OT for Lia and other spellers

Those two sound the same to me. I can't make them into two
different sounds. If we ever meet, I will avoid the word tour
altogether!! We will go on a viewing of LQS, not a tour of LQS, okay?
PAT in VA/USA



Phyllis Nilsson wrote:
One that drives me nuts is pronouncing tour as "tore" instead of "toor".

Sharon Harper wrote:

what about pasgetti instead of spaghetti? Or aks instead of ask? But
what
about the plain old fashioned forgetting to say please and thank you????
Drives me nuts. mmm-hmmm, it does.

Linda:
I don't hear any difference either. BUT, I must take you to task
on "NY accents and the way words should be pronounced." What
makes OTHER people's words better than NY words?? Sure, there are
some OBVIOUS boo boos (like saying ax for ask, which is NOT a NY
issue) but by an large, the emphasis on certain vowels is a
regional thing, and IMO should not be cause for censure. I
learned would to speak in Queens and Nassau, but never never
never never said/say the hard G in Long Island!! (BTW, That is
would be found in some ethnic groups more than others.) MSM was a
stickler for careful pronunciation and grammar. We always
said/say: LON(g) EYE-lynnd. Interesting thread though. I hope the
spell check doesn't go nuts here!

PAT, now in Virginia (Vir-gin-YAH, not Virg-in-EE-a!!)

WitchyStitcher wrote:

I'm sorry, but I don't see the difference. May be because I am from
Lawn Guyland.

I teach a developmental reading class and when doing phonics
instruction, I often have to demonstatrate the difference between our
NY accents and the ways words should be pronounced. I have them do it
- it makes them laugh - it helps them remember.

By the way, how to you spell "OPOSTA"? Used in a sentence, "I am
oposta take the bus home from school." - this from a 10 year old.

Linda
PATCHogue, NY
On Sun, 16 Oct 2005 00:54:40 -0400, Phyllis Nilsson
wrote:


One that drives me nuts is pronouncing tour as "tore" instead of "toor".

Lia:
That show sounds fascinating! If you get the information on it,
please post here. Thank you.
PAT

Julia Altshuler wrote:

This off topic subject about regional pronounciation and the decline of
standards in spelling, grammar and punctuation comes up all the time on
usenet, and I enjoy it every single time. We never conclude anything,
but I love reading about all the little misunderstandings and varieties
in interpretation. Then last night when my sleep schedule was off, I
was up in the middle of the night flipping through channels and caught a
bit of a PBS special on exactly this topic. The host of the show was
traveling around North America interviewing people and getting opinions
on changes in written English, standard for newpaper publications, the
effect of hip-hop music on the English language. It was like History of
English but up to date and ever so interesting. Even after checking the
tv schedule, I don't know what it was called so I may have to ask for
help from my reference librarian to see if he knows and get the library
to get it for me. It must have been a re-broadcast since it wouldn't
have aired for the first time at that hour.


--Lia

To me, the word couple USUALLY means "two." It may mean a pair,
such as an engaged couple, or two individual items. The type of
item would determine exactly what I would do. (If asked to bring
a couple of quilts to a meeting, I would probably select just
two, but a couple of needles would probably mean I'd pack more
than two.) Recently I've been reading and enjoying Rita Mae
Brown's books about Foxhunting in Virginia. These are fictional
accounts, mostly mysteries, but contain fascinating and accurate
information about the Foxhunt culture. I have recently learned
that the Hounds are always counted in "Couple" rather than
individual measure. So, a Master of Foxhunt will say "Five
Couple," not "Ten Hounds." Every particular group has it's own
language, and I find it pleasurable to read about it. We quilters
certainly have our own vocabulary!
PAT in VA/USA

Julia Altshuler wrote:

Here's a regional usage that I haven't seen discussed befo What's
the meaning of "couple"? Is it closer to two or few?


I grew up in Miami. "Couple" meant a vague small number. It be two,
but it could also be one or 3. Who's counting. A couple of candies
meant a small handful, smaller than a few, not a definite number.

....cut...
So here's the question: What does "couple" mean to you? Is it "a few"?
Or "two"?


--Lia

Twoish!! lol Estelle uk
"Donna in Idaho" (remove spam) wrote in message
...
I always thought couple meant two! Guess I never lived in a part of the
country that consider couple as few.
--
Donna in Idaho
Website: www.LinusIdaho.org

"AliceW" wrote in message
. ..
Couple=two, but that's just me.

