People who call a vase a vozz

[bandit957]

Why do some people call a vase a vozz?

This isn't something people do because it's funny. Classy people do this even in a serious context. Right now, there's a very educated character on 'America's Court' who keeps calling a wedding vase a vozz. If you take a guided tour of an art museum where a vase is displayed as an artwork, the very intelligent guide will often call it a vozz.

Does any regular person call it a vozz?

[kphoger]

It's the British way of saying the word. So, if you consider Brits to be regular people, then yes.

We Americans also try to talk with an English accent when we want to sound intelligent and sophisticated. So some people might say it that way for that reason.

[Big John]

And Alex Trebek used "Vozz" in today's Jeopardy.

[7/8]

And Alex Trebek used "Vozz" in today's Jeopardy.

How did you already see it? It's just starting on my TV (I'm watching it on Yes TV - channel 23 on Rogers cable).

[Big John]

And Alex Trebek used "Vozz" in today's Jeopardy.

How did you already see it? It's just starting on my TV (I'm watching it on Yes TV - channel 23 on Rogers cable).

In the US, it is syndicated to local markets and the local channel had it on at 6:00 CDT

[english si]

It's the British way of saying the word. So, if you consider Brits to be regular people, then yes.

We say it 'vahz', not 'vozz'. Rhymes with bras, not Oz.

An American failing at a British accent might say vozz. While we lengthen the 'a' differently from the rhymes-with-maze pronunciation, we don't make it an 'o', and we slightly soften the 'z' sound vs En-US, not double down on it.

[7/8]

It's the British way of saying the word. So, if you consider Brits to be regular people, then yes.

We say it 'vahz', not 'vozz'. Rhymes with bras, not Oz.

An American failing at a British accent might say vozz. While we lengthen the 'a' differently from the rhymes-with-maze pronunciation, we don't make it an 'o', and we slightly soften the 'z' sound vs En-US, not double down on it.

I'm guessing Big John (like myself) has the father-bother merger, which makes bras and Oz rhyme.

I notice that Alex Trebek normally pronunces hides his "canadian raising" (i.e. not raising the vowel in "about"), but occasionally he'll let a more Canadian sounding "about" slip by. He also pronunces his french very well!

[CtrlAltDel]

It's the British way of saying the word. So, if you consider Brits to be regular people, then yes.

And the Brits got it from the French, where "vahz" would be the normal way of pronouncing a word with that spelling.

[pumpkineater2]

The way I always understood it was that a "Vozz" or "Vahs" was just a very fancy or expensive vase.

[english si]

I'm guessing Big John (like myself) has the father-bother merger, which makes bras and Oz rhyme.

Of course, and I have most of the splits (trap-bath perhaps being a key one for vase's 'a' sound, though the whole of the UK says vase the same, but only the south has the trap-bath split) and only a few of the mergers (all of which are entirely different to En-US's).

And the Brits got it from the French, where "vahz" would be the normal way of pronouncing a word with that spelling.

Though we used to (until mid-19th century) say it like case, ie rhyming it with face, place, etc. I don't know whether the Americans did too, before changing it to rhyme with maze, phase, etc.

[1995hoo]

I sometimes wonder if the people who say "vahz" or "vozz" are the same people who pronounce "envelope" as "on-velope" ("on" as in the word "on," like "turn on the lights").

I pronounce "envelope" with the first letter as a short "e" (as in "Ed"). I hardly ever use the word "vase" but would say it with a long "a" if I did. If I hear "vahz" or "vozz," it sounds like part of a male anatomical reference ("vas deferens").

[bmorrill]

May be  "u" vs. "non-u" thing.

[TheArkansasRoadgeek]

Now vozzes? What's next, "People Who Call The Toilet a commode, pot, johnn, loo"

[hbelkins]

Just don't throw the vohz in the gar-bajz.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

I almost screwed up when I read the title of this thread. I thought of a glass (of water, said vaso in Spanish) instead of a jarrón (Which is what "vase" actually translates to).

[english si]

I sometimes wonder if the people who say "vahz" or "vozz" are the same people who pronounce "envelope" as "on-velope" ("on" as in the word "on," like "turn on the lights").

Maybe in America? Not here in Blighty.

May be  "u" vs. "non-u" thing.

Surely more a "u" and "non-u" vs "trying to be u" thing? Many of these things 'vozz', 'gah-beige', 'on-ve-lope' sound like Americans trying to speak as if they are upstairs in Downton Abbey and getting it wrong.

