On the radio, I was surprised by how a BBC pronouncecd the word debris. She accented it on the first syllable DEB-ree or DEB-ree.

We here in the US would accent the second syllable: de-BREE. I've never heard it the way she pronounced it. It was so weird that I didn't even know what word she meant, and had to figure it out from context.

Is her version universal in the UK?

Here in NEW england, we pronounce it Gar-BARGE.

Though I usually say /də'briː/, on occasion I say /'dɜbriː/, but it is an affectation. There is a third pronunciation which I sometimes hear: /'deɪbriː/.

Up in the Great White North (aka Canada), we have both pronunciations.
It doesn't seem to make much difference who is speaking. I have heard each style used in newscasts, sometimes on the same station with different newscasters (which can make it fun when they're reading the same wire-service story and it sounds quite different depending on who is reading it).
At a rough guess, I would say about two-thirds of Canadians accent the second syllable (the American style, if you will) and the other third accent the first.

I think it's silly to use French words in modern English. ... realizing that our language absorbed about 10,000 words after 1066.

I call it trash.

However I did use the word in a poem I wrote for the fiftieth reunion of my high school class:

"We can forget our differences and sort through the débris
And come up with one idea upon which we all agree:
Our classmates and our teachers are the greatest of the great,
So let's all pledge our allegiance to the Class of Forty-Eight."

~~~~~ jerry

Boy, all that from the colonies, before the Brits chime in.

Heard another one just now: The BBC newscaster referred the "United Arab EMIRates". Is that typical in the UK? I would have said, "United Arab EMirates", though it's not a name I hear often, so that may be my personal mispronunciation.

Whenever I hear the BBC reports on NPR, I always learn new ways of pronouncing words. Sometimes I have to think for a minute to realize what they are saying, especially when they drop the "ary" as in "military."

DEBris or sometimes DAYbris. Never stressed on the last syllable.

DAYbree

But I'm with you on emirates. I've never heard anything but first syllable stress.

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Originally posted by jerry thomas:
I think it's silly to use French words in modern English. ...
I call it trash.



~~~~~ jerry

Ahh, there you go again talking trash, Jerry!

De-BREE is normal around here, (the word and the litter) but I'm not surprised by the British pronunciation.

I've never heard Emirates with the second syllable accented. But Emir is usually accented that way.

Proofreader - I'm sure you've heard Gah-bidge, as well.

When I use the word debris, I don't mean trash or garbage. It's more the bits left over after an explosion or some other disaster like an airplane crash. Trash, garbage, and refuse all have pretty much the same meaning, but their register differs from the plebeian to the patrician. Litter implies some agent willfully strew it about where it doesn't belong. I recognize rubbish and dustbin (dustman) as UKisms, but do not use them myself. In the area where I live there are no three cans one brown one for garbage, a green one for grass, leaves, and plant trimmings, and a blue one for recyclable materials. The stuff that goes in the latter two used to be garbage, but have been recategorized over the years.

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Proofreader - I'm sure you've heard Gah-bidge, as well.

Only among the lower classes.

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Trash, garbage, and refuse all have pretty much the same meaning, but their register differs from the plebeian to the patrician.

With refuse being the more patrician? I think of garbage as food leftovers, or the like, whereas to me trash is anything you throw away such as old newspapers or a broken toy or whatever. Refuse is probably too patrician for me; I don't use it. I'd agree with z about the use of debris.

I believe the mention of trash and garbage were meant jokingly, not to incite.

Well, I don't know what the right name is for them white blood cells with the odd-shaped insides. Down home we always called 'em polymorphonuclearleukocytes.

I'm not incited, proofreader, I promise. Heck, I am not even excited!

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I am not even excited

That's what all the women tell me.