Re: USAGE: Language revival

And Rosta wrote:

> > 'Twas always /'fOrId/ when I was a youngster, just as tortoises were
> always
> > /'tO:t@zIs/ (or /'tOrt@zIs/ among the old-timers :)
>
> I was horrified when my son started saying /'tO:tOIz/, but for me they're
> /'tO:t@s@z/.
For me, /tOrtIsIz/.  Regularized Inglish (which was published in 1959,
and so reflects older versions of RP and GA) uses the spelling "tortus".

> Isn't there some pun in one of the Alice books about "tortoise"
> and "taught us"?
Just so.  When reading _Alice_ aloud to my daughter, I went to the other
extreme: pronouncing "taught us" unnaturally as /tOrd Vs/ rather than
the natural GA /tO*@s/ (* = flap).

> They're nigh on universal among the young. In class, I ask "Who says [X]"
> (where X is /Ofn=/, /fOrId/, /tO:t@s/); noone answers & I say "really?
> noone?" and then someone says "my granddad does" & one thinks sic transit
> gloria monday.
As I told the man who bemoaned the downfall of Latin teaching:
tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis.  (Skewered him on two levels, eh.)

> Never heard it. But I'm a /weIsk@Ut/ sayer.
/wEskIt/ for me, but it's not really live vocabulary.

> How about "turquoise"? We're
> probably united in our disgust at /'t3:kw&z/~/'t3:kwA:z/, but I'd have
> thought I'm close to being the only /'t3:kwOIs/ sayer.
/tr,kojz/, with no labialization.

--

John Cowan      http://www.reutershealth.com            jcowan@reutershealth.com
Schlingt dreifach einen Kreis vom dies! / Schliesst euer Aug vor heiliger Schau
Den er genoss vom Honig-Tau / Und trank die Milch vom Paradies.
                -- Coleridge (tr. Politzer)