I have an irrational hatred of the Irish

[Al B. Sure!]

Yeah but...



Look at West Virginia!

[MOBIUS]

I wouldn't boast too much seeing as you live in Pennsylvania...

[Provost Harrison]

Albert, do you see the irony of this thread and then going off on one calling all Europeans racist? Do you even know what irony is? Do you see the irony of your username in all this?

[Al B. Sure!]

I wouldn't boast too much seeing as you live in Pennsylvania...

Yeah but notice Philadelphia is not anywhere in that region.

Albert, do you see the irony of this thread and then going off on one calling all Europeans racist? Do you even know what irony is? Do you see the irony of your username in all this?

What's ironic about the name Al B. Sure! ?

[MOBIUS]

Yeah but notice Philadelphia is not anywhere in that region.

Yeah, the flat bits of Pennsylvania are occupied by a large low rent ghetto surrounded by hordes Amish and Mennonites and bikers - hardly much of an improvement!

Sounds more like ****ing Mad Max!

What's ironic about the name Al B. Sure! ?

Except we all know you as Albert Speer...

[Provost Harrison]

Exactly, Albert Speer. And that wasn't the main point. Do you see the irony of calling others racist when you have a thread like this? Or can racism only possibly apply to those of different skin colour?

[Al B. Sure!]

Exactly, Albert Speer. And that wasn't the main point. Do you see the irony of calling others racist when you have a thread like this? Or can racism only possibly apply to those of different skin colour?

What? That Discover Ireland commercial ticks me off. Have you seen it? Or are you an Irish lover, PH? Where's that traditional English attitude towards the Irish?

[Provost Harrison]

I have absolutely no issue with the Irish at all and I consider their nation to be a close ally of my own.

Or are you trying to use events that were long, long, long before my lifetime as an excuse to drag us down to your level of thinking. Because that simply is not happening.

[Wezil]

My accent isn't that bad...I've managed to make myself understood in many different countries around the world for the past god knows how many years...

You just have to talk a little louder.

Yeah, this:

Better than most people, who just talk slowly and loudly at people who can't speak English in the hope it will make a difference.

[Provost Harrison]

Well when working with non-native speakers I have to speak more slowly and ensure I enunciate my words correctly. But if you're a native speaker, you're getting no such mercy...you've got no excuse...and I do speak quickly.

[Al B. Sure!]

We have vocaroo, PH. Let's hear them pipes

[MOBIUS]

Speer on Vocaroo!

That was a great thread.

[Al B. Sure!]

Here you go Mobius, you can hear my anti-Irish rant in it's full spoken glory!

[Wezil]

[Wezil]

I'd give you an example of the Canadian "out and about" but I don't have a microphone to record with.

edit:

Canadian raising is a phonetic phenomenon that occurs in varieties of the English language, especially Canadian English, in which certain diphthongs are "raised" before voiceless consonants (e.g., /p/, /t/, /k/, /s/, /f/). /aɪ/ (the vowel of "eye") becomes [ʌi], while the outcome of /aʊ/ (the vowel of "loud") varies by dialect, with [ʌu] more common in the west and a fronted variant [ɛʉ] commonly heard in Central Canada. In any case, the /a/-component of the diphthong changes from a low vowel to a mid-low vowel ([ʌ] or [ɛ]).

Individuals who speak with Canadian raising will frequently be baffled by reports that they are being perceived as saying "aboot" or more precisely "a boat". However, such people can note the difference in pronunciation between words with and without Canadian raising: "house" (verb) and "house" (noun), "lies" and "lice", etc.

Perhaps the most common example of Canadian raising in everyday speech is that to non-Canadians "out" is heard pronounced the same as "oat" while to Canadians the two are heard pronounced differently. This means that to a non-Canadian, the vowels in the phrase "out and about in a boat" have all the same sound, rendering them as "oat and aboat in a boat".