Spelling rant

[ls99]

There was this fellow who went by the name thuder, meaning: the other. His real name was John. To avoid confusion as to which John, he was not the one, he was the other.

[Lsbcal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meadbh I don't know how to write in phonetics, so, with acknowledgements to YouTube...... Here is a video of a Meadhbh Ryan pronouncing her name (and skydiving): ...

OK Meadbh, it does indeed sound like "Mave" with a long "a" as in "Dave". Thanks.

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

I am working in a phonetic culture today. Spelling is flexible. Unfortunately, computers and bureaucracies are not.

[ls99]

All this discussion about names calls for a joke:

Way back, off of 2nd avenue at the edge of Harlem was Ole Olsen's Cinese laundry. One day a bro stops in and says, Yo, you are Chinese, how come your name Olsen?

The owner answers. Coming through immigration ahead of me was this huge blonde Norwegian, they asked him his name, he said Ole Olsen. When my turn came, again they asked, what is your name? I said Sam Ting. So, my immigration papers said I am Ole Olsen.




By the way, I had to modify the pronounciation of my last last name so Americans can deal with it. They screw up my first name all the time. To top it off I had to give up the the use of my nick name entirely. In English it turns out to be some frilly stuff Rock Hudson would have worn in his budoir.

[NW-Bound]

This mention of funny names when pronounced in English prompted me to look up "funny name places" with google.

What I ran across are some unusual names that are not even foreign words. I cannot provide a link to them all, but here's some.









And a forum member may be interested in a Canadian town that was dedicated to him.

[Meadbh]

NW-Bound, you forgot Dildo, Joe Batt's Arm, Black Tickle, and Conception Bay, all in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Unfortunately I can not see the first two pictures. But I do wonder about the effects of a name like that English town with the #£?*$@€& name on property values!

[NW-Bound]

There are many throughout all English-speaking countries. The ones I linked to were simply at the top of my search list.

And Dildo was linked in my post. I thought it was in the US, and did not look it up to be sure.



PS. In a past post, when someone visited Portland and sought out a well-known landmark close to downtown, a long-term Chinese restaurant with the name "Hang Low", I got very interested because I had visited Portland 3 times, and never knew of this place.

So, I researched on the Web, learned about the restaurant sign that was expensively restored by the city as a beloved landmark. And I also learned that "Hang Low" is a phonetic of the Chinese words "Red Inn" (or was it "Red Restaurant"). I am willing to bet that the past owner of the place knew of the funny sounding phonetic and decided to capitalize on it.

[NW-Bound]

Meadbh, you already know about Dildo. The 1st link was a photo of a Crapstone town sign. I do not know why you could not see it.

From an article on the Web:

CRAPSTONE, England — When ordering things by telephone, Stewart Pearce tends to take a proactive approach to the inevitable question “What is your address?”

He lays it out straight, so there is no room for unpleasant confusion. “I say, ‘It’s spelled “crap,” as in crap,’ ” said Mr. Pearce, 61, who has lived in Crapstone, a one-shop country village in Devon, for decades.

So, people in the UK outside of these towns may not know that these names are real either. And then, there's more. Like Penistone (England), Shitterton (England), or Twatt (Scotland), etc...

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound Meadbh, you already know about Dildo.

Isn't that a tad presumptuous?

Ha

[NW-Bound]

She mentioned it in her preceding post, without being able to see the photo that I linked in (photo of the town sign, not of the object ).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meadbh NW-Bound, you forgot Dildo, Joe Batt's Arm, Black Tickle, and Conception Bay, all in Newfoundland and Labrador. Unfortunately I can not see the first two pictures. But I do wonder about the effects of a name like that English town with the #£?*$@€& name on property values!

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound She mentioned it in her preceding post, without being able to see the photo that I linked in (photo of the town sign, not of the object ).

It's a joke, Amigo. Not that you didn't know that were you doing a set-up.

[MRG]

Well I grew up close to Intercourse, Pa. One doesn't have to leave the states to go to a place that makes you go, well thats an interesting name:-).

MRG

[NW-Bound]

I was not trying to set anything up, nor to imply anything either, or a sous-entendre.

And perhaps the recent bouts of hospital stays that forced me to talk bluntly about private body functions, with not just my doctor but also mostly female nurses and nurse aides, have desentisized me to vulgar words.

That may be sad, but perhaps unavoidable. When I was young, I thought elderly people tended to make vulgar jokes. Perhaps I have found one of the reasons for it.