right?) and I've noticed when they are speaking: if a word ends in a vowel, and the next word starts with a vowel, they'll throw in a magic "r" sound!For a recent example..."it is usual to hear tidbit in America, even though " comes out "it is usual to hear tidbit in Americar even though " That's very true. I know I do it, and it's very common amongst others who live in this area. It is definitely not proper pronounciation, I think it's just laziness because the flow of your speech is more natural when there are no breaks between ther syllables. Most definitely not the queen's English. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RadioSilence Posted June 7, 2011 Members Share Posted June 7, 2011 What a great thread, man. Here's an interesting one... I work with a few Brits (not racist, right?) and I've noticed when they are speaking: if a word ends in a vowel, and the next word starts with a vowel, they'll throw in a magic "r" sound! For a recent example... "it is usual to hear tidbit in America, even though " comes out "it is usual to hear tidbit in Americar even though " Its almost like the "r" is purposely or possibly unconsiously thrown in to separate the two vowels. I've also noticed some folks in New England will do this as well, which leads me to believe that its a linguistic evolution of sorts, as it doesn't pervade the speech those of us who were raised on the West coast. So (if I'm not imagining this) I gotta ask, is this just an unconsious thing or something they teach in school? I had to say it out loud to realise, yep, I do that. I never noticed - good ears edit: I think it may be something to do with how we pronounce our Rs. Most accents in England are non-rhotic - we pronounce bar without the r: we say baa. but if the words 'bar even' are together in a sentence we run them together and pronounce the R. in your example 'America even' we put an R in there, even though it shouldn't be, out of habit and to make the words run together easier. there's another one: 'together' - no R pronounced 'together easier' - pronounce the R. You sound like you might be interested in this - http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/ It's written by an American living in Britain. She's a Lecturer in Linguistics and English Language at the University of Sussex so she can talk pretty authoritatively on the subject. I got lost for hours in there when I first discovered it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Chippy Posted June 8, 2011 Members Share Posted June 8, 2011 Shag carpet {censored} CARPET Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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