Here are the entries for this contest. Welcome back, BobHale! Everyone is encouraged to vote, whether you entered a lim or not.

Question:
1. As they sailed into dock in Sri Lanka
”Port? Left?” asked the mate of the tanker
The captian said “Right!”
And in hindsight he might
Have been a bit clearer, the wanker.

2. There was an old singer, Paul Anka,
Who only drank decaf and Sanka.
He slept through the night,
and woke up quite bright,
Thanks to some beans from Sri Lanka.

3. When I first went to visit Sri Lanka
For good beer I thought I would hanker.
But in Nuwara Eliya
I tried some Lion beer —
And my stay therefore passed without rancour.

4. It used to be known as Ceylon
But that name is now sadly anon.
It’s now called Sri Lanka
And its folks do not hanker
For Imperial rule that’s now gone.

5. There is a poor gal from Sri Lanka
Whose monkey is also her banker
Deposits cost a rupee
The interest is poopy
& if she withdraws it will spank ‘er.

6. When Romney sailed into Sri Lanka
The state said “don’t bother to anchor—
”Tho we haven’t met,
”We do get the net—
”Per YouTube you seem quite the wanker.”

7. Bianca, at school in Sri Lanka,
Both friendless and built like a tanker,
Soon had friends by the score
When in House Tug-of-War,
Her House let Bianca be anchor!

8. For free sex overnight in Sri Lanka
A sailor with manners did thank ‘er.
But as he sailed away
He too soon rued that day:
He’s rash-covered with pus-oozing chancre.

Choices:
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight

 

Aren't they supposed to rhyme?

Two votes?

quote:

Originally posted by Proofreader:
Two votes?

They all rhyme for me - although few seem to have made their topics revelant to the island.

quote:

Originally posted by Proofreader:
Two votes?

Three now. Still none for mine though. I have thought of a better last line for it but it's too late now.

quote:

quote:
Originally posted by Proofreader:
Two votes?


Three now. Still none for mine though. I have thought of a better last line for it but it's too late now.

No, I meant that only two people voted while there wee eight limericks entered.

quote:

Originally posted by Proofreader:

quote:

quote:
Originally posted by Proofreader:
Two votes?


Three now. Still none for mine though. I have thought of a better last line for it but it's too late now.

No, I meant that only two people voted while there wee eight limericks entered.

Could it be, perchance, that writers have submitted more than one limerick (which is allowed) but have only voted once (which is the rule)?

Perhaps there are others like me, who don't look at Wordcraft every day, and don't find out until some days later that the Poll is actually open. I have discovered this today and duly voted.

You would get my Vote on Day 1, if you put a message in the original thread to say that the Poll had been posted, because I have automatic email notification in that thread. There have certainly been occasions when I only discovered the Poll was open after the result was declared including once when my limerick won.

quote:

You would get my Vote on Day 1, if you put a message in the original thread to say that the Poll had been posted, because I have automatic email notification in that thread

Good idea, Greg. Never thought of that aspect.

Shoot. I didn't get mine in on time. I agree with Geoff, though. None of them rhyme for me, so I think I'll bow out of this vote, as well.

They all rhyme, taking Brit accent into account.

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:
Shoot. I didn't get mine in on time. I agree with Geoff, though. None of them rhyme for me, so I think I'll bow out of this vote, as well.

I have to confess I can't imagine any other way of pronouncing the words so as to stop their rhyming:

Anchor, banker, hanker, tanker, Lanka - all perfect rhymes for me.

quote:

Originally posted by Richard English:

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:
Shoot. I didn't get mine in on time. I agree with Geoff, though. None of them rhyme for me, so I think I'll bow out of this vote, as well.

I have to confess I can't imagine any other way of pronouncing the words so as to stop their rhyming:

Nor can I.
Can an American member post the phonetics for the American pronunciations so that we poor Brits can work out what the problem is?

Same with us Aussies. "Er" has always rhymed with "a" (as in "uh") for us, even amongst those who have a bit of a plum in their throat.

