Re: "write him" was Re: More questions

Stephen Mulraney wrote at 2003-11-28 00:05:32 (+0000)

 > And even English people don't seem to be able to agree on what
 > "Warning: Adverse camber" means on a road sign :)

I don't drive, but I'm pretty sure I know this.  Normally, when
there's a curve in the road, the road surface slopes down toward the
inside of the curve, to help prevent the cars toppling over if they go
round it too fast (I can't think of a concise way to express the
physics of the situation, but it should be fairly obvious).  An
adverse camber slopes the other way, so you have to be particularly
careful.

 >
 > One further example, in pronunciation. The county-name _Berkshire_
 > presents some difficulties for me: it's said it should be
 > pronounced _Barkshire_, but that's no good to me, since I speak
 > rhotic English, and the vowel mutation seems inextricably bound up
 > with the flavour imparted by the non-rhotic 'r'. Basically, I can
 > pronounce it like it's spelt, in my own accent /bEr`kSIr`/ which is
 > definitely wrong, or I can go the whole hog with ~ /bA:kS@/, which
 > sounds absurd coming from my mouth, and that's not even thinking
 > about the oddness of adopting an English accent for a single
 > word. The compromise form, /bar`kSIr`/ (note the front _a_) seems
 > equally bizarre. Sigh.
 >

I'd go with /bar`kSIr`/.  No-one will object if you insert an /r/ -
most non-rhotic thinkers think they pronounce one anyway.  You'll just
be pronouncing it with an accent, whereas /bEr`kSIr`/ would be
pronouncing it _wrong_.  That is, you should try to map the phonemes
from one dialect to the other... actually, wait a minute, how do you
pronounce "bark"?

 >
 > Ah, I think _stop-cock_ *might* also refer to the "floating hollow
 > ball on an arm" thingy in a toilet cistern, too. Properly, it would
 > refer to the stop-cock activated by the arm when the ball floats up
 > too high, but, hey, I don't know much about plumbing.
 >

No, no, that's a ballcock.

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