English vs English

[deanb]

Just a thought. In Blackadder americans get the awkwardness of Darlings name right? It just crossed my mind that Americans might not call people "darling". Though context within the show might highlight it.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

How do you use the term darling? Darling is a term of endearment in the US.

[deanb]

Very much the same here. Just its use is local (some might say darling, others love, dear, pet, etc) so figured it might not expand across the seas.

[Thursday Next]

Is "Basic" American for "Alkaline"? Found the pH water puzzle in Virtues Last Reward very confusing when I had to get "Basic", "Neutral" and "Acidic" water. Thought that Basic would be pH 7 till I saw there was a Neutral box too.

[deanb]

Don't they call it "Bases and acids"? It's something that threw me a few times in watching american TV. I think like early Simpsons in the smart school and the teachers "don't you know what happens when you mix a base and an acid?!". Kinda figured it was some other chemical group I'd not heard of.

[TheMightyEthan]

Yeah, base = alkaline.

[deanb]

I think the only thing I didn't enjoy out of this movie was the theater itself.There were like 3 people with babies in there. I'm sorry I know you want to watch the movie too but there's a time and place for everything and people like you, and it's called Sunday [aka family day]. Don't fuck over the rest of the audience with your babies crying every 5 seconds. Though my friends didn't help by telling them to shut their baby up and cursing.

 

I see quite a few complaints of how terrible and disrespectful cinemagoers can be of others in America. If it maybe confirmation bias or is it actually quite a frequent occurrence to have babies and toddles brought along to non-U/PG films, and people messing with phones and such? There was that video doing the rounds last year of the recording of the woman on the voicemail after being kicked out for phone use. Was funny but seemed a tad extreme to start a film with. But if it truly is quite a frequent occurrence I guess it's a balanced response.

[TheMightyEthan]

In my experience at least 9 times out of 10 there's no one with a baby or a child small enough to be irritating, and I've never heard anyone talking on the phone in the theater.  Although I specifically avoid Sunday afternoon showings to avoid the likelihood of children, so that might contribute to my better experience.  Children are obviously a lot more common in kid's movies, but by the same token I don't feel like I have the right to get mad if I go see a kid's movie and there are children being irritating.  Babies are always unacceptable, but when you go see Wreck-It-Ralph and there's a 5 year old who doesn't know how to whisper that's just a risk you have to accept.

[Thursday Next]

When I went to see the Hobbit, and Iron Man 3 (two separate occasions quite some time apart obvs) there was a special needs guy in the cinema (different cinemas and different guys).

 

In the Hobbit the guy was sitting directly behind us and was grinding his teeth constantly and would let out a fairly loud sort of sigh every few minutes. In Iron Man the guy was I guess "whooping" is the best term every couple of minutes. Both were really irritating but it made me think, what's the appropriate solution? The cinema manager can't really be expected to refund everyone's ticket because one person was noisy. You can't really have a pop at the disabled guy either, and I don't think I can hold with segregating disabled people into their own screening... In the end I just held my tongue and accepted that I'd had a sub par experience.

[TheRevanchist]

Back when I was a kid, there was a theater with a separate room in the back with a large clear window.  Families with babies could go in there and watch movies, but still not disrupt the movie experience for others.  It was quite a nice thing, in hindsight.

[TheMightyEthan]

Some of the theaters in a larger town nearby have that, but not the theater in my town.  It is nice when it's available.

[TheFlyingGerbil]

kind of interesting about different phrases/pronunciations in the USA. here (all 100+ questions here)

 

I only went through the shorter one, but I would say I mostly corresponded with the North East though not that precisely.

[TheRevanchist]

Those dumbasses. 

 

"Most of America realizes that New York really is "The City.""

Not on the West Coast.  That is San Francisco out here in Northern Cali.  And that wasn't even a choice.

Edited June 6, 2013 by TheRevanchist

[Saturnine Tenshi]

I think it was cut short. Originally, "The City everyone wants to go away."

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

Why would people want NYC to go away?

[Saturnine Tenshi]

It's too loud.

[deanb]

Draws too many alien and monster attacks.

[TheMightyEthan]

Those dumbasses. 

 

"Most of America realizes that New York really is "The City.""

 

Not on the West Coast.  That is San Francisco out here in Northern Cali.  And that wasn't even a choice.

I realize that people around New York refer to it as just "The City", but only because of shows like Seinfeld and How I Met Your Mother. Otherwise "the city" just refers to whatever major city I happen to be in/just outside of.

 

*Edit* - Also, I don't understand what the difference between "cray-ahn" and "cray-awn" is, other than spelling.  And if anyone here is in the category that knows the difference in pronunciation between Mary, marry, and merry could you please explain what it is?

Edited June 7, 2013 by TheMightyEthan

[TheFlyingGerbil]

I pronounce all 3 of them differently.

 

in order: mary, marry, merry

 

the link is a 2sec clip of me saying all three, that autoplays so don't click it if you don't want to hear it!

[TheMightyEthan]

The way you say "merry" is the way I would say all three.

[deanb]

Here's me saying the three

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2066351/Random%20Files/Voice%20003.m4a

 

I agree with them all being rather distinct words. Though I probably pronounce "merry" more like "murray" than it should be.

[TheMightyEthan]

Here's me saying the following sentence:

 

"I'm going to marry my true love Mary, and the thought makes me quite merry."

 

As you can see there's no difference in pronunciation.

[deanb]

You do sound very merry about it. You do go a bit longer on the "merry" though than the others.

[FredEffinChopin]

The Mary marry merry thing is the one on the list that I was most shocked by. I can't believe that such a tiny portion of the country pronounces those three words differently... What a bunch of savages everywhere else! I also couldn't believe how isolated the use of the term "sunshower" is... There were lots of surprises. It's interesting to see where the divides are in a lot of that... There is this interesting thing where the is a diagonal line that crosses PA from NW to SW, and separates the NE portion of the country from the rest of it in terms of pronunciation. It's also interesting to see those people often share their pronunciations with the Southern tip of Florida (we know why that is) and with Minnesota. I'm sure if you took this data and went backwards to find out the reasons for it, it would tell an interesting tale of immigration, gentrification, and isolation. It's still interesting on its own though, and fun to look at.

 

*edit* 

Oh yeah, and "The Devil is beating his wife" is a term for sunshowers? wth....

 

Also, it seems like the South tends to stand out in using its own phrases and pronunciations. Especially Mississippi.

Edited June 7, 2013 by FredEffinChopin

[TheMightyEthan]

You do sound very merry about it. You do go a bit longer on the "merry" though than the others.

 

I think that's due to its coming at the end of the sentence, not the word itself.

 

*Edit* - I live right in the middle of the red "I have no term for this" category on the sunshower one, but I've definitely heard that term used before, and that's what I call it when it happens.

Edited June 7, 2013 by TheMightyEthan