recently video chatted to a girl in ny area, she acquainted me with the term 'humpday' . down here its more of a sexist statement than the 'middle of the week' wednesday statement.

been here 40 odd years and i still can't relate to the aus term 'mate' (friend/best friends)

i'm in the maxheadroom school, read/write (and intentionally mutilate) english proper

 

Strange to Americans, maybe. The English invented the English language, so their pronunciation should be the model for others . Mind you, if the rise of China as a world power continues we'll all be speaking Chinglish soon!
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Yup.

Secohmeter sounds much better than Component Tester.
Triode instead of transistor.
Water flow DIY kit instead of LED chaser

 

recently video chatted to a girl in ny area, she acquainted me with the term 'humpday' . down here its more of a sexist statement than the 'middle of the week' wednesday statement.

been here 40 odd years and i still can't relate to the aus term 'mate' (friend/best friends)

i'm in the maxheadroom school, read/write (and intentionally mutilate) english proper

Here "mate" is normally used when you have to talk to a stranger because theres a problem but you still want to be polite. That's the only usage I have seen here in Ireland. Its slang, never used in print.

 

I am surprised no-one has gone to the 'datasheets' of languages - dictionaries.

Ever noticed that the 'good' ones have the word followed by a bunch of weird symbols? Those are from the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Of course, the best dictionary is the Oxford University one, so we'll use their pronunciations.

e.g: aluminium, alu|min¦ium, al(j)ʊˈmɪnɪəm

 

I would like to understand why people in Houston pronounce the city's name in the way they do.

Could anyone compare it with other words inckluding the "ou" particle and say why then? Maybe "cloud", "four" or "hound"?

Honestly intirgued.