Help with English

Discussion in 'Linguistics' started by Saint, Aug 24, 2011.

  1. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    The expression is more commonly hang from [someone's] coattails.

    Basically, you're riding on someone else's success - metaphorically following very closely behind them as they move forward - close enough to hang from their coattails.
     
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  3. Saint Valued Senior Member

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    Does it also mean take advantage of people?
     
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  5. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    Yes.
     
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  7. Saint Valued Senior Member

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    Why the word "island", the pronunciation does not have "s" sound?
     
  8. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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  9. RainbowSingularity Valued Senior Member

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    it does
    you are saying it wrong if you do not pronounce the S
     
  10. Write4U Valued Senior Member

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    I should pronounce the "s" when I say "Long Island" or "Rhode Island" ?
    Why don't we pronounce the "p" in "psychology"? Is that wrong also?
     
  11. Sarkus Hippomonstrosesquippedalo phobe Valued Senior Member

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    You pronounce "island" with an "s"??? In the UK it is most definitely silent.
     
  12. RainbowSingularity Valued Senior Member

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    The word Psychology is not American English, neither British English, rather Greek.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_letter#Greek
    "Island"
    American English pronunciation = erlind or illind or illhannD

    British English Pronunciation is more closer to eyesland(for an uneducated american ear)

    Language is a Musical Art, some are Gifted, some are very good, most are average & below average, while some are tone deaf.
    ...and my sentence has too many commas and probably needs to be re-formatted for correct grammar, but im not that fussed at the moment

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  13. Sarkus Hippomonstrosesquippedalo phobe Valued Senior Member

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    Where are you getting your information from regarding the British English pronunciation??? Whatever it is, you need to correct it.

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    Being a speaker of British English, and having been born, raised, and since lived in England for my entire life, I can assure you that I have never heard anyone here with English as their first language pronounce it with an "s".
     
  14. Michael 345 New year. PRESENT is 72 years oldl Valued Senior Member

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    If anyone pronounce the s it would sound like Iceland ya?

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  15. Sarkus Hippomonstrosesquippedalo phobe Valued Senior Member

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    Yes, indeed.
    And even if pronounced correctly, we have enough confusion with our nearer neighbours on the island of Ireland, although there is a difference there (eye-land and eye-er-land) but is often not too clear when talking quickly.
     
  16. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    When used in English, it's an English word, pronounced in the English way.

    Just out of curiosity, when you mention the capital of France, do you pronounce it pah-REE?
     
  17. Sarkus Hippomonstrosesquippedalo phobe Valued Senior Member

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    Ooh, that reminds me of something that really irritates me: people pronouncing Budapest with an "h" - as in Budapesht. We had an office out there a while ago and people used to come back and start pronouncing it with the "h", claiming it to be "the way it should be pronounced... the Hungarians pronounce it that way!" - yet they still pronounce Paris as "pAh-riss", and not "pah-REE" etc. Yet somehow they failed to see, let alone address, their inconsistency.
    Irked me, it did. Still does. Bah!
     
  18. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    The British do not pronounce 'island' this way.
     
  19. geordief Valued Senior Member

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    I would - in the phrase "gay Pah-ree".Try "gay Parris" for the flat incongruous sound .

    Not sure if the phrase is in use any more ** as a quick search seems to bring up items related to the gay lifestyle in Paris....
    https://www.google.ie/search?q="gay.....69i57j0l5.7744j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

    Wonder how it's pronounced in that context.

    Certainly no one I know ever pronounced the "s" in "island" in Britain.What an idea!

    **Woody Allen would,I guess.
     
  20. geordief Valued Senior Member

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    "ine" as in "kind" and "acre" as in "hacker" (no gutteral "r")
     
  21. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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    Yes indeed. The modern French is of course " île ". The presence of a circumflex often denotes an "s" that has since disappeared, cf. forêt.
     
  22. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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    YES!! Drives me nuts as well.

    But it's a nice point to judge which foreign locations are in wide enough English use to have earned an Anglicised version, and which have not and thus deserve to be spelt and pronounced as they are locally. Two test cases: Ypres (pronounced, rather absurdly, "Wipers" by WW1 Tommies) and Λευκωσία, the capital of Cyprus, which seems to have been ignorantly mistransliterated by the English as Nicosia instead of Lefcosia, presumably as they thought the capital lambda looked like an N.

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  23. Write4U Valued Senior Member

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    The word "Dutch" is usually associated with the Netherlands (Holland).
    but its orign is the word "Deutch", which is a German word.

    All foreign languages have their own names for things. When these cultures meet, their language becomes influenced by the other.

    In the Balkans they use names I can't even pronounce. If I say "i-land", is their any doubt as to its meaning?
     
    Last edited: Feb 21, 2018

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