more regional dialect discussion

Adrian_Thompson wrote: I suppose English Vs American is too easy. Lorry = Semi Lift = Elevator Chemist store = Drug store (always found that one hilarious as young kids. What the hell legal would you buy at a DRUG store!) Knickers = girls panties Trainers = sneakers Pumps (abbreviation of plimsolls)= A sort of athletic shoes similar to Chuck Tailors Dressing Gown = Bath robe Holiday = Vacation Rubber = Pencil eraser Lollipop man/woman = School crossing guard Lolly = sucker Badge = pin Pavement = Sidewalk ( had a friend who helped out at her kids school and took them on a walk to a nearby park. Getting ready to cross the road she told the kids to stay on the pavement, the look of horror on their little faces was apparently priceless. Skip = Dumpster Bungalow = Ranch house (Imagine my confusion when I moved here and looked at real-estate listings and saw all these Ranch's. I was perplexed where all these horse farms were) Dustman = garbage man Plaster = band aid plaster = cast Knock up = call on a friend Solicitor = Attorney Estate agent = Realtor Duel Carriageway = divided highway Main road = highway Motorway = freeway or interstate And of course Aluminium to aluminum And finally Zed not Zee You all know the car ones so no point there, I'm acclimatized to most American car parts, but I still call Sills, sills not rocker panels. I still can’t understand why Americans mispronounces Lieutenant as ‘loo-tenant’ rather than correctly as ‘Left-enant’

Aren't there funny differences in how numbers are spoken as well? For instance, if a house number is 1557, don't you guys say One-Double-Five-Seven, while we might say "Fifteen-Fifty-Seven"?

Here's one I've been wondering about - I always pronounce the adjective "composite" (compo-sit) and the verb "composite" (com-pos-it) differently. E.g. "this compo-sit dataset was made by com-pos-iting the results of two independent studies ..." but I've noticed some people on youtube use the com-pos-it pronunciation for both. What do you guys do?

JamesMcD wrote: Aren't there funny differences in how numbers are spoken as well? For instance, if a house number is 1557, don't you guys say One-Double-Five-Seven, while we might say "Fifteen-Fifty-Seven"?

We say'Fifteen-Fifty-Seven'. But house numbers bring up something else interesting. In the UK street numbers go 1,2,3,4,5,6..... with odd and even on opposite sides of the road. When still in the UL and I saw an American address I honestly wondered how long the berkeleying streets were!

Addresses vary depending on the location. In a lot of places, it's what you describe.

Around here, we have a grid system. North/south roads are numbered based on their distance from the Utah border - 28 Road is 28 miles from the border, 32.5 Road is 32.5 miles, etc. Numbers on the east-west roads have the first two digits being the road to the west. Odd and even are on opposite sides of the street. So you know that 2843 E Road is between 28 and 28.5 or 28 and 29, as there may not be a 28.5. Quite useful when you figure it out. I haven't paid any attention to see how we identify the numbers on the north-south roads.

This also means we have things like G.4 road, which is G 4/10ths...

I don't know what the heck they do in the Northwest. Those street numbers are LONG. Same with California. It's to the point now where I can estimate a general area of the country based on a street address alone.

Compo-site. Northern Illinois.

Hyundai. Is it Hoon-die, Hi- n-die, Hon-die?

Appleseed wrote: Hyundai. Is it Hoon-die, Hi- n-die, Hon-die?

Hun-day or Hun-Die around here.

Adrian_Thompson wrote: I still can’t understand why Americans mispronounces Lieutenant as ‘loo-tenant’ rather than correctly as ‘Left-enant’

Some of us in Canada say it correctly, but we are a dying breed. I blame all the US TV that we watch.

Appleseed wrote: Compo-site. Northern Illinois. Hyundai. Is it Hoon-die, Hi- n-die, Hon-die?

high un die or hon day or even "that damn korean thing" are all pretty common around here

The hose bib on the side of the house: faucet, spigot, or bib?

