That crazy English language!

My daughters sent me these two fun language time wasters articles. The first, sent by Dänika, is a looooong rhyme about the inconsistencies of the English language. Copied here is just a wee sampling of what you'll find if you click on the link.

From:  The Poke - Time Well Wasted 

...River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age...
                        (...and lots more.)


This one, sent to me by Angela, is entitled Dialect Survey 

There is a long list of words and phrases, and it's fun to compare your pronunciation with that of your friends. I notice that even within Wisconsin, pronunciation can be different depending upon what part of Wisconsin one is from. And of course we're such a mobile society that it's really fun to hear how others pronounce things. I remember when I first heard my southern Californian cousin pronounce the word 'brown.' For the life of me, I cannot figure out how a linguist might write that sound, but in recalling it, I hear it coming from the mouth of Eliza in My Fair Lady, or Tuppence, calling me to come upstairs at night. :-) (Just kidding! no offense intended to you dear California bloggers!!)

A friend of ours from Florida once phoned, and in the middle of our conversation stopped and said, 'I just love hearing your Wisconsin accent!' (which of course seemed funny to me, for we don't think we have an accent. :-)

AND, I remember the first time I heard someone pronounce the word insurance with the stress on the first syllable. In NW Wisconsin, we say, inSURance, not INsurance. It's that type of thing that simply fascinates me. Then again, I am probably easily fascinated. Winters are long in NW Wisconsin.

SO, How do you pronounce:

1.aunt
2.been
3.the first vowel in "Bowie knife"
4.caramel
5.the vowel in the second syllable of "cauliflower"
6.the last vowel in "centaur"
7.coupon
8.Craig (the name)
9.crayon
10.creek (a small body of running water)
11.the first vowel in "Florida"
12.flourish

and you will find MANY many more if you follow that link above. I hope you enjoy this stuff as much as I do.

I realize that this doesn't come anywhere near the differences between American English and British English. The other night when I was RE-watching Downton Abbey, Daisy one of the young maids said to William, 'Dun be such a spalled spot.'*

LOVE those accents! :-)

And on this topic, might I suggest two of my very favorite movies: Stone of Destiny and Mrs. Brown. No, you will not find them at Mr. Movies. You're more likely to find them on Netflix or on Amazon.com.   Move over Mr. Darcy.

Another language topic that interests me is regional phrases. For example, when I was little, my cousin from Milwaukee would come to the NW Wisconsin area where my family and my grandparents lived. My cousin, when visiting us, would say, 'We went by Grandma's today.'  I always wondered why on earth they would drive the 6-7 hours and not actually go TO Grandma's!'

Now go track down 'Mrs. Brown.'

AND, if you have some regional phrases you'd like to share -  or things that should be on these lists but aren't - Please share them with us!

*'Don't be such a spoiled sport.'

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