I never noticed this until today

I'm glad it's my native language and I didn't have to learn it as an adult. I'd have to get my head around stuff like this:

RED - the colour
READ - past tense as in "yesterday I read a book", pronounced just like RED
READ - present tense, "I can read"
REED - a plant, pronounced just like present-tense READ

"you can't read a word and be sure how it's pronounced..." pronounced as "you can't REED a word and be sure how it's pronounced..." - tweak the grammar/tense a bit and you get "yesterday you couldn't have RED a word"...
And it gets really tricky with plurals.
Ox = Oxen
Box /= Boxen
Mouse = Mice
House /= Hice
 
I seem to recall reading somebody's observing that English is a language that stalks other languages into dark alleys, to beat them up and take their words, and then riffle through their pockets for loose grammar... :p
Yes.

”The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse prostitute. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.”
― James D. Nicoll

Back in the days of usenet I was on some of the same newsgroups as him.
Word change due to forum filters.
 
Because he is English, not American.


"American : cow-bruh with the cow rhyming with slow and low not a lady bull.

British : cobb-ruh

In this example the British pronunciation follows the general rule of thumb that a vowel followed by a single consonant then a vowel is long, indeed this rule is the essence of the silent e at the end of a word so that ‘run’ would become’rune’. To keep the vowel short, the consonant is doubled, as in ‘running’.

This is the same with ‘zebra’ (American : zee-bruh; British zebb-ruh)

Two consonants implies the vowel is short, cobb-ruh and zebb-ruh

In principle, this rule should also apply to ‘project’ (Am : proe-ject; Br proj-ect) and yogurt (Am : Yoe-gurt, Br : yogg-urt) as the single consonant should mean a long vowel. But the British buck the system and pronounce it with a short vowel.

Conclusion 1 : The Brits are right and the Yanks are wrong for cobra and zebra, the Yanks are right and the Brits are wrong for project and yogurt.

Conclusion 2 : If both Americans and British followed the rules of thumb, these would become proper rules which could be learned and everyone would be happy.

Please note that neither ‘both’ nor ‘proper’ follow the above rules while follow, rule, these and happy do."
Yous all say Yogurt like yawgurt then? I'm sure if I heard someone say it that way, I'd be doing the blank stare at them "did they just?". Too fun. I also notice, but could be just me, that brits dont really use consonants. Humanity is said " h U m A n I t Y". Actually, the M I'd hear too, but the rest are almost gone. Or is that only certain areas? Different accents and such?

I think the selectable ship hologram thing has been in there always. It'd be sweet if it only showed the ships available at each station. Err I actually dont know if it doesn't, but I think it's the same everywhere, currently.
 
Anything that actually gets.me out of my shop is a worthwhile shout, it's nice to stretch the ol' legs sometimes other than walking on a planet :)
 
Yous all say Yogurt like yawgurt then?
No. Yog-urt ("yog" to rhyme with "bog").

I also notice, but could be just me, that brits dont really use consonants. Humanity is said " h U m A n I t Y". Actually, the M I'd hear too, but the rest are almost gone. Or is that only certain areas? Different accents and such?
Sounds like it's somewhere that uses a lot of glottal stops, like Essex or parts of east and south London. "Bu'ah" instead of "butter", for instance. Usually lower class speech, as posh people are trained to pronounce their T's.
 
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I'm glad it's my native language and I didn't have to learn it as an adult. I'd have to get my head around stuff like this:

RED - the colour
READ - past tense as in "yesterday I read a book", pronounced just like RED
READ - present tense, "I can read"
REED - a plant, pronounced just like present-tense READ

"you can't read a word and be sure how it's pronounced..." pronounced as "you can't REED a word and be sure how it's pronounced..." - tweak the grammar/tense a bit and you get "yesterday you couldn't have RED a word"...
"A shower not a grower" isn't the same "shower" as a "shower" of rain...
 
"A shower not a grower" isn't the same "shower" as a "shower" of rain...
laptop.gif

RIP Thread. lol.
 
I know some Vietnamese people, the word "ban" based on inflection of the "a" and a few other things has about 6 different meanings. And you thought English tricky.
 
The real question is, how did it pronounce "Cobra"? Did it say it the way everyone says it? Or the way David Braben says it? (for some reason he says "Cob-Rah", and I have no idea why).
Is he British and are you American? Being English, that's how I would say it too.
 
Because he is English, not American.


"American : cow-bruh with the cow rhyming with slow and low not a lady bull.

British : cobb-ruh

In this example the British pronunciation follows the general rule of thumb that a vowel followed by a single consonant then a vowel is long, indeed this rule is the essence of the silent e at the end of a word so that ‘run’ would become’rune’. To keep the vowel short, the consonant is doubled, as in ‘running’.

This is the same with ‘zebra’ (American : zee-bruh; British zebb-ruh)

Two consonants implies the vowel is short, cobb-ruh and zebb-ruh

In principle, this rule should also apply to ‘project’ (Am : proe-ject; Br proj-ect) and yogurt (Am : Yoe-gurt, Br : yogg-urt) as the single consonant should mean a long vowel. But the British buck the system and pronounce it with a short vowel.

Conclusion 1 : The Brits are right and the Yanks are wrong for cobra and zebra, the Yanks are right and the Brits are wrong for project and yogurt.

Conclusion 2 : If both Americans and British followed the rules of thumb, these would become proper rules which could be learned and everyone would be happy.

Please note that neither ‘both’ nor ‘proper’ follow the above rules while follow, rule, these and happy do."
The difference is speaking Americanese or English.
 
Still trying to figure out Asp pronounced as "clasp"... only north of the Watford Gap. Down where I live "clasp" is pronounced like cl-ars-p but the ship is pronounced as ass-p.
OK, so the forums don't like the UK word for derriere but the US one is ok :(
 
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