American English/Japanese English/English English

[ramchop]

[kamome]

Are you saying that the British pronounce news as "nyooz"? I didn't know that...but being exposed to Japanese-English has done nothing to change my pronounciation of English (except to make me more introspective about it).

[ramchop]

Are you saying that the British pronounce news as "nyooz"?

Yes. Well, everyone except for maybe Michael Cain in Cockney accent mode.

How about when speaking Japanese, do you speak Katakana or English?

[NeoNecroNomiCron]

Are you saying that the British pronounce news as "nyooz"? I didn't know that...but being exposed to Japanese-English has done nothing to change my pronounciation of English (except to make me more introspective about it).

Yes I know that a lot of 'english' people nyooz. I myself pronounce it more like nieuuse(but very slightly/softly) very short e at the end.

Why how do ameriKans say it? Its not a word I use terrible often.

Besides the posh english way of pronounciation is probably the closest to being correct. I myself have a very bad accent but love an accent like that english bird that was in "friends"

[NeoNecroNomiCron]

How about when speaking Japanese, do you speak Katakana or English?

I speak in osaka-ben because my peers are from osaka and they are teaching me how to say everything wrong.

[Big Booger]

so do the non-Americans say:

Knew? dew? Shrew?

like Knyoo? dyoo? Shryoo?

And to be an ass:

sew?
Syoo?

LMAO


And where does the Y sound come into the pronunciation of that word?

because checking on the etymology of the word:

[Middle English newe, from Old English nwe, nowe. See newo- in Indo-European Roots.]


Where the hell did the Y sound come from, unless the British screwed it up after a few years of stealing it.. LOL

I heard the guy on NHK, I think he is British who does the 7 o'clock news translation, he pronounces it that way.

The only world I know of that contains that sound that even Americans pronounce with the y is:

few as in fyoo

but I really don't know why...

should be foo according to the etymology:

Middle English fewe, from Old English fawe. See pau-1 in Indo-European Roots.]

Anyone with more knowledge care to explain it?

Also I think some New Englanders pronounce it the British/Aussie/Kiwi way, though I cannot be for certain because I don't live in New England.

[kamome]

I've heard that the word "news" originally meant "a deep harbor or sound where ships could anchor". Anyone else hear this?

[Caustic Saint]

I've heard that the word "news" originally meant "a deep harbor or sound where ships could anchor". Anyone else hear this?

I've hear it two ways:

1. It's what's new, hence "news"

2. It stands for the cardinal compass points - North East West South - news from all over.

[ramchop]

The only world I know of that contains that sound that even Americans pronounce with the y is:

few as in fyoo

but I really don't know why...

So does that mean American pronounce the word "pew", as "POO"?

[Big Booger]

pew,
It should be poo ramchops.

I mean look at the word. Where does the Y sound come from?

Interesting nonetheless.

[Caustic Saint]

The English Language

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes;
but the plural of ox became oxen not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
yet the plural of moose should never be meese.

You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice;
yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?

If I spoke of my foot and show you my feet,
and I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and three would be those,
yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
and the plural of cat is cats, not cose.

We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
but though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
but imagine the feminine, she, shis and shim.

Some other reasons to be grateful if you grew up speaking English:
1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce.
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture.
5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
8. At the Army base, a bass was painted on the head of a bass drum.
9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object.
11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
13) They were too close to the door to close it.
14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18. After a number of Novocain injections, my jaw got number.
19) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
20) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
21) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?
22) I spent last evening evening out a pile of dirt.

Screwy pronunciations can mess up your mind! For example...If you have a rough cough, climbing can be tough when going through the bough on a tree!

Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England. We take English for granted.

But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?

Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend?

If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?

If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.

In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?

Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wiseguy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm goes off by going on.

If Dad is Pop, how come Mom isn't Mop?

[bejiita]

Now that was great Caustic. This should actually be taught in every English class in the first hour and tested immediately! I wonder how many students would drop out after trying to memorize each of these rules.

[kamome]

Great friggin' post, Caustic! Did you make up the stuff that came after the poem?

[ramchop]

Great friggin' post, Caustic! Did you make up the stuff that came after the poem?

Google Search "how come Mom isn't Mop" 130 hits.

(and it's Mum not Mom!) :P

[Caustic Saint]

Great friggin' post, Caustic! Did you make up the stuff that came after the poem?

I wish I could take credit for it. It popped up on an ESL board I'm on.

My favorite example of confusing English is the title of an early Dr. Seuss book that collects his early work and has lots of WW2 era political cartoons he did in it.

The title is "The Tough Coughs as He Ploughs the Dough." It's out of print (and has been for decades) and the only reason I have a copy is I stole it from a library. No, I'm not ashamed of that one bit, as I knew it'd be the only way I'd ever get a copy.

[Big Booger]

Why steal when you can get it on Amazon for $2.99?
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0688065481/qid=1071490674//ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i0_xgl14/103-2149174-0710220?v=glance&s=books&n=507846


Just yanking your twig.

[Caustic Saint]

I got my copy in the days before there was an Amazon.com.

[blackpenny15]

Dont you think there are more americans in japan, i think so, germans or americans, i didnt meet many british in japan, appart from this one guy in gas panic who was about 19 or something, im not sure, must me in uni or something. I think most japanese learn american english rather than british english, like that girl on mini moni, who btw is she ABJ or just learnt really good english?