Re: Monkeys pr moles? (was ZEE or ZED?)


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Posted by John Lambert on December 17, 2006 at 09:21:03 from 24.80.105.135 user John.

In Reply to: Monkeys pr moles? (was ZEE or ZED?) posted by Robert Hill on December 17, 2006 at 00:15:35:

Robert,
What you describe is called a vise-grip in Canada. What are they called in the U.K., I wonder? Notice how neatly I avoided that England vs. Britain pitfall. Thank goodness for all these variations. My fear is that in time the influence of TV and movies will make us all speak with the same accent and the same vocabulary. How horrible that would be. Nothing for Ed to puzzle over. Who was it who said America and Britain (U.K) are two countries divided by a common language. I was in Washington state a few weeks ago and was ribbed by an American friend about the way Canadians say "schedule". Actually Canadians say it the same way as Americans: "skedule". Because I hang on to my way of pronunciation, like Fiona, I still pronounce it the way I waw first taught: "shedule". I also say "nitch" for niche and "sism" for schism, whereas Canadians say "neesh" and "skism". English is a great minefield of nasty surprises and sudden glorious panoramas. It has the biggest vocabulary of any language and can express more fine shades of meaning than any other language. This wonderful flexibility is the heartbreak of people trying to learn the language. But what a language!


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