Things you've always wanted to ask, but think it's not worth making a topic for

Started by on_wisconsin, March 02, 2014, 03:07:07 PM

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agentsteel53

Quote from: english si on March 04, 2014, 05:24:02 PM
Americans don't get frog pronunciation - hence why they ditched superfluous letters in words derived from Latin or French.

Latin has superfluous letters?
live from sunny San Diego.

http://shields.aaroads.com

jake@aaroads.com


Brandon

"If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention." - Ramsay Bolton, "Game of Thrones"

"Symbolic of his struggle against reality." - Reg, "Monty Python's Life of Brian"

cbeach40

Quote from: Brandon on March 05, 2014, 10:06:17 AM
Plus, we pronounce "garage" properly.


The "garage"? Hey fellas, the "garage"! Well, ooh la di da, Mr. French Man.

A car hole!
and waterrrrrrr!

agentsteel53

what, then, is the improper pronunciation of 'garage'?  rhyme with 'carriage'?
live from sunny San Diego.

http://shields.aaroads.com

jake@aaroads.com

Brandon

"If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention." - Ramsay Bolton, "Game of Thrones"

"Symbolic of his struggle against reality." - Reg, "Monty Python's Life of Brian"

agentsteel53

Quote from: Brandon on March 05, 2014, 10:55:40 AM
Quote from: agentsteel53 on March 05, 2014, 10:50:59 AM
what, then, is the improper pronunciation of 'garage'?  rhyme with 'carriage'?

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/garage

wow.  I've never heard it that way, and I thought I've heard every regional dialect in the US.

I am going to New Zealand in November so I will do some research there.  (unless, as is quite likely, I completely forget this conversation by then.)
live from sunny San Diego.

http://shields.aaroads.com

jake@aaroads.com

english si

Quote from: agentsteel53 on March 05, 2014, 10:44:22 AMLatin has superfluous letters?
With British pronunciation they can!

OK, I was too general, but certainly we over this side of the pond seem happier with colour (rather than color), through (rather than thru), Marlborough (rather than Marlboro). Plus we are fine with pulling stuff like Cirencester being said 'Sister' in certain quarters and we love to laugh at American tourists asking for directions to Lie-ces-ter Square, or asking for Wor-ces-ter-shire sauce, rather than Les-ter Square and Woo-ster-shire sauce.

American English pronunciation and spelling is much more phonetic than British English.
Quote from: agentsteel53 on March 05, 2014, 10:57:44 AMwow.  I've never heard it that way, and I thought I've heard every regional dialect in the US.
I've only heard it as garage-rhymes-with-large as a joke or from someone incredibly posh. Garage-rhymes-with-carriage is just the obvious way for me to pronounce it and anything else is silly.

I can understand that others would disagree, but as I said, English pronunciation is not set in stone - there's wrong ways and legit ways, but there's a wide variety of legit ways.

PS - my garage-rhymes-with-carriage is different to the English bloke on wikipedia. More gar-ige with a barely pronounced 'r' (it is almost ga-ige with a 'broad a')

agentsteel53

are "colour", "Marlborough", etc close to actual Latin?  as in, should I expect to see "COLOVR" carved into some Roman piece of architecture?

Quote from: english si on March 05, 2014, 01:37:17 PM
through (rather than thru)

that just seems like a "save space on signs" issue.  I don't think that anyone anywhere else in the US uses "thru".  unless you're talking about abominations like "lite", "alrite", and the like, which are one step away from the "U LyK c4T f0tOzZ LolTIEFIGHTER333" level of discourse.

QuoteGarage-rhymes-with-carriage is just the obvious way for me to pronounce it and anything else is silly.

I had originally thought Brandon was referring to someone in the US, but not as influenced by French (i.e. one side or the other of the "Arkansas" debate) as pronouncing "garage" in an "incorrect" manner.  thus my surprise that any US regional dialect pronounces "garage" somewhat differently.  again, I've always heard it the way Moe Szyslak said it (mockingly).
live from sunny San Diego.

http://shields.aaroads.com

jake@aaroads.com

texaskdog

What were they thinking when they created the original US highway grid?  What were they thinking when they created the Interstate grid?

