Speak frickin' American!

by Ben Reilly Tue Dec 09, 2014 4:29 am

OK, bitches, here's the facts:

Population of Australia: 23.13 million

Population of UK: 64.1 million

Population of Canada: 35.16 million

Population of New Zealand: 4.471 million (pfft)

So ... combined population of American-speaking Not-America: about 126 million

Total population of American-speaking America: 316 million! (Hell, even if 80 million of us only spoke Mexican, we'd still outnumber the rest of you).

So -- the sport is called "soccer," and there are to be no extra U's in anything ending with an R. Oh, and by the way? "R" makes a sound, damn it. Imitate a pirate if it's that freaking hARRRRRRd.

You know what's up. We have the numbers AND the guns. So start speaking freakin' American (and stop lecturing the majority of the language's speakers on what's "proper") or else I'll order a drone strike on you on one half of the screen of my smartphone while I'm ordering freaking Pizza Hut on the other side.

jocolor

by Ben Reilly Tue Dec 09, 2014 4:33 am

Sorry, that wasn't nice. It's just that sometimes it seems the only thing Brits are passionate about, besides Niggle Fringe Whoever-the-fuck, is propour English.

Australians are pretty cool about it, and the Canadians just don't want us to shoot them ...

by veya_victaous Tue Dec 09, 2014 4:43 am

Pfft
Australia Controls almost 70% of the world's weapons grade uranium
We will cover it in spiders and throw it at you tongue

Plus You forgot India and Pakistan and Nigeria (125,226,449 and 92,316,049 and 82,941,000)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-speaking_population
there are 4 nations with more English Speakers than England.
There are more English speakers in Egypt, Germany or France than Australia.
And more in Ghana or Switzerland than New Zealand
Plus not even 95% of USA citizen speak English/American but Over 97% do in UK and Australia.

And We are trying our new language. it's like English but with the expletives of any language so 'Dalmar Dejende Mullukka Motherfucker' is a perfectly valid greeting

by Ben Reilly Tue Dec 09, 2014 4:48 am

I really am sorry, I was just joking.

Here, let me try to make it up to you all:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKURr_YoNXI

by Original Quill Tue Dec 09, 2014 5:18 am

by eddie Tue Dec 09, 2014 7:01 pm

Fuck orrrrf!

by Ben Reilly Tue Dec 09, 2014 7:05 pm

eddie wrote:Fuck orrrrf!

You can't even do that right ... Smile

by eddie Tue Dec 09, 2014 7:09 pm

Ben_Reilly wrote:
eddie wrote:Fuck orrrrf!

You can't even do that right ...

Look, "pants" go under trousers okay???
And!

It's a fucking pavement not a sidewalk!
Y'all only call it a sidewalk cos y'all are too darn stoopid so you needed to remember to walk to the SIDE of the frickin road!

by veya_victaous Tue Dec 09, 2014 9:09 pm

eddie wrote:
Ben_Reilly wrote:
eddie wrote:Fuck orrrrf!

You can't even do that right ...

Look, "pants" go under trousers okay??? Maybe in Freezing England I have no idea how many layers you need to stay alive in that frozen wasteland Pants or Trousers go over Undies
And!

It's a fucking pavement not a sidewalk! It's a Footpath you heathens
Y'all only call it a sidewalk cos y'all are too darn stoopid so you needed to remember to walk to the SIDE of the frickin road!

by Ben Reilly Tue Dec 09, 2014 9:23 pm

Haha ... in America we'd know what you meant by "footpath," though it's generally reserved for parks, wooded areas, etc. "Pavement" could mean anything paved -- the street, the sidewalk, a paved parking lot, etc. In fact, that's probably why we have the word "sidewalk" in the first place. And with all the stone streets in the UK it makes sense that the paved surface of a sidewalk would come to mean the sidewalk itself ...

Just for the record, I don't actually have a problem with other countries' dialects. You can wear your pants on your head as far as I'm concerned.

