Subj : Re: How British is that? To : Angus Mcleod From : Finnigann Date : Fri Jun 24 2005 12:46 pm -=> Angus Mcleod wrote to Finnigann <=- AM> Re: Re: How British is that? AM> By: Finnigann to Angus Mcleod on Fri Jun 24 2005 00:40:00 > > Helium - Hell-ium > > Ballast - Ba-LAST > > > > I thought you only misspelled words and not muck up the pronounceation. B > > was wrong, it seems. > > > > The announcer was a young female so she can be forgiven I suppose. > > AM> Who is "you" in that penultimate sentence/paragraph? > > YOU - british accented folks, that's who _YOU_ is. > > Yanks get a bad rap for all sorts of things (not denying any guilt, you > understand) but somethings are right and some are NOT. She was the later. > ... "Don't be so humble - you are not that great." - Golda Meir AM> The British do not mis-spell. Since it was the British that AM> *invented* spelling, any errors are obviously being made AM> elsewhere. As for pronounciation: Laying aside your claims of invention... AM> Helium is pronounced AM> HE- as in HE, she or it... AM> LEE- as in finaLEE... AM> UM- as in sUMthing With you here, but that's NOT how she was pronouncing it. I thought EVERYONE promounced as you have demonstrated it here. Alas not so. HELL-ee-um was her best effort. (Even her british accent couldn't be an excuse.) AM> Ballast is pronounced AM> BA- as in BAt... AM> LA- as in LAtte... AM> ST- as in STing BAL- as in BALance LAS- as in LASsie come home T- as in time for TEA Now I can't recall how she mangled ballast (BTW I'm talking about the wieghts used to maintain the level of floating vehicles (ie ballons and submarines)) Perhaps English wasn't her first language and she just had the misfortune of learning it on some island of little consquence (that oweing to it's alligence to a certian shrub like person of little consequnce and great power) AM> .... "It's funny how all the guards disappeared so fast." Garibaldi --- MultiMail/Win32 v0.46 þ Synchronet þ Bits-N-Bytes BBS Onehellofa BBS bnb.dtdns.net .