There once was writer of acknowledgements /
Who was in a pickle over compliments. /
To make them clear and sincere /
And not sound in arrears /
Or as if she were paying emoluments.
Category Archives: 2018
Monday morning writing joke: “Acknowledgements”
Filed under 2018, Monday morning writing joke, poetry by author
Older British Accents Actually Sounded More Like Americans Speak Today – Comic Sands
Source: Older British Accents Actually Sounded More Like Americans Speak Today – Comic Sands
It’s no secret that English is a mutt language, originating from a mixture of the Germanic and romantic languages. But what’s less appreciated is why Americans and Brits sound so different from one another.
The most distinct difference between American English and British English is how each culture pronounces their “R”s, which is known as rhoticity.
A dropped or unemphasized “R” is a trademark of British speech, while a voiced, or rhotic “R,” is the typical American style.
Some regions of Northern England, Scotland and Ireland sound different because they kept the rhotic pronunciation. And some regions in the United States dropped it like Boston and New York and the American south, where “R”s tend to be nearly non-existent.
Would you believe that the American way is actually the older version of English?
Have you ever thought about why we don’t all sound the same?
The first English came to North America in 1607. English settlers in the 17th Century sounded closer to today’s Americans, according to the science website, Curiosity.
“…the modern American accent is a lot closer to how English used to be spoken than the [modern] British accent is.”
What then, you ask, did the Brits do with their “R”s?
Simply put, the wealth boom of the Industrial Revolution prompted well-to-do English people to drop their “Rs” because voicing them “instantly marked them as a commoner.”
“In order to distinguish themselves from their lowlier roots, this new class of Brit developed their own posh way of speaking. And eventually, it caught on throughout the country.”
“It’s called “received pronunciation,” and it even influenced the speech patterns of many other English dialects — the Cockney accent, for example, is just as non-rhotic but a lot less hoity-toity.”
This quirk developed by the English upper classes eventually found its way to the United States in the form of the Transatlantic Accent, which has been forever immortalized in recordings and films from the first half of the 20th Century.
However this time, the purpose was not to distinguish from the lower classes. The change had to do with changing technology, namely the rise of the “talkie” when silent films were phased out and motion pictures got voice tracks.
The Transatlantic or Mid-Atlantic Accent is the familiar, quasi-British sounding twang used by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and many influential actors, such as Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, and Vincent Price, through the end of World War II.
Its popularity grew out of the clarity it provided on early audio recordings, on microphones and on the radio where rhotic speech could be difficult to understand.
For this speech evolution, the “R” is dropped and the “T” is highly articulated. All vowels are softened.
It was also a way to appeal to diverse English-speaking populations. It blended both the American and English accents of the time.
The accent fell out of favor after World War II however.
The Transatlantic or Mid-Atlantic Accent was a beautiful way of speaking and we should bring it back. Let’s make Transatlantic Accents Great Again!
You’re welcome.
7 Sci-Fi Novels for When You Want to Laugh
From not-so-super heroes to socially-anxious killer robots, here are seven humorous stories of people who are in over their heads.
Source: 7 Sci-Fi Novels for When You Want to Laugh
When characters discover new worlds, take on galactic invaders, time travel or gain extraordinary powers, it can lead to heroic, epic adventures—or everything going hilariously wrong. Or, even better, some combination of both. So from not-so-super heroes to socially-anxious killer robots, here are seven humorous stories of people who are in over their heads.
Gate Crashers by Patrick S. Tomlinson
When the crew of the exploration vessel Magellan discovers an alien artifact during humanity’s furthest trip into space, they decide to bring it back to Earth so they can study the technology. Unfortunately, the aliens happened to be rather fond of this artifact. As the people of Earth put themselves on a collision course with the rest of the potentially hostile galaxy, they find the only thing as infinite as the universe is humanity’s ability to mess up.
Super Extra Grande by Yoss
Bizarre, hilarious, and a scathing critique of Western politics, Cuban author Yoss’s satire follows Dr. Jan Amos Sangan Dongo, a veterinarian who specializes in treating large alien animals. When Earth faces colonial conflicts with the other intelligent species, Dr. Sangan is forced to embark on a mission to rescue two ambassadors from the belly of an enormous creature. It’s intergalactic road trip meets raunchy satire and you need it in your life.