Sorry about my picture disappearing - it's coming from a Website that's going through an upgrade. I will get another one their sometime soon.

Some USuns agree with the UK/Oz pronunciation, but not most. F'rinstance, JFK said, "Cuber" for "Cuba."

It's the difference between rhotic and non-rhotic accents.

Arrrrrr, Matey, yer right!

quote:

Can an American member post the phonetics for the American pronunciations so that we poor Brits can work out what the problem is?

Bob, I still haven't learned that phonetic way of writing. Therefore, mine is quite elementary, so I hope that's okay. I'll give you all the er's vs. a's at the end of the sentences, though I did think that the British and eastern Americans switched them anyway. That is "idea" becomes "idear," while "banker" becomes "bankah." So I am not sure how all of those rhymes really work for you; for those of us not on the east coast or in England, they don't work at all.

1)Lahn-ka
taenk-er (long "a" versus short "a")

2) Ank-a (long a)
Lahn-ka (short a)

3)Lahn-ka
rain-cur (Link)

4) Sri Lanka rhyme is in the wrong place.

5) Lahn-ka (short a)
Baen-ker (long a)

6) Lahn-ka (short a)
aen-ker (long a)

7) Lahn-ka (short a)
taen-ker (long a)

8) Lahn-ka (short a)
thaen-ker (long a)

What I don't get is this:

In Australia by my reckoning our TV content is about 14% Aussie, 20% British, 65% American & 1% anywhere else, and to my ears, although I do hear plenty of accent differences, they all pronounce this the way I do. So are US actors required to modify their accents somewhat to accommodate their international audience?

quote:

Originally posted by Geoff:
Some USuns agree with the UK/Oz pronunciation, but not most. F'rinstance, JFK said, "Cuber" for "Cuba."

These words, like anchor, banker, rancour end in an unstressed vowel. In UK English such endinga are almost invariably a schwa - and unstressed vowel which most nearly equates to "uh". It matters not what the vowel or vowel combination is, the sound of an unstressed ending is always the same.

All the words used here carry their stress on their first syllables and so their endings rhyme perfectly:

Sri LANK-uh
BANK-uh
ANCH-uh
RANC-uh

And of course, CUB-uh

This site is very good at demonstrating British English pronunciations - http://www.howjsay.com/ Simply enter the word in the box and click "submit" (I don't know why they don't say "search" - but there you go).

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Richard English,

Yes, Richard, but don't forget rhoticism! Many accents will add an extraneous letter 'r' at the end, so 'Lanka', for instance, rhymes with 'tanker'.

wanker, anchor, spank 'er, thank 'er, chancre, tanker, banker, crank 'er, flanker, spinnaker.

quote:

In Australia by my reckoning our TV content is about 14% Aussie, 20% British, 65% American & 1% anywhere else, and to my ears, although I do hear plenty of accent differences, they all pronounce this the way I do. So are US actors required to modify their accents somewhat to accommodate their international audience?

I think judging limericks here is different, Greg. I know there have been times when non-Americans have not chosen mine because my stresses were wrong in their accent or my rhymes were wrong. It has been mentioned several times here to me, and I don't blame them. The same goes for me.

Most of the limericks didn't work for me because I pronounce Sri Lanka with an "ah" and not a long "a;" it therefore does not rhyme with "bank" or "anchor" or "chancre" or "thank'er" or "spank'er" or "hanker" or "Sanka" or "Anka" or "tanker." The rest of you must not. My daughter had a boyfriend from Sri Lanka and everyone I know pronounced it like "Lahnka". If you click that link above and listen to the pronunciation, it agrees with my pronunciation. Maybe others are rhyming it with "bank" though?

So you see, it was much more the "Lanka" rhyme than the "er" or "a" at the end.

If you check the pronunciation site I gave you'll hear that the first "a" in "Lanka" is short and the last one is a schwa.

This site uses the same kind of English as I do.

quote:

My daughter had a boyfriend from Sri Lanka and everyone I know pronounced it like "Lahnka".

