Posted by Fiona on December 16, 2006 at 22:51:55 from 213.78.81.169 user Fiona.
In Reply to: ZEE or ZED? posted by Ed Kiser on December 16, 2006 at 04:48:29:
And it's not just pronunciation that I have to contend with each summer when I work for two months in the Near East as the sole Brit (Scot really!) amongst a team of N Americans! Being somewhat perverse (what me?), I won't change my language to fit in with everyone else.....come on, we don't ALL have to be the same! So for me the black 'stone' that is used to make many of the objects I draw is basalt - with the emphasis on the first syllable - rather than b'salt - where the first syllable seems to disappear entirely! And they have to understand that when I wish to correct a pencil drawing, I will ask for a rubber - not an eraser - and that I'm not extending an invitation for something entirely different! And as my language is one (along with most Brits) that is littered with phrases they have never come across before, I spend a lot of my time, even after 10 years of working there, explaining what those phrases mean.
I wonder what AR would have made of an American in the books? I always wondered if Jemmerling was based on an American? I hope those TARy colleagues from the other side of the pond won't take offense at that - it's not meant to be. Just as there are obnoxious Brits, so are there obnoxious N Americans!!