English, the Language.
- Thread starter iBender
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But a small flock would be a reasonable meal...
They are not easy birds to catch in the wild. I imagine catching several at once would be nearly impossible.
They are even smaller in the wild than the cage birds are. i reckon you would need to catch a dozen to give a man a half decent meal.
They are even smaller in the wild than the cage birds are. i reckon you would need to catch a dozen to give a man a half decent meal.
Don't let this thread affect your learning of English - when it gets to conversations like this we're talking accents and dialects rather than language.
For learning how to pronounce words, I think the best option would be to pick one area's voices and learn from those. Because as you can see, English pronunciation varies wildly from place to place!
one of the best jokes about language is:
a linguistics professor is lecturing to a class about double negatives and the fact that they're not seen as being correct in English, but in some languages they are acceptable. He then says, but in no language is a double positive a negative.
a student at the back of the class says, "Yeah, right."
a linguistics professor is lecturing to a class about double negatives and the fact that they're not seen as being correct in English, but in some languages they are acceptable. He then says, but in no language is a double positive a negative.
a student at the back of the class says, "Yeah, right."
It looks as though you're trying to start your own form. Language does not work that way. Conform or be confused and ignored.
Chauncer is actually Middle English. Shakespeare is Early Modern English. Old English (aka Anglo-Saxon), is the language of Beowulf. You wouldn't understand a word unless you actually learn it the way you learn any foreign language (I had it for a semester at the university).Shakespearian English is actually relatively modern, thanks to Shakespeare helping to standardise the language as well as inventing half of it.
If you want real Olde English, check out Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales from the late 14th century.
Here's some Old English:
And hear how it sounds:
http://faculty.virginia.edu/OldEnglish/Beowulf.Readings/mp3/beo01p.mp3
http://faculty.virginia.edu/OldEnglish/Beowulf.Readings/mp3/beo02p.mp3
Think of it like an obnoxious southern accent where every a sounds like two syllables (so it would be Ayan). Then blend it so they're almost together. The best way I can describe it is like a grace note in music. I'd make a sound recording, but I don't have a microphone (so unless you have really good speakers, the file is virtually inaudible).
For me, our sounds like the o in sorry. Hour and Sour are Ow-er and Sow-er (even when I pronounce our with a more typical o, it's much shorter than Hour, which is a distinct two syllable word for me).
Not in the Midwest! All of those words have the same A sound.
I'm not sure why people are so adamant that their accent is the only appropriate one. Haven't they heard anyone sing "I say to-may-to, you say to-mah-to"?
My accent was here first 
The word association thread in the red shirts' lounge has reminded me of another bizarre (to me 
) difference in pronunciation between Britain and America - "herb"
The British pronounce the 'h', the Americans don't and it really sounds weird to me as a Brit to hear 'erb (it really stands out when it's Beverly Crusher speaking
)
) difference in pronunciation between Britain and America - "herb"The British pronounce the 'h', the Americans don't and it really sounds weird to me as a Brit to hear 'erb (it really stands out when it's Beverly Crusher speaking
)
Once in California I had to resort to Italian to make myself understood when asking for water, which Americans appear to pronounce as "wadder" , while we English say "warter" (if you're from the south) or "watter" (from t'north). At least, I think "acqua minerale" is Italian - it was close enough to "agua mineral" or whatever the Spanish actually is.
Well, not all Brits. We Yorkshire folk drop our "h"'s all over the place.The word association thread in the red shirts' lounge has reminded me of another bizarre (to me
The British pronounce the 'h', the Americans don't and it really sounds weird to me as a Brit to hear 'erb (it really stands out when it's Beverly Crusher speaking
It does sound strange to me to hear some Americans dropping the "h" in "herb" (while really stressing the "e") when they don't drop it for other "h" words.
The word association thread in the red shirts' lounge has reminded me of another bizarre (to me
The British pronounce the 'h', the Americans don't and it really sounds weird to me as a Brit to hear 'erb (it really stands out when it's Beverly Crusher speaking
I wouldn't believe anything Crusher said if life depended on it.
Herb is herb
Erb (non-existent/significant word) is erb.
This is how it is pronounced in Pennsylvania and basically anywhere that isn't New York, New Jersey, Maryland, or the Deep South.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/En-us-water.ogg
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