On 30/8/17 3:05 am, Ken Blake wrote:
On Tue, 29 Aug 2017 18:31:01 +0100, "NY" wrote:

Harassed: most UK people (excluding Frank Spencer in the sitcom "Some
Mothers Do Have 'Em") put the stress on the first syllable, whereas most US
people (and Frank Spencer!) put the stress on the second syllable


I'm not from the UK and I don't know who Frank Spencer is, but I
pronounce it the UK way: stress on the first syllable--HARR-issed.

I think most Americans say har-ASSED because they see the letters
a-s-s (the word you spell ARSE in the UK), and they automatically
pronounce those letters ASS.



"forehead" - "for-head" or "FORRid" (the latter
is almost obsolete)


Obsolete or not, I say FORR-id. By the way, I might be wrong but I
think more people (at least in the US) say FAR-head rather than
FOR-head.

Likewise with "forehead". I think it must be an age thing, although I
think most British speakers stress "harass" on the first syllable.


and "waistcoat" ("wayst-coat" or "WESSkit" (again, the
latter has almost died out

Sadly, it seems that in this country at least, "waistcoat" has been
replaced by "vest". It helps that we never called an undershirt a vest
as they do in England.


Regardless of pronunciation, the word itself has almost died out (at
least in the US). I can't remember the last time I used or heard it,
but if I had to say it, I would say WESS-kit. Most Americans say VEST.



Likewise the city of Bristol used to be spelled Bristowe many centuries ago,
but the Bristol dialect tends to add an L sound to the end of words which
end in a vowel sound, so "window" becomes "windowl", "area" becomes "areal"
and "banana" becomes "bananal". Eventually the spelling of the city name was
modified to reflect how the locals pronounced it!


Thanks very much! That's new to me, but I always like to know little
things like that.



--
Robert B. born England a long time ago;
Western Australia since 1972