Posted by Ed Kiser on July 29, 2005 at 04:39:28 from 152.163.100.6 user Kisered.
In Reply to: Regional dialects posted by paul on July 26, 2005 at 04:09:19:
It is one thing to see strange words in print and to try to fathom their meanings, but it sometimes is not all that clear as to the proper pronunciation of these strange expressions.
I can imagine the horrors a non-English speaking person has to go through to try to learn this magnificent language of ours, as it is so full of exceptions. Just look at the variety of ways "ough" can be pronounced. There seems to be quite a few different sounds for that set of letters. bough. thought. through. rough. though. thorough. "Bough wow," said the dog, then he said, "rough, rough."
Take the simple word, "ROW". A BOW can be used to propell an arrow. A boat can propelled by the use of a pair of oars as one ROWs the boat. The front of the boat is the BOW. Yet the arrow shooter BOW and the front of a boat are pronounced quite differently. Then there is the "ROW" which means to get into an argument with someone, to get into a ROW with someone over some difference of opinion. Is that pronounced like the arrow shooter, or like the front of a boat? That knot that John used to moor the Goblin was a BOWLINE. Is that BOW part pronounced like the arrow shooter or like the front of a boat? My dictionary shows it with the long "o" which is like the arrow shooter, but maybe our Brit friends do it differently. It is an American Dictonary, Webster's.
This new word, SCROW, that is being discussed recently: A CROW is a black bird. Put "S" in front and we get SCROW, but is that vowel sound the same as in CROW? or does it sound more like "WOW"? Is SCROW somewhat related to a ROW (an argument) and is therefore pronounced in a similar manner?
The two opposite sides of the Atlantic do have sometimes different pronunciations that can be confusing. In the audio tapes of the Ransome stories done by Woolf, we hear the Brit way of speech. But imagine my confusion in WD, when he spoke of a BEACH END BOY being anchored as the tide rushed by. At least, that is what he SAID. I would have said a BOOEY (trying to spell here my pronunciation). The spelling is referring to a buoy. But that image of a young lad chained to an anchor was a bit in error.
But then, the persuit of All Things Ransome has always been quite an educational adventure. It certainly has given me a greater understanding of my English cousins and enhanced my appreciation of that land and their ways. I may call them "oddities" but these differences are truly marvels of shades of differences in these two societies. What is ODD today, with explanation, turns into a growth of understanding, and to an appreciation of that other way of doing things.
You have all taught me so much; there is so much more to learn.
And that is what we are all about...
Ed Kiser, South Florida, speaking "merican..."