Questions for Britishers

I'm listening to a books-on-tape (CD's, actually) by a British author, and the narrator is British. Do Britishers really pronounce "temporally" and "temporarily" the exact same way? And is there really such a word as "nackers", and if so, what does it mean?--Percy

Oops, sorry. United Kingdomisherites! About knackers, the context was something like, "The computer's gone knackers." It got the general idea across, but I wasn't sure if the computer was simply misbehaving, had gone completely crazy, was dead, or had already been shipped out to the computer graveyard.Saying "temporally" for "temporarily" really had me going for a bit. This isn't the only confusing pronunciation, but it's the one I encountered today and still remember.None of this is as bad as a lecturer from India I had when an undergrad. He used a lot of 4 and 5 syllable words, but always put the accent in the least expected place and ran his words together so you never knew how to divide the syllables up into words. The word I remember him most often using was com-pli-cat'-ed, but nonetheless he got me on it almost every time. You would sort of keep a running tape in your mind of what he'd just said and postprocess it to translate. Of course, it wasn't anywhere near so difficult as a Canterbury Tales books-on-tape in old-English I once attempted - attempting to make sense of it while driving was dangerous to all around me, and I fortunately gave it up before causing too much havoc. This British narrator is far easier to understand than either by comparison, but still she sometimes leaves me bewildered.--Percy

More British oddities from my Books-on-CD's:Do the British really pronounce "comradely" with a long A?" Actually, I guess I just answered this one myself. Checking the on-line Merriam-Webster dictionary, it says Britisher's pronounce "comrade" with a long A.What are "ponces"? Neglectful people? Dunces? Ne'er-do-wells?Is the instruction, "Backs to the walls, mates!", really a homosexual reference?--Percy

To me, long A means A as in ace. So I think maybe your "comrayd" is the same pronunciation of A?--Percy

Yes, well, I'm glad you recognize that you British let your pronunciation go all to hell after colonizing America. The proper pronunciation of "comradely" pronounces the a the same as in cap.I "read" Bridget Jones's Diary in Books-on-Tape form narrated in a British accent a couple years ago, but it contained nothing that had me going, "What the heck did she just say?" The dialect in this more recent book seems more "pubbish", Liverpoolish now that I think how Paul McCartney and John Lennon spoke, if that makes sense.--Percy

Tar fe de link, comrad! now 'opefully all de ponces will cotton ed me without gett'n their backs up against de wall. temporarily, anyroad. I wonder if there's a translator to the US southern accent? Or the hills of West Virginny accent?--Percy

I didn't know you were a near-Pittsburghite! What a wonderful city. I was there for three years just at the tail end of the steel industry's presence when the air was rapidly becoming cleaner. The windward side of the Cathedral of Learning (at my University we called it the Tower of Ignorance, you can guess where I went) was always black, every decade or two they'd clean it. I lived on Baum Blvd and on Atwood Street, and I had close friends in the suburbs in Brentwood and the surrounding area. Played a lot of tennis tournaments at Frick Park, Schenley Park, South Park and various other further flung venues. Never rode the incline, but what a beautiful city Pittsburgh is from the top, I used to drive up there all the time. And there's nothing like a Pittsburgh style sub!Never encountered the Pittsburgh accent, but that makes sense, university can be kind of insular, everyone I knew was from somewhere else.--Percy

I listened to Myron Cope all the time. I can still hear his nasal voice saying, "This is Myron Cope, on sports!" What was the radio station? Was it WTAE?I miss CMU a lot, but I wonder if I would recognize it anymore. The tennis courts used to be at the center of the campus just outside of Skibo, but Skibo is gone and the tennis courts were rotated 90 degrees, if I understood the diagram I saw, which puts the sun at a bad angle. Anyway, it was a wonderful place and I enjoyed it a lot.I never heard of Primanti Bros, but I was there in the mid-70s. We used to go to Antonino's a lot, which was on North Craig Street (I think - it's been a while) a couple blocks down Forbes toward downtown.I'm not sure where the strip is or the Grand Concourse. Except for tennis I didn't get off campus much. I was also assistant coach for the tennis team (a grad student can't be head coach), so I got to travel all around Pennsylvania and Ohio every spring, but didn't get to see too much of the area down by the point. I understand Three Rivers Stadium is gone now - I once saw a game there, against Cleveland. When the Steelers had a game coming up on natural turf they would practice at Carnegie Mellon's football field, and we would sit in the stands and watch Bradshaw hit Swann with Blount in coverage.--Percy