# My husband's amusing dipthongs **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 8, 2009, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husbands-amusing-dipthongs/484856 "2009-02-08T00:09:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Fake\_Tales\_of\_San\_Francisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8491ac/32.png) [@Fake\_Tales\_of\_San\_Francisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fake_Tales_of_San_Francisco)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husbands-amusing-dipthongs/484856/21 "2009-02-08T11:53:59Z")
> [@Gleena](#): > > but I stand firm that purely American words [squirrel] should be pronounced properly. Are you sure [Squirrel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squirrel#Etymology) is purely an American word? Or am I reading that wrong. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![KnitWit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f0a364/32.png) [@KnitWit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KnitWit)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husbands-amusing-dipthongs/484856/22 "2009-02-08T12:20:35Z")
> [@C3](#): > > I was assigned an Australian and, after 13 years, we’re still arguing about how to pronounce stuff. You should hear him say squirrel. It’s been especially funny since we had kids. My oldest was born in the U.S., but spent his learning-to-speak years in Australia. He pronounces things differently depending on whether he’s talking to me or my husband. Very cute. Haha! That’s too cute. Do you try to come up with conversations that revolve around squirrels just to hear him try to say it? I would. I almost forgot my husband’s lack of power. He has “parr” instead. And this morning, he’ll probably take a “sharr” (shower). ---
**Author:** ![Gleena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b3f665/32.png) [@Gleena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gleena)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husbands-amusing-dipthongs/484856/23 "2009-02-08T12:35:53Z")
> [@Fake\_Tales\_of\_San\_Francisco](#): > > Are you sure [Squirrel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squirrel#Etymology) is purely an American word? > > Or am I reading that wrong. 😕 Hrm. What I actually meant was that words for things that don’t exist here, but do in the US, should be pronounced properly. :smack: (I might actually have told the story here about my very good friend who, seconded from her company to it’s American office, was nearly arrested in a Minnesota park because she was on her knees, in very expensive business attired, trying to catch a squirrel. Because she’d never seen one before. Also, she’s still angry that chipmunks have tails, because Chip and Dale very clearly do not, and Americans are very mean to lie like that.) ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husbands-amusing-dipthongs/484856/24 "2009-02-08T13:04:59Z")
Great OP! I can already tell that all throughout the day today, “Erlach! Erlach! Don’t be shteeupit!” is going to pop into my head and I will laugh like an insane person at inappropriate times. ---
**Author:** ![jali](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecae2f/32.png) [@jali](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jali)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husbands-amusing-dipthongs/484856/25 "2009-02-08T15:29:28Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Any Irish _women_ available? I brake for Asian women and back up six blocks for redheads with Irish or Scottish or Manx accents
 there was this one woman who rode the #24 bus I took to work who was unforgettable. Older than me and married. _sigh_ What about the grouchy old Black chicks? We need love too! I want to use this too: Erlach! Erlach! Don’t be shteeupit! Saying it aloud is fun! ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husbands-amusing-dipthongs/484856/26 "2009-02-08T22:17:10Z")
Thanks, OP, for clearing up the mystery about “Star of the County Down”! I always took it to be “two bird feet” – you know, the young lady has cute little feet, like a warbler’s. Mrs. Map has never pronounced a final-syllable “r” in her life – the English where she comes from is non-rhotic as is gets. Whenever I fail to understand something she says, I’ll back up and repeat what she said in my mind, inserting “r’s” here and there until I find a combination which makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![KnitWit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f0a364/32.png) [@KnitWit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KnitWit)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husbands-amusing-dipthongs/484856/27 "2009-02-08T22:51:51Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Thanks, OP, for clearing up the mystery about “Star of the County Down”! I always took it to be “two bird feet” – you know, the young lady has cute little feet, like a warbler’s. > > Mrs. Map has never pronounced a final-syllable “r” in her life – the English where she comes from is non-rhotic as is gets. Whenever I fail to understand something she says, I’ll back up and repeat what she said in my mind, inserting “r’s” here and there until I find a combination which makes sense. Yes, and just to further clear things up, she also has “nut brown hair.” You know
not HERR. Does Mrs. Map use the leftover r’s somewhere else? That’s what Bostonians do. They’re very conservative that way. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husbands-amusing-dipthongs/484856/28 "2009-02-08T23:23:05Z")
