An interesting thing I didn't know until today

[ursus arctos]

Well I never. In my head I always pronounced it to rhyme with Larry, or similar to the way that British people pronounce Macaque.

Not to rhyme with Lorry (or the way, apparentlly, Canadians pronounce Macaque).

I've always heard the bank pronounced to rhyme with Larry

[Nocturnal Submission]

I have a friend who is originally from Doncaster and very working class. When she went to Oxford university she assimilated so well that her accent is now very received pronunciation, much posher than mine. The only things that even vaguely give away her origins are that a) her accent slips slightly when she's drunk and b) she went too far and now says "parsta" instead of "pasta", which I've never heard anyone else say, not even certified aristocrats.

I grew up on a South London council estate and went to the local, rough comprehensive school, but spending most of my working life in the finance industry and living in middle class areas since I left home has certainly knocked the edge off of my accent, and then some.

A friend recently told me that he thought that my accent was posher than that of one of our mutual acquaintances, a doctor's son from Chelsea who went to Westminster public school! I found that curiously satisfying.

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/greenleejw/status/1575857805579681792?s=21&t=t9zxiIJ5QLgqlP5DlJawow

[ad hoc]

I have a friend who is originally from Doncaster and very working class. When she went to Oxford university she assimilated so well that her accent is now very received pronunciation, much posher than mine. The only things that even vaguely give away her origins are that a) her accent slips slightly when she's drunk and b) she went too far and now says "parsta" instead of "pasta", which I've never heard anyone else say, not even certified aristocrats.

I understand that in Spain this over compensation is referred to as bacalado de Bilbado. A working class/peasant accent tends to swallow the "d" in any word that finishes with "-ado", making it sound a little more like Portuguese. When people want to prove their rise above their station they studiously return the d. But sometimes overdo it, such as in the word bacalao (cod) and Bilbao.

I occasionally also come across US Americans writing "shutter" when they mean "shudder" which I take to be a similar thing

[lambers]

b) she went too far and now says "parsta" instead of "pasta", which I've never heard anyone else say, not even certified aristocrats.

A kiwi I used to work with is the only person I've met who says "parsta".

Addendum: they weren't a certified aristocrat. As far as I know.

[Sporting]

I understand that in Spain this over compensation is referred to as bacalado de Bilbado. A working class/peasant accent tends to swallow the "d" in any word that finishes with "-ado", making it sound a little more like Portuguese. When people want to prove their rise above their station they studiously return the d. But sometimes overdo it, such as in the word bacalao (cod) and Bilbao.

https://forum.wordreference.com/thre...as-ao.1706141/

[Various Artist]

A kiwi I used to work with is the only person I've met who says "parsta".

Addendum: they weren't a certified aristocrat. As far as I know.

I recall Balders recounting this anecdote elsewhere some months ago, because I recall I pointed out that if you speak with a rhotic accent (like most of the US and northern Britain, say) they wouldn't be saying "parsta" at all, because they can't have been putting an actual 'r' in it surely. "Paasta" or "pahsta" (or "PAH-stuh" if I were going for more specificity again) would be my way of deliberately disambiguating it instead, but it has to be said that until I read about rhoticity the other year this wouldn't have occurred to me either.

[Various Artist]

I've always heard the bank pronounced to rhyme with Larry

Now I'm intrigued, because I can't get that to work at all in my head.

But at which point it strikes me that in certain US accents at least there's no audible distinction between "harry" and "hairy" or, sometimes, all three of "marry", "mary" and "merry" – and I guess I might well pronounce 'Macquarie' on sight with an -airy ending, though definitely not what I'd call an -arry one.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Wait, WTF? How exactly do Canadians pronounce "macaque" (I won't even bother asking "why?"). If I've understood the references above to their pronunciation of that word, then it sounds as if they just want an excuse to be sniggering at the back of the classroom.

[WOM]

Like m'cock.

I'm with ad hoc on m'kwory.

