BS: Pronunciation over there

Subject: Pronunciation over there
From: LR Mole
Date: 20 Nov 01 - 10:37 AM

For all I know this has already been answered and I just can't find it, but when you folks over in the Isles write "s---te", does it rhyme with "fit" or "fight"?

Subject: RE: BS: Pronunciation over there
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Nov 01 - 10:39 AM

Shit rhymes with fit

Shite rhymes with fight

Both words are used, but shit is by far the more common

Hope that helps

Subject: RE: BS: Pronunciation over there
From: GUEST,Skipjack
Date: 20 Nov 01 - 11:05 AM

Shoite is allegedly the Joycean pronunciation.

Subject: RE: BS: Pronunciation over there
From: Mrrzy
Date: 20 Nov 01 - 11:37 AM

And the Shiites aren't even in this conversation.

Subject: RE: BS: Pronunciation over there
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler
Date: 20 Nov 01 - 11:42 AM

Actually, I could never tell the difference between Sunni and Shia in Afghans, but I'm told Sunni was the one with the Prince Valiant haircut and Shia the one with long straight hair, at least when they did "I got you,babe".
RtS (gobshite)

Subject: RE: BS: Pronunciation over there
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 20 Nov 01 - 01:59 PM

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe "shite" is the Irish spelling and pronunciation of "shit." You might hear some English people say "shite" too, but it's because they picked it up from the Irish.

Subject: RE: BS: Pronunciation over there
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 20 Nov 01 - 03:03 PM

Shit and Shite are both widely -and historically- used in the UK (from O.E. scitan), though as GUEST remarked, the former has the edge in currency.  Shite is probably the more common form in Ireland, but that pronounciation didn't originate there.

Subject: RE: BS: Pronunciation over there
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 20 Nov 01 - 03:07 PM

People who use both forms probably tend to use the short vowel for the activity and the stuff itself, and the long vowel version for the fellas they want to describe. But usage is very fluid.

Long vowels have more power to them. Short vowels are too abrupt.

Subject: RE: BS: Pronunciation over there
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Nov 01 - 03:40 PM

Long vowels have more power to them. Short vowels are too abrupt.

Hmmm, I spy with my little eye...something beginning with Huge Generalisation! :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Pronunciation over there
From: weepiper
Date: 20 Nov 01 - 04:04 PM

Abruptness is a prerequisite for swearwords used in an ejaculatory sense - think of a swearword and more than likely it will start with a “b”, a “p”, or a “d” and have a short vowel. It's your anger exploding out of your mouth. If it doesn't have a plosive it'll start with a sibilant or fricative sound like “s”, “sh” or “f” which expresses disgust.

I changed your angle brackets to quotation marks. --JoeClone, 20-Nov-01.

Subject: RE: BS: Pronunciation over there
From: weepiper
Date: 20 Nov 01 - 04:06 PM

Damned html forgot I can't use pointy brackets. supply your own swearwords here

Subject: RE: BS: Pronunciation over there
From: GUEST,McGrath of Harlow
Date: 20 Nov 01 - 04:07 PM

Abruptness is maybe appropriate for ejavculatory swearing. But for invective you need to be able to draw it out.

Subject: RE: BS: Pronunciation over there
From: weepiper
Date: 20 Nov 01 - 04:23 PM

Hmmm yes I see what you mean now McGrath, I thought you were generalising.
BTW my post above should have read
...think of a swearword and more than likely it will start with a p, b, or d and have a short vowel... if not... a sibilant or fricative sound like s, sh or f.
that's better.
Regarding shit vs shite, I would only use the long vowel version in one phrase that I can think of, ie that used when expressing disbelief at someone else's opinion...'what a load of...' everything else gets the short vowel version including people. Maybe this is just my little idiolect though :-l

Subject: RE: BS: Pronunciation over there
From: Mr Red
Date: 20 Nov 01 - 05:55 PM

Karl Schite - classical guitarist. He was shit hot as they say.
Oh pronounced shite as in fight.

Subject: RE: BS: Pronunciation over there
From: GUEST,Chicken Charlie
Date: 20 Nov 01 - 05:59 PM

If you blokes go round picking up things from the Irish, you better be careful. Power to the People!? Power to the Long Vowels. (21st century placard, I guess.)

CC

Subject: RE: BS: Pronunciation over there
From: CraigS
Date: 20 Nov 01 - 06:17 PM

There's a song that Hamish Imlach recorded called 37 bus, which actually rhymes fight with shite. I can't find the record right now, though, or I'd say more!

Subject: RE: BS: Pronunciation over there
From: GUEST,Boab
Date: 21 Nov 01 - 02:31 AM

Is this the ultimate "B.S."? ---a load of complete---manure, I'd say---

Subject: RE: BS: Pronunciation over there
From: GUEST,Síle
Date: 21 Nov 01 - 02:44 AM

If it's vowels that rule the day, I'd say a good ol' southern "Sheeeeeee-yit!" must score somewhere near the top of the list...

Subject: RE: BS: Pronunciation over there
From: GMT
Date: 21 Nov 01 - 03:29 AM

If I remember my english language correctly a vowel followed by a consonant followed by an 'e', generally, makes the first vowel say its own name (if the vowel dosen't start the word).

As - fad / fade, con / cone, fill / file., fin / fine etc.

Cheers Gary

Subject: RE: BS: Pronunciation over there
From: Scabby Douglas
Date: 21 Nov 01 - 04:28 AM

INterestingly, Celtic ( a Scottish "soccer" club) signed a Brazilian called Rafael Scheidt. Almost instantly, he suddenly lost his surname and became one of the select few who are known only by a single name: Pele, Socrates etc...

Rangers fans were insistent that he be given his full name, however...

Cheers

Steven

Subject: RE: BS: Pronunciation over there
From: GUEST,Stavanger Bill
Date: 21 Nov 01 - 04:37 AM

I'm with CraigS above, had he not brought up the example given I would have done. Having been born and brought up in Scotland, from memory the more commonly used was "Shite" as rhymes with fight.

Subject: RE: BS: Pronunciation over there
From: paddymac
Date: 21 Nov 01 - 06:22 AM

LOL We must be having something akin to a "slow news day." It's odd, though, but even as a colonial I've come to favor "gob shite" (or is it one word?) over "shit head," the later having more of a visceral sense about it.

Subject: RE: BS: Pronunciation over there
From: LR Mole
Date: 21 Nov 01 - 10:19 AM

Sacred feces, what a thread. Fascinatin'.

Subject: RE: BS: Pronunciation over there
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 21 Nov 01 - 01:59 PM

To change the subject (slightly): When I was growing up in St. Louis, Missouri, we kids pronounced "fart" exactly like "fort." I have no idea why.

In those days, adults didn't use such language in front of kids, so I don't know how the adults pronounced it (except for my dad, but he was from Kentucky, and pronounced a lot of words in an odd way, so I paid no attention to him). I probably had moved away before I learned that "fart" was spelled with an "a" and that most of the world pronounced it exactly the way it looks. Anyone else encountered this?

Subject: RE: BS: Pronunciation over there
From: Mr Red
Date: 21 Nov 01 - 03:31 PM

James 1 (of Emgland) and (er ?) IV of Scotland
Wasn't he the dude that was known in Ireland as "Seamus Akaka", because of his religious and political tendencies being at odds and not Erin-friendly. Literal translation is "James the Shithead".

Subject: RE: BS: Pronunciation over there
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 22 Nov 01 - 02:01 PM

James VI