I convinced them I needed it by telling them I was Australian.

You can "pop" a baby in Cambridge, England, but not in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

And then there are the obsolete words in our language:

Which of the following two sentences, featuring underlined words, is obscene?

A) When he was a piss-prophet he was a shittle fartles, but now that he makes spiss pissabed wine he is generally regarded as geason and by no means unpregnant.

B) The bronstrops inquired whether the franion would like to smick and halch a tentiginous thuften, but he refused because he had no desire to commit eaubruche against his muskin with a drossell.

The correct answer is B.

The first sentence relates that a man who earned his living diagnosing urine samples (piss-prophet) was an unstable, troublesome person (shittle fartles), but now that he has switched careers and is making thick dandelion (spiss pissabed) wine, he is considered to be a wonderful (geason) man and by no means inept at business (unpregnant).

The seemingly innocuous second tale has a prostitute (bronstrops) approach a ladies' man (franion) and try to entice him to kiss and embrace a lusty maiden (smick and halch a tentiginous thuften). He refuses becuse he doesn't want to commit adultery against his sweetheart with a slut (eaubruche against his muskin with a drossell).

The underlined words are absent from most dictionaries. They can all, however, be found in The Oxford English Dictionary (OED), followed by the notation "obs.," the lexicographic abbreviation for obsolete (not obscene )

@ wombat_1

I threw that out there for Jafo. Let's see if he takes the bait.

I speak a mixture of English and American English based on far too many import tv-series and movies, enhanced with random anglifications of Dutch to keep the mind occupied.

When I were in Great Britain, I didn't have problems with english language. Only British had problems with my english

'we Brits'.....Get it right...

And why was there a smilie after "us Brits"???

As someone who origates from Europe, I have needless to say many in my family that had to 'learn' the American-english language, and every single foreigner I have known or come to know all say that it is truly the hardest language to learn from any other. Simply for the manner in which letters are grouped together to forn a particular sound. As most other languages, words are simply and plainly pronounced as they are spelled. While we have that, but not in all cases...there are many expections, by the letters that are grouped and the like. It really is a hard language. However...

English is no longer spoken. It should be called 'slangish' at least here in the states.

It's all slang...and modern man in this technological day with all of it's feats and accomplishments has managed to make a mockery of the language. Truly incredible, we can take computers to the levels we have...taken science to stages unimaginable at one time...yet we have somehow managed to take a language and do horrifying things with it. And I do speak for most of us that speak American-English. I don't when was the last time I've heard words that were spoken as they should be.

"gonna"--'should'a'--'yup'--'lemme'--'we'd'a'--'bout'--'he/she'd-a" and that's just a minute few.

It's a disgrace.

your not even close to eBonics yet Lady

Whether or not English is easy depends on your native tongue. If you speak a germanic language English is easy, if you speak a roman language it gets a bit harder, but it's still the same language family.

If, on the other hand, you speak Mandarin, English can indeed be damn hard, because it completely unreleated to your own tongue.

, Lady A: have you listened to some Brits who definitely do not speak the Queen's (or BBC) English? Some of them are almost virtually unintelligible except perhaps to each other. So it's just not an American "thang."

I've wondered if some of the difficulty of English for some is due to its origins. From Old English (a Germanic language) with the later influx of French (from the Normans). And then there was the "Great Vowel Shift" which where pronunciation of vowels drifted away from those of the continental languages as explained here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/hub/A964578 and http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~gene/languages/vowelshift.html .

And add to that the fact that standardized spelling and pronunciation was a development that never entirely worked out the way it should have (in some people's opinions anyway): http://www.unifon.org/trouble-with-spelling1.html

Slang, whether English or American, is not a new thing by any means. There has always been a common vernacular (with regional differences and dialects whether in England or America and then of course there are the Aussies ) along with whatever formal standard of language and pronunciation considered "proper" at the time.

For example, many years ago an English professor of mine averred that if one wanted to have an idea of how the great Shakespeare's words were pronounced in his own time one should go to Appalachia. For certainly Shakespeare's actors weren't speaking with the plummy pronunciations we now associate with "Oxbridge" graduates and BBC productions of his plays. For example, one could practice here: http://www.renfaire.com/Language/

In Shakespeare's time spelling wasn't standardized and furthermore, word smithing was a truly creative act: Shakespeare is credited with the introduction of approximately 3,000 words into the English language. And just to think, all that beautiful English prose spoken with the pronunciation of American hillbillies.




[Message Edited]

Eee, tha dunt know nowt. If'a spoke reight 'ere, nobdy'd know wharra'wu talkin abaht. Tha's gorra mek thi'sen understood, no matter we'ar thy art.

I suspect only BoXXi can read that

Yes, we have our own language here in Yorkshire, an' reight prowd we ar'n'all. Of course, I can still speak English when required

Ah, slang. What would we do without it? Although condemned by purists as a bastardization of language, slang is a monument to the ability of language to evolve. By cutting through its euphemistic and pretentious nature, slang refreshes language by supplying substitutes for words that have grown weary. Over time, too much linguistic familiarity breeds listlessness. Slang is a response to our need for variety.

However, the purity of language is not just a 'concern' of the English speakers. Take French, for example. In 1635, L'Académie Français was established under the auspices of Cardinal Richelieu. Its mandate was "to labour with all possible care and diligence to give definite rules to [the French] language and to render it pure, eloquent and capable of treating the arts and sciences."

How well has it fulfilled its mandate? Well, it certainly has established definite rules, ossified though they may be. And no one can claim that French is not eloquent or capable of treating the arts and sciences. L'Académie, however has not rendered French "pure." To have done so, one would have to have performed linguistic alchemy. The notion of pristine languages is as fictitious as the concept of distinct races.

The French word for language, langue, takes the feminine gender, and if the truth be known, the lady was never pure. French was long ago 'corrupted' by borrowings from Gaulic (a Celtic language) and Germanic and later Italian, Spanish and Arabic. Ironically, many of the 'corruptions' are English words previously borrowed from French. Adulterations such as rosbif, tennis, parquez, and stop were originally French words, smuggled into England centuries ago.

[Message Edited]

#7 by Admin Jafo - 8/9/2003 7:55:15 AM
'color' and 'colour' are not 'flavours'...the only correct one is 'colour'....



You're sure about that, check out photoshop

Fuzzy. Ah reckon ah ken a mite a yur lingo.

Eee, tha dunt know nowt. If'a spoke reight 'ere, nobdy'd know wharra'wu talkin abaht. Tha's gorra mek thi'sen understood, no matter we'ar thy art.

Nah, 'srite Fuzzy, I cun understan' it, und ima 'Ampshire 'Og.