Another serious question

[MissHoneychurch]

why do you pronounce the word "wind" differently?

You pronounce it one way when you say "The wind is gusty" but another way when you say "wind down".


Why??????

[KitchenWitch]

1. Because the formers of the English language were closet anarchists.

:shrug:

[MissHoneychurch]

3. It makes it a bit harder to learn to speak your language

:) (I mastered it though :hide: )

[KitchenWitch]

4. Sorry

I sometimes stumble on my native tongue (English).

[MissHoneychurch]

6. Believe me

there are more than enough Germans who are stumbling over the correct use of the German language as well.

And you should be glad to only read what I have to say and not hear it. I do have problems to pronounce some words right. Prejudice for example or jeweler

[Oeditpus Rex]

14. I'd love to hear you talk

in English or German.

:loveya:

[MissHoneychurch]

16. You only need to come to the East Coast

in September :)

:loveya:

[Oeditpus Rex]

17. 'Only'

This is a big country — especially when you're poor. x(

[MissHoneychurch]

19. Then I will make sure

I give you a call when I am with Joani. I think I will use a lot of prepaid phone cards in those three weeks :)

[Oeditpus Rex]

20. Cool!

I'll pick up the phone sometime in September and I'll hear "Halloo!"



:hide:

[MissHoneychurch]

22. As long as you don't hang up on me as Joani did

when I called her :rofl:

[In_The_Wind]

27. Hey!

:blush:

[MissHoneychurch]

31. I forgave you long ago

:hug:

[In_The_Wind]

37. I wish I knew how bad loss of hearing can be 35 years ago.

When I called my uncle. :cry: It seriously broke_my_heart when I needed him and he didn't know who I was because he couldn't hear me. Oh well. :shrug: So I stayed in NYC instead of moving back home like I really wanted to do.

[Jamastiene]

9. I shouldn't go there, but I seem to remember

a certain thread you had a while back... No, I shouldn't go there, BUT if you are indeed stumbling over your tongue, I would LOVE to see pictures. I promise not to put them on the net on any sort of untoward sites. :evilgrin:

[KitchenWitch]

11. Was I under the influence of Vicodin?

:evilgrin:

[TrogL]

2. English is not a language

It's a pidgin - a mishmash of other languages. The two "wind"'s are borrowed from different languages.

[MissHoneychurch]

5. Thanks

wow a serious answer to a silly question :)

[hfojvt]

7. those are two words

wind - as in moving air pronounced win-dh
and
wind - as in "winding" a watch pronounced wined

to wind down has nothing to do with moving air and more to do with spring powered devices which are wound too tight.

[MissHoneychurch]

8. Thanks

I knew that one is a verb, the other a noun. But when you learn a language only by reading it still could give you troubles.

[TreasonousBastard]

13. Two different words spelled the same...

are as much trouble as two different words that sound the same.

Why would one learning the language by reading it think that "hear" and "here" are pronounced the same?

[MissHoneychurch]

15. Ok, nobody is learning a language only by reading it

but for example you learned a language more or less good without ever been to the country. And try to continue your effort by reading books and you see a word you don't know. You have no idea how to pronounce it.

You are right, that is as difficult. But we do have words in German that are meaning different things. The difference there is in the article. For example the word "Leiter" has two meanings. Der Leiter means the leader/supervisor and Die Leiter means the ladder. Difficult as well because you have to learn the article with the noun.

[TreasonousBastard]

46. That was the most difficult thing I had to deal with...

when studying German.

As you know, we don't use gender that way and it constantly screwed me up. Most of us English speakers don't think of gender in common vocabulary, and I think I had my own mental block ignoring whether it was der, die, or das.

FIWI, I'm in good company. When Ben Franklin went to Paris begging for money, he never got gender staight with his French and constantly embarassed himself.

[LynzM]

48. Same here, with learning German

Our "english" brains aren't used to having to learn a gender that identifies with each noun, and man... hard to make that part of the learning, for me, at least. At least with German, the pronunciation isn't usually such an issue as it is with English!

[Left_Winger]

55. Here's a question since you're on this topic

In German there is die Bank as in the place where one conducts financial business and die Bank as in the object on which one sits in a park, etc. or even die Schulbank. What's the deal with that?

I will not even begin to ask about the various definitions of der Zug; my dictionary has sixteen of them.

[NMMNG]

10. Because they are two different words--they are homophones

There is wind with the soft/short "i" and wind with the hard/long "i".


http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/DictionaryResults.aspx?refid=1861739745

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/DictionaryResults.aspx?refid=1861713449

And English is known for being a very difficult language with strange rules, confusing contradictions and other things that make it hard for people to learn, particularly as a second language.

