Leotards and leopards (Herb (Was Re: Harry and Hairy - The Difference.)

[Goddlefrood]

> > Magpie:
> > I actually almost wrote it as LEE-oh-tard and then I said it 
> > to myself over and over and went with the 'uh.' So LEE-oh-tard 
> > sounds right to me too.

> Ali:
> Hm. I also say LEI-oh-tard about half the time. 

Goddlefrood:

You're not Hawaiian, are you?

> Ali:
> All this discussion makes me think of Chinese. If you think 
> regional variations on English is big, you ought to try 
> discerning the different Chinese dialects and accents, all 
> with similar, if not the exact, same writing! 

Goddlefrood:

Take Fiji (you're welcome to it). Here there are only about 
half a million indigenous people from a total population of 
close to nine hundred thousand. They have somewhere approaching 
330 distinct dialects, some more like completely different 
languages. Happily there is one lingua franca, that being 
the dialect of one particular region. Your average Fijian 
would speak both his own language, this dialect and English.

I won't even begin to get into cameleopards for now.