Introductions and Welcomes Showing 1,801-1,850 of 2,568

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Hahahaha!! They won't....we have a breeding programme!

[M]

Mwahahahahaha! (as the kids in the writing group say)

[Jana]

<- Jana, new here, just looking around.

[Ken, Moderator]

Welcome, Jana. I see you are from New Milford. Turns out, I know more than a few New Milfordites (but, not to worry -- you're not one of them).

Hope you enjoy the site.

[M]

Hi, Jana! Welcome to Language & Gourmand.

[Jan]

Language and giggles!

[M]

Real men don't giggle.

[M]

I was hoping you wouldn't bring that up.

[Scribble]

Gabi wrote: "Don't be frightened, dear. We are all fairly harmless."

Said the big black wolf to Red Riding Hood.

M wrote: "I was hoping you wouldn't bring that up."

In the cupboard? Up? What, exactly?

Welcome to Linguistics and Gravity, Jana!

[M]

I have no idea. I just try to look as though I know people.

[Scribble]

why did you take out the hastings bit?

[M]

When you spend your life wearing khakis, penny loafers, and blue oxford shirts, you have many adventures that people who wear varied and colorful clothes can't imagine.

[Savvy]

Welcome!

And, rarely, it's Literature with Gravitas!

Okay guys and gals....cupboards and closets are verboten!
(though I would love to hear M's giggle!)

[M]

I have never giggled in my life.

[Ken, Moderator]

Think I scared her away?

[Jana]

no didn't scare me away, I had to go to bed. My work start at 6:30am.
OK about me. I am on this earth for few decades, 2 of them in USA. English is my second language. I love to read, and that's how I learned English by listening and reading, no school. Don't be afraid to correct my grammar and spelling. I'm still working on it.

[Carol]

Jana welcome to Language & Goonies. As you can see we are a diverse lot.

[Scribble]

Kitty wrote: "Jana welcome to Language & Goonies. As you can see we are a diverse lot."

(loud guffaws from the rest of the audience!)

[Carol]

We didn't scare David (Dafydd), M, or G N off so we are good to go.

[Ken, Moderator]

Sheesh. Another youngster. I mean, TWO decades? Wow. Old. And only two years in the States? Clearly all the families I know in New Milford would be news to her. Boring news, that is.

[Jana]

Newengland wrote: "Sheesh. Another youngster. I mean, TWO decades? Wow. Old. And only two years in the States? Clearly all the families I know in New Milford would be news to her. Boring news, that is."

20 plus years in States, 15 years in New Milford.

[Ken, Moderator]

Oh, then maybe you DO know some people. Anyway, I was just there for lunch on the green (well, near it) last month. You know, near the silly cannon, which is near the silly gazebo.

[Jana]

yes I know "The Green", I was there this Saturday at the Pumpking festival.

[Ken, Moderator]

Pumpkin, unless the gourd was declared king (then we can have fun and call it a "pumpking").

Um, you DID say you wanted corrections, right? Some people like it; others take umbrage. I like it. So when I mess up, blow the whistle.

[Carol]

Ditto for me. I like to be corrected so I don't sound like an idiot.

[Jana]

thanks, yes I do want corrections, how else will I learn? I always make this mistake or I write pumkin too sometime.

[Ruth]

My grandmother, who was from Connecticut and thereabouts, always used to say "punkin." Is that a regional variation, or just her?

[Carol]

My grand mother was from Kentucky and she said punkin also. English, Irish, American Indian descent maybe. We grew up saying pumpkiyn.(Ohio) We put a y in there.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Lots of people seem to pronounce it 'punkin'.....all over the world.

[Ken, Moderator]

I think it is a Native American Indian word. There's a fish called "punkinseed" hereabouts. Think it's a regional name, though. Some call the little guy a sunfish.

[M]

Punkin is easier to say than pumpkin, just as Jimson is easier to say than Jamestown. Pronunciation evolves along the path of greater ease and simplicity. Various societal institutions have had an unfortunate, ossifying influence on the natural course of pronunciation. As Ruth adduces with her comment about her grandmother, and Debbie, with her comment about the widespread pronouncing of pumpkin as punkin, public education and the mass media haven't entirely succeeding in arresting the natural development the word's pronunciation.