[MissHoneychurch]

12. Thanks buffy

I just throught about that yesterday evening for whatever reason and thought I would ask here.


btw, I will be in the U.S. in September. I booked my flight the other day.

[NMMNG]

18. Do you know which part(s)?

:bounce:

[MissHoneychurch]

21. I'm flying into New York, Newark airport

Joani is going to pick me up. Then we plan to make a trip South. But maybe there is time to have a meeting in the New England States. LynzM is living up there also.

[NMMNG]

23. Cool

Perhaps we'll be able to meet up with one another. :thumbsup:

[MissHoneychurch]

24. I would love that

definite plans aren't made yet, so there is still enough time to work on an itinerary

[tjwmason]

30. They aren't homophones.

Homophones are two words which sound the same but have different meanings (possibly also different spellings) - e.g. knight and night.

[billyskank]

34. That's right. They're homographs. See below.

:)

[NMMNG]

42. You're right

Brain fart. :dunce:

[billyskank]

25. Because they are homonyms

they are not the same word. They are just spelled the same.

[tjwmason]

26. See the gay agenda goes even as far as linguistics.

Truly there is nothing that we will leave uncorrupted in our battle to turn everybody gay :evilgrin:

[billyskank]

28. Actually I just remembered

they're not homonyms. Homonyms are two words which sound the same but have different meanings. Here we have two words which are spelled the same. I don't know what the word for these is, but it must be some sort of nym. ;)

[billyskank]

29. Oh, I should have read Buffy's post above

:blush:

[tjwmason]

32. It's the natural antonym of homonym - which is obviously heteronym.

Damn the fundies obviously seized control of the O.E.D. :crazy:

~onym is a Greek suffix meaning "name".

Homo obviously means "same" and hetero "different".

[billyskank]

33. Actually none of us are right. They are homographs.

I looked it up. If the two words are spelled the same but pronounced differently, they are homographs. If the two words are spelled differently but pronounced the same, they are homophones. If the two words are both spelled and pronounced the same, they are homonyms.

According to Wikipedia.

[tjwmason]

35. No - I'm right.

I'm always right. :P

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=heteronym

heteronym ( P ) Pronunciation Key (htr--nm)
n.
One of two or more words that have identical spellings but different meanings and pronunciations, such as row (a series of objects arranged in a line), pronounced (r), and row (a fight), pronounced (rou).

[billyskank]

38. Damn Wikipedia!

x(

[tjwmason]

40. Wikipedia is also right.

But I am never wrong. :P

[MissHoneychurch]

36. and then you say

German is tough to learn :)

[billyskank]

39. I never said that

I know for a fact that English is very difficult to learn. I have heard this many times.

[MissHoneychurch]

41. I still think French is worse

all those letters that you don't speak :scared:

[LostinVA]

43. Hey, English is a Germanic language -- it's YOUR fault

[MissHoneychurch]

44. but at least we still pronounce same written words the same

to make it a bit more confusing what is ment :)

[LostinVA]

45. But your words are often 167 letters long... it frightened me when I went

to Germany... but I ate lots of Milka and felt better... until I saw something like: Liturgiewissenschaft... then I sobbed and ate another shortbread-filled Milka...

[Rabrrrrrr]

47. Here's something to drive you crazy, then:

We polish the Polish furniture.
He could lead if he would get the lead out.
A farm can produce produce.
The dump was so full it had to refuse refuse.
The soldier decided to desert in the desert.
The present is a good time to present the present.
At the Army base, a bass was painted on the head of a bass drum.
The dove dove into the bushes.
I did not object to the object.
The insurance for the invalid was invalid.
The bandage was wound around the wound.
There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
They were too close to the door to close it.
The buck does funny things when the does are present.
They sent a sewer down to stitch the tear in the sewer line.
To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
After a number of Novocain injections, my jaw got number.
I shed a tear when I saw the tear in my clothes.
I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?
I spent last evening evening out a pile of dirt.

[LynzM]

49. That's the one I was going to post, Rabrrrrrr!

You beat me to it, man :) Freakin' English language!