In reply to revrico:

Spigot. The first time I heard it called a bib I couldn't figure out what the hell the guy was talking about.

Appleseed wrote: Compo-site. Northern Illinois. Hyundai. Is it Hoon-die, Hi- n-die, Hon-die?

I always say HI-OON-DAY! But I say it with a very *oriental accent.

*I've been binging on Motorweek retro reviews all week and John Davis used to say orientals all the time back in the eighties. I think it's pretty hilarious.

NGTD wrote:

Adrian_Thompson wrote: I still can’t understand why Americans mispronounces Lieutenant as ‘loo-tenant’ rather than correctly as ‘Left-enant’

Some of us in Canada say it correctly, but we are a dying breed. I blame all the US TV that we watch.

Isn't there a difference between how the various services pronounce it?

Thought of another one: "awhile." Ostensibly intended to mean 'I'm going to do X while you do Y,' but in conversation can really be used when one intends to do any task. "I'm going to go now the grass awhile." I hear this a LOT.

Spigot around here, though more often pronounced "spickit."

Brett_Murphy wrote:

Marjorie Suddard wrote:

Adrian_Thompson wrote: I still can’t understand why Americans mispronounces Lieutenant as ‘loo-tenant’ rather than correctly as ‘Left-enant’

Uh, because there's no "f" in the word? Margie

Explain why we say "Erb" when it is spelled herb, then. (queue Eddie Izzard)

I got nuthin' there. I pronounced the "h" for years because that, like so much of my vocabulary, was a reading word.

Margie

Nick (LUCAS) Comstock wrote:

Appleseed wrote: Compo-site. Northern Illinois. Hyundai. Is it Hoon-die, Hi- n-die, Hon-die?

I always say HI-OON-DAY! But I say it with a very *oriental accent. *I've been binging on Motorweek retro reviews all week and John Davis used to say orientals all the time back in the eighties. I think it's pretty hilarious.

What does Pat Goss call them?

Ive read five pages of this and i have one question...

People in florida speak English? Around me its all Spanish and Portuguese.

Man, I'm glad I live somewhere people talk normal. Must drive y'all crazy trying to decipher what people are saying.

Furious_E wrote: Spigot around here, though more often pronounced "spickit."

Yes, that is the correct pronunciation.

In reply to Nick (LUCAS) Comstock:

No that's a hose bib.

In reply to java230:

I thought that was a southern thing but I see you are in WA. Spicket is the correct term however.

I think Nick and Java are playing a bastardized game of "Knifey Spoony."

Here's one: Down south, like in Nashville TN, they call them "ink pens." Not pens, ink pens. And I asked my friend the one day why he called them "ink pens" but didn't say "lead pencils" His response was "Well, there's really no other kind of pencil" and I responded "There's no other kind of pencil either" He followed that up with some form of "Berkeley off".

Another southern one: Instead if dragged or drag, it's "drug." "I drug it out of a ditch" "We raced and I drug his ass by about 5 car lengths"

People in Middle Tennessee also tend to just drop letters or entire syllables out of location names. Lebanon is Leb'non, Murfreesboro is Murphysboro and most confusingly, Shelbyville is pronounced like Shovel.

On that drives me bat E36 M3 crazy here in SE MI and I want to know if people do it in other part of the country. With several well-known companies people tend to speak of them in plural. 'I work at Fords' or 'I'm going to Meijers', note they are not referring to the possessive Ford's or Meijer's. When you point it out to people they are normally confused and/or offended. It drives me crazy.

Northern Illinois , and we use drug out.

Appleseed wrote: Northern Illinois , and we use drug out.

Yeah, I grew up in IL knowing "drug" as a verb long before ever hearing it as a noun.

These town names down here in MS will drive you crazy: Saucier is pronounced "So-sure", but Gautier is "Go-shay". D'Iberville is 2-distinct words "Dee Iberville", and Biloxi is "Bill-uxy".

Although we had Hoopeston just up the road from us in IL...it's pronounced like "hook" not "hoop". It's a good way to distinguish the non-locals though.