As a singer we often concentrate on the position of the tongue and the shape of the vowel. There is a clear difference for me between ‘ thing’ and ‘ think’, before I get to the final consonant. The sound is produced towards the back of the mouth for ‘ think’.YMMV.
In choral music circles over here (the US) we casually refer to these as voiced and unvoiced consonant pairs:
G : K
Z : S
D : T
[etc.]
That's the standard terminology in linguistics. Anthony Burgess suggested calling them singing and breathy instead but I don't think anyone has ever followed him.
I'm nasal at the best of times (I suspect that childhood rhinitis probably munched my scroll bones), but when I have a cold I sound almost exactly like Frank Sidebottom, despite not coming from anywhere within 200 miles of Lancashire.
Talking is different from singing. Glottal stops, for example, form a large number of ends of words in everyday speech - at least where I live -, where a decent singer would enunciate more carefully.
We just hack one word off and start the next.
Best way to have accurate data to analyze is to get people blabbing unselfconsciously.
Very late to this but I’m a Brit and Northern and probably young in Ship terms and I’ve never come across ‘another think coming’ until this thread. Always heard it as ‘another thing coming’. Although I am also on the borders of where candles are ‘cangles’ & doors have ‘hangles’.
But I never saw it as an accent thing. It was ‘another thing’ as in something else.
I just had a message from my old college, inviting me to return for an event, for which the requested dress was a "lounge suite". I think they might be a little taken aback if I turned up adorned with sofa cushions and antimacassars.
Very late to this but I’m a Brit and Northern and probably young in Ship terms and I’ve never come across ‘another think coming’ until this thread. Always heard it as ‘another thing coming’. Although I am also on the borders of where candles are ‘cangles’ & doors have ‘hangles’.
But I never saw it as an accent thing. It was ‘another thing’ as in something else.
Do you go to the hospickle? If so you probably live near @Hugal's family!
I just had a message from my old college, inviting me to return for an event, for which the requested dress was a "lounge suite". I think they might be a little taken aback if I turned up adorned with sofa cushions and antimacassars.
I just had a message from my old college, inviting me to return for an event, for which the requested dress was a "lounge suite". I think they might be a little taken aback if I turned up adorned with sofa cushions and antimacassars.
I just had a message from my old college, inviting me to return for an event, for which the requested dress was a "lounge suite". I think they might be a little taken aback if I turned up adorned with sofa cushions and antimacassars.
You'd be surprised....
For that matter, is anybody promacassars?
I gather the word comes from being used to keep the massacar oil off the furniture. So while people used to be pro massacar, I doubt whether anyone would be pro getting oil marks on the funiture.
They should have been renamed antibrylcremes I guess.
The “macassar” bit comes from Latin, i believe, the word for “spot” which also gives us “macula” and “immaculate.” Though it looks like some species of dinosaur…
I don't actually own any antimacassars, but my house is also full of children, so the idea that someone sits "normally" on a chair with their head resting on the back is a bit of a rarity.
I'm sure I've sat in wing-back chairs recently that have had lace antimacassars, but I can't quite place where that would have been.
I have always heard 'another think coming' in Scotland.
One word which intrigues me always or rather two words which intrigue me always are 'alternative' and 'alternate'
To me ( and I don't decide the meaning of words) 'alternative ' means 'an other'
'alternate' means one following the other with a break in between.
In the ongoing Donald Trump trial I heard that as well as picking the jury they were going to provide for six alternates.
To me this would mean that some jurors would be the jurors on Mondays and others would be the jurors on Tuesday and Wednesday it would be back to Monday's jurors.
Perhaps this is what is meant.
The “macassar” bit comes from Latin, i believe, the word for “spot” which also gives us “macula” and “immaculate.” Though it looks like some species of dinosaur…
I thought it came from the type of oil that men used for a hair dressing in the 1800s - macassar oil. To stop oily head prints on your fancy upholstery, you would place anti-macassars which you could remove and launder.
I’ve never heard anyone say “another thing coming”. But I’ve very often heard “another think”.
It makes sense to me that it’s a humorous way of saying another thought.
Yes, antimacassars, as Cameron says, to protect chairs against hair oil stains. Then it was Brylcreme. Now neither are used I guess they’re just to generally keep upholstery clean, though I find them unnecessarily fussy.
I have always heard 'another think coming' in Scotland.
One word which intrigues me always or rather two words which intrigue me always are 'alternative' and 'alternate'
To me ( and I don't decide the meaning of words) 'alternative ' means 'an other'
'alternate' means one following the other with a break in between.
