Re: OT-Pronunciation
- To: Multiple recipients of list <i*@rt66.com>
- Subject: Re: OT-Pronunciation
- From: "* G* C* <j*@erols.com>
- Date: Fri, 6 Feb 1998 17:05:14 -0700 (MST)
Ian E. & Shirley Efford wrote:
>
> One of my
> greatest linguistic feats was to translate between some Iraqis and an
> Air France stewardess in Paris where both parties were speaking English
> but neither could understand the other.
Great fun, eh, Ian? I once served as interpreter (auf Deutsch) between
two Germans from different parts of Germany. That was in the 1950's.
>The reverse occurred in rural
> West Virginia where the Assistant State Geologist, a friend of mine from
> South Carolina, had to order the meals at the local cafe as the waitress
> and I could not communicate. As it happened, there was only one thing on
> the menu and it remained the same throughout the week!
>
Grits? It (the pronunciation) gets worse as you go south. I stopped in a
drugstore in Tennessee in the late 1960s and asked for some Gelusil. The
young woman was baffled. She was just telling me that they didn't have
any when an older woman appeared from the back room. "Oh, honey," she
said, "he wants jail-you-seal!" Aril is probably pronounced "ay-rul"
there.
Griff Crump, along the tidal Potomac near Mount Vernon, VA, where high
tide plus flooding has the water within a foot of overflowing the George
Washington Parkway below Alexandria. jgcrump@erols.com
