On 29 November 2001 at 6:20 pm Markus wrote: > Hi,
> On Thursday, November 29, 2001, 6:41:49 PM, Peter Palmreuther wrote: >> Den verstehe ich nicht ... bin ich jetzt blöd oder ist der so >> anspruchsvoll??? > [Expressing that he doesn't get Dierk's joke.] > It's about the pronunciation of the word 'polish'. The verb (German > 'polieren') and noun (German 'Politur') are pronounced in English > differently (with a short 'o') than the adjective for something related to > Poland (where 'Polish' is pronounced with a long 'o'). NB: when written > down it is easier because the latter version is always capitalized. In > Dierk's joke it was all caps which didn't help. A friend who was born in Kraków and educated at the Sorbonne I call "the French polisher". This causes some amusement where I come from because the dialect there (central Scotland) pronounces "French Polisher" (semi-facetious reference to person of French and Polish background) and "French polisher"* (person who makes valuable furniture shine with enormous effort) in the same way with a long o; where I am now (south-east England) the pronunciations are different (long o and short o) and there is no joke :) [I'm sure that could've been explained better, and the joke could certainly have been better anyway :)] Alastair * http://www.am-wood.com/finishes/french.html -- _________________________________________________________ Archives : http://tbbeta.thebat.dutaint.com Moderators : mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Latest Beta: 1.54 beta/10 Wish List : http://wish.thebat.dutaint.com