[GaryV]

It's the British way of saying the word. So, if you consider Brits to be regular people, then yes.

And the Brits got it from the French, where "vahz" would be the normal way of pronouncing a word with that spelling.

Except they don't pronounce most French words the way the French do.  Take fillet, for example.  In France and the US, the last syllable is "lay".  In Britain and Canada, it's "let".

[CtrlAltDel]

It's the British way of saying the word. So, if you consider Brits to be regular people, then yes.

And the Brits got it from the French, where "vahz" would be the normal way of pronouncing a word with that spelling.

Except they don't pronounce most French words the way the French do.  Take fillet, for example.  In France and the US, the last syllable is "lay".  In Britain and Canada, it's "let".

True (although in French, the spelling of your particular example is filet). That said, it can a bit random which words retain their Frenchiness, and which don't, on either side of the Atlantic. For example, in the UK, it's not unheard of to pronounce garage much like carriage, which is pretty much never done in the US. Then, of course, there are the words that are pronounced in a Frenchy way in both places as well as neither.

[1995hoo]

I sometimes wonder if the people who say "vahz" or "vozz" are the same people who pronounce "envelope" as "on-velope" ("on" as in the word "on," like "turn on the lights").

Maybe in America? Not here in Blighty.

May be  "u" vs. "non-u" thing.

Surely more a "u" and "non-u" vs "trying to be u" thing? Many of these things 'vozz', 'gah-beige', 'on-ve-lope' sound like Americans trying to speak as if they are upstairs in Downton Abbey and getting it wrong.

Then you have a friend of mine who tries to use British terminology and spelling but gets it wrong when he refers to pro sports leagues conducting a "draught" every year (as in "the NFL Draught").

[english si]

That said, it can a bit random which words retain their Frenchiness

You mean regain their Frenchiness - they lost it and then got it back (possibly more than once) when the richer people got obsessed with French stuff again, forgetting the horrors of 'The Norman Yoke'.

Want a reason why British food has a reputation for sucking? It's because the higher-class stuff until about 10-15 years ago was copying terrible higher-class French food (which somehow is overhyped worldwide) while cutting back on the garlic that is there to really hide the lack of fresh ingredients that they couldn't get easily in Paris. And that the lower-class stuff (in France too) is simple fayre with good ingredients that didn't have the good ingredients for quite some time (both the cities problem, and then the rationing, supermarket and canned problem post-war).

Also, being north of the potato-tomato, butter-olive oil, and beer-wine lines was seen as inferior: Britain and northern France fall there, but southern France was south of the lines (which added to the rotting food hidden in sauces issue at Versailles/Paris - they shipped stuff from the south, rather than nearby).

"the NFL Draught"

Well it's not a unpublished attempt, is it?

We only have the concept of sports teams taking turns to pick people to hire wrt America, so we would spell it draft.

[GaryV]

We only have the concept of sports teams taking turns to pick people to hire wrt America, so we would spell it draft.

What spelling would you use to mean military conscription?  I believe that's the origin of the term for sports selections.

[english si]

What spelling would you use to mean military conscription?

c-o-n-s-c-r-i-p-t-i-o-n

Unless it's the Vietnam draft and the dodging thereof, because same reasons as American Sports Drafts, it's American term for an American thing (the 'nam draft specifically, rather than conscription in general).

[CtrlAltDel]

That said, it can a bit random which words retain their Frenchiness

You mean regain their Frenchiness - they lost it and then got it back (possibly more than once) when the richer people got obsessed with French stuff again, forgetting the horrors of 'The Norman Yoke'.

This is a good clarification. Thanks.

Want a reason why British food has a reputation for sucking? It's because the higher-class stuff until about 10-15 years ago was copying terrible higher-class French food (which somehow is overhyped worldwide) while cutting back on the garlic that is there to really hide the lack of fresh ingredients that they couldn't get easily in Paris. And that the lower-class stuff (in France too) is simple fayre with good ingredients that didn't have the good ingredients for quite some time (both the cities problem, and then the rationing, supermarket and canned problem post-war).

Also, being north of the potato-tomato, butter-olive oil, and beer-wine lines was seen as inferior: Britain and northern France fall there, but southern France was south of the lines (which added to the rotting food hidden in sauces issue at Versailles/Paris - they shipped stuff from the south, rather than nearby).

With this food part, though, you seem a bit bitter.

[yakra]

The only thing I'm capable of thinking of:

[Rothman]

All I know is that I now want "vozz" to be the official spelling.