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Post by radish on Jul 1, 2018 2:45:48 GMT
There didn't seem to be much room for a longer reply, so just a small addition. Thank you for the list. One or two examples would have sufficed, because I would hate English to be changed from the way it is, so I am converted. I think you do many people a great disservice, working class regional speakers maybe, second-language learners certainly, when you imply they are struggling spellers. Forgive me if I have mis-read you. There are certainly people who cannot master language at all,just as I will never master maths, but as many Northern English people will attest too, their parents probably mastered the art of speaking in two dialects, one more general for formal occasions or when speaking to southerners, and the other the regional dialect of their area. Not that they should have to do this, but that in earlier years this was necessary, and they did it very well. It wasn't impossible or too difficult. Secondly, Asian immigrants in Australia far out-strip Anglo/Australian students in spelling tests and language skills. I, of working class origins love language/s and its struggles; the more the merrier. Bring them on.
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Post by Verbivore on Jul 1, 2018 7:14:04 GMT
Radish: Thanks for responding; it's good to have some new life around the place. :-)
Ah yes, the aspirational '50s and '60s. Although I attended public (i.e. state) schools in NSW where most of my peers were of background similar to mine – working or agrarian class – there was nonetheless the odd hint of "drag 'em up by their shoelaces" by teaching people to "talk proper"; most of my peers seemed inured to such matters or their mention but I, being already a language nerd, took an interest, which was probably encouraged by my singing teacher, who also taught elocution (a dying thing even in those times). To enunciate a song's lyrics clearly a particularity was required of the student, so my vowels became less "Aussie flat", my consonants more defined, my speech more clipped. Of course I was accused of being a "poofter" with my "fancy speech" – but WTF! LOL
Although I spent the '80s trying to sound more Bob Hawke-like (particularly while I was resident in North America, where being an Aussie was a Good Thing), I still get pulled up (positively) on my speech. Since childhood, new acquaintances have asked what part of London or New Zealand I hail from, though I've been to neither.
Your teacher may have been correct if his intended meaning was that using "good" grammar in one's speech should lead to "good" writing; that I can accept.
As an immigrant Aussie, you must have encountered numerous speakers of Strine, allegedly our national dialect. Have you read the Afferbeck Lauder books Let Stalk Strine and Nose Tone Unturned? To someone interested in and particular about language, those little books are a stitch-in-side laugh from cover to cover (as are his Fraffly Well Spoken and Fraffly Suite, which give a similarly delightful phonetic-orthographic twist to British speech).
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Post by radish on Jul 2, 2018 1:26:20 GMT
We are getting really off-topic here now aren't we?
Just to respond though, I did read the strine book several years ago and loved it and sure I would like the others. I will look them up. It's been interesting, though off-topic again, for me to notice how my attitudes to Australian language have changed over the years. When I first arrived, having been introduced to strine on the probably last ten-pound-Pom boat to leave England, by the Education Officer on board, I had the sometimes typical snooty attitude of the Brits toward Australian. We were highly amused that the man shouting out his wares in the centre of Sydney wasn't in fact selling "rats', but roses.
Over the years I've come to the point where I can hardly hear an accent at all in Australia, but on hearing British accents I now often cringe or mock . This includes the accent from the area I came from which I now find quite hideous, but before could never hear. "An accent,? Me? No you're the one with the accent'. I think maybe this is on another topic board, so won't go on, but is beauty in the ear of the beholder when it comes to accent, or does it depend on delivery, breath, tone? A final question, has any study ever been made of language in the various Australian states? There seem to be regional differences but it's often hard to say what they are, and these days when we all move around so much it perhaps doesn't apply.
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Post by Verbivore on Jul 2, 2018 2:10:39 GMT
We are getting really off-topic here now aren't we?
Just to respond though, I did read the strine book several years ago and loved it and sure I would like the others. I will look them up. It's been interesting, though off-topic again, for me to notice how my attitudes to Australian language have changed over the years. When I first arrived, having been introduced to strine on the probably last ten-pound-Pom boat to leave England, by the Education Officer on board, I had the sometimes typical snooty attitude of the Brits toward Australian. We were highly amused that the man shouting out his wares in the centre of Sydney wasn't in fact selling "rats', but roses.
Over the years I've come to the point where I can hardly hear an accent at all in Australia, but on hearing British accents I now often cringe or mock . This includes the accent from the area I came from which I now find quite hideous, but before could never hear. "An accent,? Me? No you're the one with the accent'. I think maybe this is on another topic board, so won't go on, but is beauty in the ear of the beholder when it comes to accent, or does it depend on delivery, breath, tone? A final question, has any study ever been made of language in the various Australian states? There seem to be regional differences but it's often hard to say what they are, and these days when we all move around so much it perhaps doesn't apply.
I shouldn't worry much about wandering off topic; it happens all the time here. State differences? I don't know of any studies, but there are only a couple of differences that immediately come to mind: Victorians say "cassel" where others say "carsel" – for castle; Queenslanders (like New Zealanders) end statements with "Ay".
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Post by Little Jack Horner on Jul 3, 2018 22:12:23 GMT
May I encourage you to join the main sequence of posts below, Radish. We need your contributions. Thank you.
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Post by Maitland Bowen on Feb 23, 2019 22:10:31 GMT
It is now late February 2019: I have also been grappling with this same spelling issue. I’ve now read many dictionary entries and much commentary on the question of the correct form of the word. The reasoning for an answer that makes most sense to me is that provided by the instigator of this thread and a subsequent comment that this is yet another example of a British/American change in form or spelling. Henceforth, I have therefore decided to stick with the form ‘euthanase’. Incidentally, my original (natural) propensity was for this form too, but I allowed doubts to occur in me due to hearing the other form used.
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Post by Verbivore on Feb 24, 2019 7:28:15 GMT
MB: Welcome to the True Believers' Club!
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Post by richard blake on Apr 17, 2019 11:54:49 GMT
the oxford dictionary says the verb is euthanise and the noun euthanasia
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Post by Verbivore on Apr 17, 2019 22:27:04 GMT
the oxford dictionary says the verb is euthanise and the noun euthanasia Actually, Richard, the OED gives euthanasia and euthanize, with euthanatize as a (US) variant of the latter, with both the verb forms noted as nonce-words.
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