# Can't.... Supress.... Urge.... To.... Insult... Am.... ericans..! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 1, 2003, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-supress-urge-to-insult-am-ericans/152009 "2003-02-01T00:54:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Cosmopolitan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/94ad74/32.png) [@Cosmopolitan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cosmopolitan)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-supress-urge-to-insult-am-ericans/152009/81 "2003-02-03T04:28:40Z")
Whoops. _Lawng Guyland_, I meant. I was so incensed that I forgot proper spelling for a moment… _whew_ ---
**Author:** ![litost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@litost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/litost)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-supress-urge-to-insult-am-ericans/152009/82 "2003-02-03T07:08:36Z")
The newscasters in BBC World are by far the best I have heard when it comes to foreign pronunciations! ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-supress-urge-to-insult-am-ericans/152009/83 "2003-02-03T09:25:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by elfkin477 \* > \*\*But the words don’t mean the same thing, do they? If you’re obligated to do something that means you’re required to do it( ie the law obligates us to stop at a stop sign). If you’re obliged you appreciate that someone has done something for you and may or may not feel you “owe them one.” Or at least that how I’ve always heard them used, and people _do_ use both in the US. \*\* Yes, but the way people use “obliged” in the US is not quite the same as the way it’s used in the UK. I’ve often heard it used in the same sense as Americans use “obligated”. ---
**Author:** ![garius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e19b73/32.png) [@garius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garius)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-supress-urge-to-insult-am-ericans/152009/84 "2003-02-03T23:24:02Z")
can i start using rhyming slang on them yet guys??? can i??? ---
**Author:** ![tanookie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/48db29/32.png) [@tanookie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanookie)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-supress-urge-to-insult-am-ericans/152009/85 "2003-02-04T00:24:29Z")
I’d hate for you to actually hear me speak… I can manage to say the same word three different ways in one sentence. I was brought up in Massachusetts but while school tried to teach me to speak “correctly” my family all spoke with that “New Befuh” accent. I say woostashir sauce. Cars are “kas” Centrifugal is “sentrifikle” I say tonic as “tahnik” Pop is “pahp” I actually say appreciate as “apprikate” sometimes. _sigh_ the list is endless. My public speaking teacher in college (kahlidj) had a ball with me during my speeches 🙂 I had an english lit prof that said Don Joowan… I couldn’t get used to that and could NEVER make myself say it when asked to read. It was a painful class! PS I absolutely ped myself every time I watch Eddie Izzard do the whole thing about how we speak differently … And that’s just cheating at scrabble 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-supress-urge-to-insult-am-ericans/152009/86 "2003-02-04T00:30:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fretful Porpentine \* > \*\*I want a hero: an uncommon want, > When every year and month sends forth a new one, > Till, after cloying the gazettes with cant, > The age discovers he is not the true one; > Of such as these I should not care to vaunt, > I’ll therefore take our ancient friend Don HWAN – > We all have seen him, in the pantomime, > Sent to the devil somewhat ere his time. > > Dunno, somehow it loses something. \*\* Sorry, but any attempt to rhyme “vaunt” and “Juan” is going to end in tragedy, no matter how you pronounce either word. ---
**Author:** ![tanookie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/48db29/32.png) [@tanookie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanookie)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-supress-urge-to-insult-am-ericans/152009/87 "2003-02-04T00:35:13Z")
Miller… I believe Juan is supposed to rhyme with one an A B A B A B C C rhyme scheme 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-supress-urge-to-insult-am-ericans/152009/88 "2003-02-04T01:00:09Z")
Cosmopolitan said: > [@](#): > > Oh, dear… > > 1. It’s Lawn Guyland - get it right before you try to find it on the map. > > 2. What makes you think that we Lawn Guylandahs are less capable of placing the apostrophe correctly than any other non-Southerners? What? You mean all Yanks are not alike??? 😃 Doesn’t it hurt the back of your throat to say “Lawng” all the time? It gives me sinus problems even just once or twice a year. ---
**Author:** ![Cosmopolitan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/94ad74/32.png) [@Cosmopolitan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cosmopolitan)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-supress-urge-to-insult-am-ericans/152009/89 "2003-02-04T02:20:41Z")
> [@](#): > > Doesn’t it hurt the back of your throat to say “Lawng” all the time? That’s the trick - I don’t. 😉 I just say cawfee & yestuhday. Ugh… I need to move. ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-supress-urge-to-insult-am-ericans/152009/90 "2003-02-04T08:51:00Z")
