Speaking 'properly' or not

[Beth]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Geoff Bannister"
<gbannister10 at a...> wrote:
> 
> --- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, Ladi lyndi <ladilyndi at y...> 
> wrote:
> 
> > Lynn:
> > I agree about the "th" as well.  My husband can made the sound if
he 
> thinks about it and tries.  Usually his "th" sounds like a "d"
which 
> does make sense given many of the English spellings of Dutch words, 
> i.e. Netherlands rather than Nederlands, The Hague rather than Den 
> Haag, use the "th" sounds in place of the "d" sound.  While our 
> daughter was raised with both languages, her first spoken language
was 
> Dutch and I'm having the dickens of a time getting her to say "th".
 
> 
> Geoff:
> Interestingly, I used to teach in South-west London where a lot of
the 
> families had moved into an overspill estate from Cockney areas and
the 
> pupils still spoke with what is sometimes jokingly called a "Sarf 
> Lunnon" accent.
> 
> As a result, I would often get a student replacing a "th" with an
"f" 
> and saying, for example, "firsty" for "thirsty", "farzend" 
> for "thousand", "fick" for "thick" and so on.
> 
> I used to say to my pupils that in order to pronounce the words 
> properly, I would allow them as a privilege to stick their tongues
out 
> at me. Because that will get the "th" sound correct; it then only 
> remains to know whether to use this unvoiced or voiced and it
certainly 
> avoids the "z" or "d" which often betrays a continental speaker.

Beth: My mother's family moved to the U.S. from The Netherlands when
she was three and this discussion has helped me "hear" my
grandmother's voice. She's unwell and in a nursing home right now, so
I thank you for helping me remember.

Regarding the "th" sound: I work as a Kindergarten aide and this year
our school began using the "Jolly Phonics" program, which I understand
comes from England. It uses pictures, songs and motions to help teach
the students the sounds. The "th" sound was funny because the story
was that there were two rude clowns who ran around sticking their
tongues out--one a lot and one just a little bit. As a funny aside,
there was great consternation the day we realized we'd not ordered the
"Americanized" version. The "ar" sound was described as that sound
when you visit the doctor and he checks your throat. We had to
scramble to find the worksheets that had instead some seals barking
"ar, ar, ar" Puts a new spin on "WinGARdium Leviosa" for me. :-)

Beth, who's given up on being annoyed at living in an area where the
towns Rio and Orion are pronounced with a long I and a long E sound,
respectively.