> [@jali](#): > > What about the grouchy old Black chicks? We need love too! Black women? Hello! 🙂 > [@jali](#): > > I want to use this too: Erlach! Erlach! Don’t be shteeupit! > Saying it aloud is fun! Now I have an indescribable picture in my head, composed 50% of self-mumbling crazoids on the streetcar, 50% of an old apartment superintendant I once had, and 50% of bad comedy from TV. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husbands-amusing-dipthongs/484856/29 "2009-02-08T23:23:12Z")
> [@Gleena](#): > > Also, she’s still angry that chipmunks have tails, because Chip and Dale very clearly do not, and Americans are very mean to lie like that.) 😕 Chip and dale most certainly do have [tails](http://www.tommcmahon.net/images/chipdale3b.jpg)! I’m in QuĂ©bec, and so was assigned a francophone QuĂ©becois man. While his English is very very good (most people never notice an accent, and even I often forget that it’s not his first language), some words give him trouble. He can never remember which is the correct word to use “Opera” or “Oprah”, which, as you can imagine, has led to some very weird sentences. He gives a french twist to “spaghetti” so that it comes out sounding something like “spah-getty”. I can’t remember any other ones offhand, though. Whenever I laugh at him, he just says “I’m French!”, as if that’s an excuse 😜 ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husbands-amusing-dipthongs/484856/30 "2009-02-08T23:27:00Z")
> [@mnemosyne](#): > > 
he just says “I’m French!”, as if that’s an excuse
 It is. This explains about 60% of Canadian politics since the Quiet Revolution. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husbands-amusing-dipthongs/484856/31 "2009-02-08T23:27:42Z")
Yanks FYI can’t pronounce cottage. “An Irish cahttage”. My Missus is from Ohio so I have lots of fun making fun of 'merkin accents. Galway is pronounced “Gaulway” and Donegal is “Dunnygaul”. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husbands-amusing-dipthongs/484856/32 "2009-02-08T23:28:18Z")
> [@KnitWit](#): > > Does Mrs. Map use the leftover r’s somewhere else? That’s what Bostonians do. They’re very conservative that way. Nope, she saves them up, gives them to me in a big bag for Christmas, and I use them all up at the Christmas dinner table, telling pirate jokes to the family until they ask me to please stop. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husbands-amusing-dipthongs/484856/33 "2009-02-08T23:35:09Z")
[Here’s a fun accents thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=482896&highlight=accent) I started a few months back that some of you might be interested in. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husbands-amusing-dipthongs/484856/34 "2009-02-08T23:48:00Z")
You were assigned 3 irish guys. Oh no FAIR! All I got was a 1st generation German-American who, hysterically, cannot for the life of him do a german accent. But, our 10 year old sprog can, and do so, brilliantly. ( Courtesy of his mother’s taunt-zee-Germans ways. vhat? I think I need to move to Boston. Or Ireland or Scotland or somewhere where the accents are sofuckingcool! **Knitwit** Your husband is a major Hottie! Two years with an irishman is like 10 in the real world. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![KnitWit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f0a364/32.png) [@KnitWit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KnitWit)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husbands-amusing-dipthongs/484856/35 "2009-02-09T00:06:14Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > Yanks FYI can’t pronounce cottage. “An Irish cahttage”. My Missus is from Ohio so I have lots of fun making fun of 'merkin accents. Galway is pronounced “Gaulway” and Donegal is “Dunnygaul”. Part of my problem is that Irish (Gaelic) spellings are so insane in my world. I’m still working on “Chuckie Are Law.” And why the heck does my sister-in-law, Chivon, spell her name Siobhan? ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husbands-amusing-dipthongs/484856/36 "2009-02-09T00:08:20Z")
My friend is of Chinese-Malaysian/Irish extraction and called Siobhán. Abroad it is often take as an Asian name and pronounced stuff like “Sy-ob-han”. Some Irish spellings are indeed difficult to pronounce but Galway ain’t one of them. ---
**Author:** ![KnitWit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f0a364/32.png) [@KnitWit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KnitWit)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husbands-amusing-dipthongs/484856/37 "2009-02-09T00:09:58Z")
> [@Shirley\_Ujest](#): > > Two years with an irishman is like 10 in the real world. 😉 Don’t I know it! I’m exhausted from all the Guinness and jigs. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husbands-amusing-dipthongs/484856/38 "2009-02-09T00:10:05Z")
> [@KnitWit](#): > > And why the heck does my sister-in-law, Chivon, spell her name Siobhan? Because they cheat at Scrabble? ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husbands-amusing-dipthongs/484856/39 "2009-02-09T01:05:34Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > Some Irish spellings are indeed difficult to pronounce but Galway ain’t one of them. You mean Gallimh? Looks hard to pronounce to _me._ ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husbands-amusing-dipthongs/484856/40 "2009-02-09T01:07:23Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > My friend is of Chinese-Malaysian/Irish extraction and called Siobhán. Photo cite? (Please?) Oops, sorry, hon
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