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From Carolyn: |
From Nickoli: In The low-down on high tea, you comment that "the American version of the scone rhymes with bone whereas the English kind (usually) rhymes with gone." Living in England, I can inform you that rhyming with bone (or cone) is actually quite common - probably about half of the population from my own estimates. Interestingly, pronunciation varies in relatively small areas rather than large regions, and most people, regardless of which they use, consider the other form to be "posh". |
From Barbara: I was born and brought up in the North Midlands of UK. We always had high tea around 6 pm. We didn't have meat for high tea (unless cold meat) but "things on toast" like baked beans or cheese on toast (called Welsh rarebit and pronounced "rabbit"), followed by slices of bread, butter and jam, then homemade fruit cake.. My grandmother called high tea "proper tea", as opposed to the fairly quick "cuppa" which constituted afternoon tea (taken around 3.30 - 4 pm). Your picture (with the three tiers of plates) showed a rather special tea as provided for guests. It could have been taken at our home! |
From Daniel: I was a bit surprised when reading your entry on the word daftar in TOWFI Issue 205, page 2, that the Arabic word was derived from Greek. I assumed that the Arabic word is related to the Hebrew word daf, which means “page”, and thus derived from a common Semitic root. Or does the Hebrew word daf also derive from Greek? |
From Andrew:
According to the
English Mrs Beeton's book of cookery and household management, a
pikelet is a "yeasted variation of a crumpet or pancake cooked
without rings..." The batter is usually the same for both leavened
pancakes and crumpets, but one is turned and the other cooked in rings
on one side and later toasted (try it with egg rings in a covered pan on
low heat). In Australia a pikelet is simply a small pancake
leavened with baking powder rather than yeast, often served cold with
whipped cream and jam (like scones). |
From John: Welcome back! I felt as though I had lost touch with friends when there was such a long “silence”. You two (and your team, if you wish to pass it on) never cease to amaze, and delight me. I’ve been described as “fussy with words” (and a lot of rather more unkind things!) for as long as I can remember, and it’s so refreshing to find people as concerned as I am about using words with care. Thank you for your kind words! As we have explained in our blog, we were having to work at our "day" jobs more to make ends meet, and had to sacrifice TOWFI time. However, we could stand to be TOWFI-less no longer, so we are giving it a shot to see if we can make ends meet and publish TOWFI. However, to do so we need the help of you, our readers. If you enjoy this issue, please make a donation today. Just click the PAYPAL button at the top of this column. Thank you! |
From Michael: Is it too late to weigh in [on the pecan pronunciation issue]? As a native Louisianian, my pronunciation has always been puh-KAHN (and CRAWfish and PRAWlines). But there is another rural Louisiana pronunciation that didn't come through clearly in some of the other Southerners' submissions: PUH-kawn, with emphasis on the first syllable, first syllable rhyming with luck, second rhyming with dawn. BTW I teach diction to singers and enjoy discussions like this immensely. Here in Tennessee where I now live I'll order PRAWlines and cream at the ice cream shop and invariably get a look. I just return a grin. (And they say, mostly, puh-KAHN in Tennessee.) So it appears our sweeping assessment of pecan pronunciation in the U.S. was on target. For the most part, except for a few pockets, Southerners stress the second syllable and Northerners stress the first syllable. |
Or read the last issue to see what all of these people are talking about! |
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