Wednesday, April 27, 2005
American English as she is spoke
Mike Houser's fine CasdraBlog links to an intriguing test of the American English I speak. Altho' my English accent has, if anything, got even plummier since moving to the US, I never stop absorbing and adopting new vocabulary that takes my fancy or just plain gets the job done, so I was keen to see how well I've adapted. Before going into my score, two questions stumped me: The act of covering a house or area in front of a house with toilet paper is called ... I have never even heard of such a jape. Seriously? Someone swathing a house in bog bumpf? And there's an actual VERB for it? I see. Well, and is there also a verb for smearing my enemy's satchel with chunky peanut butter mixed with Hershey's genuine chocolate flavor syrup? Or the act of draping spaghetti around the spokes of my ex-wife's mountain bike? I'm also asked What do I call "an easy class", the possible answers being Now, the moment you've all being waiting for: My Linguistic Profile:
Say WHUUTT? (to borrow from my host country's vernacular). The act of what?
Well, I'm not sure what I call an 'easy class' - I'm not even sure what's *meant* by an easy class? A lesson in which one understood everything? In which the professor asked no nasty questions? I dunno - A breeze? A cinch? A doddle? A push-over?
I love the Dixie rating. I might even email my score to Karen-Jo in case it'll lure her back from her folks' spread in Ralegh. Or her brother who so rudely described us as sounding like Jeeves making out with Miss NASCAR. Hrrmmph.