Speak frickin' American! 0c3ea155200596b

Speak frickin' American! 0c3ea155200596b

by veya_victaous Tue Dec 09, 2014 10:18 pm

Ben I think your right
we call pavement everywhere paved and normally we use it for larger areas like car parks or outdoor basketball courts. the sidewalk/footpath, the road, and car park are all pavement.

we actually tend to use side walk if it is gutter to building pavement like in the CBD areas, Most roads in suburbia have about 2 metres of grass/garden between the footpath and the road and about a metre between footpath and property line (often unfenced and maybe 5 to 10m of yard before house)

Aussie really don't care that much and tend to use both UK and US words interchangeably.

by Ben Reilly Tue Dec 09, 2014 10:45 pm

Yep, same situation in the U.S.; I think I've heard that grassy strip called the "easement" before. It's public property here, where all the fire hydrants and utility poles are placed. It actually includes the path itself and I think technically also the gutters.

by Original Quill Wed Dec 10, 2014 7:01 am

Ben_Reilly wrote:Yep, same situation in the U.S.; I think I've heard that grassy strip called the "easement" before. It's public property here, where all the fire hydrants and utility poles are placed. It actually includes the path itself and I think technically also the gutters.

Actually, legally easement is what it is. I'm surprised they are so sophisticated as to realize.

A pavement has to be paved, doesn't it? Most sidewalks in America are poured slab. The big one in the US has to do with limited access highways. In the west--LA started it--they are called 'freeways'. In the east they are called 'Turnpikes'. Of course, the Interstate Highway system, started in the 1950's, has taken over all of it. So now it's I-5 or I-680, etc.

by Ben Reilly Wed Dec 10, 2014 7:14 am

Original Quill wrote:
Ben_Reilly wrote:Yep, same situation in the U.S.; I think I've heard that grassy strip called the "easement" before. It's public property here, where all the fire hydrants and utility poles are placed. It actually includes the path itself and I think technically also the gutters.

Actually, legally easement is what it is. I'm surprised they are so sophisticated as to realize.

A pavement has to be paved, doesn't it? Most sidewalks in America are poured slab. The big one in the US has to do with limited access highways. In the west--LA started it--they are called 'freeways'. In the east they are called 'Turnpikes'. Of course, the Interstate Highway system, started in the 1950's, has taken over all of it. So now it's I-5 or I-680, etc.

Interesting, they're freeways here even if they require a toll. Which, by the way, a disturbingly increasing amount of them do.

I always thought the freeways in Dallas were a near-perfect metaphor. You have the LBJ Freeway -- slow, littered with potholes, always packed and absolutely free.

Then you have a toll freeway covering basically the same turf -- it's beautifully maintained, far lower traffic and expensive to travel. It's the George Bush Turnpike Smile

by Original Quill Wed Dec 10, 2014 7:26 am

Ben_Reilly wrote:
Original Quill wrote:

Actually, legally easement is what it is. I'm surprised they are so sophisticated as to realize.

A pavement has to be paved, doesn't it? Most sidewalks in America are poured slab. The big one in the US has to do with limited access highways. In the west--LA started it--they are called 'freeways'. In the east they are called 'Turnpikes'. Of course, the Interstate Highway system, started in the 1950's, has taken over all of it. So now it's I-5 or I-680, etc.

Interesting, they're freeways here even if they require a toll. Which, by the way, a disturbingly increasing amount of them do.

I always thought the freeways in Dallas were a near-perfect metaphor. You have the LBJ Freeway -- slow, littered with potholes, always packed and absolutely free.

Then you have a toll freeway covering basically the same turf -- it's beautifully maintained, far lower traffic and expensive to travel. It's the George Bush Turnpike

Classic...for Texas! Lol. They got it right.

by Irn Bru Wed Dec 10, 2014 7:33 am

Well I'll be doggone.

Laughing

by Ben Reilly Wed Dec 10, 2014 8:03 am

Irn Bru wrote:Well I'll be doggone.

You're darn-tootin'! Smile

by Cass Wed Dec 10, 2014 4:59 pm

wot u lot sayin?

c u l8er

by eddie Wed Dec 10, 2014 5:29 pm

Cass wrote:wot u lot sayin?

c u l8er

Innit Cass. Rolling Eyes

by Lone Wolf Wed Dec 10, 2014 8:20 pm

veya_victaous wrote:
Ben I think your right
we call pavement everywhere paved and normally we use it for larger areas like car parks or outdoor basketball courts. the sidewalk/footpath, the road, and car park are all pavement.

we actually tend to use side walk if it is gutter to building pavement like in the CBD areas, Most roads in suburbia have about 2 metres of grass/garden between the footpath and the road and about a metre between footpath and property line (often unfenced and maybe 5 to 10m of yard before house)

Aussie really don't care that much and tend to use both UK and US words interchangeably.

