Iron - solve an arguement

Damn. Solid come back.

funny coz it's true

Drew as a fellow yorkshireman it normaly ends up as i-un

I suppose I say the same but I say iron in my head

s**t!
How are you supposed to learn a language when the people who're supposed to speak it best twist it like that. It's like torture in Rambo 2!

Fetchez la vache!

Or how about a language where 'sain', 'sein', 'saint', 'ceint', and preconsonantal 'cinq' are all pronounced the same?

......i agree

There are differences in pronounciation among these words mate. Slight ones, though they're almost identical like you pointed out. It's a bit like japanese, a lot of words or syllables sound identical, they must be put into context in order to be understood!

I'm sure you know i was taking the piss.

Really? This would surprise me very much. Even allowing for regional variation, these words all feature the same two phonemes. Could you clarify the differences for me?

cent saint son
sang sein sont
sans sain --
sent seing --
-- ceint --



We agree mate. They're all monosyllabics with a principal nasal vowel, yet somehow some of these words are shorter than others. Like a short or a long "i" if you will. It's getting clearer when you get a close look at someone's mouth when he's wording. If you want to extend this to a geographical pattern it's getting mad as people's accent makes it all invalid. Errors in pronounciation tend to be the norm since people cant hear how it was but how it is. Living language!

I assume you speak french, you could travel through time by listening to french talking people in Louisiana for instance.

I get carried away, it's all very fascinating to me, my english is limitating me.

awesome.

no seriously.

we have no such problems in finnish language, we pronounce everything!

I just wrote a rather long response to Mishima's message, and then realised how irrelevant it was to the forum, and even to this thread. But it is a fascinating topic for me.

"I-un"

Irn as in Irn Bru

pm mate, love this!