UK, Ireland / "Strange " English language.. [264]

Nevertheless, you would admit that after Albert became Prince Consort and Victoria Queen of Great Britain along with her dominion,
that the flat "a" fell out of favor among the upper class and was replaced by what most foreigners consider an "English accent", that is,

RP.

Certain actors such as Dirk Boegard, Sir John Gielgud, Sir Ralph Richardson or Allen Corduner, reflect an erstwhile diction
peculiar to the English stage.

UK, Ireland / "Strange " English language.. [264]

Oh, I know. My point was also that it's Southwestern England.

UK, Ireland / "Strange " English language.. [264]

As you well know then, jon, the so-called "posh, upper class"
English accent, e.g. of the late Queen Elizabeth, with its broad 'a's'
and dropped final or monosyllable 'r's", isn't really English at all, but
German!

As Britons by the score tried desperately to mimic the speech of
Consort Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg, they often turned the
traditional flat "a-sound" into a broader sound as the good Prince
typically was said to pronounce "half" like "hAHHf" etc.

You want to hear a true English accent, best go to Devon or better
still Dartmoor. There the 'a's' couldn't be flatter or more "American" LOL

UK, Ireland / "Strange " English language.. [264]

True, jon. All I meant is that is the UK traditionally, breeding was once measured almost exclusively
through peerage, cultivated upper class manners which took into account one's grammar, vocabulary,
and pronunciation! One had to measure up or one was not accepted.

Here in the US, nearly anything goes, so it seems.

Genealogy / Jewish Roots of Poland [638]

@Rich, as I've posted already, Jews made the tactical error of trying to assimilate too fast, way too uncritically!
Except if the Jew in question is either a made member of one of the Brooklyn sects, possibly a Holocaust survivor
or a mega rich monkey businessman, American Jews could learn some lessons from other ethnic minorities in the
States, such as African-Americans and Italian-Americans.

George Floyd was scarcely a model citizen, not mention hardly rich, yet his own people would rally around him in a way which would
have been impossible had he been Jewish.

UK, Ireland / "Strange " English language.. [264]

Here in the US, the only "class distinctions" these days typically regard
money and only money! Breeding, comportment in the British sense, long
dead.

People such as Trump, Bezos, Zuckerberg don't have the cultural distinction
of a Morgan or a Mellon, except perhaps Bill Gates.

Genealogy / Jewish Roots of Poland [638]

@Ironside, if you were in the Jews' position during the War and saw your gentile neighbors
as the enemy, how would you have reacted?

Polish Christians weren't saints, neither were Polish Jews.

UK, Ireland / "Strange " English language.. [264]

Good point, jon. Literary models can sometimes be a bit dodgy, I suppose.
On the other hand, literature, as with popular culture anywhere, often does reflect
an interpretation of reality, however unreliable at times:-)

UK, Ireland / "Strange " English language.. [264]

Agreed.
Then again, there is a tendency nowadays for "gaslighting" aka
making the other person think they're a little off, even stupid, merely
so that the gaslighter can laugh at that person!

For instance, if a somebody makes a remark about someone's brogue, to which that person
responds that there's no such thing as a brogue, what does that mean, and so forth,
merely to gently tease the first person, this is undoubtedly what jon's doing here.

He's an intelligent, articulate, interesting poster, therefore, well aware of the concept of
class system, but simply feels like kidding, that's all.

UK, Ireland / "Strange " English language.. [264]

It all depends on where or when one's grown up. I take it you're fairly young
or perhaps grew up outside England, maybe in Scotland, during the '60's.

Law / Gun control in Poland: should Polish people be allowed to own guns? [1070]

Ahemm, gun makers pay millions in taxes each year, what are you talking about?

UK, Ireland / "Strange " English language.. [264]

@jon, I've described what is known historically as the "Class System".
One has but to read standard English literature from "Tom Brown's Schooldays"
by Dr. Matthew Arnold up through the mid-20th century to understand the term.

Trust you're being funny.

Off-Topic / Should people be free to cut their hair and dye it as they want? [16]

While I'm not a member of the Morality Police Force here, I feel anyone is
"free" to dress as they feel. Whether this reflects an aesthetic standard or
merely some infantile, repressed personal rebellion or not, remains a separate
question:-)

Language / Extremely Hard - Polish the hardest language to learn [226]

Rich, as I've always maintained, such remains YOUR particular issue with your Polish
mother tongue, not mine!