--
Alice in NJ, Royal Cybrarian
http://www.ourcyberfamily.us/
"Just about the time a woman thinks her work is done, she becomes a
grandmother." Edward H. Dreschnack



"Julia Altshuler" wrote in message
...
: Here's a regional usage that I haven't seen discussed befo What's
: the meaning of "couple"? Is it closer to two or few?
:
:
: I grew up in Miami. "Couple" meant a vague small number. It be two,
: but it could also be one or 3. Who's counting. A couple of candies
: meant a small handful, smaller than a few, not a definite number.
:
:
: I went to college in New Orleans. I was out of college and chatting
: with a friend there from New Jersey. I don't remember how we got on
the
: subject, but he insisted that "couple" meant "two" as in a pair. He
was
: adamant that it couldn't mean anything else. When two people are
: dating, they make a "couple," and anything else is kinky. We were
: always getting into competitive discussions like this, and I normally
: won the ones about words so I couldn't have been more surprised when I
: got the dictionary and found that one of the definitions of "couple"
was
: "two items of the same kind; a pair." Boy do I hate it when I'm sure
: I'm right then I'm not.
:
:
: Fast forward 25 years. I work in a wine and cheese shop in New
England.
: The customer was buying a number of items that I was getting for her
: and putting in a basket. She asked for a couple of packaged sausages
: that were behind the counter. As I was reaching for them, I asked her
: how many she'd like. She was a nice lady and so not truly perturbed,
: but I thought I caught a touch of "what sort of idiot are you" in her
: voice as she answered "two." (At that point I laughed and explained
: that I'd only recently been coming to the conclusion that "couple"
could
: have a regional meaning; she understood. The conversation turned to
: regionalisms, and I liked her more than ever.)
:
:
: Later that week I was talking again with my friend who was visiting.
: She's originally from Hattiesberg. We met in New Orleans. She's lived
: up here where I do in the Northeast and now lives in London.
Naturally,
: we were talking about New Orleans and her family down South. All of a
: sudden I asked her the meaning of "couple." She laughed and said
"well,
: that depends." The way I grew up it was an indiscriminate number, a
: small one, but not definite, but up here (shrug) ..." And she let her
: voice trail off.
:
:
: It's the funniest thing. I don't have what you would call a Southern
: accent, not from Miami. I adopted "y'all" and "all y'all only in New
: Orleans. I understand when a casual acquaintance, male or female,
: possibly a clerk in a store or a server in a restaurant, calls me
: "sweetheart" or "doll" or "babe," but those words don't trip off my
: tongue with any degree of ease. And yet somehow I got the Southern
: definition of "couple" not the Northeastern one.
:
:
: So here's the question: What does "couple" mean to you? Is it "a
few"?
: Or "two"?
:
:
: --Lia
:

I think I was watching "Do You Speak American?" http://www.pbs.org/speak/

Since I didn't catch the beginning or the end, I'm not sure, but I think
that's it. The guy on the picture at the web page looks like the host
of the show.


Elsewhere in this thread-- I've been keeping up with Tulane's rebuild
effort: http://www.tulane.edu/


"Yat" comes from "where yat?" as in "where are you at?" or "where are
you?" but the word has come to mean a person who would use that turn of
phrase: "He acts like the snooty college professor now, but deep down
he's still a yat."


--Lia

When I still lived in Indiana, one of my co-workers thought we pronounced
spatula funny (she was from Iowa, if I remember correctly). We pronounced
it "spat' u la", she pronounced it "spa two' la".

In Indiana we called the indentation running along the side of the road a
ditch, here in Idaho they call it a borrow pit!

Many parts of the country have different pronunciations for the same word or
different names for the same object. Depends on the ethnic and/or ancestral
home of the people in that area.

Several years ago I bought a Reader's Digest book "Success with Words." The
book examines the various regional dialects in the United States and where
those dialects came from. The beginning of the introduction says: "What
precisely is Standard English? Dan Rather's speech or William F.
Buckley's - or Billy Graham's? The usage of Time magazine or of the
Congressional Record? Considering the variety that exists within English as
spoken in North America alone, just what standard is THE standard? What
authority makes it standard, and where does that authority come from?"

