How do we communicate?

Duck59 said:
And now we are approaching the month that appears to have become "Feb-ury." What happened to the a and the r? I can only assume it's a bit too much effort for some people. Feb-ru-ary. It's not that hard.
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I pronounce the word exactly as it's written, it's my birth month. I was taught proper English,lol. Kids aren't taught English as I was taught.

Russ
 
I recall listening to a chap who sat behind me in my (old) office in Edinburgh talking on the phone one day. He was informing someone that he was "going to Nonam on Saday to fix a rooer for their compuer."

I discerned from this that he was intending to travel to Nottingham on Saturday to sort out a problem with a router.
 
I don't think I've run into anyone who calls February "Feb-ury".

Of course I do live in a state where we pronounce the city of Worchester as "Wooster" - Ahem, that would probably include all our British compatriots on this site, too...

It annoyed the hell out of my GPS when I typed in my destination a week or so ago as Wooster - sort of automatic, although I really did know better.

Language and pronunciation mutate. Which is why Chaucerian English is so difficult today. But I hope February can remain February.
 
My bad pronunciation that comes to mind right now is something I've not been able to rid myself from. Warshington. Gotta go do my warsh in the warshing machine. Where did that insidious R creep into those words????

Born in Kentucky, grew up in New York City - somewhere in there.

I haven't been in Massachusetts long enough for their added and dropped letter Rs, so I don't understand. (And that's more on the east side of the state than here, anyway.)
 
Mountain Cat said:
I don't think I've run into anyone who calls February "Feb-ury".

Of course I do live in a state where we pronounce the city of Worchester as "Wooster" - Ahem, that would probably include all our British compatriots on this site, too...
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What we get here is "Feb-you-airy."

To my ears, there's a difference between "Wooster" and "Worcester," the latter being what I usually hear from my UK friends. That may be because we do have a Wooster in Ohio, so I've always heard that and associated it with W-o-o-s-t-e-r.

Hey, you're lucky your GPS didn't try to direct you to Wooster, Ohio! :)

Mountain Cat said:
Born in Kentucky, grew up in New York City - somewhere in there.
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That's probably where you get it - Kentucky. That "r" is very common in Kentucky/Ohio/West Virginia/Pennsylvania, among others. My mom pronounces it that way, as well as another common one here, saying "feesh" instead of "fish."
 
TastyReuben said:
What we get here is "Feb-you-airy."

To my ears, there's a difference between "Wooster" and "Worcester," the latter being what I usually hear from my UK friends. That may be because we do have a Wooster in Ohio, so I've always heard that and associated it with W-o-o-s-t-e-r.

Hey, you're lucky your GPS didn't try to direct you to Wooster, Ohio! :)
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Actually.... it did suggest Ohio.... That's when I took stock of my spelling... wanted to go East, not West!

OH, PS, there's also a Wooster School in Connecticut, where I actually got offered a job in the early 80s. But that one is pronounced the same as Worchester, MA.

TastyReuben said:
That's probably where you get it - Kentucky. That "r" is very common in Kentucky/Ohio/West Virginia/Pennsylvania, among others. My mom pronounces it that way, as well as another common one here, saying "feesh" instead of "fish."
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Probably true, since at least my mother said she was going to be warshing somthing. Dad did wash, no R, the car, once every few years. Both were born and raised in Kentucky, and we didn't get to New York City until I was two.
 
My pet hate is the simple word ask, how it gets twisted to arksed is beyond me, here it's mainly used by poorer people who havnt been educated. I notice it on tv quite a bit now as well.

Russ
 
A rather trivial, but intriguing, feature of the present nasty situation we find ourselves in is the revival of the word furlough. While it's not an obsolete or archaic word, it's something you never heard other than as a term applied to those in the military who were given temporary leave, perhaps after being deployed somewhere dangerous.

Now, though, the word is everywhere. It's impossible to see, hear or read news without it popping up several times. I did hear someone complaining about its use as a verb, but I've just checked my dictionary and it is perfectly permissible as an intransitive verb.
 
