I thought memes were mems, not meems. Yet another reason for me to hate that word.

Um . . . I'm reading a Greg Bear novel!

I say DAM-isk. With conviction.

Word. Despite how you pronounce Damascus. It's a syllable-shift thing. Like vowel/vocalic.

Susan, the w/wh thing is notable in New England, and I don't know where else in the US/world. A lot of people around here make a "hw" instead of "w" noise for things spelled "wh".

Also, I spent some time in central Connecticut. With provocation, I can disappear into the kitten/Wharton/New Britain glottal stop. It sounds extremely provincial even to my ears.

Does anybody know what you call it when one syllable is even less than non-stressed, it's practically swallowed? Like how most people say Lancaster (the county, not the actor) -- LAAAAAANG-cstr. Like how boatswain became bo's'n and waistcoat weskit.

Elision?

Is is still elision if you spell it the long way? I guess probably it is.

I had trouble with "halcyon". Butchered that sucker. And I still screw it up occasionally - my brain, having glommed onto it as "HAL-lee-con" at about age eight, refuses to shift. Buggeration.

I pronounce my t's. Like Plei, I was told about it if I didn't. So? The second R in February.

I will only say u-r-l, so as not to give Plei hives.

I don't call URLs earls, but I'm as likely to say your-uhl (kinda like Ural, but not exactly) as U-R-L. Anyone else do that?

I pronounce my t's. Like Plei, I was told about it if I didn't. So? The second R in February.

I can't remember if I was told off about that one, but I certainly say both of them. Though they sometimes come out mangled, because it's a word with F and U, which, oddly, are my problem letters. Lot of trouble with those. It's almout a miracle I can say fuck, actually.

(My f/v distinction is the kind that's not. I got enough lecturing about that to drive me to tears, and half of my phone issues are from the frustration of trying to make myself understood over the things.)

Like how most people say Lancaster (the county, not the actor) -- LAAAAAANG-cstr.

There's not really a "g" sound in Lancaster, though (I go to school there! I have valuable regional knowlege!). Local people say LAN-ca-str. Everyone else says lan-CAST-r. If you are an outsider who manages to adopt this useful piece of regional dialect, you will be INVISIBLE! Really! Okay, not really, because you will make faces when presented with a piece of spaghetti pizza. Like all right-thinking people.

I'm going to vote for F-A-Q and U-R-L. I think my "t"s and glottal stops depend on who I'm talking to and how much sleep I've had.

I still think chimera should be "kim-AIR-uh," dictionary be damned.

I think the most amusing college freshman regional dialect experience I had was with my neighbor from central California, where apparently there is no difference between the soft "e" and the soft "i." People in the dorm spent hours trying to convince the poor girl that "ten" and "tin" or "pen" and "pin" should be pronounced differently. She couldn't even *hear* the difference, let alone reproduce it. Most disturbing? She called milk "melk."

hey all. I recently moved into a house and all my books are currently in boxes, unorganized. What is the best way to approach organizing the books, so I don't have to put them on the shelves more than once?