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Heaven: 2021 Proof Americans and Brits speak a different language

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  • Enoch wrote: »
    Dog in English English is a single short vowel, as it's spelt.

    It is in West Coast American English also.
  • Syllabic stress varies across regions and social classes in the UK.

    I'm from South Wales and the accent tends to fall on the penultimate syllable, which is derived from Welsh. Hence the place-name Abertillery doesn't rhyme with 'artillery' but is pronounced 'AbertillERy.' Aber-till-AIR-y.

    And Abergavenny is AbergavENNy.

    That said, I've never heard a Welsh person pronounce artillery as artillERy.

    But it's why those of us as do talk tidy do 'ave a sing-song voice like, isn't it?
  • Grandmothered?
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    Mandatory - it seems UK has it man-Date-ur-ee. Man-da-tory.

    We'd say man-d-tree.
  • A bit of thread drift here... There are at least two places called Balloch in Scotland. One is called Balloch, and the other Balloch. I've given up looking for rules - it's not all the Americans' fault.
  • Gee D wrote: »
    Mandatory - it seems UK has it man-Date-ur-ee. Man-da-tory.

    We'd say man-d-tree.

    Confused. -d- is not a syllable.
  • I’m guessing an almost imperceptible schwa after the “d.”
  • Thinking about pronunciation differences. There's the emphasis on which syllable, and also the nasalization(?) of the sound. I tried to say Ann the way it is said here, and the sound seems to come from the throat. With some American pronunciation, it seems to come from the same place but is channelled higher in the mouth. I have absolutely no idea about how better to describe.

    A couple of things I notice:
    candidate - kan-di-date versus kan-di-dit
    marshMELLOW versus MARSHmellow
    The first is how I'd say it. The first word because we're having an election this fall, and the second because we roast them in the summer over a fire.

    I'd say accents are more subtle in North America overall except for Newfoundland, Maritimes, the American South. It's word usage and the way of saying a few things that stands out. Anyone who calls electric service "hydro" is not from here, calls shinny "ball hockey", says pond instead of slough (slew).
  • Nick Tamen wrote: »
    I’m guessing an almost imperceptible schwa after the “d.”

  • LothlorienLothlorien Glory
    edited August 2019
    Imperceptible is the word. And marshmellow? Down here the emphasis is on the first syllable and the word here is marshmallow.
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    Nick Tamen wrote: »
    I’m guessing an almost imperceptible schwa after the “d.”

    Yes, although I'd call it the indeterminate e.
  • The cushy thing you sit on when watching TV or reading the paper or what not.

    Sofa? Couch? Davenport? Daveno? Chesterfield?
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Settee.
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    Either couch or sofa. No offense, but "settee" always seems to me like an uncomfortable, thinly-padded seat in a formal parlor, meant to discourage unwanted guests from staying more than 20 minutes.
  • I did a little research and it suggests that "daveno" was used only in the Pacific Northwest (and not anymore). Master's thesis there.
  • Settee usually when growing up but now I just call it a sofa.
  • Lounge
  • BroJamesBroJames Purgatory Host
    edited August 2019
    To me and many UK speakers a lounge is a sitting room.
  • The lounge is in the lounge room
  • EnochEnoch Shipmate
    'Sofa' for me. I hear 'settee'. 'Davenport' and 'chesterfield' are words used by antique dealers and auctioneers to talk up particular types of furniture. Chesterfield is more usually a town in Derbyshire with a crooked spire. I've never heard of a 'daveno'. 'Couch' is used a lot, but I'd say specifically of one which is either capable of being slept on or is actually a single bed pushed up against the wall with a cloth over it. A sofa that one can lie full out on to watch television might be a' couch'. 'Lounger' is the sort one lounges on in the garden - i.e. outdoors only. 'Lounge' is not an item of furniture. It is another word for 'sitting room' - or if you're really pretentious 'drawing room'.

    Shipmates from elsewhere may not be surprised to hear that there is debate as to which of some of these words are more U or less.
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    The chaise longue seems to have dropped out of currency: likewise the daybed. What is a girl supposed to lie on while fanned with peacock feathers and fed with freshly-peeled muscats?
  • We have daybeds here. Somewhat twee if from the great Scandinavian warehouse, more restrained otherwise. Many have high surrounds on three sides so access is just from one side. Fashionable right now.
  • A couch is also what you have to "jump up onto" at the Doctor's. And you might have a sun-lounger in the garden.
  • My question is, is there anywhere where “eye” actually rhymes with “symmetry”?
  • Well, if the chap can't spell "tiger" properly, what do you expect?
  • EnochEnoch Shipmate
    To me, 'chaise longue' definitely has the flavour of the place for a bit of languid fun on a naughty afternoon.
  • A small sofa is a loveseat. Room enough for 2.
    A chesterfield and sofa are the same thing.
    When sitting on any of these and you want to put your feet up, you rest them on an ottoman. A footstool isn't padded.
  • Here a chaise lounge is a piece of outdoor furniture consisting of an aluminum tube frame with some kind of straps or webbing. Generally part of it is adjustable so you can lie down or sit up.
  • Marshmellow? Don't you mean Marshmallow?
  • TheOrganistTheOrganist Shipmate
    edited August 2019
    mousethief wrote: »
    The cushy thing you sit on when watching TV or reading the paper or what not.

    Sofa? Couch? Davenport? Daveno? Chesterfield?

    Sofa = a chaise/ settle for two or more with a high back and upholstered arms slightly lower than the back at each end; the seat base is usually made of removable cushions on either a flat or a webbing base. There may also be removable cushions against the back.
    n.b. A small sofa is definitely not a love-seat - they have a slanted back so that one person faces the other at 45 degrees to the room.

