Can You Spot All the Homographs in These Sentences?

  • Thread starter wolram
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In summary: I am a summarizer, not a conversationalist. In summary, the conversation touches on the challenges of learning English as a second language, the difficulties with English pronunciation, and the use of slang and dialects in different regions of England. The topic of scones and their pronunciation also arises, as well as humorous jokes and puns related to the English language.
  • #71
matthyaouw said:
Is Yorkshire really that bad an accent? I was watching an American TV program the other day, and there was a man with a very mild Yorkshire accent. They saw fit to give him subtitles...
:smile: I always laugh when they do that! I'll be watching, and someone's speaking perfectly fine English, but with a British or Scottish accent, and there are subtitles underneath!

brewnog said:
Although I don't really speak with that much of an accent, I've always found Yorkshire a pretty easy accent to understand. Just try and sound like a bit of a cretin, and you're half way there. Most other accents don't bother me too much either. But if you ever need to converse with a plasterer from Derbyshire, well tha ant gorra carrin ell's chance!
Just wait until you do that cross-country trip through the U.S.! Take the southern route (oh, and invite me along, because I want to watch you talking to someone there with a Yorkshire accent and see who is looking more confused about what's being said). :smile:

I can't believe I've missed this thread all day!

Here's my funny sentence for the thread:
Do does buck bucks?
 
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  • #72
Moonbear said:
Do does buck bucks?
I'm quite sure there's something else they do with them. ;-p
 
  • #73
TheStatutoryApe said:
I'm quite sure there's something else they do with them. ;-p
Despite the fact that it rhymes, that wouldn't have quite fit with the theme of the thread, and I'm pretty sure it would have shown up as a row of asterisks. :smile: Good tongue twister to get people saying in a bar, or as a drinking game though (the version I can't write here). :biggrin:
 
  • #74
Moonbear said:
Here's my funny sentence for the thread:
Do does buck bucks?
Afsolutely.
 
  • #75
kleinjahr said:
Oi'll ave yew know me gramp was a Yorkshireman. Got the Dalesman 'til the day he died.

Ahhhh, the Dalesman. My favourite thing in the Dalesman is the "what is this?" page, much like the "what was it" thead which has recently been revived, but with more pictures.

But, believe it or not, such accents are remnants of the older usages and can be considered a purer form of English.

Indeed so, this is why I'm always quick to pounce on anyone who tries to tell me that a received pronunciation accent is more valid as a means of communication than Yorkshire (or whatever).
 
  • #76
brewnog said:
Indeed so, this is why I'm always quick to pounce on anyone who tries to tell me that a received pronunciation accent is more valid as a means of communication than Yorkshire (or whatever).

I have a Northern Midlands accent and teach in a very posh Independent school in the South East of England. The kids think my accent is very funny - especially when I say graph, path, plug, etc. They put extra 'r's in everything:

Me - Them
Graff - Grarph
baff - barff
Plug - plag
glass - glarss
cup - cap
tongue - tangue?

etc.

The weird thing is they just do not believe that 'they' can possibly have an accent - they talk normal and I talk odd!

ho hum... back to the Midlands soon for me I think.
 
  • #77
Adrian Baker said:
The weird thing is they just do not believe that 'they' can possibly have an accent - they talk normal and I talk odd!
Strictly speaking, they're right.

If you start in Maine and travel down the East coast of the US you encounter nothing but thick regional accents that morph slowly as you travel south ending in Florida.

As a kid, I had a pronounced NH accent. We all did, of course. A young, naive teacher came to our school from Baltimore, Maryland, and was shocked to find everyone in southern NH "mispronounced" just about everything. Thing is, her Baltimore accent was invisible to her, she never realized she was as guilty as we were.

At any rate, if you're "not from around these parts" you're the one with the accent, not the locals.
 
  • #78
zoobyshoe said:
Strictly speaking, they're right.

...At any rate, if you're "not from around these parts" you're the one with the accent, not the locals.


:cry: :cry:

now even t'internet diss's me...
 
  • #79
Adrian Baker said:
:cry: :cry:

now even t'internet diss's me...
Now, now. As they say dean undah :"No, worries, mate!"
 
  • #80
Danger said:
Have you been introduced to Smurf?

Yes, and I did what he's best known for long before him :P

Danger said:
Are you kidding? They can't even understand us. Now if only more of them could read, subtitles might be effective.

Was that directed at Americans or Yorkshire folk? *glare*
 
  • #81
Zooby, Frisia is on the North Sea coast of Europe, not sure if it is now a part of Holland or Germany. Basically it is where the Anglo-Saxons came from.

Brewnog, Ayup, the Dalesman was interesting. As a wee lad I used to try and translate the jokes and stories done in dialect.

Interesting book on the evolution of English is "The Journey of English" or maybe it was "The Voyage...". I believe they made one of those BBC miniseries out of it.
 

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