The book divides the country roughly into 5 districts - Western, Northern,
North Midland, South Midland, and Southern plus many sub districts within
the 5 main districts. For instance, districts in the Northern include
Hudson Valley, Inland Northern, New England and New York City.

Pretty interesting reading. I had forgotten I had this book, think I'll
start reading it again!

--
Donna in Idaho
Website: www.LinusIdaho.org

Aha!.....My sil told me that in FL you don't fix supper as we do
here in the north...apparently they prepare supper ...!..
It does sound better. Mary


BTW...what does "yat" mean?.....

As in: "Where yat"?

Also, women would say that they were
going to do their
"tradin' " ...instead of grocery shopping.
"Go make groceries" is another term that seems to
be unique to the area. here. Or, "Fixin to go make groceries".
It's a fun area that I've truly enjoyed.

Terri

Always two. (confirmed by my trusty dictionary!)

However, if someone has 'a couple of drinks' it probably means they
had slightly more than two, but want to imply that they only had two!

A couple of pairs of socks = four individual socks.
--
Sally at the Seaside~~~~~~~
http://community.webshots.com/user/sallyswin

On Sat, 15 Oct 2005 20:30:42 -0400, Julia Altshuler
wrote:

Here's a regional usage that I haven't seen discussed befo What's
the meaning of "couple"? Is it closer to two or few?


I grew up in Miami. "Couple" meant a vague small number. It be two,
but it could also be one or 3. Who's counting. A couple of candies
meant a small handful, smaller than a few, not a definite number.


I went to college in New Orleans. I was out of college and chatting
with a friend there from New Jersey. I don't remember how we got on the
subject, but he insisted that "couple" meant "two" as in a pair. He was
adamant that it couldn't mean anything else. When two people are
dating, they make a "couple," and anything else is kinky. We were
always getting into competitive discussions like this, and I normally
won the ones about words so I couldn't have been more surprised when I
got the dictionary and found that one of the definitions of "couple" was
"two items of the same kind; a pair." Boy do I hate it when I'm sure
I'm right then I'm not.


Fast forward 25 years. I work in a wine and cheese shop in New England.
The customer was buying a number of items that I was getting for her
and putting in a basket. She asked for a couple of packaged sausages
that were behind the counter. As I was reaching for them, I asked her
how many she'd like. She was a nice lady and so not truly perturbed,
but I thought I caught a touch of "what sort of idiot are you" in her
voice as she answered "two." (At that point I laughed and explained
that I'd only recently been coming to the conclusion that "couple" could
have a regional meaning; she understood. The conversation turned to
regionalisms, and I liked her more than ever.)


Later that week I was talking again with my friend who was visiting.
She's originally from Hattiesberg. We met in New Orleans. She's lived
up here where I do in the Northeast and now lives in London. Naturally,
we were talking about New Orleans and her family down South. All of a
sudden I asked her the meaning of "couple." She laughed and said "well,
that depends." The way I grew up it was an indiscriminate number, a
small one, but not definite, but up here (shrug) ..." And she let her
voice trail off.


It's the funniest thing. I don't have what you would call a Southern
accent, not from Miami. I adopted "y'all" and "all y'all only in New
Orleans. I understand when a casual acquaintance, male or female,
possibly a clerk in a store or a server in a restaurant, calls me
"sweetheart" or "doll" or "babe," but those words don't trip off my
tongue with any degree of ease. And yet somehow I got the Southern
definition of "couple" not the Northeastern one.


So here's the question: What does "couple" mean to you? Is it "a few"?
Or "two"?


--Lia

I guess it depends on what part of Florida you live in. Not only do we 'fix'
a meal here (even if it isn't broken!), we have breakfast dinner and supper
(though 'lunch' has crept its way into most vocabularies), we mash buttons,
and people have young'uns. I love regional dialects...
--
Debi

Ever stop to think, and forget to start again?


"MB" wrote in message
...
Aha!.....My sil told me that in FL you don't fix supper as we do
here in the north...apparently they prepare supper ...!..
It does sound better. Mary


BTW...what does "yat" mean?.....

As in: "Where yat"?

Also, women would say that they were
going to do their
"tradin' " ...instead of grocery shopping.
"Go make groceries" is another term that seems to
be unique to the area. here. Or, "Fixin to go make groceries".
It's a fun area that I've truly enjoyed.

Terri