Brandon

Quote from: texaskdog on March 05, 2014, 03:18:13 PM
What were they thinking when they created the original US highway grid?  What were they thinking when they created the Interstate grid?

The original US highway grid, from what I can tell, was to be heavy in the east where the population was.  I assume the Interstate grid followed the same concept.  The West was sparsely populated in the 1920s and 1950s.
"If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention." - Ramsay Bolton, "Game of Thrones"

"Symbolic of his struggle against reality." - Reg, "Monty Python's Life of Brian"

kkt

Quote from: texaskdog on March 05, 2014, 03:18:13 PM
What were they thinking when they created the original US highway grid?  What were they thinking when they created the Interstate grid?

The original grids still make sense, mostly.  Is there some particular question about them that you'd like to ask?

Pete from Boston


Quote from: 1 on March 04, 2014, 08:16:45 PM
Quote from: Pete from Boston on March 04, 2014, 08:13:49 PM
"Why don't we just spell it 'nucular?'"

Because that pronunciation is incorrect.

So is a pronunciation dropping the second "n" in "environment," the point that statement was meant to make in the post you excerpted it out of context from.

english si

Quote from: agentsteel53 on March 05, 2014, 01:56:42 PM
are "colour", ... etc close to actual Latin?  as in, should I expect to see "COLOVR" carved into some Roman piece of architecture?
The French (whom I also mentioned and you've ignored) added the -u and we happily went along with that:
[C13: from Old French colour  from Latin color  tint, hue]

The Brits kept the French practise of bonus letters, the Americans only somewhat kept it. This makes some place names in Louisiana (the purchase) irritatingly pronounced - the state keeping the French way of saying it, the river getting the American. New Orleans and Orleans sounding very different, etc (noo or-leans and or-le-on).

It's not a bad thing (arguably it is a good thing), but the point I'm saying is that English isn't phonetic, though American English is more so than British English

cpzilliacus

Quote from: Brandon on March 05, 2014, 10:06:17 AM
We don't?

Mackinac
Charlevoix
Cheboygan
Sault Sainte Marie
Marquette
Joliet (old Frog - now spelled Joliette)
La Salle

Need I go on?

Some are pronounced properly, and some are not, and there is no rhyme nor reason as to why.

Havre de Grace, Maryland - correct local pronunciation is "haverdugrace."
Opinions expressed here on AAROADS are strictly personal and mine alone, and do not reflect policies or positions of MWCOG, NCRTPB or their member federal, state, county and municipal governments or any other agency.

PHLBOS

Lancaster:

In MA & OR - Lan-cas-ter

In PA - Lang-caster

Worcester:

In MA - Wo-ster or Wi-ster (locals pronounce the latter)

In PA - Wor-ces-ter
GPS does NOT equal GOD

NE2

pre-1945 Florida route log

I accept and respect your identity as long as it's not dumb shit like "identifying as a vaccinated attack helicopter".

texaskdog

Quote from: kkt on March 05, 2014, 04:14:13 PM
Quote from: texaskdog on March 05, 2014, 03:18:13 PM
What were they thinking when they created the original US highway grid?  What were they thinking when they created the Interstate grid?

The original grids still make sense, mostly.  Is there some particular question about them that you'd like to ask?

Some of those small stubby ones.  Why?  Some numbers were skipped.  Some have long duplexes.  for starters.

Alps

Quote from: hbelkins on March 04, 2014, 09:18:37 PM
Quote from: NE2 on March 04, 2014, 04:32:09 PM
tagging bees.

huh?
I believe this is a reference to the Tea Party so obscure that not even NE2 himself understands it. That said, stop injecting politics into things NE2.

hbelkins

Quote from: Alps on March 05, 2014, 07:11:30 PM
Quote from: hbelkins on March 04, 2014, 09:18:37 PM
Quote from: NE2 on March 04, 2014, 04:32:09 PM
tagging bees.

huh?
I believe this is a reference to the Tea Party so obscure that not even NE2 himself understands it. That said, stop injecting politics into things NE2.

