Things that make you :)

[pH]

13 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

I failed at yesterdays NY Times Wordl because the word was FIBER.

The thing to remember is that it’s the NY Times. If there’s a choice, always pick the US version.

Edited yesterday at 05:13 by pH

[Jeremy Cumberland]

2 hours ago, Martino said:

However, my hackles rise whenever I hear the word garage pronounced by Britons as garidge.  Why and when did this bastardization of English come about?

I don't know that it is possible to tell, but the earliest British pronunciation appears to have been /ˈɡarɑːʒ/ (GARR-ahj) with the stress on the first syllable.

 

From this to /ˈɡarɪdʒ/ (GARR-ij) isn't a big leap, and matches the the usual pronunciation of many (most?) other -age words.

 

Stressing the second syllable, as in /ɡəˈrɑːʒ/ (guh-RAHJ), appears to have been an Americanism.

[Stray]

[DavidB-AU]

[franciswilliamwebb]

[luckymucklebackit]

Aldi's Middle Isle.....

 

 

[GrumpyPenguin]

Looks like I started something with my box of "U's".

 

I would be one of the first to admit that North American spelling of English words are (or should that be is) more phonetically correct.

 

My main objection is what I call "creeping Americanisms" that are erroding our language, that is the English most of us old farts grew up with, the one taught to me at school and I'll stick with it thank you very much.

US spelling is creeping into the media too, as is US terminology.

 

In the UK were wear trainers, not sneakers, ladies wear mules, not slides (although the US term is more descriptive)

Back up system = redundant system (in the UK redundant is no longer required).

UK has bulkheads, the US has firewalls.

& so on.

[zarniwhoop]

4 hours ago, Jeremy Cumberland said:

I don't know that it is possible to tell, but the earliest British pronunciation appears to have been /ˈɡarɑːʒ/ (GARR-ahj) with the stress on the first syllable.

 

From this to /ˈɡarɪdʒ/ (GARR-ij) isn't a big leap, and matches the the usual pronunciation of many (most?) other -age words.

 

Stressing the second syllable, as in /ɡəˈrɑːʒ/ (guh-RAHJ), appears to have been an Americanism.

Yes, except I think the English pronunciation (perhaps not the rest of Britain) stepped through a schwa (unvoiced vowel) with emphasis on the first syllable before ending at garidge. I tend to use all three pronunciations! But it feels 'posh' to put the emphasis on hte second syllable in the French and American way.

[Jeremy Cumberland]

56 minutes ago, zarniwhoop said:

Yes, except I think the English pronunciation (perhaps not the rest of Britain) stepped through a schwa (unvoiced vowel) with emphasis on the first syllable before ending at garidge. I tend to use all three pronunciations! But it feels 'posh' to put the emphasis on hte second syllable in the French and American way.

Do the French stress the second syllable?

[big jim]

 

[6990WitherslackHall]

Found these two in my packet of haribo Starmix earlier today.

 

[Ozexpatriate]

6 hours ago, GrumpyPenguin said:

In the UK were wear trainers, not sneakers,

In the English books I remember reading in my formative years they were called things like Plimsolls. In Australia the were called "Sand shoes". In the US at the time they would have been called "Gym shoes". Similar shoes today are called "skate shoes" as they are the preferred style for skateboarders.

 

There's also older terms like 'gumshoe'. "Trainer" is a very recent term etymologically speaking. The internet suggests that it dates back only to 1968:

Quote

The British word 'trainer' (short for 'training shoe') was apparently first used in 1968 as a generalised description for a style of sports footwear made by Gola. 

The same article suggests that "sneaker" dates to 1917.

 

When cushioned athletic shoes with leather uppers became trendy in the 1980s, they were not marketed as 'sneakers' - and the term used was more commonly descriptive of the style - like "high tops". "Kicks" was a popular term for a while. Less so now.

 

6 hours ago, GrumpyPenguin said:

ladies wear mules, not slides (although the US term is more descriptive)

The term "slides" is used for casual, flat, unisex 'sporty' footwear, normally with a large brand logo, usually made in some soft rubbery or plastic material.

 

The term "mule" is used in the US for women's fashion shoes - often with a heel. 

 

I find it a bit ridiculous to see expensive leather flip-flops (thongs to Australians) marketed as "sandals", but they are.

 

Edited 17 hours ago by Ozexpatriate

[J. S. Bach]

11 hours ago, kevinlms said:

 

Does she know what a

Polski Owczarek Nizinny

 

is?

Why are you calling her an old lady?

 

 

Edited 16 hours ago by J. S. Bach
To correct an error

[Jeremy Cumberland]

4 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

In the English books I remember reading in my formative years they were called things like Plimsolls.

Plimsolls have canvas uppers. The word was in widespread use in the 1970s, but I have no idea if it is still used. Trainer is a short form of "training shoe" which dates back to the nineteenth century, and both "trainer" and "training shoe" were used in the 1970s for pretty much any kind of sports shoe without spikes or studs, and might encompass plimsolls as well, but usually plimsolls were thought of as something separate. As trainers became fashion items, so the longer form "training shoe" (and any obvious connection with sport) tended to disappear.

