To: Helimutt

Let’s take your original question and turn it around looking at it from the American perspective.

The word Lieu as in, “in lieu of” is pronounced just as written.

The abbreviation of Lieutenant is “Lieut” and is pronounced LUTE

The military rank of Lieutenant is pronounced Lef Tenant in "English speaking countries"

This is accordance with the Oxford dictionary.

Please explain the derivation of the word Lef when it is spelt Lieut?

To: Widgeon

It is spelt Buoy and the word is pronounced "Booee".


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The Cat

[This message has been edited by Lu Zuckerman (edited 29 March 2001).]

IHL:
Language and pronounciation isn't the half of it. Somewhere along the line the English milliard became the American billion. For the scientific ones among us, over here in USA each denomination above 1000 million is 1000 times the one preceding. Why it is counted different in Blighty (is it okay for a Yank to use that name?) is a mystery. But the lack of zeroes must play hob with the balance of payments!!

Buoy is indeed a Boy!
And a quay is a key!
And a root is not a route, that IS a rowt, but a router can be a rooter as well as a plain router.
Plow may be plough, but cough is not Cow.
A toboggan is a hat, but then so is a took!
And a dollar North of the border is a Canadian Peso! :)

And how come it's not Lieu Z? ;)

Written English is not phonetic. Words are written and pronounced as we, the English, decide.

When you say "...we, the English...", does that mean:

a. the old southern apple farmer - 'Oooh aaar, oied sure loike to be troyin' a bit of that hoverin' noow, but it don't look all that safe noow, do it?.';

b. the cockney - ''Ear, guv, ow'd ya like to be able to 'ovver one of them 'elicopters, now, eh?'

c. Lord Squinson - 'I say, that hovering caper looks like something a chap would only attempt when he was a tad under the influence, eh old bean?'

...to name but a few!

I take it you're the authority on English pronunciation and standards, Airgeezer!

Nah, we only speak like that for the tourists!

But who owns the poor Muffin?

When in In yank territory (yes it is OK to use the term 'blightly' as long as its a reciprocal favour!) you get an English muffin if you ask for anything between a piece of toast and a fat cake.

Howvever, if you ask for an English muffin in UK you'll likely get something you didn't quite plan...(If you're really lucky!)

If you want the fat cake in UK you'll need to ask for an American Muffin....

Is nobody proud enough of the Muffin to take it to their hearts? :)

SPS

Now oreiented NS when conditoned SN

Lu,

Booee my jam roll - its buoy as in 'boy'. Let's face it, it's a nautical term and you guys hadn't even been invented when we were sailing around the world, so surely we must be right!

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough.
Others may stumble, but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, laugh and through.
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps.

Beware of heard, a dreadful word,
That looks like beard and sounds like bird;
And dead; it's said like bed and not like bead.
For goodness sake don't call it deed.
Watch out for meat and great and threat;
They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.

A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother;
And here is not a match for there.
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear.
And then there's dose and rose and lose -
Just look them up - and goose and choose,
And cork and work and cord and ward,
And font and front and word and sword,
And do and go and thwart and cart.

Come, come, I've hardly made a start!
A dreadful language? Man alive!
I'd mastered it when I was five!

http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/wokka.gif

A O T W

By "we, the English" I mean half Welsh, half Norman people like my good self?

But seriously English is a very young, constantly evolvinglanguage that has always adopted words from other languages when it sees fit. It just seems to me that those changes from across the pond are born out of lazyness.

I would recommend a look at Bill Bryson's 'Made in America'.

He studies the divergance, and now the re-convergance of the two forms of English with a great deal of knowledge and humo(u)r.

To: Ed Winchester

Prior to going into U S Coast Guard Aviation I spent 14 months on the USCGC Tupelo (WAGL 303) which was a sea going Buoy Tender. I have gone out on a 26-foot motor lifeboat on many occasions and installed acetylene tanks and batteries on various types of Buoys. If I ever referred to a buoy as a boy I would have been kicked overboard. It seems that once again it is a matter of pronunciation and that depends on which side of the Atlantic you reside on.

Even the spelling of the name of the service is different. We call it the Coast Guard and the English and Canadians call it the coastguard. I would say we are correct as we invented the Coast Guard in 1790 although at that time it was called the Revenue Cutter Service.

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The Cat

[This message has been edited by Lu Zuckerman (edited 02 April 2001).]

[This message has been edited by Lu Zuckerman (edited 02 April 2001).]

Lu: What was acetylene used for on the buoys?
IHL

To: Lu Zuckerman.

Lu, old boy, lighten up. My post was a vague attempt at -

humour n. & v. (US humor) n. 1 a the quality of being amusing or comic. b the expression of humour in literature, speech, etc.

etc, etc.

http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/mica/pc-crash.gif

[This message has been edited by Ed Winchester (edited 03 April 2001).]

Lu

We are obviously right as we are British.

Your time could be better spent preventing your president, sorry President, starting WW3.

To Ed W

Your post on the previous page is excellent, I am still laughing now (I'm not quite sure why maybe its my mental picture of non british people trying to pronounce it all!)

Another question, why do American's always confuse the Australian accent and the British one?

And on the point of who is correct in their pronounciations,I dont know !.But what I do know is that I live in a British House built in the early 17th century and I drink in a pub built in the 16th century (I wonder if they watered th beer down as much then?)And in British terms these are not that old are they !!!!!!

regards

hoverbover
PS
I have a lot of friends in the US, they are great people,but why do they always think they have history ? Compared to the history of Europe , America is still at the infant stage.(Not a bad thing at least they got to build things right in the first place, and learn from other peoples mistakes)

To: IHL

The acetylene is burned to provide the flashing light of the buoy lantern. The battery powered buoys act like a flashlight (torch) and is cycled on and off in a preset sequence.

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The Cat

I know a helo-driver named "Hoover" unfortunately he's not very adept at "huvvering"

I don't disagree that our language is in constant evolution as mentioned earlier but, when we embrace that flexability lets don't wind up with "Ebonics"

Also, Lu is Canadian. It will be MY President who starts WW III, thank you very much!

To: VLift

Lu Zuckerman is not Canadian. He is an American living in Canada on a permanent Residence Visa. As far as George Bush being your president that is true. Had I voted I probably would have voted for Gore. As far as G Dubya doing a good job that will prove itself over time. Of course, my wife doesn’t think he’ll ever do a good job.

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The Cat

Hey Mr. Hoover I think you are the Hover Master!!!!