During lockdown’s peak I’ve noticed lots of posts mostly on Facebook/Instagram which said “lockdown recipe” or “what to cook during quarantine” or “quarantine recipes”.. now, apart from all the consideration about people who generally have difficulties to get food daily, I was quite annoyed by these posts that I’ve found of low level since they were only focused on a mere personal selfish shameful interest.
I’ve refused to follow this way, for respect and for a simple good common sense. Silence is just perfect in these situations. Just keep doing what you do without being ridiculous.
Using lockdown as marketing opportunity, what do they thought to achieve? A clap? More customers? More visibility? Really?? This is an auto-gol and unless one shows me how to cook a door, well, I think I could survive not knowing about “how to make a toast during lockdown”.
 
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Mountain Cat said:
My bad pronunciation that comes to mind right now is something I've not been able to rid myself from. Warshington. Gotta go do my warsh in the warshing machine. Where did that insidious R creep into those words????

Born in Kentucky, grew up in New York City - somewhere in there.

I haven't been in Massachusetts long enough for their added and dropped letter Rs, so I don't understand. (And that's more on the east side of the state than here, anyway.)
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It doesn't really depend on where YOU were born or grew up. It's more about where your parents/guardians grow up. We learn language from the people we are around in our formative years. I get teased all the time because I pronounce things "so properly". It's not me being pretentious. I just speak like my parents speak.
 
MypinchofItaly said:
With regard to the Covid, do you think that the communication you have put in place in your country about the warnings, dangers, consequences, is clear and useful or could have been done better?
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It is difficult to say, whilst I am very critical of how our government has handled the crisis, I'm not sure they have "weaponised" language in the way that, say, Trump has. The Internet has spawned alternative narratives that have not been helpful. What are your thoughts?
 
MypinchofItaly said:
With regard to the Covid, do you think that the communication you have put in place in your country about the warnings, dangers, consequences, is clear and useful or could have been done better?
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As to the US federal government, it's been abysmal, and trying to be objective, it's because we haven't had a single concise message from the fed. It's been Trump and his associates on one side, and the various national-level docs and experts on the other. Rarely together.

It's important to understand that much in the US happens (and is meant to happen) at the state level; during times like these, it's generally the role of the federal government to come out, give rah-rah speeches, reassure the public, and send buckets of money to the states for the real work. My point in mentioning that is, in a way, the Trump administration didn't have to do much other than show up, tell us to follow the medical experts, and to soothe us with slogans like "We're in this together!" - and they failed miserably, monumentally at that, IMO.

So on to my critique of my state's communication (Ohio):

Overall, decent. They immediately threw up a Coronavirus website, which contains the usual stuff - a dashboard to track infections, hospitalizations, recoveries, and deaths (state-wide and by county), historical tracking numbers (though hard to find), transcripts of the governor's daily updates, links to job openings within Ohio, since so many are out-of-work, and other pandemic-related resources, checklists, symptom-checkers, etc.

Additionally, the governor and his staff have a daily status update that lasts about an hour. It's brutal to watch, because Mike Dewine, whether you like him or not, is about as exciting as a sloth's nap.

Note - I'm critiquing the communication aspect only, not the actual official response. :)
 
TastyReuben said:
As to the US federal government, it's been abysmal, and trying to be objective, it's because we haven't had a single concise message from the fed. It's been Trump and his associates on one side, and the various national-level docs and experts on the other. Rarely together.

It's important to understand that much in the US happens (and is meant to happen) at the state level; during times like these, it's generally the role of the federal government to come out, give rah-rah speeches, reassure the public, and send buckets of money to the states for the real work. My point in mentioning that is, in a way, the Trump administration didn't have to do much other than show up, tell us to follow the medical experts, and to soothe us with slogans like "We're in this together!" - and they failed miserably, monumentally at that, IMO.

So on to my critique of my state's communication (Ohio):

Overall, decent. They immediately threw up a Coronavirus website, which contains the usual stuff - a dashboard to track infections, hospitalizations, recoveries, and deaths (state-wide and by county), historical tracking numbers (though hard to find), transcripts of the governor's daily updates, links to job openings within Ohio, since so many are out-of-work, and other pandemic-related resources, checklists, symptom-checkers, etc.

Additionally, the governor and his staff have a daily status update that lasts about an hour. It's brutal to watch, because Mike Dewine, whether you like him or not, is about as exciting as a sloth's nap.

Note - I'm critiquing the communication aspect only, not the actual official response. :)
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"It is what it is.", right? I think that one sentence cost him the election.
 
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