[WOM]

Similarly, the way Noel Coward says 'mafia' with a short 'a' in The Italian Job always bothered me.

[Sporting]

Similarly, the way Noel Coward says 'mafia' with a short 'a' in The Italian Job always bothered me.

Which "a"?

[ad hoc]

I'd say the (first) a in mafia as a short a. In fact to do it any other way sounds really wrong (the second one is a shwa)

[San Bernardhinault]

Mayfia? Mahfia?

[Sporting]

I'd say the (first) a in mafia as a short a. In fact to do it any other way sounds really wrong

Agreed.

[Sits]

All Australians say parsta for pasta. And McQuarry for Macquarie, as ad hoc mentioned above.

[Amor de Cosmos]

The North Herts pronounciation of latte is infallably latty.

[Sam]

Well I never. In my head I always pronounced it to rhyme with Larry, or similar to the way that British people pronounce Macaque.

Not to rhyme with Lorry (or the way, apparentlly, Canadians pronounce Macaque).

Well, this is embarrassing. I'd read your question about how it's pronounced as a joke because the word starts so similarly to 'macaque'.

[Sunderporinostesta]

And Rotterdam. I remember Golden Earring, Candy Dulfer and Bryan Ferry having their handprints immortalised there, among others.

Bryan Ferry? WTF? Though I suppose his birthplace in Washington is only a few miles or so from South Shields from where the ferry to Rotterdam leaves. There’s a lot of Feyenoord fans use it to attend Sunderland games especially those with the possibility of a bit of “edge” to them.

[Benjm]

Bryan Ferry? WTF? Though I suppose his birthplace in Washington is only a few miles or so from South Shields from where the ferry to Rotterdam leaves. There’s a lot of Feyenoord fans use it to attend Sunderland games especially those with the possibility of a bit of “edge” to them.

It seems that the Rotterdam Walk of Fame was only initiated in 1990 so anyone passing through around then may have have had their hands pushed towards the cement in order to build it up. In a further North East link, from memory Candy Dulfer's print was alongside Dave Stewart's, the pair having collaborated around then. Apparently the Walk of Fame was moved in 2010 and taken up altogether in April of this year, so apologies to anyone who has already rushed to book a trip to see it.

[Amor de Cosmos]

"System justification is the idea that people tend to defend not only their individual actions but also the social, economic, and political systems to which they belong—even if these systems work to their detriment.

This is the opposite of what economists and political scientists normally argue happens. Consider how people react to income inequality. The leading rational-choice model holds that as income inequality increases, more voters will support redistributive tax policies and vote accordingly. But research suggests that the opposite is true. As inequality rises, people become less accurate in their estimates of how much inequality exists. More important, they adjust their perception of what they think is fair. Indeed, survey data show that as the wage gap between low- and high-wage earners exploded in the United States from 1987 to 1999, people widened their judgment of what difference was appropriate. This sets in motion a vicious cycle. The more inequality exists, the more likely people are to believe that society operates meritocratically." The Atlantic.

If true it explains much about modern elections and those who win them.

[Satchmo Distel]

"The more inequality exists, the more likely people are to believe that society operates meritocratically." The Atlantic.

I showed a video on that in my Social Stratification class:

But it could just be that Americans don't ever consult media that provide the correct data, whereas they're swamped with rags to riches stories that create a fantasy version of the true level of social mobility. Additionally, they want to believe that the American Dream is true; it's such a key dimension of their orientation to reality that they'd get very scared if it were exposed as false, so of course, they deny what they fear.

The middle class has been squeezed this century but it would be terrifying to people to acknowledge that their class position is precarious and that their political elites are purely enablers of systematic theft by the wealthy.

[WOM]

....that this is what Groucho Marx looked like without the glasses, moustache and signature eyebrows.

[ursus arctos]

Speaking of the man on his birthday

https://twitter.com/eddyportnoy/status/1576618094537035777?s=20&t=Pha7Ve5cSaAORDQU9w1kKQ

[WOM]

Jewish nose with a pretty good mouth....