Nyow Zullin Unglush

[Hitcher]

They should?

According to whom?

Where do you draw the line between sloppiness and difference in accent?

They're different words, for heaven's sake.

[Ragingrob]

They're different words, for heaven's sake.

How do you pronounce "real" any different to "reel"? How about "right" and "write", oh and "wright" and "rite"? "I" and "eye"? "For", "fore" and "four"? "Heard" and "herd"? "To", "two" and "too"? "Allowed" and "aloud"? "Arc" and "ark"?

And how about :

Attendance Attendants
Bail Bale
Bare Bear
Bases Basis
Be Bee
Beat Beet
Berry Bury
Berth Birth
Billed Build
Blew Blue
Bloc Block
Bored Board
Bolder Boulder
Born Borne
Brake Break
Bridal Bridle
Broach Brooch
Cache Cash
Callous Callus
Cede Seed
Ceiling Sealing
Cell Sell
Cellar Seller
Cereal Serial
Cession Session
Chews Choose
Chord Cord
Chute Shoot
Creak Creek
Flew Flu
Hi High
Knight Night
Knot Not
Know No
Knows Nose
Made Maid
Missed Mist
One Won
Oar Or
Ode Owed
Paw Pour
Plain Plane
Pray Prey
Read Reed
Review Revue
Scent Sent
Sea See
Sew So
Shore Sure
Straight Strait
Tare Tear
Threw Through
Toe Tow
Told Tolled
Wait Weight



I'm pretty shore (sure?) that their (there) all different words.

[yod]

That is my point. Why "should" they be pronounced differently? They don't seem to be any different with our New Zealand English.

Where do you draw the line between sloppiness and difference in accent?

They're different words, for heaven's sake.

That really has no bearing, I give you 'weight' and 'wait' as examples.

Ragingrob is quite correct. It is perfectly natural for language to develop and evolve with time. The only languages that don't are dead; i.e. no longer in use. This includes pronunciation, use and subsequently spelling, in many cases. If this wasn't the case we could quite justifiably complain about the incorrect pronunciation of 'weight' or 'height' or 'assign' or anything that contains 'ph', or proper names such as Gloucester, Worcester, Leicester, Manchester, Winchester, etc, which, even further back down the dusty socio-linguistic trail, stemmed from the Latin 'castra', meaning camp.
I guarantee we aren't pronouncing these as they once were.

[Hitcher]

I'm pretty shore (sure?) that their (there) all different words.

But those ones don't irritate me so much.

[Flatcap]

It's not just us either:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/46...ectid=10517306

[Blossom]

I worked in a lunch bar some years ago..one of our regular customers would always ask for a slice of "kwichy". The first time I served him, I needed the boss to interpret for me as I had no idea what he meant...

Ok I'll ask the stupid question... what the heck is kwichy???

I have occasionally been known to lip read , (being I can't hear stuff sometimes) and it has been my observation that it is a lot easier to understand someone who is comfortable with how they speak, than it is to understand someone who is trying to over-pronounce or have precise diction (sp?) if this is not how they usually speak.

ALL mumbling is awful and mumblers who look at the ground or cover their mouth should all be shot.
It would be just great if I could just get everyone who is talking to me to just look at me when they speak and not mumble.
I mean FFS if someone can not hear you and asked you to repeat yourself, then all you have to do is just repeat yourself clearly...not
O V E R
P R O N O U N C E
E V E R Y
S Y L A B L E
like your talking to a retard... grrrrr

ok rant over...as you were
great thread

[idb]

quiche maybe?

[Blossom]

quiche maybe?

of course. That makes sense.

[Jiminy]

The few that I notice the most:

"it's" instead of "its" (or vice versa)
"brought" instead of "bought"
"their" instead of "they're / they are" (or "theyre" instead of "their")

Not of French origin.
The "H" is not silent.

Is the H in English silent only for words of French origin? In French, H is not always silent, either. I can't remember why some are, it surely has something to do with Latin.

One thing that pisses me off, is how people try and say place names in the pronounciation of the origin language. Throughout the America's Cup, TV and radio hosts spent hours trying to say "Valenthia" as opposed to how an average Kiwi would read "Valencia" as it stands.

That's what I thought until I started travelling. It's often easier to say the place names in their original language than learn every possible translation. Just let others do what they prefer, as long as you understand them.

I study two European languages at Uni and here's another thing that grinds my gears! Why the fuck should we be learning to speak another language with exactly the same pronounciation? I want to learn French and Spanish and speak it in my own accent thank you very much. Of course it's necessary to speak somewhat the original pronounciation in terms of how words are said, but man the goody goods in the class piss me off when they try to put on a full-French accent!

Well, I still face so many kiwis who laugh at my accent even when they perfectly understand what I mean that I'm quite happy to return the favour given the chance. Plus, with the right accent, you'll have more chances to be understood.

[Oscar]

Is the H in English silent only for words of French origin? In French, H is not always silent, either. I can't remember why some are, it surely has something to do with Latin.

In context, the discussion was about "An Hotel" as opposed to "A Horse".

Notwithstanding linguistic origin, the "H" is silent in the former, hence the use of "an" as opposed to "a".

[Hitcher]

The usual convention is that if the first letter of a word is a vowel or is pronounced as a vowel, then it should be preceded by a. If it can't, then an should be used.

e.g. A Yamaha, an FJR.

The whole horse/hotel/hippopotamus thing is a bit overdone really. Use whatever floats your boat.

[jrandom]

In an 'artford, an 'ereford and an 'ampshire, an 'urricane 'ardly h'ever 'appens?

[Okey Dokey]

Some people have gone on to me about the "ear" and "air" difference in pronounciation, but I think it's all in their head, couldn't hear any difference in what they were saying at all!

Please, I hope you are pulling my leg. Surely you can hear, and pronounce, the difference between "ear" and "air"!

[Ragingrob]

The few that I notice the most:

Is the H in English silent only for words of French origin? In French, H is not always silent, either. I can't remember why some are, it surely has something to do with Latin.

"H" is always silent in French

Please, I hope you are pulling my leg. Surely you can hear, and pronounce, the difference between "ear" and "air"!

Umm, nope I don't believe so. Maybe it's because noone pronounces them "properly"? Write them out how they sound, maybe I'll be able to see what the difference is supposedly meant to be.

[scumdog]

"H" is always silent in French

And as I've said before: Like the 'p' in swimming is silent...