12-20-2004, 03:54 AM
Pete,Dec 19 2004, 10:31 PM Wrote:Hi,
Since I've never heard you, I don't know how you pronounce 'color' and 'should'. However, properly speaking the combination 'ou' should be a diphthong sliding from 'o' to 'u'. That sound *does* occur in 'should' and does not occur in 'color' -- at least as they are pronunced in standard American English (go to http://www.m-w.com and check out their pronunciation guides). Thus, the American spelling makes sense for the American pronunciation (as much as it ever does in English). And, frankly, I've never heard 'color' pronounced 'cul-owrd' in any of the British films or shows I've seen. I have heard 'honour' so pronounced.
Frankly Shaw was right, both as to the idiocy of English spelling (We put a 'b' in 'debt' because Julius Ceasar -- who, by the way spoke Latin -- would do so and 'ghoti') and to the similarities of American English and English English ("Two great nations seperated by a common language").
After having watched 'The Adventure of the English Language, 500AD to 2000' on the history channel, I've come to the conclusion that there is no *proper* English. Certainly not he unintelligeble gibberish spoken in most of the English hinterlands. :)
"If it ain't BBC, it ain't for me." ;)
--Pete
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You don't want to hear me. I type well enough, I don't speak English, I speak "Southern." I have a long slow drawl. Slow as moleasses in the dead of winter. Sadly, for me, I can make yellow and colour rhyme somehow... Yeller, keller. My words all slur into one another and outside of the Southern States, I usually need help so people can understand what ever it is I am trying to say. All Jeff Foxworthy jokes aside, people from my part of the world really do say things like "Dijyaeetyet?" while pointing to some greasy spoon diner. This is not a joke, and I really am being serious. When I went to Canada... People gathered around me just to hear me talk. And going to New York was traumatic, as they talk so damn fast and are in such a hurry that I can't make out one single word they are saying. Well, I could make out the profanity and obcenities laced in between every other word. For some reason they slow down when they drop an F-bomb. If England was to ever reclaim this country, I have no idea what they would do with the Southern States. Probably just leave us the hell alone as we aint folk that can be reasoned with and we eat things can could make the heartiest Brit's stomach turn. Kidney pie? Haggis? Bah. Never ask what's in a Cajun's dinner pot.
Where I come from, the Southern girls talk so slow... Before they can say "I am not that kind of girl" they are.
All alone, or in twos,
The ones who really love you
Walk up and down outside the wall.
Some hand in hand
And some gathered together in bands.
The bleeding hearts and artists
Make their stand.
And when they've given you their all
Some stagger and fall, after all it's not easy
Banging your heart against some mad buggers wall.
"Isn't this where...."
The ones who really love you
Walk up and down outside the wall.
Some hand in hand
And some gathered together in bands.
The bleeding hearts and artists
Make their stand.
And when they've given you their all
Some stagger and fall, after all it's not easy
Banging your heart against some mad buggers wall.
"Isn't this where...."