Dawn Joo-awn – Home-grown 'Merican that I am (having spent a total of five days in the UK), I first heard this in _Les Miserables_: “I am agog, I am agast/Is Marius in love at last?/We talk of battles to be won/And here he comes like dawn joo-awn . . . .” And I had _no idea_ what they were saying. I was quite puzzled – “What the heck’s a dawn joo-awn?” I didn’t know what was being said until I read the lyrics sheet, and even then it took me a couple more listens before I realized that “dawn joo-awn” = “Don Juan.” I wish I could say this was when I was young and stupid, but it was only a couple years ago, so young (at least) I was not. ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-supress-urge-to-insult-am-ericans/152009/91 "2003-02-04T13:21:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tanookie \* > I was brought up in Massachusetts but while school tried to teach me to speak “correctly” my family all spoke with that “New Befuh” accent. I say woostashir sauce. Cars are “kas” Centrifugal is “sentrifikle” I say tonic as “tahnik” Pop is “pahp” I actually say appreciate as “apprikate” sometimes. _sigh_ the list is endless. My public speaking teacher in college (kahlidj) had a ball with me during my speeches 🙂 Pahk yeh cah in Hahvahd Yad an’ give the lad a quahtah;) ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-supress-urge-to-insult-am-ericans/152009/92 "2003-02-04T14:38:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by elfkin477 \* > \*\*With all due respect, are you insane? Great(er?) portions of the country _never_ say “y’all” unless they’re reading out loud from a work by a southern author, or poking fun at southerners. Y’all indeed 😛 Most of us don’t own cowboy hats or boots neither. \*\* Y’all don’t? I’ll be gosh derned! Down here, even the erudite must slip a “y’all” into casual conversation now and again, lest they be thought pretentious and accordingly subject to inflated prices from mechanics to get their trucks repaired. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-supress-urge-to-insult-am-ericans/152009/93 "2003-02-04T20:00:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by FranticMad \* > \*\*Americans are the ONLY ones in the world who say “zee”. Originally it’s from the Greek “zeta”. It is America’s peculiar “zee” that is baffling. The rest of the world is waiting for an explanation for this bizarre behavior. \*\* My guess is that it makes the sing-song way children learn their alphabet a lot less musical. “a b c d e f GEE…” “h i j k l mno PEE…” “q r s” “t u v” “w x y ZED” !?!? ---
**Author:** ![Cyrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Cyrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyrin)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-supress-urge-to-insult-am-ericans/152009/94 "2003-02-04T20:18:36Z")
Canadians are kinda stuck in limbo, we all “offically” use british english, but I often find my self saying zee instead of zed (mostly because of the rhyming in the son… so I sing it in my head when I am going through the alphabet, so waht???) The american influence is pretty big, we all watch your TV, but then have to go to school and pass English, where words like color don’t fly! One of my favourites Lieutenant: Canada (and Britan I can only assume: LEF- ten-ant US: LU-ten-ant ---
**Author:** ![Cyrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Cyrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyrin)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-supress-urge-to-insult-am-ericans/152009/95 "2003-02-04T20:21:50Z")
Also, this Canadian suffers from severe typo-itis! (Sorry Yanks for not capitalizing American) Oh look at that, I didn’t capitalize Britan either… in reading this post I am thinking I should just call it a day and go home! ☹ ---
**Author:** ![tanookie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/48db29/32.png) [@tanookie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanookie)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-supress-urge-to-insult-am-ericans/152009/96 "2003-02-04T22:11:07Z")
“Pahk yeh cah in Hahvahd Yad an’ give the lad a quahtah” iampunha, that’s almost it except I really roll the stupid R’s in yard and quarter (kwarrterr) and the your is more like yer… Oh and it’s a bubbla!!! not a water fountain (watta fount-in) 🙂 We talked about a lot of the ways the languages diverged in a history of the English language class I had. That was a lot of fun. I actually wrote a paper for the class about one of my favorite authors, Jeff Noon, and had to learn what in Vurt was made up and what was just Britishisms that I wasn’t familiar with. Oh and if the world’s waiting for America to explain its fascination with Zee over Zed… it is in for a long wait because we don’t know 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Tygr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/df788c/32.png) [@Tygr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tygr)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-supress-urge-to-insult-am-ericans/152009/97 "2003-02-04T23:35:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Peregrine \* > \*\*“ligature n : a printed or written character consisting of two or more letters or characters joined together. See also digraph, diphthong.” > > And ligature is almost as much fun to say. Ligature, ligature, ligature. I’m going to go with ligature, though diphthong is apparently not wrong.\*\* Yes, but ligatures can come out sounding kind of strangled… [sub]Quick! See if you can spot the pun![/sub] …and it’s spelled gr **a** y. ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-supress-urge-to-insult-am-ericans/152009/98 "2003-02-04T23:49:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Çyrin \* > \*\*Also, this Canadian suffers from severe typo-itis! > > (Sorry Yanks for not capitalizing American) Oh look at that, I didn’t capitalize Britan either… \*\* Or spell it correctly. Britain. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-supress-urge-to-insult-am-ericans/152009/99 "2003-02-05T00:21:51Z")
> [@](#): > > …and it’s spelled gr **a** y. Which is why Tolkien wrote several books featuring the character _Gandalf the Gr **e** y_. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-supress-urge-to-insult-am-ericans/152009/100 "2003-02-05T00:55:06Z")
So some people’s logic is that because b is ‘bee’ and d is ‘dee’ so z should be ‘zee’. That sounds fine. But what do we do with h, and i, and l de we make them ‘hee’ and ‘iee’ and ‘lee’ I don’t think so. So why make ‘zed’ into ‘zee’ just because b is ‘bee’? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-supress-urge-to-insult-am-ericans/152009.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-supress-urge-to-insult-am-ericans/152009.md?page=6)