Was just wondering the other day: Why is it that places, cities and towns, in UK are so much more easier to pronunce that those in America. Just try saying these out aloud....
Dakota, Minneapolis, Nebraska, Idaho, Illinois, Wyoming, Nevada, Reno, Dayton etc.etc.
Now try these:
Wolverhampton, Gloucestershire, Leicestershire, Bournemouth, Middlesbrough, Sheffield, Brighton, Stafford etc.etc.
Even though the English places are longer (word length), its the American cities that are much more difficult to pronunce. Guess our English is much more British than its American (barring the phrases that we catch on from movies...Guy rather than Bloke or Bastard/F**k rather than Bollocks). And if for anyone, the american places turned out easier to pronunce...congrats! u can now rather safely justify ur orkut profile as ENGLISH (US).
Neways, what could be the reason for this?
Usually, its much more difficult for any1 to speak another language bcoz (I aint a doctor, so cant be sure...only venturing a guess!) one's larynx has adapted to the way we speak and our tongue has learnt to roll in a particular fashion. This was why when the East India Co came to India, they had difficulty speaking Hindi and we English, of course. They spoke Hindi in a completely different fashion than what we did.
The last para essentially proving that we definitely didnt have the same rolling of the tongue etc. in the 2 laguages. both languages pronunced differently.
Then why? The reason that seems most plausible is that the Britishers taught us the language and tho' we still do not speak like they do and that we didnt learn the language from a Brit (our English language teacher, he/she was an Indian), our English has imprints of the British English... we adapted it and Indianized its pronunciations. And the Americans, though still mostly of British descent, altered their language to suit their conditions.
All this or maybe just that American cities were named by the RED INDIANS etc...the native residents and hence their names arent English in the 1st place and in that case...this article was a waste. Cheers!
Dakota, Minneapolis, Nebraska, Idaho, Illinois, Wyoming, Nevada, Reno, Dayton etc.etc.
Now try these:
Wolverhampton, Gloucestershire, Leicestershire, Bournemouth, Middlesbrough, Sheffield, Brighton, Stafford etc.etc.
Even though the English places are longer (word length), its the American cities that are much more difficult to pronunce. Guess our English is much more British than its American (barring the phrases that we catch on from movies...Guy rather than Bloke or Bastard/F**k rather than Bollocks). And if for anyone, the american places turned out easier to pronunce...congrats! u can now rather safely justify ur orkut profile as ENGLISH (US).
Neways, what could be the reason for this?
Usually, its much more difficult for any1 to speak another language bcoz (I aint a doctor, so cant be sure...only venturing a guess!) one's larynx has adapted to the way we speak and our tongue has learnt to roll in a particular fashion. This was why when the East India Co came to India, they had difficulty speaking Hindi and we English, of course. They spoke Hindi in a completely different fashion than what we did.
The last para essentially proving that we definitely didnt have the same rolling of the tongue etc. in the 2 laguages. both languages pronunced differently.
Then why? The reason that seems most plausible is that the Britishers taught us the language and tho' we still do not speak like they do and that we didnt learn the language from a Brit (our English language teacher, he/she was an Indian), our English has imprints of the British English... we adapted it and Indianized its pronunciations. And the Americans, though still mostly of British descent, altered their language to suit their conditions.
All this or maybe just that American cities were named by the RED INDIANS etc...the native residents and hence their names arent English in the 1st place and in that case...this article was a waste. Cheers!
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