Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
It’s Vlaining Outside
I just looked out my window and saw it was vlaining. Now, you’re probably thinking, “Stad, it’s pronounced raining.” I know. I was just thinking about our daughters when we first brought them home from Russia.
Although they learned English fairly quickly, there were some words they had trouble pronouncing. “Rain” was “vlain” for a while (there must have been a lot of Vladimirs working at the orphanage). Another word was “punkuter” for “computer.” Middle daughter used to say something was “cruge” (huge). Later, she started using the more common “ginormous”—and still does.
I remember when I was growing up, I had trouble with the number “three.” I always said “free” instead. It drove my mother crazy because I could pronounce “throw” correctly. To this day, I still intentionally mispronounce the word “champagne” like The Continental on SNL—”cham-pag-ne”—as a mnemonic whenever I have to write it (as I did just now).
What words did your kids have trouble with? And do you have any clever mnemonics you use to help with spelling troublesome words?
And it’s still vlaining . . .
Published in General
Since “lemon” is the common example used in early reader alphabet books, it would no surprise me that a child would see the letter “L” and immediately think “lemon.” Or “Llama.”
My prof in statics was from India, and he had a very thick accent. A couple of weeks into the class, he started going on about “Newton’s football.” It took us a week to figure out he was saying, “Newton’s First Law.”
My best friend when growing up, also a Carole but with an “e”, she used to say “axed.”
This was long before Chicago neighborhoods became integrated. She was as white as white could be.
Later on, in my teens, I realized that this pronunciation was always drilled out of black people who aspired for a career at any big city news station.
I still thought of it as endearing.
Still do.
Well acronyms in general are enough to make even a skilled mechanic cranky.
This looks like a job for Accent Man!
(I could have sworn I had him in my image library. Hold on, I know he’s around here somewhere. . .)
Ah, yes, the cartoon superhero I came up with while bored in university classes and listening to instructors with thick accents. Completely created from accents, he can parse through any linguistic overlay.
My brothers used to say “pissgetty.”
If I’ve got this right, just about the only two languages in the world that use the “th” sound are English and Arabic. Hebrew used to use the “th”sound but changed it to an “s” sound more than a hundred years ago. “Sabbath” (or Shabbath) is now pronounced Shabbos.
Maybe it’s “wired?” English is so confusing.
In modern Hebrew, the sound is still a “T,” not an “S”–at least with modern Israelis.
You’re not helping me here, Steve.
Louie Lebeau pronounces it that way (with an “L”) on Hogan’s Heroes. A Frenchman. They don’t know how to pronounce or spell anything!
I forgot about the pronunciation divide between Ashkenazy Jews and Sephardic Jews.
My brother used to say “hockabber.”
Not Lycanthrope anymore?
You just have to remember the rule they taught in grade school. Everyone seems to forget the last bit.
I before e, except after c, or when sounding like a, as in neighbor and weigh, unless it is word that is weird.
You’re lucky. I never knew about it in the first place . . .
Then we should throw in the Mizrahim, too.
Ditto . . .
If by that you mean you never knew about that either, in the first place, meaning you’re referring to/repeating your previous comment not “dittoing” the comment you just replied to, I suggest going with “ibid” which I’ve also started using for that occasion.
Huh?
Don’t ask, man. It might lead to an answer.
Sorry for answering, but…
It looked to me like by “ditto” you meant “the same answer I gave in my previous comment, #76, ‘You’re lucky. I never knew about it in the first place . . .'”
But “ditto” usually means “copy the most recent comment, ‘Then we should throw in the Mizrahim, too.'”
If that’s what you meant, then fine. It just didn’t seem that way to me. And if you were referring back to YOUR previous comment, #76, “You’re lucky. I never knew about it in the first place . . .” then I would go with “ibid” referring to YOUR previous/most recent comment, not just the one immediately preceding by someone else.
Okay, I give! I meant “ditto” as in, “I didn’t know about Mizrahim either.”