posted
I am as fine with it as "baths," "paths," "empaths," and so on, which is pretty fine. On the other hand, I was taught by a series of non-American instructors, so I also say "ca-PILL-aries."
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quote:Originally posted by The Rabbit: US spelling is indeed a modest improvement over British English spelling, but we could still learn a great deal from countries like Denmark which have much more phonetic languages and correspondingly higher literacy rates.
Actually, Danish spelling seems to be pretty bad too (link). German spelling, on the other hand, is a thing of beauty.
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Portuguese spelling is fantastic. With very few exceptions, if you can pronounce it, there's one obvious way to spell it, and that way is correct.
And if you know how it's spelled, you always know how to pronounce it.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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quote:Originally posted by ClaudiaTherese: On the other hand, I was taught by a series of non-American instructors, so I also say "ca-PILL-aries."
Several years back, I found myself volunteering in Mozambique for a humanitarian organization. I mainly served as a Portuguese-language interpreter. For the first two weeks, I was interpreting for an American pediatric physical therapist working with the therapists in a clinic for children. Using my rusty never-perfect Mormon missionary Portuguese, which, believe me, never included physical therapy terms.
It was quite an education -- first I had to learn what the English terms meant, then I had to find a way to express that in Portuguese to the absolutely delightful woman who was in charge of the clinic. It was incredibly convoluted, yet somehow we managed to all understand one another. I was always apologizing to Ludovina for not knowing the right terminology, but she just laughed and said "Don't worry, I learned to figure this out in school, all of our instructors were foreigners!" (Nope, I don't want to think about the quality of education they received either!)
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Uprooted: Several years back, I found myself volunteering in Mozambique for a humanitarian organization. I mainly served as a Portuguese-language interpreter. For the first two weeks, I was interpreting for an American pediatric physical therapist working with the therapists in a clinic for children.
"...That was the first time I met Pierre Trudeau."
Posts: 1269 | Registered: Jun 2005
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quote:Originally posted by The Rabbit: "Maths" is just wrong. Try saying it and see how weird it feels in your mouth.
"Math" feels funny to me - unfinished and fuzzy. Sort of like your mouth feels like after eating peanut butter.
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posted
When I was in Ireland, they said "maths"... but they pronounced it "mats" without a "th" sound.
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posted
Also it's a-lu-minum, it's not alu-mini-um. We don't need alternate spellings for elements.
I think vegemite is more an Australian/New Zealander thing not so much British. It's still disgusting though, and deceptively pleasing to the eye.
edit: All this reminds me of my Irish Mandarin teacher in middle school. She would assign us "homeworks," and her saying that hurt my brain every time even though I suppose it makes total sense.
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quote:Originally posted by BlackBlade: I think vegemite is more an Australian/New Zealander thing not so much British. It's still disgusting though, and deceptively pleasing to the eye.
quote:Originally posted by FlyingCow: When I was in Ireland, they said "maths"... but they pronounced it "mats" without a "th" sound.
In lots of words, most of them really, the Irish will pronounce "th" as "t h", two separate sounds. At least parts of Ireland with really heavy accents. I've always found it endearing, actually. Like, the word "the" is "t-hee" (well, kind of. It's hard to describe...)
I'll never forget trying to understand what my TMJ specailist, who was from County Cork, was trying to tell me. He wanted me to use "moil shteet." After many tries, he finally told me, "Moil shteet-- yu kno, yu taik t-he wash-clot-h, an' yu pud it in t-he microwayve..."
Moist heat.
Good thing he was going back home after he finished his residency to practice in Co. Cork.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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quote:Originally posted by BlackBlade: I think vegemite is more an Australian/New Zealander thing not so much British. It's still disgusting though, and deceptively pleasing to the eye.
posted
I like the Us in words, though I agree some English spelling could be simplified. The BBC is coming up short on entertainment programs right now, but always does better on info programs. Where else can I watch a five-part series on the history of math(s)? Or Sir Patrick Moore (my personal hero)? Or a week about Darwin, or about the history of literacy and the science of reading? The Discovery Channel never had such great shows.
Posts: 2849 | Registered: Feb 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Jon Boy: Peanut butter? I thought you all just ate vegemite down there.
Peanut butter and vegemite silly. In fact, when any Australian talks about food they've eaten, you can just take the 'and vegemite' as given.
'We had a lovely lamb roast (with vegemite) last night' 'Gosh, that was a fair dinkum pavlova (and vegemite), love' 'Through another prawn (in vegemite) on the barbie'
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imogen, that's similar to the way "fried" is understood here (southeastern US) to be the default method of cooking.
What'd you have for dinner (big meal midday)? (Fried) Chicken and (fried) okra, what'd you have? (Fried) fish and (fried) hushpuppies.
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posted
The first name coined for it was actually alumium. Then came aluminum and aluminium a few years later (link).
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