English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

12:11 AM

@Cerberus I think it depends on how much effort you are willing to put into stretching your speech apparatus and how well you can hear different sounds in your pronunciation and other people's pronunciation. Also, the age at which you begin studying languages.

Cerberus

@KitFox Yes, something like that, although I wonder how the difference can be so great. As to studying languages at a young age, that may make a difference—I don't know. We have had several prime ministers whose English accents were horrible.

Great variation.

►

And I think he used to be even worse.

KitFox

I think listening can be learned, but the amount of natural talent varies tremendously.

It's like singing.

You can teach people to sing and sing better, but there is a component that cannot be taught as well.

@Cerberus Yes, not difficult to understand, but easy to mishear.

"The lack of face in the liters"

Cerberus

@KitFox I'm sure that is partly true; but somehow—and I may be wrong—, it is also a matter of effort. Many people seem content with having a pretty strong accent, even though they are physically able to pronounce certain sounds in a better way. I'm sure they could eventually teach themselves to apply those sounds more consistently.

@KitFox Oh God.

He really meant faith!?

You know, that never occurred to me.

KitFox

"Lack of faith in the leaders" is what he was saying, I'm pretty sure.

But that th is difficult for pretty much everyone.

Cerberus

I wasn't really listening, but I just assumed he was talking about how voters wanted to see face to face with leaders or something—that his problem was grammar and idiom rather than pronunciation. Oh. My. God.

@KitFox Yes, you are no doubt right.

@KitFox Absolutely. It is your most annoying sound!

Present company excluded, of course.

Tom W

12:21 AM

scowl

Cerberus

You too!

KitFox

@Cerberus And that is what I was saying about how much effort people want to put into stretching their speech apparatus.

@Cerberus So you mean that I, personally, have a more annoying sound than that?

Cerberus

@KitFox Yeah. I just don't understand how some people don't care.

Tom W

If you don't like 'th', ask the Welsh

they have about three others

Cerberus

@KitFox Waaahh women! One can never do anything right. "You're so thin" — "So you're saying I was fat?", etc.

@TomW Celtic stuff?

Tom W

12:23 AM

they might disagree with that, depending on how academic they are

Cerberus

By the way, which pronunciation is more common in America, Kelt or Selt?

@TomW I thought they wanted to be Celtic?

Tom W

'K' is the only correct way, despite it not being a real term and invented by historians

KitFox

Seltics for the basketball team. Kelt for everything else.

Tom W

'S' for the scottish football team Celtic

'K' in all other contexts, else you get a smack in the mouth

KitFox

How interesting. Sports teams use the S, everything else the K.

Tom W

12:26 AM

the anthropological term for Welsh-Cornish-Brittany band of folks is 'Brythonic', but don't ask me how you pronounce that

Cerberus

@TomW The only "correct" way?

KitFox

Breadth ironic

Breathy onyx

Cerberus

@KitFox Yeah, I was aware that there was a sports team somewhere that was always Seltic. But I'm sure both K and S are used for the people/language?

KitFox

@Cerberus You asked what we use. I told you.

Cerberus

@KitFox Yes, sure. I was sideways referring to Tom's "else you get a smack in the mouth".

Sideways...well, you know what I mean.

KitFox

12:29 AM

What?

Cerberus

Tangentially.

Hmm still nothing?

falls silent

KitFox

Still nothing what?

I had to respond to a flag.

To drink or not to drink. ponders

Cerberus

Drink!

It is true: most Dutchmen will pronounce bad/bat/bed/bet identically.

Pronouncing bad/bat identically is a beginner's mistake.

But bad/bed is a lot harder for most people.

KitFox

@TomW "Don't panic...I know regex!"

Cerberus

(And I think many an Anglo-Saxon will pronounce the two almost the same in quick, casual speech.)

KitFox

12:36 AM

To drink cider or to drink rum.

Cerberus

Start with cider.

KitFox

@Cerberus I don't.

@Cerberus There will be only one. I have to work tomorrow.

Cerberus

Let me rephrase that, then: there will be situations where you're not sure whether someone said bat or bet in fast speech.

KitFox

Maybe if they were Dutch.

Cerberus

Naaah.

You even mishear can't/can in American English!

KitFox

12:38 AM

That's because the t gets swallowed. A and e are different sounds.

Cerberus

Which pair is generally far easier to distinguish when pronounced normally.

Yes, the t gets swallowed, just as the vowels get slurred.

KitFox

Time to go. Bai!

Cerberus

Hmm it seems the difference between bed and bad is even greater than between bat and bet.

Bai!

TemporaryNickName

2:08 AM

Hi

There was two friends at the entrance of my university with their sick looking vehicle (looks like bmcexperience.com.au/uploads/pics/mini_van_2_02.jpg, but I highly assume it is a rent car) and pretending they are really cool.

Do you think coming to university while wearing WW2 Veteran hat (if your grandpa joined the war he should have it) or riding your dad's police car to university make you look way cooler?

Cerberus

2:23 AM

No.

It's just silly fun.

Like...a joke.

Trying to look cool is probably not the right approach: nice people will realise what you're doing and chuckle.

Cerberus

2:47 AM

> [Nineveh] had more than 100,000 inhabitants (maybe closer to 150,000), ... placing it among the largest settlements worldwide. ... [Enemies] besieged Nineveh, sacking the town in 612 BC, after which it was razed to the ground. Most of the people in the city who could not escape [elsewhere] were either massacred or deported out of the city. Many unburied skeletons were found by the archaeologists at the site. ... [it] remained largely unoccupied for centuries ...

Nineveh

Nineveh (; Akkadian: Ninwe; ; Nīnewē; Nineuē; ; Naynuwa; Nainavā) was an ancient Assyrian city on the eastern bank of the Tigris River, and capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. It was the largest city in the world for some fifty years until it was sacked and completely depopulated by an unusual coalition of Medes, Persians, Babylonians, Scythians and Cimmerians in 612 BC. Its ruins are across the river from the modern-day major city of Mosul, in the Ninawa Governorate of Iraq. Etymology The origin of the name Nineveh is obscure. Possibly it meant originally the seat of Ishtar, sinc...

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…