Punkin punkin punkin punkin punkin! Long live dialects, words that aren't pronounced as they're spelled, and colloquialisms that defy the simplistic categories of grammar.

[Scribble]

M wrote: "Punkin is easier to say than pumpkin, just as Jimson is easier to say than Jamestown. Pronunciation evolves along the path of greater ease and simplicity. Various societal institutions have had an ..."

Just happens faster than a hundred years ago...regression, perhaps?

1640s, alteration of pumpion "melon, pumpkin" (1540s), from M.Fr. pompon, from L. peponem (nom. pepo) "melon," from Gk. pepon "melon," probably originally "cooked by the sun, ripe," from peptein "to cook" (see cook (n.)). Pumpkin-pie is recorded from 1650s. Pumpkin-head, Amer.Eng. colloquial for "person with hair cut short all around" is recorded from 1781.

[Jan]

M wrote: "Punkin is easier to say than pumpkin, just as Jimson is easier to say than Jamestown. Pronunciation evolves along the path of greater ease and simplicity. Various societal institutions have had an ..."
It's interesting your use of the word 'ossifying', M. And why is it unfortunate? For ease of understanding and communication, it could be argued that it is indeed fortunate. And who can say what is the natural course of pronunciation? If it were not for widespread literacy and education, the speed of language change would have no doubt been far greater and we would not have been able to even begin to understand Shakespeare. Would there even have been a Shakespeare? The printed word and education have surely led to many wonderful literary achievements. An unfortunate use of the word unfortunate, methinks.

[M]

It's too early in a Saturday morning for me to charge into that fray. I haven't even put on my armor yet. When I got up, I looked out the window and saw some small dragons trotting by, so I flung a spear.

I need to go on a quest, but I can't decide whether for kolaches or biscuit sandwiches. My friends from Dunedin, who call biscuits scones, had a curious adventure at the supermarket when we all lived in Galveston. They had gone looking for biccies. Now, who ever heard of something like that? The poor clerk at last showed them the aisle where the biscuits were. It turned out they had been looking for cookies, I guess to go with coffee.

[Jan]

They must speak the same as Aussies. We love shortening words and then lengthening them again by adding 'ie'.
So come down and have a good old Aussie barbie. At Christmas, we open Chrissie pressies. But it's hot in December and you have to watch out for mossies. How about a cuppa and a biccie?

[Ken, Moderator]

The pernicious habit is spreading. My daughter refers to California as "Cali," for instance. She also says, "Whatev" a lot.

God help us (and if He won't, any bystander will do.)

[M]

Do Aussies add but to the end of sentences?

[Ken, Moderator]

Goats do.

[M]

Coyotes got my goat.

[Ken, Moderator]

Howl (beat generation classic)

[Ruth]

Mossies? What the hell is a mossie?

[Ken, Moderator]

Mosquitoes? Just a guess, mate.

[[deleted user]]

Pathfinder Squadron

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Mossies are mosquitoes (Aussie mossies are the size of jumbo jets)!
Aussies do add but to the ends of sentences, but. But Kiwis don't.
And scones are only called biscuites in America....they are scones everywhere else in the English-speaking world. A biscuit is round and flat and crisp....chocolate chippies for example! And we call 'em biccies down under.

[Jana]

M wrote: "Do Aussies add but to the end of sentences?"

I don't know about that. I met few "ozzies" (I'm sure I spell that wrong but thats how I hear it said) as they like to call themsefs and when they say "no" it sounds like "noaeyui"

[M]

That's interesting! Where's Jan? Jan, would you render that in IPA?

[Carol]

Or Gabi, I think they are snoozing.

[Scribble]

out of the woodwork for a minute...it's no way.

[Carol]

G N wrote: "out of the woodwork for a minute...it's no way."

Are you responding to her noaeyui GN, is it no way you are talking about Jana?

[Scribble]

aaiiyyeee....sorry.

Jana's phonetic description of 'no way'. The 'way' rises in tone in the middle and the 'y' is quite drawn out.