random language factoid

[deird1]

Reading kids books has made me notice something about US English that otherwise wouldn’t have occurred to me.

Namely: you guys pronounce “squirrel” and “toward” as though they have one syllable, not two.

(The rhymes in kids books have a very weird scansion if I read them in my accent.)

Comments

[tielan]

Namely: you guys pronounce “squirrel” and “toward” as though they have one syllable, not two.

*tries to do that in her head*

*breaks down a bit*

Then again, looking at our own country's use of language, I guess we can't throw, uh, syllables...

[deird1]

Oddly, I'd heard it before and didn't realise I had.

In Buffy, Spike is talking about "squirls" - and I didn't understand for YEARS that he's talking in a quasi-British accent but still doing the American one-syllable thing. I just thought he had some weird abbreviation for squirrel.

[tielan]

...now I want to know how they pronounce "Quirrell" as in "Professor Quirrell"...