Language Liberalism Freethought Birds
Verbing Weirds Language only if you're expecting it to work in a simple way. This is a special case of the more general truth that Language Weirds.
Only when a republic's life is in danger should a man uphold his government when it is in the wrong. There is no other time.
The church says Earth is flat; but I have seen its shadow on the moon, and I have more confidence in a shadow than the church.
If we can't find Heaven, there are always bluejays.
Psst, Alex: look it up in a dictionary. Conch with a ch like church is a perfectly standard variation.Labels: jeopardy
I used to teach Russian and Ukrainian, and some basic English, to civil servants. Now I teach Russian at a local continued-learning institute. I dabble in Gaelic and Welsh. I'm am amateur photographer and I love birding (in a small way). I'm a Progressive, and a Freethinker, and I know Evolution is a fact - that's FCD, Friend of Charles Darwin (look down the sidebar). I read a lot, and follow women's college basketball. Also I love astronomy, though I'm a rank amateur at it. Most of all, I like living in the reality-based community...
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5 Comments:
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At 12:45 AM, November 01, 2011
Kathie had this to say...
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At 7:45 AM, November 01, 2011
The Ridger, FCD had this to say...
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At 10:01 AM, November 04, 2011
Kathie had this to say...
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At 10:35 AM, November 04, 2011
The Ridger, FCD had this to say...
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At 3:11 PM, November 04, 2011
Kathie had this to say...
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<-- Older Post ^ Home Newer Post -->Uh-oh, we thought it was "conk."
Agreed that Alex handled the "Frederic March" gaffe with self-deprecating grace -- hosting "Jeopardy!" has GOT to be a tricky job. I suspect some of the flubs that viewers attribute to Alex are in fact more the fault of the clue-writers, but as the on-air talent he has to take the blame.
It is "conk" - but not only "conk". MWU says käŋk, känch -- -ŋk is usual near waters where the conch occurs and hence in sense 3 which is "a resident native of the Bahamas b : any of various persons resident in the Florida keys and nearby parts of the mainland".
I constantly wonder why his crack team of researchers doesn't look up pronunciation for him!
During this week's "Jeopardy!" Tournament of Champions, there was a clue for translating the Portuguese SIM into Russian. Alex pronounced it "sĭmm" [cringe] instead of "sĩ" (signifying a nasalized vowel) -- somewhere between "sing" and "seeng." I agree with your comment that clue writers should give Alex the approximate correct pronunciations of foreign words in languages he doesn't know.
On a similar note, I came across a video this week of a young American planning a photographic sojourn to my grandmother's native village of Fajã Grande on the island of Flores in the Azores, and she pronounced it as if it in were Spanish -- "FAH-hah GRAHN-day" (instead of "fah-ZHAHNG GRAHND" in European Portuguese*). Presumably once she arrived, the locals politely adjusted her diction (while doubtless clucking behind her ignorant back).
* = "fah-ZHAHNG GRAHN-djē" in Brazilian diction.
So, is the Portuguese name Joana pronounced ... errr, how is it pronounced? I know final O is OO - funnily, I learned that from Russian, which spells names like Figo FIGU.
And is Jose Saramago a ho-ZAY or dzho-say?
Joana
zho-AH-nah
Figo
FEE-goo
José Saramago
zho-ZEH sah-rah-MAH-goo
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