A new target for distracting you from whatever it is you don't really feel like doing right now. New limerick base: DURHAM.

That's in North Carolina in the US (and other places as well, I'm sure).

DURHAM. Pronounced with a silent H and a schwa: DUR'-әm. Send candidates to me by Private Message, and I'll collate them.

And a Happy Thanksgiving to all!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: haberdasher,

quote:

Originally posted by haberdasher:

And a Happy Thanksgiving to all!

What if you're a descendant of an aboriginal inhabitant of this continent?

Sent one in, Hab.

The Poms pronounce this as DUH-ram, do you guys pronounce it that way too, or is yours DURE-am?

I can't speak for everyone, but I have heard it pronounced here as Dur (fir, sir, her, purr)-um (hum, sum)

Thanks Sattva. That potential pronunciation didn't even cross my mind, but perfectly reasonable. So which one do you want us to use Hab?

Ah. Interesting question. The closest I can come up with as a guide to pronunciation would be "Purim," with the u as in "shoe" and the seocnd syllable somewhere loosely on the -im or -um or schwa (like the i and the u of circus). With plenty of dialectical flexibility. Not that I would hold myself up as arbiter of correctness here, unless an Executive Decision is needed. "I know a rhyme when I hear one" is about the best I can do...

Does that help any? Didn't think so.

quote:

Originally posted by Greg S:
The Poms pronounce this as DUH-ram, do you guys pronounce it that way too, or is yours DURE-am?

This is the surname of my mother's clan. I spent every Aug surrounded by my DUH-rum cousins. Great grandpa was raised in Shelby NC, raised his family in Ithaca NY. Not sure whether his was a Southern pronunciation, or if he got it from forebears. He was about 4th-gen American on paternal side (from NE England, like the city). They all turned their noses up at the upstate-NY pronunciation ["durr" like "purr" + 'em]

Anybody else here old enough to remember the ads on barns for this stuff? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...rham_Smoking_Tobacco Probably not toxic enough, being straight tobacco sans addictive and deadly additives, thus its demise.

Well, the tobacco may be defunct (verification needed) but the name lives on as a Triple-A baseball team out of Guess What City in North Carolina. In fact, rumor has it that they won the Championship for the last two years in a row.

Will get you one this weekend, Hab. I pronounce it like Hab does, though I am surprised because those Northeasterners pronounce everything differently.

I submitted one. Should I try for more nobody would be able to endure 'em.

Don't think I will play this one, since the way I think it should be pronounced doesn't rhyme with anything, and I can't bring myself to rhyme it with deter 'em, or endure 'em.

We'll miss your contribution. Even in New England we're inconsistant with our pronunciation - CHATHAM is CHAT-em, and Wareham is WEAR-em, but Framingham is FRAMING-ham and ASH-burn-ham is Ashburn-ham. All the -hams are unstressed, though.

Do you s'pose the -ham suffix is related to "hamlet," the way -ton comes from "town"?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: haberdasher,

What I do, Greg, is pronounce cities (or states) how the people who live there pronounce them. Louisville is a great example - I'd pronounce it like the name "Louis," but indeed, it's "Looey-ville." Similarly, I used to pronounce our state Oregon as many midwesterners do - or-e-GON. Instead, I've changed to how Oregoners pronounce it "OR-e-gon." Those living in Durham pronounce it as Hab has indicated. We'll miss your contribution!

I am writing mine now, Hab.

Hi Kalleh,

Well it still isn't clear to me, which way that is, but I do know how the people in the UK pronounce their Durham, and I can't find a single rhyme for it.

We have similar dialectic issues even here in Australia. We have an Eastern State city called Albury, which we pronounce AWL-bury, so naturally we pronounce the Western State city of Albany as AWL-bany, but the locals there call it AL-bany.

And the only US city I have visited is New Orleans, which Eric Burden and the Animals rhymed with jeans, so naturally I thought that's what it was until I got there, and all the locals call it new-AWL-ins.

And yes Hab, I reckon ...ham must come from Hamlet and we have the same issues here where we have SandringHam and Wyndham (wind-'em).

On this subject I once wrote this piece of verse entitled PRONUNCIATION.

The words in parentheses are not meant to be pronounced, I tried spacing them out to the right but this website contracts them to a single space. And every 3rd and 6th line was indented by 2 characters, but the Website wiped those spaces out altogether.

PRONUNCIATION

Ee-ther eye-ther (either)
Nee-ther neye-ther (neither)
It doesn’t matter for some.
Cassel carsel (castle)
Dan-sing darn-sing (dancing)
It depends from where you come.

Thee or thuh (the)
And ay or uh (a)
Which one do you articulate?
Et or ayt (ate)
And tray or trayt (trait)
We shouldn’t have to speculate.

With off in cough
It’s tough enough
But with no thought for you,
It’s oh in though
And ow in bough
And still we aren’t yet through.

An invuh-lid (invalid)
Is in-val-id
If you mean it’s incorrect,
And cloass is cloaze (close)
And houss is houze (house)
When a verb you do expect.

Now Y can be
Like I or E
To solve it is a riddle
But who can say
What it might be
When it comes in the middle.

If pear is pare
And they’re is their
Different yet the same,
Why’s dear not dare
And here not there?
It’s such a silly game.

If you go where
The accent there
Has a different tone,
Pronunciation
In that nation
May be nothing like your own.

It’s no wonder
That they blunder
When migrants face this anguish.
They’re so confused
That they refuse
To use our stupid language!

Nice, Greg!

BTW, have you Aussies begun to use "Λ" in place of "A?" It seems that in the USA we've given up on the "A."

Still looking for limrix on Durham.
At present I only have four 'em
I know in my heart
That we're all pretty smart
So I'm urging you: send a few more 'em!

You could include that one, hab, and make it five.

I'm trying my utmost to write one. Please don't count me out for a few more days.

Edit: Now you can count me out.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Geoff,

Did you get my second one?

Now I did!

Need also one from Shu, and to write one myself, and we'll be set to post.

After all these years only just now did it suddenly hit me ...

Shufitz = shoe fits

Well heck. I'll try again to get Shu to write one.

Okay, to quote from A A Milne, Now We Are Six. I think I'll post them during the weekend, rather than drag it out.

I'll talk up Durham in the meantime.

Candidates have been posted here
:-)