AROUND here [keeping in mind that I live about 150 km North of veya's place in (west) Sydney town..] we refer to pathways as footpaths, and the grass "easements" along streets as 'nature strips'...

WHILE the terms "pavement" and "paving" usually refer to the material that constructed pathways, roads, driveways and carparks may be covered with ~ e.g. concrete, asphalt, road tar, pavers/bricks/cobblestones, blue metal (a type of gravel, which probably has different names in different locales..) or roadbase (crushed and mixed natural gravel/sand/clay mixtures), and woodchips..

THE term 'sidewalk' can be seen in occasional use by developers and their agents where they want to add a touch of "exclusivity" and elitism to a new estate; while it is often called a "boardwalk" when a timber-plank covered path or track runs alongside a beachfront, stream, lake, wetlands or cliff top. tongue

by Ben Reilly Wed Dec 10, 2014 8:28 pm

That's funny, in the U.S. "footpath" can be used the same way:

"Our exclusive gated community offers bi-weekly lawn service, heated lap pools, wooded footpaths, water features and no possibility of interaction with ethnic minorities. Homes starting at $1 million."

by Original Quill Thu Dec 11, 2014 6:43 am

Ben_Reilly wrote:That's funny, in the U.S. "footpath" can be used the same way:

"Our exclusive gated community offers bi-weekly lawn service, heated lap pools, wooded footpaths, water features and no possibility of interaction with ethnic minorities. Homes starting at $1 million."

Don't know the ad, but "wooded footpaths" probably doesn't refer to the common street sidewalk. More like a path in the woods out back.

by Lone Wolf Thu Dec 11, 2014 9:12 am

BUT in an elitist gated community such as in that advertisement, you can bet that the 'paths are still maintained in that idyllic manner to which the good burghers have become accustomed to...

WHILE any private woodlands are similarly groomed and managed by their (most likely contracted) 'ground staff'..

Speak frickin' American! HikingTrailsinSoutheastMichigan-1f408198.jpeg?ver=1415290517&aspectratio=1

Speak frickin' American! HikingTrailsinSoutheastMichigan-1f408198.jpeg?ver=1415290517&aspectratio=1

Speak frickin' American! Lge_Bush_071207045617029_wideweb__300x300

Speak frickin' American! Article-well-prepared-hiker-title

by veya_victaous Fri Dec 12, 2014 4:29 am

by Ben Reilly Fri Dec 12, 2014 7:00 am

I was just saying "footpaths" have a posh connotation here, as "sidewalks" apparently do in Australia ...

@veya: lol

by eddie Fri Dec 12, 2014 10:22 am

Footpaths in England are usually paths that are walkable within a place which is not walkable ie: a forest or piece of green land.

by eddie Fri Dec 12, 2014 10:32 am

Oregano and basil: two very different ways of saying those words in England and USA

England : Oreg-arno
USA: Orag-en-o

England: Baz-il
USA: Baze-il

Hahahaha I stopped cooking my spaghetti bolognese to come and type that
See! You guys were with me in my kitchen! Speak frickin' American! 2089010162

by Original Quill Fri Dec 12, 2014 6:22 pm

eddie wrote:Footpaths in England are usually paths that are walkable within a place which is not walkable ie: a forest or piece of green land.

Same in America, really. A path is a path; a walk is a walk.

by Lone Wolf Sat Dec 13, 2014 7:01 am

eddie wrote:
Oregano and basil: two very different ways of saying those words in England and USA

England : Oreg-arno
USA: Orag-en-o

MOST Aussies = Used to be : Orry_gahno (still the most common..);
Now, we're hearing more : Oh_reg_ano [Probably because of US TV shows..]

England: Baz-il
USA: Baze-il

Most Aussies : Bass'l

........

by Lone Wolf Sat Dec 13, 2014 7:15 am

Original Quill wrote:
eddie wrote:
Footpaths in England are usually paths that are walkable within a place which is not walkable ie: a forest or piece of green land.

Same in America, really. A path is a path; a walk is a walk.

ALSO consider the terms "Track" and "Trail"...

IN Australia (and surrounding territories..) you walk on a track, and trail after your prey;

IN America, you do just the opposite == walk on trails, and track your prey..

