British pronunciation of WATER

[JohndeFresno]

I know.

TOTALLY off topic. But this is really bugging me.

I understand that many words in our American English language are totally inconsistent with the spelling (like the car, Chevrolet), because our language is allegedly "rich and fluid" as we borrow from so many different languages, instead of following logical and consistent pronunciation like Spanish and other languages. You know, a, e, i, o, and u are ALWAYS pronounced the same in that great language. If the word is foreign, they adapt it to their language.

Not like us, where we do neither well - use the original or stay consistent. Beijing - Peking, Al Qaeda - Al Qaida, Osama Bin Laden - Usama Bin Laden, on and on.

And I know that some words have changed over the centuries, like "shirt," because it was originally something like "scirt" which was both a shirt and skirt - a tunic - before we men took off the ruffle and tucked it in our pants.

But why on this green earth do the British, who INVENTED the tongue that I speak, take some words and so totally screw them up from the way they are spelled? Especially when they are ENGLISH words?

I am watching a favorite actress, Jane Seymour, and she is saying "Woe-Tah" for Water, instead of the way it is spelled. I say "Wah-Terr" because its first vowel is an 'a' and its last vowel is an 'e.' How the heck do you get "Woe-Tah" out of "water?" That's even more off track than some folks on the East Coast who drop the r in "car" ("cah") and then find it again if a word ends in "a" like "idear" for "idea" and "Obamer."

Even the Germans, with their gutteral language and all of its "gerunds" and such, say "Vasser" for the liquid. Pretty close.

What's with our cousins in the Isles murdering their own words? Where is 'enry 'iggins when we need 'im?

A confused linguist trying to make sense of the world...

[Griff]

Put down the bottle and step away from the computer! Just remember, we're most separated by our common language.

[JohndeFresno]

Put down the bottle and step away from the computer! Just remember, we're most separated by our common language.

Oh. OK.
B-u-u-u-r-p!

[flatnose]

Here, I will make it easy for you....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uz9_YfIQaz4

[JohndeFresno]

Hilarious, Flatnose!
Thanks!

[gamekeeper]

England is a small country but has a great many regional accents, if you were in the west midlands there is an area known as "the Black Country" once a coal mining and iron foundry area, you would not even recognize the language as English.
My mom came from the black country but spoke clearly, however her sisters were almost impossible to understand.
Me, I'm a Brummie from Birmingham, our accent is ridiculed all over the country....
My son has married a Geordie lass, so all our conversations are fun and never boring.
Yo can just ax me if yo wonna no more.....

[Alan in Vermont]

Yo can just ax me if yo wonna no more.....

Off wi' 'is 'ed!

[Ji in Hawaii]

When I lived on Maui my electrician was a Scotsman from the old country though living in California for 20 years before Maui diluted his Scottish brogue, that is unless he got excited or angry. Then he was barely intelligible. He once hired a transient traveler from Manchester, England. One time we were all having lunch together at a project, and this Manchester fellow was talking away to us but I swear I could not understand a word he was saying. I turned to my Scottish friend and he just shrugged and smiled. He couldn't understand him either.

I just remembered, my great grandmother on my dad's father's side was from Manchester. From what I gathered from Dad because she was from the old country she was looked down upon by the rest of the family who descend from English colonists first arriving in Massachusetts in the 1630s. Maybe they just couldn't communicate with her.

[gamekeeper]

A true story told to me by an ex Royal Navy bloke. Two Royal Navy ships moored side by side in Portsmouth, a brummie sailor on one ship shouts over to the other ship, " do you have any brummies on board?" the reply was "no, we are an all white crew" this is only funny if you know how many black immigrants have moved to my old city....
The brummie accent is soon picked up by people of other creeds and colors, which I find weird yet amusing.

[gamekeeper]

Another example of confusing English language.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz2-ukrd2VQ

[Old Savage]

French was the official language of England for 200 years.

[mikld]

I think it has as much to do with regional dialects as anything. Just try and decipher what a resident of Compton, or Detroit is saying. It's supposed to be English but I'm danged if I can understand a most of it (and I grew up in Compton!)...

[cnjarvis]

My wife and I have very close friends that live in Telford (S. Of Shropshire) and visit often. The "language barrier" is one of our favourite topics of discussion!

[Old Ironsights]

In both the literal and vernacular "Vada" and "Vadka" (not to mention descriptors like "agua diente" (water with teeth/bite) are so close as to make me wonder what the sprinkler hose is connected to... and why mine isn't connected to it...

[JohndeFresno]

...
Me, I'm a Brummie from Birmingham, our accent is ridiculed all over the country...

OK, - Say something so that we can hear it!

[kaschi]

Around the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area, people say "wooder" for water. In general, English dialects are so intriguing to me. I'm from west-central PA and work in another part of the state about 150 east of my home area, which I visit on a regular basis. As soon as I hear someone speak from back home, it's so noticeable and sound so cozy and homey. We say, for example "mum" instead of "mom", "crick" instead of "creek" and "not atall" instead of "not at all" . (I found it interesting that Gamekeeper wrote "mom" instead of "mum" as I would have expected from a Brit!) West-central PA has a lot more British sounding terms but those were just a few.
Whenever I watch the Brit sitcom "Doc Martin", there are a few of the actors/actresses who sound like they could be speaking an American English dialect. It's most noticeable to me when there is background noise involved making it difficult to discern one from the other. Dialects are cool!

[Nath]

From north Staffordshire my grandfather would pronounce water as; wAter or w•ai•ter,

You can would be, thars con. However a question in this context would be, con thee or cos thar for can you!



N.

[gamekeeper]

...
Me, I'm a Brummie from Birmingham, our accent is ridiculed all over the country...

