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

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? Wow. I
guess this comes of having History (Black people lived here and were
happy. White people came & gave them chicken pox or shot them, and they
died.  Gold was found, so some Yellow people came, too. The White people
thought it might be a good idea to form a single nation, so they did. Some
people had a disagreement in Europe, so in a show of mateship, a lot of
people went and got themselves killed, which is as good an excuse as any
for a day off.* They made some biscuits, too.** Those people in Europe
don't get on very well, so more people went and got themselves killed;
then the Japanese joined in, and so now we needed to kill them, or if that
fails give up the top third of the continent. The Americans stop the
Japanese, which is a good excuse to stop being friends with the
disagreeable English and start being friends with the agressive Americans.
More White people come over, bringing along with them a funny way of
speaking, taking over fish and chips shops and giving the m souvlaki.
Later, some more Yellow people come over, bringing along with them another
way of speaking and taking over the fish and chips shops and giving them
dimsims and spring rolls. One of our favorite holiday resorts goes *boom*.
And that brings us to today.) (Politically less-than-correct Australian
History in one parenthesis and two footnotes.)

* Anzac Day mouns/cellebrates Gallipoli, our first battle as a nation.
** Anzac Biscuits.

(I would've thought that a utility room would be practically another word
for a shed/garage/workshop, except on the inside of the house if you
hadn't told me otherwise :)

--
Tristan                  <kesuari@...>

Yesterday I was a dog. Today I'm a dog. Tomorrow I'll probably still
be a dog. Sigh! There's so little hope for advancement.
                -- Snoopy

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