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
In this first book in the Murderbot Diaries, a self-aware security android hacks its settings and dubs itself “Murderbot”… because it sort of killed several people. Now free of restraints and bugs that might send them on another killing spree, the introverted droid has discovered soap operas and just wants to be left alone. But when something goes wrong on a mission to protect scientists on an alien planet, Murderbot gets strangely attached to their pesky humans and decides to risk discovery to protect them all—even if humans are much more complicated than they look on TV.
Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
The good news is humans have made it to interplanetary space and discovered inhabitable planets. The bad news is that aliens want these planets too, and humans, led by the Colonial Defense Force, will have to fight for them. But the Defense Force doesn’t take young recruits—it enlists the elderly and transfers their experienced minds into younger bodies. John Perry joins the military on his 75th birthday. And while there’s plenty of drama and battle, there’s also a lot of old dudes making fart jokes and getting excited about their new abs. Old Man’s War is another one of the books on this list that show an outer space is full of sarcasm and witty rejoinders.
All Those Explosions Were Someone Else’s Fault by James Alan Gardner
When dark creatures start to offer immortality in exchange for money (and maybe your soul) and magic and science combine to create beings with extraordinary powers, a battle ensues between the Dark and the Light. Caught in the middle of it all are Kim Lam, our snarky, gender-fluid hero, and their three roommates, turned into the super-powered Sparks by a freak accident. Equipped with capes and costumes, the friends use their new-found abilities to seek truth and justice…for the most part. The explosions were definitely someone else’s fault.
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
This Hugo and Locus-award winning comedic novel begins in the year 2057, where they use time machines to study history. Ned Henry, suffering from time-lag due to jumping back and forth to often from the 1940s, is in desperate need of a rest. But when a historian takes something from Victorian times that could upset the results of World War II and destabilize the timeline, Ned is the only available man to go back and set things right. Hijinks, mischievous butlers, boating accidents and social snafus ensue as the historians of Oxford pop back and forth in time and search for a gaudy artifact of dubious proportions.
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
A classic when it comes to humorous science fiction, this story follows Arthur Dent and his best friend and actual alien Ford Prefect. They, and of course all the dolphins and mice, survive when Vogons destroy Earth to make way for an intergalactic highway. Joined by a two-headed alien, a human woman, a depressed robot, and a graduate student obsessed with the disappearance of his pens, they begin a journey full of wit and lunacy to discover the answer to some of life’s most important questions.
Filed under 2018, science fiction
Photo finish Friday (and haiku): “Mobile home”
Homemade mobile home /
Old truck and dreams unbound /
Rust winks at all hopes.
Filed under 2018, Photo Finish Friday, poetry by author
Haiku to you Thursday (and photo): “Man’s shells”
God expects man’s fruit. /
Man delivers shells instead. /
Hollow is the love.
Filed under 2018, Haiku to You Thursday
Haiku to you Thursday (and photo): “Clouds”
All my friends are clouds /
Scuttling across the sky /
Whispering thunder.
Filed under 2018, Haiku to You Thursday, Photo by Beth Booker, poetry by author
Monday morning writing joke: “F-bomb”
There once was a purveyor of F-bombs /
Who dropped them like words of a psalm. /
One day on a streak /
He went well passed his peak /
Now his voice squeaks with lavender charm.
Photo finish Friday (and poem): “The Con Job”
THE CON JOB
the ground war began today
at dawn
in a desert land
far from here.
the U.S. ground troops were
largely
made up of
Blacks, Mexicans and poor
whites
most of whom had joined
the military
because it was the only job
they could find.
the ground war began today
at dawn
in a desert land
far from here
and the Blacks, Mexicans
and poor whites
were sent there
to fight and win
as on tv
and on the radio
the fat white rich newscasters
first told us all about
it
and then the fat rich white
analysts
told us
why
again
and again
and again
on almost every
tv and radio station
almost every minute
day and night
because
the Blacks, Mexicans
and poor whites
were sent there
to fight and win
at dawn
in a desert land
far enough away from
here.
—Charles Bukowski
Filed under 2018, photo by David E. Booker, Photo Finish Friday
Haiku to you Thursday (and photo): “Falling”
Those who saw you fall /
might never have known you /
then they saw your tears.
Filed under 2018, Haiku to You Thursday, poetry by author
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