Re: USAGE: [T] -> [f] (formerly Chinese Dialect Question)

David Barrow wrote:
> Tristan McLeay wrote:
>
>> On Sat, 4 Oct 2003, James Campbell wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>> Tristan praatha »
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> Ah, yes, I think I remember having this discussion on the net with
>>>> another
>>>> American (you funny people ... learn to speak the language! :P). The
>>>> laundry here is where you keep the washing machine.
>>>>
>>>>
>>> Up/over here (i.e. in England) that would be the utility room (which
>>> sounds
>>> like it should be where you keep the gas, water and electricity), unless
>>> your house is too small to have a whole room dedicated to dirty
>>> water, cat
>>> litter and coal, in which case the washing machine is in the kitchen
>>> (like
>>> mine).
>>>
>>>
>>
>> Now, that's a foreign idea. A house too small to fit in a laundry?
>>
> A sentence that would have ESL learners asking what is the right size a
> house should be to fit it in a laundry.  And thinking it's not just
> English spelling that's insane. :-)
Native speakers too. That seems like a pretty awkward phrasing.