    Couch = a partially upholstered chaise/ settle, the base usually spring, with upholstered arms at each end one of which can be collapsed so that the couch can be used as a single bed.

    Davenport = a small writing desk.

    Daveno = I have no idea but looking at the spelling I'd hazard a guess it is some kind of patois/ local slang for a Davenport

    Chesterfield = a large fully upholstered chaise/ settle with buttons placed at regular intervals within the upholstery. The height of the arms at each end is the same as the back.

    Does that help?
  • Lothlorien wrote: »
    The lounge is in the lounge room

    Drawing Room. A Sitting Room is the place for relaxation/paperwork for the housekeeper.
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    edited August 2019
    you want to put your feet up, you rest them on an ottoman. A footstool isn't padded.

    I can see two footstools from where I'm sitting, both with cushioned tops covered in needlework.

    An ottoman is a fabric-covered chest with a padded top in which you store linen, blankets etc.

    The late Roger Delgado recalled having to utter the line 'Do sit down and put your feet up on the Algerian pouffe'.
  • mousethief wrote: »
    The cushy thing you sit on when watching TV or reading the paper or what not.

    Sofa? Couch? Davenport? Daveno? Chesterfield?

    Sofa = a chaise/ settle for two or more with a high back and upholstered arms slightly lower than the back at each end; the seat base is usually made of removable cushions on either a flat or a webbing base. There may also be removable cushions against the back.
    n.b. A small sofa is definitely not a love-seat - they have a slanted back so that one person faces the other at 45 degrees to the room.

    Couch = a partially upholstered chaise/ settle, the base usually spring, with upholstered arms at each end one of which can be collapsed so that the couch can be used as a single bed.

    Davenport = a small writing desk.

    Daveno = I have no idea but looking at the spelling I'd hazard a guess it is some kind of patois/ local slang for a Davenport

    Chesterfield = a large fully upholstered chaise/ settle with buttons placed at regular intervals within the upholstery. The height of the arms at each end is the same as the back.

    Does that help?

    No. The point of the question is who grew up saying which.
  • So who grew up calling a desk a sofa?
  • It’s a sofa, unless it only has room for two, in which case it’s a love seat.

    And it’s a living room, not a lounge or sitting room. In The Old Days, it might have been a parlor, or just perhaps “the front room.”
  • I've never heard of Davenport. Sounds like something used by the dignified men in this short video (do watch all 32 seconds of it).
  • So who grew up calling a desk a sofa?

    Certainly not Edgar Allen Poe.
  • Nick Tamen wrote: »
    It’s a sofa, unless it only has room for two, in which case it’s a love seat.

    And it’s a living room, not a lounge or sitting room. In The Old Days, it might have been a parlor, or just perhaps “the front room.”

    In my house in the 40s and 50s it was the front room. I am not sure why there was no other back room? In grandmother's house it was the living room and the den or library. Now one often has a living room and a family room.

  • Many British terraced houses (not the smallest) had a front room, a middle room (often rather dark), and a "back extension".
  • Nick Tamen wrote: »
    It’s a sofa, unless it only has room for two, in which case it’s a love seat.

    And it’s a living room, not a lounge or sitting room. In The Old Days, it might have been a parlor, or just perhaps “the front room.”

    In my house in the 40s and 50s it was the front room. I am not sure why there was no other back room? In grandmother's house it was the living room and the den or library. Now one often has a living room and a family room.
    We have living rooms and dens.

  • RossweisseRossweisse Hell Host, 8th Day Host, Glory
    mousethief wrote: »
    The cushy thing you sit on when watching TV or reading the paper or what not.

    Sofa? Couch? Davenport? Daveno? Chesterfield?
    Sofa, although most people around here seem to go with "couch."


  • Lothlorien wrote: »
    The lounge is in the lounge room

    Drawing Room. A Sitting Room is the place for relaxation/paperwork for the housekeeper.

    You would get a blank stare from most people down here if you spoke like that. Not all, but most people.

  • Middle- and working-class American homes have neither sitting rooms nor drawing rooms. You would have a living room or front room (same thing), and larger homes might have a family room (for kids to play in, but more mature than a nursery) or a den (place for dad to smoke his pipe and look stentorian).
  • I
    mousethief wrote: »
    You would have a living room or front room (same thing), and larger homes might have a family room (for kids to play in, but more mature than a nursery) or a den (place for dad to smoke his pipe and look stentorian).
    Around here, a “den” is the room the whole family relaxes in. It’s where the TV is.

    Dad’s room is a study.

  • Nick Tamen wrote: »
    Dad’s room is a study.
    Or a "man cave."
    :eye roll:


  • Nick Tamen wrote: »
    I
    mousethief wrote: »
    You would have a living room or front room (same thing), and larger homes might have a family room (for kids to play in, but more mature than a nursery) or a den (place for dad to smoke his pipe and look stentorian).
    Around here, a “den” is the room the whole family relaxes in. It’s where the TV is.

    Yeah, that would be the family room (if the TV is not in the front room).
    Dad’s room is a study.

    in scarlet?
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    mousethief wrote: »
    Here a chaise lounge is a piece of outdoor furniture consisting of an aluminum tube frame with some kind of straps or webbing. Generally part of it is adjustable so you can lie down or sit up.

    That's one thing it can be, 'cause most Americans don't have the single seat couch-chair kind. Although some newer sofa sets can include one that can nestle up against the sofa. (And yes, "sofa" and "couch" can be used interchangeably.)

  • Not sure what you mean about nestling up against the sofa?
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    Sectional sofa that can be arranged in different ways. I've seen a chaise section that only has an arm on one side. So it can be moved up against the sofa, or be on its own.

    Here's an example. The chaise is on the right. Interestingly, the site says that it's a "cuddler chaise"! :) (The English is also idiosyncratic.)
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