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Re: Probability of Article Replacement?

From:Joe <joe@...>
Date:Wednesday, February 26, 2003, 16:33
On Wednesday 26 February 2003 1:11 pm, Tristan wrote:
> Joseph Fatula wrote: > > You might be interested to know this: > > I often thought that BBC English was quite similar to American English > > and that that's why we could understand it. But in talking with some > > friends who are here from Mexico (and whose American English > > comprehension is _very_ good), they mentioned that they had a _very_ hard > > time understanding what Brits were saying. We were watching some movies, > > and one of them asked me what we called the particular language they were > > speaking. They were under the impression that it was some closely > > related language like Catalan is to Castillian (Spanish). > > Which is just another part of the debate about where languages end and > dialects begin (and if a dialect is just a language with a army/navy, > there are a lot more English-derived languages around than I thought :P) > > And if they had trouble understanding RP (BBC English), I wouldn't send > them to Australia any time soon. You sometimes hear the ee-vowel being > pronounced with a somewhat fronted [@\] vowel gliding onto an [i]-like > vowel. Which is just as well, what with the ear-vowel being a > monophthong, making the system something like: > > i i: u > e e: ei @ 8: @u o: oi > & &: &i &u O O: > a a: ai au > > bid beard hood > bed bared bead bird booed board Boyd > had bad paid bowed nod gone > bud barred bide load > > (Perhaps add /u:/ 'fool' and /ou/ 'bowl' to that, depending on if [5]s > are pronounced. /&/ is probably not [&]. I don't know where exactly /@u/ > fits. The /a/-series looks like it probably wants to move forward. Oh, > and [u] doesn't sound anything like some English [8] pronunciations or > American [Y](?) ones.) > > (But from what I've heard of it, Cockney is much scarier. But at any > rate, the non-rhotic vowels are different enough from the American ones > that rhotic American who had never come across non-rhotic speech would > probably have a hard enough time with it.)
Cockney( though not the kind of old) is slowly spreading throughout Southern britain. In fact, I once caught Prince Edward using a Glottal Stop. And no, we do not use rhyming slang or say "guv'ner", unless we're being facetious.

Replies

David Barrow <davidab@...>
Tristan <kesuari@...>