Re: YAPT: Dutch ij and ui

Quoting Tristan Mc Leay <kesuari@...>:

> Because you can go to another country in a day! Having a one-day
> excursion to another country from Australia would be a tiring task and
> would involve lots of airport and not much country.
When my parents visited last weekend, we made a one-day trip to the Netherlands
_and_ to Belgium. Don't waste your hate on the small offenders!

Linguistically, the trip was of limited interest. As usual, I had to patiently
explain to a few people (this time my sisters, who should know better) that I
don't actually speak Dutch; as a first, I also had to deny knowledge of French.

When leaving Maastricht for Liège, it took me a while to figure out why there
weren't any road signs to there, but plenty to "Luik". My sisters taunted me
mercilessly for it - as if they did any better!

Since it was mentioned earlier in this thread, I might mention I first heard of
the blast in Enschede from a friend of mine who pronounced it [e:n'xe:d@],
which sounds so outrighteously Swedish that for most of the conversation I
assumed it was in Sweden.

> 'Hate' is such a harsh word that I have no idea of what concept it
> expresses. Rather than letting a perfectly useable word go to waste, I*
> have re-applied it as a euphamism for something that is normally
> expressed using words like 'jealous' or 'envious' but isn't quite that.
> It's always clear what it means in person because it's said with a happy
> tone of voice but English doesn't have written tones of voice... Please
> do not feel offended, I wouldn't hate anyone I didn't like!
>
> *: I didn't do it consciously. I have no idea whether it's common or if
> I invented it or something else, but I do it and it normally doesn't
> cause misunderstanding, so I keep doing it.
I've been familiar with the usage for long as I can remember. I figure it must
be pretty widespread.

                                              Andreas

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