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25 new of 289 responses total.
mynxcat
response 78 of 289: Mark Unseen   Oct 23 00:03 UTC 2002

This response has been erased.

jmsaul
response 79 of 289: Mark Unseen   Oct 23 00:23 UTC 2002

Thank you, Rane!  I knew there were some really common ones, I was just
blanking on them.  Those both qualify, and they're better than "fireman"
or "corpsman".
mynxcat
response 80 of 289: Mark Unseen   Oct 23 00:29 UTC 2002

This response has been erased.

richard
response 81 of 289: Mark Unseen   Oct 23 00:57 UTC 2002

movies!  this is the movies item!  hasn't anybody seen any movies 
recently?

I saw PUNCH DRUNK over the weekend.  I thought it was pretty good although
I'm not the world'sb iggest adam sandler fan.
mynxcat
response 82 of 289: Mark Unseen   Oct 23 01:03 UTC 2002

This response has been erased.

gelinas
response 83 of 289: Mark Unseen   Oct 23 01:15 UTC 2002

"what" is pronounced, roughly /wut/.  "about" starts with a schwa, which
sound like /u/.

I just learned that Annette O'Toole played Lana Lang in _Superman III_, which
I don't reemember seeing, so I can't review it.
mynxcat
response 84 of 289: Mark Unseen   Oct 23 01:22 UTC 2002

This response has been erased.

lelande
response 85 of 289: Mark Unseen   Oct 23 01:39 UTC 2002

in phonetics there are two schwas, the /@/ we're used to seeing which is an
/uh/ in unstressed syllables; and the stressed schwa is called caret, /^/
(except bigger... an upside-down 'v'). i'm guessing Sapna's name is stressed
on the first syllable, making it caret. 

there are, of course, no standard pronounciations. at best there are most
common pronounciations. i pronounce "what" /w^t/, most of the time, although
sometimes i front my tongue a little and say something between /w3t/ ("wet")
and /wIt/ ("wit").
the interesting thing to know about the two schwas is that they are produced
by non-extreme positioning of the tongue in the mouth at the time of
production. they're the vowels that just hang out in the middle of everything.
jmsaul
response 86 of 289: Mark Unseen   Oct 23 02:55 UTC 2002

Re #84:  Not in American English, it isn't.  It's pronounced "Whut".
mynxcat
response 87 of 289: Mark Unseen   Oct 23 03:04 UTC 2002

This response has been erased.

gelinas
response 88 of 289: Mark Unseen   Oct 23 03:25 UTC 2002

Probably not.  My Webster's unabridged has "wha(umlaut)t" /hwot/.  However,
if you can find some re-runs of "Welcome Back, Kotter", just wait for
Barbarino to be asked a question.

More easily, listen to the folks around you, carefully.  You'll see that the
pronouncication of the word varies by its use in a sentence; the same speaker
will pronounce it several different ways, maybe even in the same sentence.
I think it largely depends upon where and how the stress falls.
polytarp
response 89 of 289: Mark Unseen   Oct 23 03:30 UTC 2002

Just listen to leland.\
rcurl
response 90 of 289: Mark Unseen   Oct 23 05:17 UTC 2002

Since what and about qualify...there's a million of them: a (the article),
adopt, adept, address, afraid, against, ahoy, etc
mdw
response 91 of 289: Mark Unseen   Oct 23 05:24 UTC 2002

France has the french language academy, which has legal force to decree
what words are part of the french language, and (presumably) how to
pronounce and spell them.  Most other countries do not go to this length
to enforce language purity, but there are quite a few that do in fact
act on an official basis to define a standardized alphabet and spelling,
- which they revise on a regular basis.  That's why spanish, russian,
etc., all have phonetic spelling.

English is of course the world's big exception.  There is no English
language academy, and the last time anybody bothered to make spelling
phonetic was sometime back in the middle ages, at least one vowel shift
away from modern english.  The people who originally figured out how to
spell fight, bite, feet, meat, etc., would probably be horrified to find
out how we pronouce English today.

Although there is no formal "langauge" academy for English, there is a
standard of sorts, which is usually set by the broadcasting industry.
The BBC, for instance, has strict standards on how its radio and TV
announcers are supposed to pronouce words, and those standards are
deliberately set to be as intelligible as possible to as many brits as
possible, so is a sort of artificial amalgam of all the different
dialects averaging all the differences between them, probably while also
trying to preserve those differences that mark different but easily
confused words.  In America, we also have such a broadcast standard,
which is in fact based on the language spoke in Ohio - the "linguistic"
center of the USA.  Since we (in Michigan) don't live far from Ohio,
people on American TV usually don't have a noticeable accent (to us).
Broadcast TV and radio tends to level accent - so people in GB and the
USA are losing regional differences and sounding more like "the
standard".  If you attend a university with a good
broadcasting/communications/acting/journalism/public-speaking or similar
department, there's a good chance there is in fact some sort of program
or course to teach you how to speak "standard" english without an
accent.
rcurl
response 92 of 289: Mark Unseen   Oct 23 05:35 UTC 2002

The Dutch adopted (I believe) Rotterdam Dutch as their national standard.
As a result many Dutch speak two Dutch languages - the official dialect
and their local dialect. (I met an Israeli who came to the  Netherlands
speaking no Dutch but in six months was speaking both Dutch and Brabants
fluently....but that's another subject.)
russ
response 93 of 289: Mark Unseen   Oct 23 09:41 UTC 2002

(This is terribly amusing to find this in the *movie* item.  Is there
a "pointless bickering" item?  Should there be?)
jmsaul
response 94 of 289: Mark Unseen   Oct 23 11:01 UTC 2002

Re #88:  I've never heard an American speaker say "whot".

Re #93:  Oh my god!  Drift!
mynxcat
response 95 of 289: Mark Unseen   Oct 23 12:50 UTC 2002

This response has been erased.

other
response 96 of 289: Mark Unseen   Oct 23 14:12 UTC 2002

Well, it turns out that I am going to have to see 8 Mile, though I wasn't 
planning on it.  I'll wait for the video/DVD, though.  Apparently, the 
role of Roy Daroucher is played by the guy with whom I've been sharing a 
PO Box for the last eleven years:  Adam Brook, proprietor of Cadillac 
Luggage in the Penobscot Building, and formerly proprietor of Adam's 
Garden of Eden in Ann Arbor.

Weird.  VERY weird.  He's never been a professional actor.  However, I 
can easily imagine him in the role...
gull
response 97 of 289: Mark Unseen   Oct 23 14:59 UTC 2002

Re #94: Could be worse, the "Local News Gap" item turned into a
discussion about cats.
slynne
response 98 of 289: Mark Unseen   Oct 23 15:16 UTC 2002

Does anyone know if any theaters around here are planning on showing 
Bowling for Columbine?
remmers
response 99 of 289: Mark Unseen   Oct 23 18:12 UTC 2002

It opens at the Michigan Theater November 1, according to their web page.
edina
response 100 of 289: Mark Unseen   Oct 23 18:27 UTC 2002

I can't wait to see "8 Mile".  That's how homesick I am.
slynne
response 101 of 289: Mark Unseen   Oct 23 18:38 UTC 2002

I used to live very near 8 Mile and Woodward but I'll bet that isnt the 
neighborhood where that movie is set. 

RE#99 Cool!
tpryan
response 102 of 289: Mark Unseen   Oct 23 19:21 UTC 2002

re above:
        Invite people over for Soup nad a sandwich.
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