OK, - Say something so that we can hear it!

I tried to find a good example of the Brummie accent but couldn't get the Link to work however if you have ever heard Ozzy Osbourne who unfortunately is a Brummie and despite living in the USA, he does still have a watered down Brummie accent.

[mikld]

I was staying with my aunt in Texas as a teen and I asked my cousin why Texans talked so slow (I had grown up in So. CA.). She told me it was so danged hot most of the time, it was too much effort to talk at regular speed. So, weather is a contributing factor too...

[Carlsen Highway]

Wah-ter is not right. I'm sorry but you're pronouncing it wrong. Jane Seymour is right.

What you're describing (hard to tell since you are an American spelling phonetically and the sounds you are writing are not the way I would hear them in my head or pronounce them) sounds like an upper class British accent from a certain period. That particular British accent - used to be standardised for broadcast TV, radio and English movies, even in places like NZ and Australia for newsreaders etc.

To me, water is "wor-ter" but that is not the same as you would understand from me writing that it out like that - because to me, the "r's"" are nearly silent. Whereas Americans (to our ears) overstress the R's, like Irish people do. So, its war - (with no R) - ter (with no pronounced r).

Its a long A in water, not a short American A - like, say, "wau" as in Austin Texas and tah, as in Ah, look at that.
I think I just described the same thing you said Jane Seymour was saying didnt I...

But, none of this is helpful, because I have a (fairly nuetral) New Zealand accent, which to Americans sounds British, but to the English, sounds distinctly colonial and different.

Much of English is actually Norwegian (much more than French) from the Vikings. We even had a Viking king. Much of what you think of as pure Anglo Saxon, is actually Norwegian. I have read that English should be reclassified from being a "germanic" language to being a Scandinavian one.
When you hear them speak, Norwegian sound like it uses normal English sounds to my ear, much more than the gutteral Ichs and Sprichs of German or the sibliant ss's or back of the mouth lilt of French. More significantly, the grammer and sentence structure of English is the same as Norwegian, unlike any of the other European languages.

(Although in modern Norwegian, water is vanne. Which is not enlightening. But in old German it is water, and also in Dutch - water.)

[Rusty]

I've always thought the purpose of speech is to communicate a thought. If the thought is transfered, mission accomplished.

Rule #2, Anyone who can only think of one way to spell a word shows a total lack of creativity.

[piller]

Har in Tayksus, we speaks Tayksun. George W Bush had a very mild Texas accent. If one listens to Former president George W Bush and adds in Czech, German, Spanish, and several autochthonous accents, then you will know what Texan truly sounds like. Texas was an independent country, and has the right to have a completely unique language and accent from any other State in the U.S.

[TraderVic]

Hmmm......interesting thread for sure.

Lets see, I grew up hearing people say they're warshing their hands, or talk about the thieves in Warshington DC ( still there, aren't they ??!! ).

Down in Texas, while getting gas many years ago, the attendant asked me if he should check my "all" ( oil ). I had just been discharged in San Diego and heading home to Wisconsin.

Besides different accents or pronunciations, I find regional phrases quite interesting, such as "nice day today, and so?"

Many yoopers will say "yeh der hey" as a suffix on a statement or question.

[gamekeeper]

By the way, you guys have Lever Action Rifles but I have Leever Action Rifles, after all these years I'm trying to follow your lead and talk proper... Hence I say mom not mum and never put a U in color or humor but the hardest thing is to call a twenty two a twenty two instead of a British two two.

[piller]

My Mother and her two sisters to whom she is a triplet all "Worshed" their hands. They grew up on the Western Slope out in Colorado. Where that pronunciation came from, well, I have no clue.

[KWK]

From north Staffordshire my grandfather would pronounce water as; wAter or w•ai•ter...

That today is consistent with the spelling; it would rhyme with later. However, the A was likely pronounced like "ah" when the spelling was set down centuries ago. The symbol E used to be pronounced as the -ay in day, and the symbol A was as in the modern father. As I recall English is the only European language to have undergone such a shift in vowels.

[Old Ironsights]

Those not familiar with it ought to read up on "the great vowel shift" that occurred in English between roughly 1400 - 1700.

To get the gist of middle english in comparison to modern english, think "Pirate".

Middle english vowels were longer, higher and elided, which is visible in middle english writing styles. Fascinating stuff.

[JohndeFresno]

Wah-ter is not right. I'm sorry but you're pronouncing it wrong. Jane Seymour is right.

OK - then what the heck does one do with the "o" in the alphabet? Use it for a zero?

Great posts, all.

[rock-steady]

Way down South, and I mean way down south "Water" is pronounced 'wutter' rhymes with butter.

Oh, and my Grandpaw, "worshed" his hands in the "Zinc". I remember him and my Great Uncle always said "Zinc" instead of sink.

[Old Ironsights]

The European Union commissioners have announced that agreement has been reached to adopt English as the preferred language for European communications, rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty's Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a five-year phased plan for what will be known as EuroEnglish (Euro for short).

In the first year, "s" will be used instead of the soft "c." Sertainly, sivil servants will resieve this news with joy. Also, the hard "c" will be replaced with "k". Not only will this klear up konfusion, but typewriters kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik emthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced by "f". This will make words like fotograf" 20 persent shorter.

In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of silent "e"s in the languag is disgrasful, and they would go.

By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" by "z" and "w" by " v".

During ze fifz year, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou", and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.

After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubls or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech ozer.

Ze drem vil finali kum tru.

[gamekeeper]

[Nath]

brilliant

[Griff]

+1!!! OI, I'd read that a long time ago, but it's still funny today!!!

[JohndeFresno]