This is wrong on so many levels....

[JR8]

Zed???
Zeppelin


(oppps Jr8 beat me to it.)

Our posts crossed! [jinx as they say]
BTW... Zeppelin is a good one! Bet when the Hindenburg crashed they didn't refer to it as a Zeeppelin

[dazzlebabe]

So, to Singaporeans, is it aluminum or aluminium?

Foil!

[JR8]

We do pronounce Zebra, Zenith with a zee. Zed? It's not a real word.


Zeenith? That is just so wrong [squint]. And of course zed is a word. If not do re mi fa so la ti aren't either, but they is

Thank goodness for Noah Webster cleaning up the fouled up British language. Remember, when in new york, lighting up a fag means putting a smile on his face!

I hadn't thought of it in quite that way before!

[revhappy]

Can somebody give me a word where the "z" has a "zed" sound?

Well, most english consonants are like that. Is there a word where W has "Double U" sound

[sundaymorningstaple]

Can somebody give me a word where the "z" has a "zed" sound?

Well, most english consonants are like that. Is there a word where W has "Double U" sound

True, but that doesn't explain why you guys pronounce "W" like a "V" and "V" like a "W" does it. I could never understand that. If you guys can pronounce the V sound when saying a W word, and vice versa, why don't you all just pronounce them correctly?

[JR8]

Can somebody give me a word where the "z" has a "zed" sound?

Well, most english consonants are like that. Is there a word where W has "Double U" sound

True, but that doesn't explain why you guys pronounce "W" like a "V" and "V" like a "W" does it. I could never understand that. If you guys can pronounce the V sound when saying a W word, and vice versa, why don't you all just pronounce them correctly?

Scandinavians have precisely this flip on pronunciation as well, makes no sense. (Old family story of my mum going into a store and spending ten minutes trying to convince a sales clerk she wanted the hat in their window with a whale on it )

But then SGns say Thighs when they mean Thais, and Ties when they mean thighs

[nakatago]

obligatory and gratuitous Monty Python reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akbflkF_1zY

[JR8]

Nobody expects the Hungarian Phrase Book sketch!

[ksl]

Fortunately, the letter zed doesn't appear at all in the US version of the game. Only the letter zee appears. zeebras are striped horses, zedbras I don't have a clue what they are. And what the heck is a zedro?

And what the heck is a zedro?

I striped Pedro perhaps I'm certainly a critic of the American language taking over anything British, pronunciation isn't really a problem but spelling is, it just doesn't look right and is quite alien. It wouldn't surprise me if the Americans don't have 51 ways of spelling

Like the UK doesn't have regional dialects and accents...

Of course they do, but they all spell the same not on how it's pronounced Traditional English is valued by nobles, American is valued by immigrants and rappers it's really comparable to a very large Singapore, no plus points I'm afraid. I mean how on earth can a game of rugby be called football! For those in the know it's very clear, but for immigrants it's not so, but i can see the potential for good comics The Hungarian phrase book sketch is so funny http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akbflkF_1zY

[chuckd]

Can somebody give me a word where the "z" has a "zed" sound?

Well, most english consonants are like that. Is there a word where W has "Double U" sound

True, but that doesn't explain why you guys pronounce "W" like a "V" and "V" like a "W" does it. I could never understand that. If you guys can pronounce the V sound when saying a W word, and vice versa, why don't you all just pronounce them correctly?

Would that not be a hangover from the believed latin pronunciation of the letter V?

I've always pondered of where the F is in laugh, and where where GH disappear to in 'thought'

[chuckd]

I mean how on earth can a game of rugby be called football!

Surely the full name of the sport is 'Rugby Football' as in the game of football devised in Rugby...so in a way it makes sense.

Are there not lots of games world round that bear a striking resemblance to football or rugby (by the UK definitions) that all go under the name of 'football'. Though I guess each adds a clarification to the start....

...but in Australia, what I know of as 'Australian rules football' do they call this 'football' colloquially? I'd be interested to know.

[ex-pat]

Back to the original post.

Theres no way Lah land people could cope with an American English...Teach Ah Kong first how to pronounce FILM properly. For goodness sake FILM is not PLEGM!!!!

[Brah]

(I haven't read the rest of the thread yet)

Saw this and it made me think of an American colleague who I worked with on a project recently, she is based in the States and I was on international conference calls with her and people from Europe, Asia and the UK for a few months.

Maybe I've been away too long, but her colloquialisms really began to grate. For example, her way to request the team to bring up issues was to 'surface' them..., and a whole list of others, mostly dated ManagementSpeak. I could feel the non-Americans on the call rolling their eyes with most of these.

Having said that, over my years away I've had to pretend I understood an Aussie or UK colloquialism many a time until I could get away and look it up. Liverpudlians are the worst offenders and yes I know about Cockney but that annoying unfunny rhyming thing but doesn't mean it goes over when the same people are whinging about something American in the same sentence.


"Bob's yer uncle"???....

Only the fact that someone has to push it and that people are treating it as if the whole island is sinking into the sea.

As someone who's been told who speaks with an American accent and is used to American English, it doesn't bother me nor think anyone to be of different value if they speak with a different accent. It only bothers me if they use really region-specific words or terms (because I don't understand it) or their accent is really difficult to discern or is just plain grating to my ears. It also bothers me if they insist that the pidgin that they use is correct English but everybody else thinks it isn't.

Otherwise, pick a convention and leave someone alone if they use a different convention unless it's in formal communication.

[ksl]

.

Bob's yer uncle"???....

I totally agree!

I've taken quite a few foreign women back to my home City and they just haven't a clue of local dialect, quite funny really having a few beers in the working mens club and all the locals ogling the new talent. Like fly's round cow dung!

I used to say speak slowly and clearly to the locals, and they would slow down the speech so much, they were pronouncing syllables, even the foreign women found it amusing! I mean the foreign women could speak, and write better English than the locals.

Though what really amazed me of the locals, were their generosity, and community spirit, even guys, I didn't know bought drinks and invited us to parties and surprisingly they went out of their way to be good hosts and made us very welcome.

I'm not against words creeping in over the years, i think it's very important to understand American and keep it separated because of it's own historic roots, the politics play a vital role in various Countries, and I'm sure the focus would be on the USA to take over the role in Singapore if allowed to the teh UK gov wouldn't be too pleased.

Taiwan being mostly American influenced, is also competitive in Singapore when it comes to language and I have met with Kindergartens in Taiwan, wanting to use their American language applications here in Singapore, the ones i know haven't yet succeeded.

[KenYang]

The majority is correct, communication isn't about accent it is about understanding and getting understood