Singapore Expats

http://edvantage.com.sg/edvantage/featu ... lish_.html

Should this even be an issue at all?

Only the fact that someone has to push it and that people are treating it as if the whole island is sinking into the sea.

As someone who's been told who speaks with an American accent and is used to American English, it doesn't bother me nor think anyone to be of different value if they speak with a different accent. It only bothers me if they use really region-specific words or terms (because I don't understand it) or their accent is really difficult to discern or is just plain grating to my ears. It also bothers me if they insist that the pidgin that they use is correct English but everybody else thinks it isn't.

Otherwise, pick a convention and leave someone alone if they use a different convention unless it's in formal communication.

In as many cases it doesn't really become noticeable in conversations after a while but I think it was JR8 recently bringing up the issue of using 'kid' that for me doesn't matter.

The bigger issue in language, outside of conversation, is in the written word and spelling. Legalese will have more of an issue with 'colour' or 'color' than in how somebody says 'tomato'

MauMau wrote:http://edvantage.com.sg/edvantage/featu ... lish_.html

Should this even be an issue at all?

Too much use of the letter z (zed )

Makes scrabble a lot easier though.

Fortunately, the letter zed doesn't appear at all in the US version of the game. Only the letter zee appears. zeebras are striped horses, zedbras I don't have a clue what they are. And what the heck is a zedro?

sundaymorningstaple wrote:Fortunately, the letter zed doesn't appear at all in the US version of the game. Only the letter zee appears. zeebras are striped horses, zedbras I don't have a clue what they are. And what the heck is a zedro?

And what the heck is a zedro?

I striped Pedro perhaps I'm certainly a critic of the American language taking over anything British, pronunciation isn't really a problem but spelling is, it just doesn't look right and is quite alien. It wouldn't surprise me if the Americans don't have 51 ways of spelling

sundaymorningstaple wrote:Fortunately, the letter zed doesn't appear at all in the US version of the game. Only the letter zee appears. zeebras are striped horses, zedbras I don't have a clue what they are. And what the heck is a zedro?

The ze in ZEbra is simply the zed without the d.

ksl wrote:

sundaymorningstaple wrote:Fortunately, the letter zed doesn't appear at all in the US version of the game. Only the letter zee appears. zeebras are striped horses, zedbras I don't have a clue what they are. And what the heck is a zedro?

And what the heck is a zedro?

I striped Pedro perhaps I'm certainly a critic of the American language taking over anything British, pronunciation isn't really a problem but spelling is, it just doesn't look right and is quite alien. It wouldn't surprise me if the Americans don't have 51 ways of spelling

Like the UK doesn't have regional dialects and accents...

nakatago wrote:

ksl wrote:

sundaymorningstaple wrote:Fortunately, the letter zed doesn't appear at all in the US version of the game. Only the letter zee appears. zeebras are striped horses, zedbras I don't have a clue what they are. And what the heck is a zedro?

And what the heck is a zedro?

I striped Pedro perhaps I'm certainly a critic of the American language taking over anything British, pronunciation isn't really a problem but spelling is, it just doesn't look right and is quite alien. It wouldn't surprise me if the Americans don't have 51 ways of spelling

Like the UK doesn't have regional dialects and accents...

Thaz reet am sayin' nowt

Can somebody give me a word where the "z" has a "zed" sound?

Barnsley wrote: Thaz reet am sayin' nowt

Is Barnsley a suburb of Newcastle now?

sundaymorningstaple wrote:Can somebody give me a word where the "z" has a "zed" sound?

Yes...
Zed
Zebra
Zen
Zenith (don't tell me Yanks pronounce these Zeen and Zeenith!)



p.s. Scrabble tip, QI is an allowable word.

Zed???
Zeppelin


(oppps Jr8 beat me to it.)

So, to Singaporeans, is it aluminum or aluminium?

JR8 wrote:

sundaymorningstaple wrote:Can somebody give me a word where the "z" has a "zed" sound?

Yes...
Zed
Zebra
Zen
Zenith (don't tell me Yanks pronounce these Zeen and Zeenith



p.s. Scrabble tip, QI is an allowable word.

We do pronounce Zebra, Zenith with a zee. Zed? It's not a real word.

Thank goodness for Noah Webster cleaning up the fouled up British language. Remember, when in new york, lighting up a fag means putting a smile on his face!