(Though, I can also add that "tracking" has increasingly and gradually taken over in Oz, re: following prey, persons or objects, in the years since WWII..).

by eddie Sat Dec 13, 2014 7:47 am

Lone Wolf wrote:
eddie wrote:
Oregano and basil: two very different ways of saying those words in England and USA

England : Oreg-arno
USA: Orag-en-o

MOST Aussies = Used to be : Orry_gahno (still the most common..);
Now, we're hearing more : Oh_reg_ano [Probably because of US TV shows..]

England: Baz-il
USA: Baze-il

Most Aussies : Bass'l

........

Hmm. Does the the outback have basil and oregano? lol!

by Ben Reilly Sat Dec 13, 2014 8:49 am

Very interesting to me to explore these little subtle differences in usage. Can you imagine what it's like for someone learning English? Just consider "park," "garden," "lawn" and "yard."

In the U.S., "park" can be an open area (usually with grass and trees) in the middle of an urban area, or to stop your car with the intent of leaving it for a time, or even to stop your car with the intent of having sex inside it ...

A "garden" is always a deliberately planted and cultivated group of either ornamental plants or herbs and vegetables (not just the grass in front of or behind your dwelling) ...

A "lawn" is an expanse of grass in front of and/or behind your house, especially if it's rather large -- if it's not, you might just call it the "yard" (which can be grassy or not -- it could be dirt or even concrete). A "yard" basically connotes any open space that isn't particularly pretty -- prisoners get their exercise in the "prison yard."

For me (and this is probably informed by my career as a sports reporter) "track" denotes either the big oblong that people race each other on foot upon, or the print an animal makes. And also, to follow something's footprints in order to find it.

"Trail" is a path through the countryside, or the thing cowboys lead cattle along Speak frickin' American! 1366281442

(Complicating all this is that many Americans know that the British refer to their lawns or yards as gardens. People who use "garden" in that sense here are usually suspected of being Anglophiles who have watched too many British shows or want to live in the Harry Potter books -- or, if they're a little older, got way too into Blur.)

by eddie Sat Dec 13, 2014 8:55 am

All,those things are pretty much the same in England - except a "garden" is usually used to describe a personal space in front of or behind, a house (we never call it a yard nowadays).
A garden can also be a small enclosed space that's ornamentally constructed for public use to - but never to be played in like a "park"

by Ben Reilly Sat Dec 13, 2014 9:08 am

eddie wrote:All,those things are pretty much the same in England - except a "garden" is usually used to describe a personal space in front of or behind, a house (we never call it a yard nowadays).
A garden can also be a small enclosed space that's ornamentally constructed for public use to - but never to be played in like a "park"

Interesting! Like I say, we call a "garden" only something that was deliberately planted, and if you're not rich, it's probably your tomatoes, cucumbers and ... BAZE-el Wink

"Parks" are where city parents take their kids to play. We do still use the term "garden" for particularly ornate parks that aren't really for play, though -- now that I think about it.

Fort Worth Botanical Garden:

Speak frickin' American! Dallas_wedding_photographer_fort-worth-botanical-gardens_019

Speak frickin' American! Dallas_wedding_photographer_fort-worth-botanical-gardens_019

Fort Worth Japanese Garden:

Speak frickin' American! FortWorthJapaneseGarden-1288728338-detail

But also -- Fort Worth Water Garden:

Speak frickin' American! Water1

by Ben Reilly Sat Dec 13, 2014 9:12 am

Ah, childhood memories of feeding the koi at the Japanese Garden -- they went freakin' nuts Smile

Speak frickin' American! 039f4af6997e7a3e256e5dabe9a5e2c9

by eddie Sat Dec 13, 2014 9:19 am

Ben_Reilly wrote:Ah, childhood memories of feeding the koi at the Japanese Garden -- they went freakin' nuts

That's a stunning picture!
I love Koi Smile

by Ben Reilly Sat Dec 13, 2014 9:28 am

They're fantastic, I've got to get back there soon Smile

I live about three miles away!

They're basically the squirrels of that garden, they look on all humans as though we have food and are getting ready to feed them Speak frickin' American! 372

by Lone Wolf Sat Dec 13, 2014 12:08 pm

"Meanwhile, back at the ranch.."

