[Thad E Ginathom]

Goodness... I've been calling it "Worcester Sauce" all these years. Just checked the bottle, and you are right!

But, hey... on a pizza?

[Ravveendrra]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Goodness... I've been calling it "Worcester Sauce" all these years. Just checked the bottle, and you are right!

But, hey... on a pizza?

I could never spell that name for Tamarind chutney. Guess I was happy calling it Wooster sauce.

That bit about having acceptable levels of formality in a language just about sums things up so well.


Yes Anup it is peetsa and I really am terrible at typing those phoenetic thingys.

More grist for the mill - did peetsa become peeza because zed became zee? (The Americans however do call it peetsa.)

[esteemer]

All the ranting on the previous page reminds me of my current Environmental Education and Chemistry teacher. A common sentence of hers:

Note : I've made absolutely no changes. Have written it down exactly the way she says it.

All mollikills are made up of atomsh which hafv eloctrons in different sellsh.

Here,

mollikills : molecules
atomsh : atoms
hafv : have
eloctrons : electrons
sellsh : shells

Another common sentence :

Sho now we are going to define, your the, joint forest management.

The same 'your the' is present in every second sentence she says.

[anupmathur]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Goodness... I've been calling it "Worcester Sauce" all these years. Just checked the bottle, and you are right!

But, hey... on a pizza?

Hehe, it's like in Bertie Wooster.
I assumed if someone called it pizza they'd be more than likely to also ask for the steak sauce for it! No? Sorry!


...and are you saying they tell you the pronunciation on the bottle?! Lea & Perrins?

[Sam Kapasi]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Any Italian members? We need an Italian! This is just the sort of word that is going to end up being second-hand, third-hand, or more.

I have no idea how an Italian would ask for a pizza. Maybe they wouldn't: I think Italians have a very different idea of "Italian" food to that held abroad.

Not in this house! Probably wouldn't surprise you to know that I cook chips a couple of times a week, and I eat crisps out of a bag.

So. Me. Half Italian and I speak it too, but not as well as the rest of my uncles and aunts do.

The italians say peetsa when they want a pizza. And when they want two, they don't say two pizzzas, instead saying pizze - peetsay rather due peetze per favore.

Indians have a fair idea that there's a T pronounced in pizza - at least most city dwellers do. But yes, Shiv Sagar has pizza, pronounced with a buzzy Z. Worse pijhha is available off the street.

I saw a picture Gunbir posted of a hand cart that sold "Bambai ka famous Hot Dong" - but that is for another day.

Germans say pitsa, pronouncing the first half as we say pit. But what do the Germans know anyway.

Originally Posted by anupmathur

Because it never was!
It was never a pittza; it used to be a peetsa,

And will always be peetsa.

Originally Posted by Ravveendrra

More grist for the mill - did peetsa become peeza because zed became zee? (The Americans however do call it peetsa.)

Many european languages require "Z" to be pronounced as a "TS" it is not unusual.
Many also require the "S" to be pronounced as a "Z" and a "V" to be pronounced as an "F"

But this is an English thread, hai na?

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Not in this house! Probably wouldn't surprise you to know that I cook chips a couple of times a week, and I eat crisps out of a bag.

Doesn't surprise me.

Staple food in the UK is fish and chips, not fish and french fries. But in India, the old fashioned name is still finger chips.

But in India, it was always wafers, never crisps. Potato wafers. And then it became chips, with the advent of foil packed Lays and such, in packets one couldn't see into without tearing them open.
Worse, then came tennis ball tubes, full of amazing potato pulp crisps (That's how every Pringles chip has the same shape)

Now we eat mad triangles and hippos. And whatever else comes our way.

Whatever happened to my Simba potato wafers in little plastic transparent packets?

[Thad E Ginathom]

Worcestershire sauce on my hippo please. The big one in that pond over there...

Would you guys believe there are even class (although some regional too) connotations, in England, to (or should that be 'in'?) whether one eats "Eggs and Chips" or "Chips and Eggs"!

Fascinating stuff, Sam, both Italian and German (oh, and Indian of course!). Had forgotten your Italian roots.

I had the best pasta dish I have ever had in India, tonight, in a new Chennai restaurant. The pizza looked good, but I didn't taste it

[RajaTaurus]

May be this was discussed here earlier. Also and only - I strongly believe we are the best to use these two words extensively and exhaustively, than any other people in the world.
"I also wanted to eat Idlies, but you only ordered Dosa for me also!"
Comments?

[anupmathur]

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

...
But this is an English thread, hai na?
....

Indeed, this thread is delightfully English; it has all the dottiness expected of a thoroughbred Englishman!

[silversteed]

Originally Posted by RajaTaurus

May be this was discussed here earlier. Also and only - I strongly believe we are the best to use these two words extensively and exhaustively, than any other people in the world.
"I also wanted to eat Idlies, but you only ordered Dosa for me also!"
Comments?

We are like that only

[mallumowgli]

Two classmates of my sister conversing, a few years back :

Guy 1 : kashtam, no boy, madakking the jeans?
Guy 2 : no boy, its easy madakking the jeans

Translated to any of the earthly languages, you can understand the meaning as

Guy 1: Isn't it difficult to fold the jeans?
Guy 2 : No. It's easy to fold the jeans

In Tamil/Malayalam,
Kashtam - Difficult
Madakkam - To fold

Can you beat this?

[whizzkid_ram]

^^^
This is hilarious.

[DerAlte]

Originally Posted by esteemer

... Sho now we are going to define, your the, joint forest management.

The same 'your the' is present in every second sentence she says.

One half expects that sentence to be more like "Sho now ooee ard going to dee-phine, your the, joint phoraysht manayj-maint". The 'ard' is a difficult sound which is pronounceable only in that part of the land.

One doesn't have to look far for the origin of the "your the". Just think of the bharnakoolar eekooibhalaynt phrase used to cover the longish pause to recollect the subsequent phrase.

There is north Indian equivalent to the "your the", but that is usually an expletive.

[vnabhi]

Folks,

I've heard people from a certain region are very fond of using the words 'as because'. For example 'He came late to office as becuase there was heavy traffic'.

Now tell me which area I am referring to?

[whizzkid_ram]

^^
You refer the Great Tamilnadu. he he

[RajaTaurus]

Abhi, I hear very often 'why because' in the same way instead of just "because", which also belongs to a state and it is not Tamilnadu. Guess it please.

And 'as because' IMO, does not belong to TN. Could be KA or AP.