HP Forum Archive 16

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O.T. for American and English people Message #1 Posted by Antonio Maschio (Italy) on 23 Oct 2006, 8:00 a.m. Just curious, how do you pronounce register? Re'gister (accent on first e) or Regi'ster (accent on i)? Thanks -- Antonio Edited: 23 Oct 2006, 8:00 a.m.

Re: O.T. for American and English people Message #2 Posted by Gerson W. Barbosa on 23 Oct 2006, 8:40 a.m., in response to message #1 by Antonio Maschio (Italy) Ciao Antonio, Though your question has been addressed to American people, I think I can help you. Anyway, I am American, South-American :-) Please take a look at these online dictionaries: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/register http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?dict=CALD&key=66505&ph=on I prefer American pronunciation and spelling, because those are what I've been taught. This is my dictionary of choice: http://www.m-w.com/ Regards, Gerson.

Re: O.T. for American and English people Message #3 Posted by bill platt on 23 Oct 2006, 10:09 a.m., in response to message #1 by Antonio Maschio (Italy) The first syllable is stressed. The second syllable is a "short" i, as in the word "it" and "hit" and "bit". The last syllable is a "schwa" unstressed sort of neutral generic vowel phonologically conditioned by the r, (in other words it is a rhotic shwa, if you dig the weird jargon). Edited: 23 Oct 2006, 10:28 a.m.

Re: O.T. for American and English people Message #4 Posted by Matt Kernal (US) on 23 Oct 2006, 11:15 a.m., in response to message #1 by Antonio Maschio (Italy) Try typing "register" into this text-to-speech synthesizer. Matt p.s. The synthesizer chokes on "Wlodek Mier-Jedrzejowicz" :-)

Re: O.T. for American and English people Message #5 Posted by Antonio Maschio (Italy) on 23 Oct 2006, 2:17 p.m., in response to message #4 by Matt Kernal (US) Thanks to everyone, specially Matt. I was misconceiving the right pronunciation, because in Italian we stress on the "i" of "registro". 'False friends' anywhere... -- Antonio Edited: 23 Oct 2006, 2:17 p.m.

Re: O.T. for American and English people Message #6 Posted by bill platt on 23 Oct 2006, 2:25 p.m., in response to message #5 by Antonio Maschio (Italy) We's write that as "rejeestro" here. (Or is that regeestro?) Edited: 23 Oct 2006, 2:26 p.m.

Re: O.T. for American and English people Message #7 Posted by Antonio Maschio (Italy) on 24 Oct 2006, 2:21 a.m., in response to message #6 by bill platt The g in "registro" is like the g in geek (not as the g in gift). -- Antonio

Re: O.T. for American and English people Message #8 Posted by bill platt on 24 Oct 2006, 8:17 a.m., in response to message #7 by Antonio Maschio (Italy) Ah, so it is ReGeestro :-) Uh oh. But Geek and Gift have the same g. A velar stop. The gee that sounds like a j is an affricate in the front of the mouth. Edited: 24 Oct 2006, 8:18 a.m.

Re: O.T. for American and English people Message #9 Posted by Antonio Maschio (Italy) on 24 Oct 2006, 9:46 a.m., in response to message #8 by bill platt Quote: Uh oh. But Geek and Gift have the same g. A velar stop. The gee that sounds like a j is an affricate in the front of the mouth. Forget everything I wrote. Another mistake on my part, since I thought geek to be read as the g of gest (as jeek) [WHAT A SHAME!] So: ITALIAN The g in "registro" is like the g in gest (not as the g in gift or geek). Re-'jee-straw ENGLISH the g is like the g in gest, but the accent is anticipated 'Rejister Hope this is the final attest that I finally understood. I knew I was a bit dumb, but not as such... -- Antonio

Re: O.T. for American and English people Message #10 Posted by bill platt on 24 Oct 2006, 10:05 a.m., in response to message #9 by Antonio Maschio (Italy) OK! (english spelling is soooo confusing. I have a 1st grader and a 4th grader, so I see this everyday:-)

