However, working for a global business, I am surrounded by colleagues whose first language is not English. My team mate is French and a close colleague who sits across the partition from me is Turkish. Within a couple of desks away are three Germans so by the time you add the erstwhile Aussie to the mix, the locals represent less than 50% of the seating arrangements in our area.
There's often much hilarity as sayings go a bit awry with regularity. We've had the dog barking at the wrong door (vs up the tree), don't let the bugs bite (the bed just went amiss), cookie (vs brownie) points and my personal favourite, a 'one pony trick' which leads the mind in a significantly different direction from the one trick pony!It's not just the longer prefixes to the shires that trip one up on this green isle - I mean how do you get 'wooster' from Worcester - or the fact that words tend to dribble away here as opposed to the emphasis-on-every-syllable pronunciation employed by my lot (eg. Bir-ming-ham rhymes with 'I eat SPAM').
It's the presence of a letter. A letter that just sneaks in there, quiet as you like. And upsets the natural order of things.
The letter 'W'.
It's a dastardedly affair. The 'W' sound is happy to lead off, loud and proud, at the beginning of a word - Walthamstow, Windsor, Worthing are fine examples.
But the rules seem to differ when that little 'w' ensconces itself right in the middle of things. So Southwark is pronounced 'Suthick' (vs my fresh-off-the-boat South-walk all those years ago), Harwich is pronounced 'Harrich'...
...and today, I automatically corrected my collègue français' Flitwick - without skipping a beat - to 'Flittick'.
My family keep telling me I sound more and more English every time I speak to them.
I think they may be right.
4 comments:
Ah, you see, I have the opposite problem. Here in New England, Old English place names abound - there's Bristol, Manchester, Bolton, to name but three, although these examples pose no difficulties. Norwich and Warwick, however, are different kettles of fish. I *try*to say Nor-Witch and War-Wick instead of Norritch and Worrick, believe me - but I don't know...that unnecessary W just sticks in the throat...
Oh Kate what funny things we humans are. Thanks for highlighting the opposing problem you face on the other side of the pond. I laughed out loud at the irony of it all.
Ah, the curse of the silent 'W'. Silly isn't it? The surname of an old friend is 'Fenwick'. It's got a silent W but most people don't realise. He's giving up correcting people.
Jack I come from the land that produced Gidday. About 20% of the British people I meet seem to think saying it makes them sound Australian. And I spend my time convincing them that it is not just about the 'word' it's all in the way you say it.
Needless to say I might be joining Fenwick in the path of least resistance before too long....
...some people just won't be told! ;D
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