 

The traditional British English word for this kind of shoe was "pump", but this sounded old fashioned/Northern when I encountered it in books as a child in the 70s. Barry Hines uses the word in A Kestrel for a Knave (1968), set very firmly in industrial Yorkshire, and I think the word also appeared in pre-War stories of southern middle class children which for some reason were still deemed suitable reading for kids of the 60s and 70s. OED says the word dates back to the sixteenth century.

 

I'm currently re-reading Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons stories, having picked up a set cheaply, and I notice that he uses "sand shoes" for what appear to be plimolls. I don't think he had an Australian connection, although the Swallow children's mother is described as having grown up in Sydney. I don't recall the term from elsewhere.

[J. S. Bach]

6 hours ago, GrumpyPenguin said:

 ...snip... UK has bulkheads, the US has firewalls.

& so on.

When I was in the Navy, every compartment (room) had bulkheads, an overhead and a deck, I still use those terms occasionally. I have to watch myslf when I tell someone to throw something in the sh!tc@n, er, trashcan. Some things one just never loses! 🙄

[J. S. Bach]

38 minutes ago, 6990WitherslackHall said:

Found these two in my packet of haribo Starmix earlier today.

 

What are they? The photo is too blurry to tell. TIA

[GrumpyPenguin]

IIRC thre black rubber soled canvas upper footwear for P.E. were call plimsolls because the rubber sole came up the lowere part of the upper rather like the plimsoll line on a ship.

I think the US use the word "slide" for any footwear that the foot "slides" in, irrestpective of heel/rest of the shoe/sandal.

As for the traditional cheap (except for the designer brands) rubbery flipflops I think they are know as "jandals" in New Zealand ?

 

In cars we have ;

Boot - Trunk

Bonnet - Hood

Wing - Fender

Wheelbrace - lug wrench (also of course Spanner - Wrench)

Manual (as in gearbox) - Stickshift

Tyre - Tire

 

Then of course a UK gallon is different to a US gallon, often the US sticks to measurements to make things seem bigger such as weights in pounds

 

 

[franciswilliamwebb]

[pH]

51 minutes ago, Jeremy Cumberland said:

I'm currently re-reading Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons stories, having picked up a set cheaply, and I notice that he uses "sand shoes" for what appear to be plimolls. I don't think he had an Australian connection, although the Swallow children's mother is described as having grown up in Sydney. I don't recall the term from elsewhere.

‘Sandshoes’ was the only name I knew/heard for that kind of shoe in the west of Scotland in the 1950s/60s. (Sometimes shortened to ‘sannies’.)

[luckymucklebackit]

7 hours ago, GrumpyPenguin said:

Looks like I started something with my box of "U's".

 

I would be one of the first to admit that North American spelling of English words are (or should that be is) more phonetically correct.

 

My main objection is what I call "creeping Americanisms" that are erroding our language, that is the English most of us old farts grew up with, the one taught to me at school and I'll stick with it thank you very much.

US spelling is creeping into the media too, as is US terminology.

 

In the UK were wear trainers, not sneakers, ladies wear mules, not slides (although the US term is more descriptive)

Back up system = redundant system (in the UK redundant is no longer required).

UK has bulkheads, the US has firewalls.

& so on.

 

The Americanism the currently gets my goat is the use of "super" to add emphasis to an adjective or adverb instead of very or extremely.  Very (not super) annoying.

Edited 15 hours ago by luckymucklebackit

[pH]

Never mind pronouncing words imported into British English from ‘abroad’. People have problems with words from other parts of the UK. 

For example:

 

‘Loch’ as in Loch Lomond is not pronounced ‘lock’.

 

And I once had a Welsh guy shaking his head despairingly over my attempts to pronounce the Welsh ‘double ell’ as in Llantrisant.

 

Some sounds appear in some languages and not in others. If a sound is not one you regularly use, it can be difficult to acquire. There are accounts of people learning e.g. Russian in intensive courses having serious discomfort, even pain, in the mouth and jaws from the need to produce completely new sounds.

[KeithMacdonald]

Talking of pain in the mouth...

[pH]

7 minutes ago, KeithMacdonald said:

Talking of pain in the mouth...

Until fairly recently (there are some really good American beers) I think a more common reaction would have been “Meh”. 
 

In the 1960s, a Canadian cousin described American beers generally as “Tasting like Alka-Seltzer, though not as strong”.

 

(Incidentally, that is a great picture!)

Edited 15 hours ago by pH

[J. S. Bach]

38 minutes ago, luckymucklebackit said:

 

The Americanism the currently gets my goat is the use of "super" to add emphasis to an adjective or adverb instead of very or extremely.  Very (not super) annoying.

As in "sooper-dooper-pooper-scooper"?? 💩

[J. S. Bach]

12 minutes ago, KeithMacdonald said:

Talking of pain in the mouth...

Or when I tasted Guinness!