Okay - I get it now! And now that I think about the way Sri Lankans talk that probably is the way they say it, and then of course none of the rhymes in the limericks could possibly work for you - not even Bianca - although since she's a Sri Lankan she is probably Biahnka for you and that would work - but of course it wasn't even used in the rhyming position.

quote:

Originally posted by Richard English:


This site uses the same kind of English as I do.

Oh. Then I guess I must learn to speak English properly.

By the way, Kalleh, I was just wondering: For me, France, chance and dance all rhyme with ants, but it struck me that maybe for you they rhyme with Aunts?

OK. Here are the results.

It's an easy win for Greg S.

1. BobHale
2. Geoff
3/4. Richard English
5/6. Bethree5
7. Greg S
8. Proof

I will post a new game in a day or two. Thanks for your votes.

For me, Greg, "ants, chance, dance" all rhyme, and I say "aunts" like "ants." However, I do recognize that many English speakers in the U.S. and outside the U.S. say "ahnt" for aunt.

quote:

If you check the pronunciation site I gave you'll hear that the first "a" in "Lanka" is short and the last one is a schwa.

That is my way, too, and how my site pronounced it. A long "a" would be in "anchor" and "chancre" and "bank" and all the rest...quite different from a short "a." Then none of the limericks could have possibly worked for you, either. You were being generous, which I suppose is how I should have been.

The new game has been Posted

Sometimes I like our discussions here more than the limericks. But I'll write one, Greg. Thanks!

quote:

Originally posted by Geoff:

quote:

Originally posted by Richard English:


This site uses the same kind of English as I do.

Oh. Then I guess I must learn to speak English properly.

At one time my kind of English would have been referred to as "BBC English" since the announcers of that time all spoke the English of South-east England. Indeed, the BBC had (and maybe still has) a pronuniciation unit to make sure the Lord Reith's standards were adhered to.

However, things changed during WW2 and regional accents started to be adopted - I had heard it was a deliberate ploy to ensure that fake German broadcasters were less able to be convincing since they were unable to understand the difference between, say, a Birmingham accent and a London accent.

After the War regional accents on the BBC became so common as to begin to overwhelm the older "proper" accent.

Of course, no accent is proper or improper - accents are accents and we all have one. What could maybe be said is that accents are appropriate or inappropriate in a given situation.

For Sri Lanka, however, both sides of the pond pronounce it the same. That is clear from my dictionary link and Richard's comment about it being a short "a." So, Geoff, no worries about not speaking "proper" English. It's the same.

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:

quote:

If you check the pronunciation site I gave you'll hear that the first "a" in "Lanka" is short and the last one is a schwa.

That is my way, too, and how my site pronounced it. A long "a" would be in "anchor" and "chancre" and "bank" and all the rest...quite different from a short "a."

Kalleh, I'd been puzzling over what you meant here, but I think I've solved it! If you have the usual Chicago accent, it's got this thing called "Northern Cities Vowel Shift". Your short 'a' (as in 'cat') sounds closer to my long 'a' (as in 'anchor'). Your 'short a' in Sri Lanka probably sounds more like my 'long a', which is why for me it can rhyme with 'anchor'.

Bethree, short and long "a's" are not different depending on where you live, are they? However, I will grant you that the easterners tend to pronounce words more like the British than the rest of Americans.

I just looked up "ankle" and "Sri Lanka" in the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, which has British and American pronunciations. Interestingly, For the American pronunciation of "Sri Lanka," they do rhyme it with "ankle." For the British, "ankle" and "Sri Lanka" do not rhyme. They pronounce both my way, which is a long "a" for ankle and a short "a" for Sri Lanka. Anyone I've ever heard say Sri Lanka has always said it with a short "a."

A pox on it all, I'm calling it Ceylon!

quote:

Originally posted by Geoff:
A pox on it all, I'm calling it Ceylon!

Well, one of my limericks covered this very point...

OK, I rescind the above; I'll call it Catalina.