In the ongoing Donald Trump trial I heard that as well as picking the jury they were going to provide for six alternates.
To me this would mean that some jurors would be the jurors on Mondays and others would be the jurors on Tuesday and Wednesday it would be back to Monday's jurors.
Perhaps this is what is meant.
Alternate as a verb or adverb means what you describe—following in turns. Alternate as a noun means alternative, or one who substitutes for or, in some cases alternates with, another. So an alternate juror is a a juror chosen to be ready to take the place of a regular juror should the regular juror have to be dismissed from the jury after the trial has started (but before the case is submitted to the jury). I’m an alternate commissioner to the PC(USA)’s General Assembly this summer; I’ll go if one of the elder commissioners for this year can’t go.
All of these uses of alternate date back centuries.
Many thanks. The word often seems to be used as an adjective here.
I would have assumed that in the expression 'alternate juror 'or indeed 'alternate commissioner the word was being used as an adjective.
Can one (correctly) say in American English ' I am an alternate' ?
Many thanks. The word often seems to be used as an adjective here.
I would have assumed that in the expression 'alternate juror 'or indeed 'alternate commissioner the word was being used as an adjective.
Can one (correctly) say in American English ' I am an alternate' ?
Yes, one can. I think “alternate juror” or “alternate commissioner” function as compound nouns.
Colombo saying, 'And another thing ...' is completely different.
He means another 'thing' not another 'thought'.
'Another think coming' is a piece of word-play. It is a deliberately playful figure of speech. The speaker knows it should be 'thought' not 'think' but 'think' is used for emphasis and comedic effect.
Everyone who thinks it's 'another thing coming' is wronger than a wrong thing in Wrongsville, Wrong County, Wrongs-consin.
It's just wrong, wrong, wrong wrong, wrong. Wronger than someone asking for a US-style IPA in Bavaria, or anywhere else for that matter when everyone knows that a proper decent hand-pulled British IPA is the deal deal.
Enough already.
Any more of this and I'm going to have to lie down.
Re: Kendal's "doorwall" - I'd never heard that word before, but the house we had in Fredericton had one.
I would have just called it a sliding door, but it was more elaborate than that - it actually slid into the wall cavity, and IIRC was referred to in the estate agent's blurb as a "pocket door".
Re: Kendal's "doorwall" - I'd never heard that word before, but the house we had in Fredericton had one.
I would have just called it a sliding door, but it was more elaborate than that - it actually slid into the wall cavity, and IIRC was referred to in the estate agent's blurb as a "pocket door".
Re: Kendel's "doorwall" - I'd never heard that word before, but the house we had in Fredericton had one.
I would have just called it a sliding door, but it was more elaborate than that - it actually slid into the wall cavity, and IIRC was referred to in the estate agent's blurb as a "pocket door".
Yeah. I think i might be specific to Michigan.
A (sliding glass) door wall is only on an outside wall, and has glass.
The interior doors between rooms, or a room and the hallway, we would call "a sliding door", or if one is very upscale, "a pocket door."
I had forgotten about "another think coming" which was one of my Mum's expressions. She had Irish ancestry and anytime anyone with an Irish accent visited you could hear the accent in her voice for hours afterwards.
A (sliding glass) door wall is only on an outside wall, and has glass.
The interior doors between rooms, or a room and the hallway, we would call "a sliding door", or if one is very upscale, "a pocket door."
Sliding doors slide along to the outside of the wall, pocket doors slide into the wall. (Can you tell we’ve just had a major rebuild?).
A bit of a rather remote tangent: According to meeja gossip, our King on this side of the pond is desperate to make peace with the Prince and Princess Over the Water (AKA the Duke and Duchess of Sussex), and to see their children., and has cast around for an acceptable olive branch to offer them. 'I know the very thing!' he thought. 'They can come and stay at Balmoral. They'll enjoy that.' The Duke would like to accept, apparently, but the Duchess, used to a Californian lifestyle, regards an invitation to a Victorian pastiche castle for a few days' country pursuits in rural Scotland as a summons to the outer darkness. The family would need a complete set of warm, weatherproof clothing and the children wouldn't understand a word their grandfather said. Worse still, they might encounter their aunt and uncle. She has, apparently, no intention of ever setting her foot in ourthis country again or allowing her children to do so, according to an 'expert' on royal matters. I have no idea if any of this is true or not, but it would be funny if it were not tragic. Perhaps it deserves a thread of its own.
