The Questions not worth their own thread thread VII

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In my law textbook, the criminal cases are "R vs Aimee" or whatever. What does the R stand for? (I tried googling it but got stuff on RVs, which was sort of strange, because the words were seperated)
 
That's the International Phonetic Alphabet, and it's amazingly useful if you're studying languages, linguistics, or history of languages. Indispensable, I'd say, for anyone who wants to go deeper than the basics.

Seems to me that his question had more to do with a problem like with the font appearing on the screen - since CFC doesn't support various characters or scripts all that well. Regardless, if you could properly display Bill's post, then the above is accurate.

Edit: @ Aimee - probably "republic" or something like that. For a criminal case, rather than a civil case between two parties, it's common to see something like "The people vs. Aimee" and it's probably whatever Canadian equivalent you have.
 
I pronounce jail and nail as "jayl" and "nayl" not "jay-oll" and "nay-ill"

:confused:
Pronunciation changes over time. Lower-class chaps like yourself tend to miss letters and syllables. Accent also has quite a bit to do with it. I sound British, despite living on the East coast of Australia my whole life, and I pronounce things very differently to my friends.
 
Why is there an L and an R written on my headphones? Does it make a difference which way round they go?
Left and right, and it depends on the headphone. If they're designed as stereo headphones and your settings are at stereo, it matters.
 
@Earthling: might be. :)

Edit: @ Aimee - probably "republic" or something like that. For a criminal case, rather than a civil case between two parties, it's common to see something like "The people vs. Aimee" and it's probably whatever Canadian equivalent you have.

Ermmm you know... Canada is not a republic... :p
 
Pronunciation changes over time. Lower-class chaps like yourself tend to miss letters and syllables. Accent also has quite a bit to do with it. I sound British, despite living on the East coast of Australia my whole life, and I pronounce things very differently to my friends.

No, he's right, at least for the standardized prestige dialects. General American and Received Pronunciation pronounce "jail" and "nail" as /dʒeɪl/ and /neɪl/ - single syllable.

Do you pronounce "pane" and "pain" differently? You might be referring to that. There was a historical merge in which historical /e:/ (in pane) merged with historical /ɛi/ (in pain) Only in a couple of regional dialects, such as in East Anglia, South Wales, and Newfoundland, does this merge not take place.
 
No, he's right, at least for the standardized prestige dialects. General American and Received Pronunciation pronounce "jail" and "nail" as /dʒeɪl/ and /neɪl/ - single syllable.

Do you pronounce "pane" and "pain" differently? You might be referring to that. There was a historical merge in which historical /e:/ (in pane) merged with historical /ɛi/ (in pain) Only in a couple of regional dialects, such as in East Anglia, South Wales, and Newfoundland, does this merge not take place.
I do pronounce 'pain' and 'pane' differently, yes. It's an incredibly minor difference, but it's there. I also actually the 't' in 'often' and 'exactly,' which no-one I know does. The 'l' in 'vulnerable' as well. My friends have been remarking on this for more than a decade.
 
What, the L in 'vulnerable' is not normally supposed to be there in spoken English? You mean the first L, right?

(well, it would be even weirder to be the second...)
 
What, the L in 'vulnerable' is not normally supposed to be there in spoken English? You mean the first L, right?

(well, it would be even weirder to be the second...)
The t's in often and exactly as well as the l in vulnerable are all pronounced in my neck of the woods, I couldn't understand leaving them out, and I've never heard them left out.

edit: well i suppose sometimes the t in often is left out.
 
What, the L in 'vulnerable' is not normally supposed to be there in spoken English? You mean the first L, right?

(well, it would be even weirder to be the second...)
I meant the first 'l.' I never hear anyone pronounce it, even though it's not meant to be silent.
 
I don't understand what minority UK dialect Lord Baal is coming from either - nobody leaves out the 'l' that I know of, either. Is it "voonerable" or something then?
 
The t's in often and exactly as well as the l in vulnerable are all pronounced in my neck of the woods, I couldn't understand leaving them out, and I've never heard them left out.

edit: well i suppose sometimes the t in often is left out.
I seldom ever hear them pronounced, even on television. Non-Australian television, so it can't just be an Australian thing.
 
I don't understand what minority UK dialect Lord Baal is coming from either - nobody leaves out the 'l' that I know of, either. Is it "voonerable" or something then?
Well, in general, the UK has many more dialects than do their former colonies. Many of these would be pretty unintelligible to those who haven't heard them.

edit:
I seldom ever hear them pronounced, even on television. Non-Australian television, so it can't just be an Australian thing.
Well, there is a chance you just aren't picking up on them in TV because you are not used to them. People usually hold biases toward their own dialect when hearing others.
 
Oh, yeah, shoulda realized, the Bahbah wahwah style vuhnrahbah.
 
Well, there is a chance you just aren't picking up on them in TV because you are not used to them. People usually hold biases toward their own dialect when hearing others.
Nah, enough of my friends have remarked upon it over the years that I tend to actually pay close attention when I hear one of the aforementioned words. I might miss a few if I'm not really paying attention to the show, but not on DVDs when I actually rewind and have another listen.

Oh, yeah, shoulda realized, the Bahbah wahwah style vuhnrahbah.
Say what?
 
What, the L in 'vulnerable' is not normally supposed to be there in spoken English? You mean the first L, right?

(well, it would be even weirder to be the second...)

It's called [wiki]L-vocalization[/wiki]. Basically, in some English dialects, most famously Cockney (although it has been spreading) - [l] in coda position (as this become /w/. So milk becomes /miwk/.

Actually, this same exact change happened in Polish. All historical /ɫ/ had become /w/. (In English, coda /l/ is actually a different sound, /ɫ/.)

Not part of Received Pronunciation, although it is in Estuary English.

kulade said:
The t's in often and exactly as well as the l in vulnerable are all pronounced in my neck of the woods, I couldn't understand leaving them out, and I've never heard them left out.
The t in often is actually a spelling pronounciation - the original pronounciation had it silent.
 
My pronounciation is sort of funny. I have to speak slower than others, otherwise hardly anybody can understand me. I also can't pronounce the "th" sound.

Question: Isn't it sort of dangerous to be driving around with holes in both eardrums? (One of them is old, though.)
 
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