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GoGaslightYerself t1_j9us0b9 wrote

Big vowel shift still present. "House" is pronounced "hice" (rhymes with "mice" or "lice")...and the number "four" is pronounced "far" (rhymes with "car") ... it takes a while to learn to understand it if you didn't grow up hearing it.

Apparently many of the original settlers were from the Cornwall area of SW England.

The colonial explorer John Smith (or possibly his doctor, Walter Russell, I forget) named the island after the same-named place in Morocco.

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Pruppelippelupp t1_j9va0nr wrote

>were from the Cornwall area of SW England.

given how they pronounce those words, yeah. makes sense. especially since they emigrated hundreds of years ago.

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[deleted] t1_j9wkfpo wrote

>Apparently many of the original settlers were from the Cornwall area of SW England.

Before I read this part I was going to say the "far" pronunciation of "four" made me hear an Irish/English accent in my head

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themagicbong t1_j9x5lwh wrote

Fascinating, there is an incredibly similar sorta situation and accent here in NC, referred to as "high tider. This kinda thing is a bit more common than I thought. The common phrase to show off the accent, as it were, is

"High tide on the sound side"

Which becomes

"Hoi toide on the sound soide"

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UrbanPrimative t1_j9x31wt wrote

Waterhouse has forgotten all of their names. He always immediately forgets the names. Even if he remembered them, he would not know their significance, as he does not actually have the organization chart of the Foreign Ministry (which runs Intelligence) and the Military laid out in front of him. They keep saying "woe to hice!" but just as he actually begins to feel sorry for this Hice fellow, whoever he is, he figures out that this is how they pronounce "Waterhouse." Other than that, the one remark that actually penetrates his brain is when one of the Other Guys says something about the Prime Minister that implies considerable familiarity. And he’s not even the Main Guy. The Main Guy is much older and more distinguished. So it seems to Waterhouse (though he has completely stopped listening to what all of these people are saying to him) that a good half of the people in the room have recently had conversations with Winston Churchill.

Then, suddenly, certain words come into the conversation. Waterhouse was not paying attention, but he is pretty sure that within the last ten seconds, the word Ultra was uttered. He blinks and sits up straighter.

The Main Guy looks bemused. The Other Guys look startled.

"Was something said, a few minutes ago, about the availability of coffee?" Waterhouse says.

"Miss Stanhope, coffee for Captain Woe To Hice," says the Main Guy into an electrical intercom. It is one of only half a dozen office intercoms in the British Empire. However, it is cast in a solid ingot from a hundred pounds of iron and fed by 420-volt cables as thick as Waterhouse’s index finger. "And if you would be so good as to bring tea."

-Cyptonomicon, Neil Stephenson

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EndIsNighLetsGetHi t1_j9x69re wrote

God I fucking love this book.

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GoGaslightYerself t1_j9y1541 wrote

> God I fucking love this book.

I thought it was an almost impenetrable slog. I'd rather read DFW...and that's saying something!

Apparently both are way above my pay grade (or crank quotient).

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EndIsNighLetsGetHi t1_ja0wdux wrote

It is almost impenetrable, but damn is it rewarding to finish. All of his books are great. Anathem is by far the best.

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MrMastodon t1_j9y7la0 wrote

>Apparently many of the original settlers were from the Cornwall area of SW England.

And they're isolated and inbred?

Quelle surprise!

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