Re: O.T. for American and English people Message #11 Posted by Matt Kernal (US) on 24 Oct 2006, 8:14 p.m., in response to message #9 by Antonio Maschio (Italy) Antonio, We that speak English can have a better appreciation of your word pronunciations by changing the text-to-speech synthesizer "voice" (accent) to Italian (a woman named Vittoria no less!). Go here and change the Voice (pull-down selection) to Italian. Now we can type "registro" and/or "register" to *hear* how these words would sound coming from an Italian person's mouth! :-) Do you know Vittoria? ;-) Matt

Re: O.T. for American and English people Message #12 Posted by Cameron Paine on 24 Oct 2006, 10:27 a.m., in response to message #7 by Antonio Maschio (Italy) Antonio, please forgive me. I am weeping with laughter. The cause of my pant-wetting fit is the prospect that I might be described as a jeek. (although you're probably thinking jerk!) Thank you for this delightful thread. Sincerely. Cameron

Re: O.T. for American and English people Message #13 Posted by Antonio Maschio (Italy) on 24 Oct 2006, 12:02 p.m., in response to message #12 by Cameron Paine Please, define jeek and jerk (I suspect it's derogative english). -- Antonio

Re: O.T. for American and English people Message #14 Posted by bill platt on 24 Oct 2006, 1:19 p.m., in response to message #13 by Antonio Maschio (Italy) Hi Antonio, (This is fun!) There is no "jeek", But there is Geek (as in golf). It is a circus performer who bites the head off of a chicken at the end of the performance. But today we mean someone who is fashion-unaware, and/or extremely smart and into something abstruse (like violins, chess, maths) instead of being into gameboy, Lindsay Lohan, and etc. But its definition is sort of fluid. It is deragotory or endearing depending on the circumstances. Often confused with Nerd. Sometimes used interchageeably. See also Dweeb. But dweeb is always deragatory, and nerd perhaps more often used deragatorily than geek. Trouble is that these words get reshaped by each succeeding generation. The only one that got frozen is "cool" which I think was only because of the show "Happy Days" which cemented a 50's term into the 70's youth. "Jerk" (j as in jumping jack, john, jim, jambalaya, jesus (not hayzoos like the spanish say) is someone who is not nice. In other words if you are in a fight with your girlfriend because you told her you were going to a seminar on windose developer and instead you went to a baseball game with your friends, when you come home she says, "you are such a JERK!"

Re: O.T. for American and English people Message #15 Posted by Paul Guertin on 24 Oct 2006, 5:03 p.m., in response to message #14 by bill platt See this page for an explanation of geeks vs. nerds: Paul Guertin

Re: O.T. for American and English people Message #16 Posted by Gerson W. Barbosa on 24 Oct 2006, 5:15 p.m., in response to message #14 by bill platt Quote: There is no "jeek" Some think there is: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=jeek Your technical explanations are really interesting, and they are right as far as I can tell. I am lucky to have had an English teacher who happened to be also a linguist. He was from Belgium and used a method he claimed to be the same one used by the Pentagon to teach local languages to troops deployed around the world. His method did work: it took only one year and a half for me to learn the language (then I really thought I had already learned it :-). Being 15 also helped. Now 30 years later, trying to learn Italian, a Latin language (and therefore supposed to be easier) is not that easy... Anyway, my advice to Antonio and whoever wants to learn or improve another language is not to stick to one's native language while doing it. This will only mess things up.

Re: O.T. for American and English people Message #17 Posted by Juan J on 25 Oct 2006, 12:45 a.m., in response to message #16 by Gerson W. Barbosa Quote: Anyway, my advice to Antonio and whoever wants to learn or improve another language is not to stick to one's native language while doing it. The less you know, the less you have to unlearn. So it is better to put your native language aside if you are learning another. Sticking to it only leads to confusion and, sometimes, embarassing mistakes, when using a second language.

Re: O.T. for American and English people: Thanks to everyone Message #18 Posted by Antonio Maschio (Italy) on 25 Oct 2006, 8:02 a.m., in response to message #1 by Antonio Maschio (Italy) -- Antonio Edited: 25 Oct 2006, 8:02 a.m.

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