h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

You ever wonder if historians and linguists 300 years from now are gonna' be looking at copies of these forums and trying to figure out how we pronounce things and where all these "R"s and "F"s go?

Probably not, since we have sound recording technology now. But it crosses my mind from time to time.

... Excellent

I know you can hear "leff-tenant" a number of times in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. It's possible that "lew-tenant" is in there as well, but I never noticed it.

Is a left tenant someone who has moved away without paying the rent? Perhaps a loo tenant is someone who rents their WC?

My father always pronounced it loo-tenant. He was in the (Royal) Navy in the war and he said that's how they pronounced it in the Navy. He also pronounced schedule the American way. I always get confused about how to pronounce those 2 words.

One good example I found is in the film 'Assault on a Queen' http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060135/ after much practice one of the thieves uses 'Lew-tent' as his title instead of 'Left-tenant' , every one of the gang is sure he has given away the scheme! The cruise ship captain merely 'you must have served with the Canadians'.



F S

"Can we blame them for "Colonel" not having an "R" as well?"

Turns out we can! As with 'solder' the Latin root word has an 'L' where you'd expect it, but the French word we derive the modern English term from removes it, and then it got put back in because why not.

PH: feeling like I have Boulder of Agony in my eye, but on removing my contact lense being able to find even the slightest speck.

Ah, with my professional hat on, that's probably because the irritant was floating in your tears rather than stuck to the lens.

Why do they fade out the records on Desert Island Discs? Drives me daft. Mind you there's an upside, the lady on today's programme picked Bat Out of Hell by Meatloaf, and that can never finish fast enough, if I had that on a Desert Island I'd make it into an ashtray, or use it as a Frisbee or something. But then again, where would I get the fags from, and I don't even smoke! And who would I throw the Frisbee to? Complicated isn't it?

It would be worth not having someone to throw it back, just to lose HooH. Or even to take up smoking to legitimately turn it into an ashtray.

PP.

...further to this conversation, I have ordered a new soldering kit. Thanks, ITIWBS.

You know, as much as I complain when people accidentally misspell a word, you could just... y'know... spell it without the "L". Eventually it might, say... catch on...

If you had a soldering iron on a desert island, you would need electricity, or a means if starting a fire it was an old fashioned one, leadpot, thinning metal, flux, it wouldn't be allowed.

And there isn't an L in it.

Actually, it's more than whether or not the L is silent. How is the O pronounced? I've always heard it pronounced such that the O (and silent or nearly silent L) sounds like the O in 'body'. Do others pronounce it such that the OL rhymes with those in 'bold' or do they sound like 'Saul'?

For me the OL is as in 'bold', although I have heard people pronounce it as in 'boll'.

I've only ever heard it pronounced as in 'older' or 'bold' Do some countries just go out of their way to pronounce stuff as differently from elsewhere as at all possible?

Actually this is an odd one; normally the Americans tend to pronounce things more closely to the way they are spelt, and it's the Brits who pronounce it less intuitively eg, in American movies I hear 'lifebuoy' pronounced pretty much as if you are pronouncing each of the letters. In the UK we pronounce it 'lifeboy'. I wonder why with solder, it's the British who pronounce it exactly as it is written

Amendment on soldering tips, something I tend to unconsciously without thinking of it.

Taking it from step 4, holding the tip of the soldering iron with the bead of solder on its tip steady near the center of the area to be joined, bring the solder into contact with the wire to be joined on the side of the tip of the soldering iron.

Stroke slowly away from the tip of the soldering iron along the wire with the solder.

Repeat on the other side of the tip of the soldering iron.