[Rabrrrrrr]

53. And did you see the one right below this?

[Rabrrrrrr]

50. And this one wioll seriously warp your mind:

 Dearest creature in creation 
 Studying English pronunciation 
   I shall teach you in my verse 
   Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse. 
 I shall keep you, Susy, busy, 
 Make your head with heat grow dizzy, 
   Tear in eye your hair you'll tear, 
   Queer fair seer, hear my prayer! 
 Pray, console your loving poet, 
 Make my coat look new, dear, sew it! 
   Just compare heart, beard and heard, 
   Dies and diet, lord and word, 
 Sword and sward, retain and Britain 
 (Mind the latter, how it's written). 
   Made has not the sound of bade; 
   Say, said, pay, paid, laid but plaid. 
 Now I surely will not plague you 
 With such words as vague and ague. 
   But be careful how you speak, 
   Say gush, bush, steak, streak, break, bleak; 
 Previous, precious, fuchsia, via, 
 Recipe, pipe, studding sail, choir; 
   Woven, oven, how and low; 
   Script, receipt, shoe, poem, toe. 
 Hear me say, devoid of trickery: 
 Daughter, laughter and Terpsichore, 
   Typhoid, measles, topsails, ailes, 
   Exiles, similes, reviles, 
 Wholly, holly, signal, signing, 
 Same, examining, but mining; 
   Scholar, vicar and cigar, 
   Solar, mica, war and far. 
 Camel, constable, unstable, 
 Principle, disciple, label, 
   Petal, penal and canal 
   Wait, surmise, plait, promise, pal. 
 Suit, suite, ruin, circuit, conduit, 
 Rhyme with "shirk it" and "beyond it". 
   But is it not hard to tell 
   Why it's pal, mall, but Pall Mall. 
 Muscle, muscular, goal, iron, 
 Timber, climber, bullion, lion; 
   Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair, 
   Senator, spectator, mayor. 
 Ivy, privy, famous. Clamour 
 Has the "a" of drachm and hammer. 
   Fussy, hussy, and possess, 
   Desert, dessert, address 
 From desire - desirable, admirable from admire; 
 Lumber, plumber, bier but brier/briar; 
   Chatham, brougham, renown but known, 
   Knowledge, gone, but done and tone! 
 One, anemone, Balmoral, 
 Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel. 
   Gertrude, German, wind and mind, 
   Scene, Melpomene, mankind. 
 Tortoise, turquoise, chamois-leather, 
 Reading, Reading (the town), heathen, Heather. 
   This phonetic labyrinth 
   Gives moss, gross, brook, brooch, mirth, plinth! 
 Billet does not end like ballet, 
 Wallet, mallet, bouquet, chalet. 
   Blood and flood are not like good, 
   Nor is mould like should and would. 
 Bouquet is not nearly parquet, 
 Which most often rhymes with khaki. 
   Discount, viscount, load and broad; 
   Forward, toward, but reward. 
 Ricochet, croqueting, croquet. 
 Right! Your pronunciation's okay. 
   Sounded, wounded, grieve and sieve, 
   Friend and fiend, alive and live. 
 Don't forget: It's heave but heaven, 
 Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven 
   We say, hallow, but allow, 
   People, leopard, tow and vow. 
 Mark the difference, moreover, 
 Between, mover, plover, Dover! 
   Leeches, breeches, wise, precise, 
   Chalice, but police and lice. 
 Shoes, goes, does; now first say "finger"; 
 Then say "singer, ginger, linger". 
   Real, seal; mauve, gauze and gauge. 
   Marriage, foliage, mirage, age. 
 Query does not rhyme with very, 
 Nor does fury sound like bury. 
   Dost, lost, post, and doth, cloth, loth/loath; 
   Job, Job, blossom, bosom, oath. 
 Say "oppugnant" but "oppugns"; 
 Sowing, bowing. Banjo tunes 
   Sound in yachts or in canoes. 
   Puisne, truism, use, to use. 
 Though the difference seems little, 
 Do say "actual" but "victual". 
   Seat, sweat, earn; Leigh, light and height, 
   Put, pus, granite and unite. 
 Refer does not rhyme with deafer, 
 Feoffor, Kaffir, zephyr, heifer. 
   Dull, bull; Geoffrey, late and eight, 
   Hint but pint, senate, sedate. 
 Scenic, Arabic, Pacific, 
 Science, conscience, scientific. 
   Gas, alas, and Arkansas (the state), 
   Balsam, almond. You want more? 
 Golf, wolf; countenance; lieutenants 
 Host in lieu of flags left pennants. 
   Courier, courtier; tomb, bomb, comb; 
   Cow but Cowper, some and home. 
 Stranger does not rhyme with anger, 
 Neither devour with clangour. 
   Soul but foul, and gaunt but aunt; 
   Font, front, wont, want, grand and grant. 
 Arsenic, specific, scenic, 
 Relic, rhetoric, hygienic. 
   Gooseberry, goose, and close but close, 
   Paradise, rise, rose and dose. 
 Say inveigh, neigh, and inveigle 
 make the latter rhyme with eagle. 
   Mind! Meandering but mean, 
   Serpentine and magazine. 
 And I bet you, dear, a penny, 
 You say manifold like many, 
   Which is wrong. Say rapier, pier, 
   Tier (one who ties), but tier. 
 Arch, archangel! Pray, does erring 
 Rhyme with herring or with stirring? 
   Prison, bison, treasure-trove, 
   Treason, hover, cover, cove. 
 Perseverance, severance. Ribald 
 Rhymes (but piebald doesn't) with nibbled. 
   Phaeton, paean, gnat, ghat, gnaw 
   Lien, phthisis, shone, bone, pshaw. 
 Don't be down, my own, but rough it, 
 And distinguish buffet - buffet! 
   Brook, stood, rook, school, wool and stool, 
   Worcester, Boleyn, foul and ghoul. 
 With an accent pure and sterling 
 You say year, but some say yearling. 
   Evil, devil, mezzotint - 
   Mind the "z"! (a gentle hint.) 
 Now you need not pay attention 
 To such words as I don't mention: 
   Words like pores, pause, pours and paws 
   Rhyming with the pronoun "yours". 
 Proper names are not included, 
 Though I often heard, as you did, 
   Funny names like Glamis and Vaughan, 
   Ingestre, Tintagel, Strachan. 
 Nor, my maiden fair and comely, 
 Do I want to speak of Cholmondeley 
   Or of Froude (compared with proud 
   It's no better than Macleod). 
 Sea, idea, Guinea, area, 
 Psalm, Maria but malaria. 
   Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean, 
   Doctrine, turpentine, marine. 
 Compare alien with Italian, 
 Dandelion with battalion, 
   Sally with ally. Yea, ye, 
   Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, hey, quay. 
 Say aver but ever, fever, 
 Neither, leisure, skein, receiver. 
   Never guess, it is not safe; 
   We say calves, valves, half, but Ralph. 
 Heron, granary, canary, 
 Crevice, but device and eyrie, 
   Face, but preface and grimace, 
   Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass, 
 Bass (the fish); gin, give and verging, 
 Ought, oust, joust, scour and scourging. 
   Ear but earn. Mind! Wear and tear 
   Do not rhyme with "here" but "ear". 
 Row, row, sow, sow, bow, bow, bough; 
 Crow but brow. Please, tell me now: 
   What's a slough and what's a slough? 
   (Make these rhyme with "cuff" and
"cow")
 Seven is right, but so is even, 
 Hyphen, roughen, nephew, Stephen. 
   Monkey, donkey, clerk but jerk; 
   Asp, grasp, wasp, demesne, cork, work. 
 Say serene but sirene. Psyche 
 must be made to rhyme with "spiky". 
   It's a dark abyss or tunnel, 
   Strewn with stones like whoop and gunwale, 
 Islington, but Isle of Wight, 
 Houswife, verdict but indict - 
   Don't you think so, reader, rather, 
   Saying gather, bather, lather? 
 Tell me, which rhymes with enough, 
 Though, through, plough, cough, lough or tough? 
   Hiccough has the sound of "cup" - 
   My advice is - give it up.