UK, Ireland / "Strange " English language.. [264]

@Milo, if you deny the conventional British class system, then I do suggest
you review your history! Moreover, I never denied that the US and the UK have
tried to understand each other. Need I repeat the famous quote of Shaw, that
Britain and America are two countries separated by a common language?

Genealogy / Jewish Roots of Poland [638]

Nice riposte there, Alien.

Language / Extremely Hard - Polish the hardest language to learn [226]

Actually, I find German academic writing for example, sometimes with those extended adjective constructions,
much more difficult than any Polish sentences I've encountered!

Polish is challenging to foreigners for her counting quirks, perfective/imperfective verbs and
morphological permutations, German for her often dizzying sentence length, myriad plural varieties, above all,
random grammatical gender assignment. Thank heavens I learned the latter as a kid. It made learning Polish
some thirty years hence far easier.

History / German Sprache aka speech in Polish films [19]

In the Resistance Era film "Zakazane piosenki", the German
officers are naturally all played by Polish actors with thick Polish
accents! In one scene, a high-ranking Nazi whose plans to attack
Warsaw have been scuttled, exclaims, "Donnerwetter, verflixt nochmal!"
with such a heavy Polish pronunciation, the subtitles actually have to
appear phonetically below on the screen in order that viewers can understand
what is being saidLOL

Language / Extremely Hard - Polish the hardest language to learn [226]

Thank you, jon. At last somebody's steering the discussion back to the original conversation thread!

History / Why do Polish people hate to be called Eastern European? [120]

Oh, quite the contrary, Hr Grunwald! You might have misunderstood my
post. Both Jews AND Arabs are Semites, ergo, to be "anti-SEMITIC" in
theory means to hate Arabs as well as Jews.

Kindly await private message:-)

History / Why do Polish people hate to be called Eastern European? [120]

@Hr.Grunwald, every Finn with whom I've had contact does NOT consider themselves a "Nordic",
even a "Scandinavian" (Scandi), but instead a (proud) Finn, albeit an unwilling Swedish speaker
as their unofficial second aka colonial language after the Vasa period, even if most seem to show
a greater facility with Swedish than English:-)

UK, Ireland / English/British rudeness - what do Polish people think about it? [168]

Nevertheless, a significant pre-Brexit experience, don't you think?

History / Why do Polish people hate to be called Eastern European? [120]

Do you fully understand the meaning of "Western" or are you simply trolling again?

UK, Ireland / English/British rudeness - what do Polish people think about it? [168]

When first in the UK on a teen tour of England during the late '70's,
I found the average Londoner more politely snide than out-and-out rude
or in your face nasty.

Then again, I was a teenager and everything seemed new and exciting.
Remember though being corrected when I called a Yeoman Warder
a "beefeater" (think of the Scotch brand) and being somewhat upbraided
when I referred to England as "being in Europe". I learned that to Brits,
England is England and Europe is "the Continent"!

History / Why do Polish people hate to be called Eastern European? [120]

Often in English, "Scandinavia" and "Nordic" are lumped together, although
for example, Finland, while technically Scandinavian is NOT Nordic owing to its
language:-)

Language / Extremely Hard - Polish the hardest language to learn [226]

Well now, with LGBTQ and transgenders, perhaps not!
lol

UK, Ireland / "Strange " English language.. [264]

Or "little dream" aka "drzemka", really more "little snooze", ha-ha!

Language / Extremely Hard - Polish the hardest language to learn [226]

A random sign in a Gothenburg hotel dining room (in English, not even in the native language of the country!):

PLEASE DON'T HAVE CHILDREN AT THE BAR

Indeed, perhaps a hospital would be a more suitable venue.

Directions at an outdoor rest stop in Germany's Black Forest.

BATHROOMS FOR EITHER MALE OR FEMALE OR BOTH SEXES!

Last time I looked, I had only one:-) If the signage person had meant "UNISEX TOILETS", when
in the name of Creation didn't they bloody say so?!!

OUR LIFT MAKES YOU RIGHT NOW UNBEARABLE!

Perhaps vaguely comprehensible, but geez, why not get right the first time?

Need I go on? And the kicker is that those in these different countries don't even
see the ridiculousness of it.

Language / Extremely Hard - Polish the hardest language to learn [226]

Correct, Milo! English has become the global language of miscommunication.
Examples?? I wouldn't know where to start.

Language / Extremely Hard - Polish the hardest language to learn [226]

You can say that again, Rich! Glad to hear you finally admit it.