On Sat, 20 Oct 2007, Alan Jones wrote:
> "Ildhund" <jnllb@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote
>> Bert Vaux wrote...
>>> 3. The questions are designed to be relevant to speakers of English
>>> worldwide, not just in the United States.
>> Designed badly, then, in my view. Most of the questions seem to relate
to
>> purely American linguistic oddities. I do hope the author will consider
a
>> similar geographical survey of quirks in British English - "What is
your
>> normal greeting on meeting an acquaintance? Hello, Na'then, Eyup" or
"Does
>> your pronunciation of 'scone' [a variety of bun] rhyme with 'gone' or
>> 'stone' or 'boon'?"
> Not entirely fair, I think - e.g. the "alley" question includes ginnel
and
> snicket. But no distinction is made between British _regional_ and
_social_
> dialects e.g. the "dinner" question, nor any allowance for social
context
> e.g. the "public lavatory" question (the same person may use "loo" or
> "toilet" or "gents" etc depending on whom he is addressing and on what
> occasion).
Looks to me, and the data presented on a US map also suggests this, that
it is a survey originally used to find out about American English usages,
but which has been extended to find usage elesewhere. The questions asked
are ones where there is a particular variety of usages in the US, although
British terminology has been added.
The "alley" question was the only one I couldn't find my preferred answer
listed - the classic Sus*** dialect word for this, "twitten", was not
given.
Matthew Huntbach
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