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So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

2jakes

I'll Lock Up
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9,680
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Alamo Heights ☀️ Texas
Yep. It's so trivial and stupid but somehow it always manages to get my goat.

Let me ask you this.
If you were raised in a place where it was just the opposite, & humor or favorite was considered the
favourite way.

Would it get your goat as well ?

About the only thing that might get my goat is people who use
San Antone for San Antonio.

As far as pronouncing of cities, like Los Angeles, San Francisco, for example,
I can understand that most do not have the ability to roll the tongue
to say it correctly.
 
Last edited:

2jakes

I'll Lock Up
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9,680
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Alamo Heights ☀️ Texas
^^^

What is amusing for me is one time a fellow from South America was speaking about cats
in the company of anglo speaking audience.
He kept using the word kitty or kitties.
Someone kidded him in a friendly manner, that only children referred to them as kitties.

My Spanish friend asked me later why.

Since in the Spanish language, a cat or kitten is referred to as gato or “gatito”.

Same as a house would be “casa”,
but we say “Casita” meaning to show affection.

Since he was speaking with affection about his cats, he would say “kitties”
His “gatitos” regardless of how old the cats may have been.
 

GHT

I'll Lock Up
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9,793
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New Forest
Something trivial that irks me is when people say "everythink" rather than "everything". I have a friend who does it all the time and no matter how many times I tell him to stop, he never does.
What you are describing is something common in the East end of London, where I come from. It's an almost deliberate accent that marks you as London working class, and proud. Rightly so, but the speech shouldn't suffer as a result. Cockneys will also cut short the letter 'T' when it's at the end of a word. But I do agree with you, it grates on the ear to hear something and nothing as sumfink and nuffink. And as for that abbreviated 'T,' have you ever heard a cockney say: "Do you know what I mean?" It comes out as: "No wo' I mean?
It's only a theory, but I wonder if the television soap opera, Eastenders is to blame. It's not a program that I could watch, but impressionable young people watching it, might repeat sumfink from it. "No wo' I mean?"
 

Mr. Pickett

Familiar Face
Messages
52
Location
Hampshire, England
Oh, you still believe we speak the same language?

Whenever given the choice to select "American English" or "British English", I'll always select British English without fail. Even if it means a long time scrolling to find it. :D

What you are describing is something common in the East end of London, where I come from. It's an almost deliberate accent that marks you as London working class, and proud. Rightly so, but the speech shouldn't suffer as a result. Cockneys will also cut short the letter 'T' when it's at the end of a word. But I do agree with you, it grates on the ear to hear something and nothing as sumfink and nuffink. And as for that abbreviated 'T,' have you ever heard a cockney say: "Do you know what I mean?" It comes out as: "No wo' I mean?
It's only a theory, but I wonder if the television soap opera, Eastenders is to blame. It's not a program that I could watch, but impressionable young people watching it, might repeat sumfink from it. "No wo' I mean?"

I'm familiar with the cockney accent, but never really connected it to my friend, being we live in Hampshire. However he has mentioned that he often has Eastenders on in the background in his house. Maybe you're onto something, my china plate.
 

GHT

I'll Lock Up
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9,793
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New Forest
It annoys me when people sound the final "R" on words like "humor." Everybody knows the correct pronunciation is "humah."
It cracks me up when I hear Hugh Laurie, as House, use the American term 'toomer' for tumour. Brits use a dipthong for tumour. It sounds like tchyumour, in Britspeak.
I find it amusing, not for mocking an accent, but because Laurie is so often portrayed on British TV as a pompous twit.
 

KILO NOVEMBER

One Too Many
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1,068
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Hurricane Coast Florida
He does an American accent better than most British English speakers. Most of them seem to assume we all talk like drawling cartoon cowboys. Sort of the way all Americans doing British accents try to sound like Bertie Wooster.

I used to watch that show when it was in first-run. I remember thinking early on in the course of the show that House's accent was noticeably from "nowhere" USA, but over several seasons, it acquired an unremarkable middle-Atlantic USA sound, and I ceased to notice it, except how different it was from Bertie Wooster.
 

GHT

I'll Lock Up
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9,793
Location
New Forest
He does an American accent better than most British English speakers. Most of them seem to assume we all talk like drawling cartoon cowboys. Sort of the way all Americans doing British accents try to sound like Bertie Wooster.
You are right of course, it's embarrassing to hear a Brit sounding like Scarlett O'Hara. One of the best British accents that impressed me was that of Renee Zellweger as Bridget Jones. If you can do it, do it, if not, be yourself.
By the way, to my ear, Laurie's American accent sounds a lot like Pa Bear in The Hillbilly Bears.
 

Edward

Bartender
Messages
25,081
Location
London, UK
So true !

The grocery store:
In the past I would bend down & pick the item at the bottom of the shelf
without giving it a second thought.

Nowadays, I look to see if it’s closer to where I can reach it, or seriously consider
if I really need it that bad for me to bend down. :(

Luckily, or because of my cycling & tennis activity, I’m not over weight.
But nevertheless, it’s a challenge for a tall person to bend down and
come up easily.

Since I turned forty, I notice I feel the need to vocalise when I stand.

Are you referring to spelling ?

Like “tyres” instead of tires ?

BTW:
I enjoy listening to a British accent.

I'm always bemused by this Americanism - "British accent". Do Sean Connery and Tim Curry sound the same to American ears?
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
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33,755
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Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
I think most Americans assume there are two variations of British English -- Received Pronunciation and Cockney, and when attempting to sound British they combine the two. I say, guv'nor.

I've worked on and off for nineteen years with a former BBC correspondent who was doing, and still does, a show on the CBS radio network here in the US. I write her scripts, and specifically don't try to write for her accent, which is girls-boarding-school RP. But I picked up enough of it from listening to her that I was able to impersonate her on the show once when she had laryngitis, and as far as I know, nobody was the wiser.
 

Mr. Pickett

Familiar Face
Messages
52
Location
Hampshire, England
I think most Americans assume there are two variations of British English -- Received Pronunciation and Cockney, and when attempting to sound British they combine the two. I say, guv'nor.

I've worked on and off for nineteen years with a former BBC correspondent who was doing, and still does, a show on the CBS radio network here in the US. I write her scripts, and specifically don't try to write for her accent, which is girls-boarding-school RP. But I picked up enough of it from listening to her that I was able to impersonate her on the show once when she had laryngitis, and as far as I know, nobody was the wiser.

You've checked the viewing figures too? Could explain why nobody noticed. ;)
 

p51

One Too Many
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1,119
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Well behind the front lines!
This IS a disturbing realization.. And I can totally relate... I used to play outside barefoot all the time... Now I feel like I'm going to step on glass or something weird.... I wonder why that happens when people grow up....
That's me for sure. I grew up in Florida, where you could go barefoot (which I did) pretty much all the time. During the summer months, I never wore shoes unless we were going somewhere in the car. Even on my bike, which ad spikes on the pedals to keep your shoes from slipping off, I'd go barefoot.
Now, walking around barefoot except inside the house feels odd to me. Grass feels like I'm walking on needles. But then again, I now live in the Pacific NW where it's rarely comfortable enough to go barefoot except indoors.
 

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