Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Original Fiction FDK: What's New? (1/1)

After last week's serious story, I wanted to try my hand at something lighter.

All feedback appreciated.

This was funny.

Thanks to you, now I know how 'gnu' is pronounced, I learned a new word and have an idea how you pronounce a single "a". All in all, that's much for so little words.

Thank you for the little cheer up, it was much needed after my week from hell.

Hi Barbara,

I'm sorry to hear that you've had such a bad week. I hope whatever gave you grief is quickly and favorably resolved. (And if the cause of the bad week was the Ukraine situation, I wish the same for everyone.)

As I am sure you already know (probably much better than I do), the answer to how something is done in English is often, "It's complicated."

When one is referring to the animal, the "g" in "gnu" is silent, but when one is discussing GNU in reference to Linux, the acronym is pronounced as two syllables - like "guh new," with a hard "g."

The indefinite article is sometimes pronounced "uh," and sometimes pronounced like the name of the letter "a." What I am about to write is with my native-English-speaker hat firmly on and my trained-linguist hat completely off, since I have not gathered and studied (or even read scholarly articles about) this subject. Having said that, I will say that it seems to me the choice of pronunciation will vary by dialect, by the word following the article, by the amount of emphasis one wishes to place on the article, and by whether one is saying it normally or is citing it.

For example, in my dialect, if a mother wished to give permission to a child to have a cookie, she might say, "You may have a cookie," with the indefinite article pronounced "uh," but if she wished to emphasize to the child that permission were granted only for one single cookie, she would stress the syllable by saying it a little louder and longer, and pronounce it like the name of the letter.

I was actually wondering when I wrote the "Noah" bit just how well it would go over for speakers of other dialects. I decided to keep it in, though, since I think it would have worked for a real Burns and Allen routine. I also figured that anyone who is a fan of Lois & Clark would likely be familiar enough with American dialects that the joke would eventually make sense to them, even if they didn't think it funny initially.

I must admit that I am glad I am a native speaker of English -- if only because I imagine it would be a bear to learn as a second or foreign language. I give huge amounts of kudos to you and to anyone else who is able to become fluent in it as an ESL/EFL student. I'm not sure I would succeed in it.

Joy,
Lynn

Well, learning English is a work in progress, I dare say. One I've started some twenty-eight years ago. I'm getting better at recognizing English dialects. My husband and I recently started watching Game of thrones in the original version. While I'm betting that the show would not be your cup of tea, at least it's interesting to listen to the various native, and not so native speakers of the language.

Most recently, we tried to guess which actor was from Scotland, Ireland or England. We weren't all that bad. I guess, I pronounce English mostly the way I've learned in school. Which mostly is the way the Queen speaks it, as far as I can tell. But over the years, I guess it's become something of a mix between various dialects. There is also a heavy dose of German accent. Though I like to think it's not as bad as Arnold Schwarzenegger's accent. Though strictly speaking, that's an Austrian accent.

Hi Barbara,

I know that German students have a huge advantage over American ones in that they start learning English at a young age; American students typically don't get taught a different language until they are in their mid-to-late teens. I really wish we started learning at least one other language when we were younger, even if it meant postponing the start of learning math skills for a couple of years. From all I know of the science behind learning, the students would be in a better cognitive space for both subjects if they were so rearranged. The same amount of time overall could be spent with the subjects, but the simple rearranging would make learning so much easier and more effective for the students.

I'll step off my soapbox now. :-}

Well done on identifying English dialects. If it is any consolation, even native speakers of English have trouble sometimes. While I can easily discern a Scottish accent from an English or Irish one, and can sometimes tell more fine-grained differences (e.g., a speaker from Edinburgh vs. one from Glasgow), I will sometimes mistake someone from parts of Australia with someone from England. (Some Australian accents are obviously from Oz, but some are much less so. Not all Aussies sound like Paul Hogan.)

Joy,
Lynn

Yeah, I'm glad I had to learn English and at least one other language in school. I took, Latin and French, but unfortunately I lost most of my French skills. Though noone speaks Latin anymore, the language is sure helpful to at least read several other languages. Usually, I can grasp the general meaning of a text.

Loquor Latine! Or, at least, I used to, a little bit. I studied Latin for five years in school. I studied French, as well; At one point, I was able not only to speak some French, but also to think in it. But I fear I have forgotten most of those languages, as well as my Spanish and classical Greek. I think I could still manage a conversation in American Sign Language, although I am pretty rusty.

I agree with you about Latin. It helped me not only with Romance languages, but also with English.

I'm currently using Duolingo to try to pick up enough Scots Gaelic to be able to understand some of the folk music I listen to. I've a long way to go with that, but I am enjoying learning.

Joy,
Lynn

Yeah, I keep telling myself that I should spend more time refreshing my French. But I barely find the time to do so.

Just recently, I thought about posting a challenge to write a drabble in a language other than English. Sounds like at least you might be able to participate.

I like the idea of that challenge, but I'm not so sure I could participate any more. My strongest language other than English is American Sign Language, and even that is rusty at best. But if someone else were to write in French, I would at least dig out my old French-English dictionary and try to understand it. Keep in mind that it has been decades since I have even attempted to communicate in any spoken languages other than English.. I fear I have almost devolved into the punch line of the old joke:

What do you call someone who speaks three languages?
Trilingual.
What do you call someone who speaks two languages?
Bilingual.
What do you call someone who speaks one language?
American.

I'm not quite at the monolingual stage yet, but I'm closer to it than I ever have been since my early teenage years.

But by all means, do post the challenge. And I hope people who are more fluent than I in other languages do participate. Who knows? We might get posts from creative individuals who write well in their own languages but feel nervous about trying to write in English. Anything that results in more L&C fanfic is a good thing.

Joy,
Lynn

(doctor): "Scalpel."

(nurse hands over instrument): "Scalpel."

(d): "Sponge."

(n hands it over): "Sponge."

(d): "Snu."

(baffled nurse): "What's snu?"

"Nothing much. What's new with you?"

(say it fast and listen close)

Cute vignette, Lynn. And yes, there are many comedy teams which could've done this or something similar. A Marx Brothers bit from one of their early movies comes to my mind.

To have my writing compared in any way to the Marx Brothers, much less to the classic viaduct sketch, is quite a compliment. Thank you.

Thanks, too, for the reminder of the bit from M*A*S*H. One could always count on Hawkeye to add some much-needed levity.