Re: Powers that be were Re: Newbie says hi

On Sat, 2 Nov 2002 17:58:47 -0500, John Cowan <jcowan@...>
wrote:

>Tristan scripsit:
>
>> Quhile?
>
>The old Scots form of "while", probably pronounced /xwail/.
You mean either /hwail/ or [xw@il] don't you?

>> On the word 'stoopit', I guess that's an American way of making 'stupid'
>> stupid, because they can't just do 'stoopid' because that's the normal
>> pronunciation? The word seems to have essentially become 'stoopid'
>> /stu;p@d/ here all the time, even though 'student' is still /stSu;d@nt/.
>
>Umm, I actually saw "stoopit" first in a list posting by an Australian.
That's telling 'em!

>But certainly /stupId/ is the normal American pronunciation.
It is now, but 30 years ago was a NewYorkism. For some of us "stupid" and
"stoopid" are still distinct, [1w] vs. [u:].

>--
>A mosquito cried out in his pain,           John Cowan
>"A chemist has poisoned my brain!"          http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
>        The cause of his sorrow             http://www.reutershealth.com
>        Was para-dichloro-                  jcowan@reutershealth.com
>Diphenyltrichloroethane.                            (aka DDT)

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