american or british

I seem to remember having exercise books in school. Synonymous with workbooks, which was the more common term. Those would have questions and exercised pre-printed in them, with spaces for you to write your answers. A notebook, on the other hand, was full of totally blank paper.

The New Jersey Turnpike is also famous because it is the basis for most jokes about New Jerseyites:

The state gem is concrete.

The state tree is dead.

The state bird commutes.

Oh, you're from New Jersey? Which exit?

Everybody has to have someone to make fun of. NJ is ours.

> When I went down to Wales over Easter, I went along the main motorway type road along the North Wales Coast...the A55...and it's officially called the North Wales Coast Expressway. That's the only road called that in the UK as far as I know....which isn't all that much. Whatever, the traffic congestion was horrendous....but it was a holiday weekend.

In Birmingham there is the Aston Expressway. It is unusual in that it has 7 lanes; direction of traffic on the middle lane is reversed for each rush hour.

Actually after the colonies Britain decided to changed their accents so I suppose that would make the American accent first.

We didn't all get together one day and randomly 'decide' to change our accents... LOL.

Would make the American accent first what?

I think DS means "older".

Question for the British :

Do the British understand Chris Brown's song "Run it" or do they have some trouble? I ask this question because I think that he uses too much American terms in his song.

"too much American terms in his song." sorry, too many

I personally wouldn't favor on over the other but on how well I can learn the dialect

<<Guest Tue Apr 18, 2006 2:08 pm GMT
The American rhotic accent. All other accents are underpronouncing the most important letter in the language.>>

Could you explain what do you mean by 'underpronouncing'? It appears to be that you have a very strange idea about accents, a very ridiculous conception in my view. Besides, why do you blaim people for leaving out one letter, when you omit almost every diphthong in the language?? can you explain that for us?
What should I think of your saying 'aluminum', eh? weren't you taught at school about the correct pronunciation of that one? There are actually some more countries apart from the USA that speak English, you know that?
Hence, you can't kill someone because they say 'important' with a non-rothic accent and a glottal stop, unlike you, saying it with an 'r' and a flapped 't'.
I think you need to learn some about English phonetics, man.

Besides, why a rhothic American accent, why can't it be a Canadian, accent. Or much, much better an Irish accent, which is loved by many people.

Pete

Pete, I would just ignore comments like that. You're right that "Guest's" comments are ridiculous but there's no reasoning with trolls. As this site goes, trolls are best ignored :)

<<Hence, you can't kill someone because they say 'important' with a non-rothic accent and a glottal stop, unlike you, saying it with an 'r' and a flapped 't'. >>

You can't be sure about that, actually. I'm an American and I don't have a flapped 't' for "important," but rather a glottal stop followed by a syllabic nasal stop. So it's [Im"pOr\?n=?], as I say it. This is because -/t@n/ in unstressed position commonly goes to [?n=]. Compare this to my "imported" [Im"pOr\4Id], which does have the 'flapped t'. A couple other pairs:

"butter" ["bV4@`]
"button" ["bV?n=]

"kitty" ["k_hI4i]
"kitten" ["k_hI?n=]

<<What should I think of your saying 'aluminum', eh? weren't you taught at school about the correct pronunciation of that one?>>

I'm sure you were speaking rhetorically but variations like that aren't "incorrect" but perfectly valid.

>><<What should I think of your saying 'aluminum', eh? weren't you taught at school about the correct pronunciation of that one?>>

I'm sure you were speaking rhetorically but variations like that aren't "incorrect" but perfectly valid.<<

Yeah, I suppose you're right Kirk. Something that I really find annoying is the way in which some English dialects have this intrusive 'r' feature, placing an 'r' after vowels like, the schwa and another vowel and some rounded vowels, making some phrases sound damn odd, like:

I toured Africa(r) and America(r) in 1990.
I saw(r) it happen! --- (where saw sounds a bit like 'sore')
I told her to be(r) at eleven. --- (where be sounds like 'beer' with a rhothic accent)
the idea(r) of

I know understand why some poeple hate the English because of not pronouncing r's where they are, and placing r's where there aren't. Of course that's a point of view. hehehe I suppose that's as valid as the aforesaid 'aluminium' stuff.

I personally avoid such pronunciations. My accent tends to be non-rhothic but saying 'I saw(r) a woman walking down there' with an intrusive r would be quite confusing for other non-native speakers. Especially for those who are not used to such thing. For us clarity is very important indeed.

it says: I know understand...

It should say I now understand...

Trying hard to imagine that accent, soinds koind or werrst country to moee, ooo ar oo ar!

<<I personally avoid such pronunciations. My accent tends to be non-rhothic but saying 'I saw(r) a woman walking down there' with an intrusive r would be quite confusing for other non-native speakers. Especially for those who are not used to such thing. For us clarity is very important indeed.>>

I personally find 'intrusive r' to be amusing and/or odd but it doesn't usually cause communication problems. There've been times when I've heard British people say stuff like "the media-r-is" (which sounds like "the meteor is" to my ears!) but it makes sense in context. My friend lives with a British girl whose name is Nia, and some of Nia's friends are also British. My friend says when Nia's British friends stop by they often ask "Is Nia-r-in?" which my friend finds amusing. The funny thing is most people who do this don't even realize it unless you point it out.

Anyway, while people whose dialects have no 'intrusive r' may find it odd, it too is a perfectly valid feature of some native varieties of English and I think it's interesting looking at the historical changes that led to its development.