Pat in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, says that when his brother Paul was young, he misunderstood their father’s references to Miami. Paul always thought his dad was referring to his own personal ammy, and the family still refers to that South Florida city as Dad’s ammy. This is part of a complete episode.
That’s so cute! This reminded me of an anecdote that comes up in my family often. We’re Dutch, and when my brother would ask my mum when his birthday was, my mother would reply it’s on dertien mei (May 13). As it happens, in Dutch, the month of May is pronounced exactly the same as the personal pronoun ‘mij’ (used in the same places as English ‘my’). I bet you can guess where this is going. When my brother then told somebody his own birthday, he replied it was on ‘dertien mama’ (thirteen momma’).
The so-called “lifestyle influencer accent” you hear in videos on TikTok and YouTube, where someone speaks with rising tones at the end of sentences and phrases, suggesting that they’re about to say something important, is a form of what linguists...
Meg in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, gets why the state highway department encourages drivers to use their blinkers when changing lanes, but placing a digital sign at the Sagamore Bridge that reads Use Ya Blinkah is, well, a lexical bridge too far. Meg’s...
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That’s so cute! This reminded me of an anecdote that comes up in my family often. We’re Dutch, and when my brother would ask my mum when his birthday was, my mother would reply it’s on dertien mei (May 13). As it happens, in Dutch, the month of May is pronounced exactly the same as the personal pronoun ‘mij’ (used in the same places as English ‘my’). I bet you can guess where this is going. When my brother then told somebody his own birthday, he replied it was on ‘dertien mama’ (thirteen momma’).