IN AUSTRALIA, we often tend to use the adjectives and adverbs in front of the nouns to describe the different types and kinds. For example ~

A "TRACK" could be a racetrack, running/athletics track, bush track, bicycle/mountain bike/BMX tracks, cross-country-track, access track (usually for the likes of worksites, sacred sites, communications towers or power pylons); "Bush tracks" are often started by wildlife before people began walking and riding on them;

SOMETIMES "TRAIL" is used down here for tourist/boutique/'cosmetic' reasons : e.g. wine and food trails, heritage trails, 'sensory' trails;

"PATHS" might be footpaths, access paths, bicycle paths, bridle paths ~ where all of them have some kind of surface laid on them (whether concrete, asphalt, tar, gravel, roadbase, sand, ash, woodchips) ~ whatever the case "paths" are man-made constructions, rather than more naturally occurring tracks;

"GARDENS" can include home gardens (flowers, herbs and vegetables - or various combinations), public gardens, commercial gardens and 'market' gardens (i'e. commercial-scale vegetable gardens), community gardens (those used for producing food in a neighbourhood collective), Botanical gardens, etc.

THE term "PARKS" can cover neighbourhood parks, sports parks (surrounding a sports field, often a range of sporting fields and facilities..), car parks, business parks, industrial parks ==> all the way through to 'National Park' conservation areas.. study

by Lone Wolf Sat Dec 13, 2014 12:24 pm

eddie wrote:
Lone Wolf wrote:

Hmm. Does the the outback have basil and oregano?

THAT depends on how far "out the back" one cares to venture...

by Original Quill Sat Dec 13, 2014 7:50 pm

Humph...we've been discussing two things here, meanings and pronunciations. Here's my take on US meanings:

A garden is normally a cultivated patch, for either vegetables or pretty flowers---recently expanded to water features, statuary, lights, etc. Thus a gardener is one who makes the garden.

A path in the US--to the contrary of Oz, apparently--is something that occurs inadvertently by wear...e.g., Broadway Street in NYC is an old Indian path that meandered the length of Manhattan, later paved into a street. 'Path' is not a verb because it is non-intentional...verbs connote intentionality.

A trail is a kind intentional pathway. In other words, one finds a path, one makes a trail. It is also a verb: to trail someone. Also a verb: to trail someone, mainly to 'come after'.

A track is a intentional, improved course...special soil, concrete or rubberized running track or racetrack for horses. Also a verb: to track someone, mainly to 'stalk'.

Parks vary according to size, but both are parks. National Parks are larger expanses of land set aside to preserve their beauty or use as a recreational facility (e.g. Yellowstone Nat. Park or Yosemite Nat. Park). They can also be just to set land aside for the future.

A City Park is usually one square city block--or like Central Park or Golden Gate Park, it can be larger--popular for strolling or sitting on benches, contemplation or meditation (sometimes associated with a monument). In the UK they are often called Commons (Clapham Common). Hampstead Heath would be an example of the larger kind; Washington Square, an example of the smaller.

Pronunciation is another thing. I was once teaching a Mexican how to speak English. What blew his mind was the difference between 'eyes' and 'ice'...he couldn't see any difference.

The UK has gone through as many changes in pronunciation as has the US or Oz; it has no claim to be old-school. As that article in the London Times I mentioned stated, the real pronunciation of English is probable more like western American.

Americans and Canadians flatten their vowels...that's the major difference between them and the others. By others, I mean British, South African, NZ'ers and Oz---all bring their vowel sounds to the front of the mask, in a kind of eeahh sound.

I've mentioned elsewhere the aspirated consonant and the q-Celtic pronunciations. Another amazing thing about modern British English is their distaste for 'R's. For example, Eds you pronounce Brazil as Baz-il. In America, it's BRA-ZIL...with an R. However, New Yorkers and Bostonians also drop the 'R'...as in Paque the caa in the gaa-aage (Park the car in the garage).

There's also an amazing affinity between the modern British sound and the American Southern accents (Virginia to Texas). Parts of Appalachia sound just like western England. But most Southerners are late-comers from Wales, Ireland and Scotland, so that's understandable.

by eddie Sat Dec 13, 2014 8:07 pm

Lone Wolf wrote:
eddie wrote:

Hmm. Does the the outback have basil and oregano?

THAT depends on how far "out the back" one cares to venture...

I will always go all the way Razz

by eddie Sat Dec 13, 2014 8:08 pm

Ben_Reilly wrote:They're fantastic, I've got to get back there soon I live about three miles away!

They're basically the squirrels of that garden, they look on all humans as though we have food and are getting ready to feed them

You're really lucky to live so near to something so totally beautiful x

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