I googled it and a bunch of hits came up for actually tagging bees, most notably in Australia. So that's why I asked.
Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.

roadman65

Why do some maps show a town called TB at the northern junction of US 301 and MD 5 north of Waldorf, MD? 

Wikipedia and other sources claim no such town with such name exists.  I assume it is an abbreviation for something and not a toll bridge either.
Every day is a winding road, you just got to get used to it.

Sheryl Crowe

NE2

pre-1945 Florida route log

I accept and respect your identity as long as it's not dumb shit like "identifying as a vaccinated attack helicopter".

Duke87

Quote from: Brandon on March 05, 2014, 10:06:17 AM
Mackinac
Charlevoix
Cheboygan
Sault Sainte Marie
Marquette
Joliet (old Frog - now spelled Joliette)
La Salle

I'm not from the region, so I'm sure most of these are different from what locals would say, but I pronounce those names respectively:
Mack-in-ack
Shar-le-vwah
Sheh-boy-gone
Salt Saint Marie
Mar-kett
Jo-lee-et
Luh Sall (rhyming with "stall"")
If you always take the same road, you will never see anything new.

hotdogPi

Quote from: texaskdog on March 05, 2014, 06:06:13 PM
Quote from: kkt on March 05, 2014, 04:14:13 PM
Quote from: texaskdog on March 05, 2014, 03:18:13 PM
What were they thinking when they created the original US highway grid?  What were they thinking when they created the Interstate grid?

The original grids still make sense, mostly.  Is there some particular question about them that you'd like to ask?

Some of those small stubby ones.  Why?  Some numbers were skipped.  Some have long duplexes.  for starters.

US 44 and 46 (both too far north, 46 is too short) were made after the rest. This is probably a reason for many others.

Interstates that are duplicated (76, 84, 86, 88) were duplicated because no other reasonable numbers were available.
Clinched

Traveled, plus
US 13, 50
MA 22, 35, 40, 53, 79, 107, 109, 126, 138, 141, 159
NH 27, 78, 111A(E); CA 90; NY 366; GA 42, 140; FL A1A, 7; CT 32, 320; VT 2A, 5A; PA 3, 51, 60, WA 202; QC 162, 165, 263; 🇬🇧A100, A3211, A3213, A3215, A4222; 🇫🇷95 D316

Lowest untraveled: 36

theline

I-50 and I-60 were skipped intentionally in the original plan, because it was decided that they might cause confusion by being too close to US-50 and US-60. None of the north-south route numbers were skipped because they were all needed to cover the wide expanse of the nation. Of course, we have several cases of interstates added later that are very close to US routes with the same numbers.

hotdogPi

Quote from: theline on March 06, 2014, 09:26:50 PM
I-50 and I-60 were skipped intentionally in the original plan, because it was decided that they might cause confusion by being too close to US-50 and US-60. None of the north-south route numbers were skipped because they were all needed to cover the wide expanse of the nation. Of course, we have several cases of interstates added later that are very close to US routes with the same numbers.

Another reason why none of the north-south ones were skipped is because the major US routes end in 1 and the major Interstates end in 5. For east-west routes, both major Interstates and major US routes end in 0, causing conflict.
Clinched

Traveled, plus
US 13, 50
MA 22, 35, 40, 53, 79, 107, 109, 126, 138, 141, 159
NH 27, 78, 111A(E); CA 90; NY 366; GA 42, 140; FL A1A, 7; CT 32, 320; VT 2A, 5A; PA 3, 51, 60, WA 202; QC 162, 165, 263; 🇬🇧A100, A3211, A3213, A3215, A4222; 🇫🇷95 D316

Lowest untraveled: 36



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