On the radio this morning someone said that twenty-somethings who cannot afford to buy / rent a place of their own and who are still living with their parents are so common that there is phrase for them - adult children.
If someone asked me whether I have children, I'd say that I have two adult children, to indicate that my children are adults. Both have lived independently of us for years.
Does the phrase "adult children" really imply that they are living with us and, if so, what is the correct phrase? I suppose "I have two children, aged 30 and 28" would work, if "adult children" is wrong.
I think the individual was stretching to try to coin a phrase. I have always known "adult children" to mean children who are of an age that we considered that of an adult.
Comments
Magnet de canard fumé - smoked duck breast.
I'm nasal at the best of times (I suspect that childhood rhinitis probably munched my scroll bones), but when I have a cold I sound almost exactly like Frank Sidebottom, despite not coming from anywhere within 200 miles of Lancashire.
https://youtu.be/w8KQhbWDeI8
We just hack one word off and start the next.
Best way to have accurate data to analyze is to get people blabbing unselfconsciously.
But I never saw it as an accent thing. It was ‘another thing’ as in something else.
Do you go to the hospickle? If so you probably live near @Hugal's family!
You'd be surprised....
For that matter, is anybody promacassars?
I gather the word comes from being used to keep the massacar oil off the furniture. So while people used to be pro massacar, I doubt whether anyone would be pro getting oil marks on the funiture.
They should have been renamed antibrylcremes I guess.
My Mum called them antimacassars, it’s not a word I’ve heard in 20 years. Our were lace 🙂
I'm sure I've sat in wing-back chairs recently that have had lace antimacassars, but I can't quite place where that would have been.
One word which intrigues me always or rather two words which intrigue me always are 'alternative' and 'alternate'
To me ( and I don't decide the meaning of words) 'alternative ' means 'an other'
'alternate' means one following the other with a break in between.
In the ongoing Donald Trump trial I heard that as well as picking the jury they were going to provide for six alternates.
To me this would mean that some jurors would be the jurors on Mondays and others would be the jurors on Tuesday and Wednesday it would be back to Monday's jurors.
Perhaps this is what is meant.
I thought it came from the type of oil that men used for a hair dressing in the 1800s - macassar oil. To stop oily head prints on your fancy upholstery, you would place anti-macassars which you could remove and launder.
It makes sense to me that it’s a humorous way of saying another thought.
Yes, antimacassars, as Cameron says, to protect chairs against hair oil stains. Then it was Brylcreme. Now neither are used I guess they’re just to generally keep upholstery clean, though I find them unnecessarily fussy.
All of these uses of alternate date back centuries.
I would have assumed that in the expression 'alternate juror 'or indeed 'alternate commissioner the word was being used as an adjective.
Can one (correctly) say in American English ' I am an alternate' ?
Colombo saying, 'And another thing ...' is completely different.
He means another 'thing' not another 'thought'.
'Another think coming' is a piece of word-play. It is a deliberately playful figure of speech. The speaker knows it should be 'thought' not 'think' but 'think' is used for emphasis and comedic effect.
Everyone who thinks it's 'another thing coming' is wronger than a wrong thing in Wrongsville, Wrong County, Wrongs-consin.
It's just wrong, wrong, wrong wrong, wrong. Wronger than someone asking for a US-style IPA in Bavaria, or anywhere else for that matter when everyone knows that a proper decent hand-pulled British IPA is the deal deal.
Enough already.
Any more of this and I'm going to have to lie down.
I would have just called it a sliding door, but it was more elaborate than that - it actually slid into the wall cavity, and IIRC was referred to in the estate agent's blurb as a "pocket door".
I will pray for you.
Pocket doors are cool, but they make it a challenge to have a light switch by the door where it belongs. Where are your light switches?
Yeah. I think i might be specific to Michigan.
A (sliding glass) door wall is only on an outside wall, and has glass.
The interior doors between rooms, or a room and the hallway, we would call "a sliding door", or if one is very upscale, "a pocket door."
You are right. But we are Alexa’d up, so we talk to our lights 😂
Sliding doors slide along to the outside of the wall, pocket doors slide into the wall. (Can you tell we’ve just had a major rebuild?).
If someone asked me whether I have children, I'd say that I have two adult children, to indicate that my children are adults. Both have lived independently of us for years.
Does the phrase "adult children" really imply that they are living with us and, if so, what is the correct phrase? I suppose "I have two children, aged 30 and 28" would work, if "adult children" is wrong.