- George de Trenite

[LynzM]

59. OMG, that's absurd

Wow. :wow:

[EstimatedProphet]

51. Because it's not the same word

[swimboy]

52. And the point goes to EP!

Succinctly!

[tjwmason]

54. Hey there swimboy.

:hug:

How are things going today?

:loveya:

[swimboy]

56. Hello!

:loveya: :D :hug: Congratulations! You passed the stalking test! :P Please proceed to the next level.

Today is awful! My brain is about to fry. Now that the document is due (for internal review) Monday the 13th, the feds have come out with new requirements on Monday the 6th that must be incorporated as part of the re-fucking-structuring of the document. :grr:

I have to conduct a neighborhood meeting this evening (part of my duties in an entirely different aspect of my job) and then on to choir practice (important due to cathedral trip Sunday, committed to months before these work deadlines were decided on in a constellation surrounding this weekend.)

Other than that-------



It's a wonderful surprise to see you. As you can see, I can't resist peeking once or twice a day.

Thanks for the great PM. Lots of interesting information we will revisit together in a more serene hour!

[In_The_Wind]

57. Yikes!

:D :loveya:

[tjwmason]

58. I wasn't stalking - honest guvna.

Admittedy I that most of the time - but I was trying not to bug you with constant messages....but I thought that a quick :hug: might be in order. Nonetheless, I'm more than happy to accept your permission to continue stalking.

I'll leave you for with my best wishes and a favourite line of Churchill's - K.B.O. Keep Buggering On. :loveya: