Grammar goofs and syntax slips

[emwolf]

Cairo (Kay-ro), Illinois, vs Cairo( Kai-ro), Egypt. OTOH, have heard it claimed that the German kaiser is pronounced like caesar was in Julius' day.

having spent some time in that area of Illinois, down there say say "care-oh." Illinois is great for this, however, with San Jose, New Berlin, and Athens all having odd pronunciations.

 

[The Knize]

Thomas Jefferson's estate is pronounced "Mon te chello." Yet it is "Mon ti sello" Avenue in Norfolk, VA.

DuBois, PA, is pronounced, not "du bwah" but "du boys." Wilkes-Barre is "wilkes barry." Houston Street, New York City, is "hows ton" not "huus ton." Worcester, Massachusetts is "wuss ter."

The capital of Vermont is "Mont-PEEL-yur" not "Mont-PEL-ee-YAE." Calais, ME is "callous." DeBordieu, SC is "debby do," or so I read.

On and on. Helps sort out the locals from the outsiders, I suppose.

 

[sneefy]

In MN there is a town called New Prague pronounced 'new prayg'.

Ugh.

 

[BrushJockey]

Ok ... I'm with you but ...

First, there's the difference between classical pronunciation (e.g. "Yoolioos Kaiser" went to England and said "weeny weedy weeky") and the Mediaeval version of Latin pronuncuation with all the soft "c"s and "vee" sounds and such.

Then, there's also the issue of foreign words being adopted into the English language and "becoming English" with a new pronunciation. Should we still be trying to pronounce Wednesday as "Woden's Day", or is "Wenns-dy" good enough?

But yes, we should not rush to the lowest common denominator of pronunciation either.



Oh yes. Most people don't seem to understand the difference, and use the two terms completely interchangeably. Makes me sad.

AFAIK, Latin is Latin.

And I pronounce Wednesday as Wed-ness-day just like I never axe a question

 

[oc_in_fw]

Oh, I see that alot.

 

[The Knize]

Yeah, I saw what you did, too, Nemo!

 

[dfoulk]

Comma's are important....

I like cooking my family and my pets.

is quite a bit different from

I like cooking, my family, and my pets.

 

[sneefy]

Big fan of the Oxford comma.

 

[Doc4]

Big fan of the Oxford comma.

Nobody ever talks about the Cambridge semicolon.

 

[sneefy]

Nobody ever talks about the Cambridge semicolon.

Or the Manchester circumflex.

 

[Doc4]

Or the Manchester circumflex.

London School of Ellipsis ...

 

[sneefy]

The Sorbonne guillemets?

The Berkeley interrobang?

 

[Doc4]

The Berkeley interrobang?

That's Numberwang!

 

[sneefy]

That's hilarious! I've never seen that before.

 

[MVeeI]

Grammar - I can't get no satisfaction. I try.

 

[oc_in_fw]

Comma's are important....

I like cooking my family and my pets.

is quite a bit different from

I like cooking, my family, and my pets.

I have one on capitalization, but it can’t be posted here.

 

[dfoulk]

I have one on capitalization, but it can’t be posted here.

About your Uncle Jack?

 

[oc_in_fw]

About your Uncle Jack?

Yep.

 

[dfoulk]

Yeah, that one is funny.

 

[ike]

It’s or its.

The phrase, “Recommend me” when looking for a suggestion about something.

There or their.

Starting a sentence with “So”.

It would probably just be best if I didn’t dwell on this too much because there is sooooo much to dwell on.