Dived evolved into dove

[lurker]

Not trying to step on toes here, but it does jar on me when I'm watching an American TV show or movie and they say "spit" as a past tense, i.e. "She spit on me." The past tense form of spit here is spat, and it sounds clunky to my ears the other way.

 

[stephen]

The past tense was originally 'spitted' but it evolved to become 'spat'

 

[TheFlyingDingo]

"she spitted on me"
Hah
"she spit on me"
"she spat on me"

I like spit and spat...but i use spit alot

 

[stephen]

I remembered that people who speak in the old Birmingham dialect use the past tense of 'aint' which is 'daint' (aint = isn't, daint = didn't)

 

[TheFlyingDingo]

Daint?
lol

 

[stephen]

Yes, i've never used it in my whole life but occassionally meet someone who does, or see someone on local t.v.

 

[user 135]

Wow quite the conversation. How about the word -creek. I dont consider myself "backwoods" but I say crick.

 

[Gold Street Customs]

Wow quite the conversation. How about the word -creek. I dont consider myself "backwoods" but I say crick.

OK sorry that is backwoods, but you may be redeemed if you dont say "libarry" instead of library or my moms favorite "warsh" instead of wash......LOL :mrgreen:

 

[JoeyMac]

along these lines, people make fun of us native upstate NYer's for saying Elementary with the "airee" at the end, instead of "Elementree". I guess we like to extend our A's. Like AAAAAAAApple.

 

[stephen]

For me creek would rhyme with beak.
I have never heard this word used to refer to an actual river in the UK but we have a saying about a situation that might turn bad, 'up excrement creek without a paddle' (except it's the Anglo-Saxon word for the Norman-French 'excrement')

 

[lurker]

Until recently I thought creek was an Australian word, because I had never heard it used in books/films/tv from the UK or US, but recently I realised it is used in the US. Here, basically everything which isn't a rushing torrent is called a creek.

 

[stephen]

Something I'd like to know, if someone is prepared to do the research and provide links: was the original pronounciation of the word 'tomato' the same in Britain as in America, I mean was it the British word that changed or were they both different from the start?
I think the original British pronounciation was 'tomaytoe' and that was brougt to America by the colonists but i've got no actual proof.

 

[tomb]

Tomato.
Ive got no research on this but I work with a gent from liverpool, and he pronounces it "toe-mah-toe", and everyone else around these parts says "toe-may-toe"
He also pronounces aluminum "al-you-min-e-um" says that we (americans) all say it wrong because it got spelled wrong on the patent in the USA... :roll:

 

[stephen]

What's Colorado, is it 'colo-radd-oh' or 'colo-rah-doh'?

 

[TheFlyingDingo]

i do col-o-rah-doh

 

[stephen]

Tomatoes from Colorado