Scots pronunciation question
Jul 12th, 2005, 01:47 PM
#8
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It's also a great place to base yourself, and beautiful when it's not raining (as evidenced by this shot):
http://community.webshots.com/photo/...60634479QmCTsF
http://community.webshots.com/photo/...60634479QmCTsF
Jul 12th, 2005, 09:19 PM
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This thread brings up a question: is there any guide anyone can recommend to learn basic ways to pronounce names in Scotland?
We are set to visit places I can't pronounce - have no trouble asking directions but will have to spell everything!
Dorothy
We are set to visit places I can't pronounce - have no trouble asking directions but will have to spell everything!
Dorothy
Jul 13th, 2005, 01:16 AM
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If you think Gaelic's tricky, wait 'till you get to New Zealand with all those "W"s and "Wh"s morphing into Vs & Fs without any discernible rules.
My rellies had me repeating
"Whakatane" while they rolled on the floor laughing. Finally told me about the secret Kiwi trick with the WH & then laughed even harder when I tried that!
Ah - the English language!
My rellies had me repeating
"Whakatane" while they rolled on the floor laughing. Finally told me about the secret Kiwi trick with the WH & then laughed even harder when I tried that!
Ah - the English language!
Jul 13th, 2005, 01:25 AM
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Laphroaig is very heavy and peaty you really must aquire a taste for it, MacAllan its far smoother and easy to take - beautiful whisky. Two completely different ones, granted! Ahhh, wish I wiz home the now.....
Jul 13th, 2005, 01:54 AM
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I've got a (fairly) good ear and I like to get foreign pronunciations about right. So I get seriously frustrated when confronted by Irish, Scots and Welsh words, none of which seem to exhibit any rational association between spelling and pronunciation - in fact they appear to be worse than English. I'd love to find a guide to getting them even roughly right.
Just realised that I described the Celtic tongues as "foreign" - ironic, isn't it, given that my roots are English/Scots/Irish/Welsh? For this purpose, though, they might as well be Calabrian or Lebanese. Come to think of it, their pronunciations would be easier. Hell, in a past life I even learned a scurrilous Maltese insult and two Latvian folk songs, apparently pretty accurately...
Just realised that I described the Celtic tongues as "foreign" - ironic, isn't it, given that my roots are English/Scots/Irish/Welsh? For this purpose, though, they might as well be Calabrian or Lebanese. Come to think of it, their pronunciations would be easier. Hell, in a past life I even learned a scurrilous Maltese insult and two Latvian folk songs, apparently pretty accurately...
Jul 13th, 2005, 02:08 AM
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PS to last message: I should have added that I was, not to put too fine a point on it, pissed as a parrot when I became a temporary Latvian folk singer. I can report that this condition is a huge help to foreign language fluency, Swahili included, and I can't recommend it too highly. The only drawback is that your fluency doesn't extend into the next day.
Jul 13th, 2005, 02:45 AM
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Oh oh, this is turning into one of those wonderful threads that talks about several different things at once. Having already hikacked it towards single malts, let me just mention that a decade ago our liquor store sold a "sampling" package of eight miniatures. There were Speysides, Islays, and I can't remember what else, but it was a clever way to showcase the wide variety of single malts available in Scotland. As a result, I can say that I haven't yet met a single malt I didn't like. However, I'm with doonhamer--Talisker is my favourite, too.
On the topic of pronunciation, those of us in Canada have a tricky one in our past: the last spike on the Canadian Pacific Railway was driven in at Craigalachie in 1871. We all seem to know it exists, a few know where it is, and only a tiny handful seem able to pronounce it.
Anselm
On the topic of pronunciation, those of us in Canada have a tricky one in our past: the last spike on the Canadian Pacific Railway was driven in at Craigalachie in 1871. We all seem to know it exists, a few know where it is, and only a tiny handful seem able to pronounce it.
Anselm
