So apparently Beer and Bear are not pronounced the same way. Beer is pronounced Bee-ah. Also ear and air – similar story. However this whole thing does beg the question, how does one pronounce; hair, hear, hare and here??
Eliza Doolittle – Kiwi Style
9 Comments to “Eliza Doolittle – Kiwi Style”
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ah, now it makes more sense!
(i spent the weekend with some kiwis)
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yeah i confused someone with the advice that they should never shake a bear (i was saying beer though).
who’s to say the english are right about this though and don’t give me any of that crap about inventing the language, the english accent bears (beers) little resemblance to the middle english accent…i rest my case..
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the only thing that annoys me about my kiwi accent is that to the english my name sounds completely incomprehensible when I say it, so I have to give the full version of my name everytime I introduce myself, which sounds horribly formal. I’m not going to mention my name, but imagine saying, “I’m bartholomew” instead of “I’m bart”. It sounds so clunky.
otherwise it’s actually not that important if we don’t distinguish between beer and bare, because the context will take care of things. Take mandarin: there are like, a zillion words which all sound like “shi”, so when you want to say a particular word which sounds like “shi” you have to say, ” ‘shi’ as in ‘shitou’, ‘shihou’ “, etc. that’s quite normal.
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i’ve made this same point repeatedly ‘context clues people’, but i think people prefer to pick up on it for a laugh. hilarious eh?
loads of people dont get my name either – they are constantly switching the first two letters. ie krises instead of kirses – for example.
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you mean kirses is actually your name? ah. I always thought it was a pun on “curses”. Whoops.
I have the same problem with my surname, which sounds like another word, vaguely. I’m always surprised when anyone spells it right.
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do english people say “rim” and “room” differently?
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nah its not my name, but it is a play on my name and the word curses. a friend’s dad used to call me that when i was a kid
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Try Alice and Ellis. Which wouldn’t be a problem if it wasn’t in my husbands name. I actually have to preface using the word by saying ‘with an e, not the girls name!’
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yeah – i get stuck on that one too
