"The Noughties"?

[Geoff Bannister]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, Janette <jnferr at ...> wrote:
>
> Carol :
> 
> > I see that Julie Walters has referred in a recent interview to the
> > years 2000-2009 as "the Noughties," an expression I've never
> > encountered before.
> >
> > Geoff, or any other Brit on the list, how would you pronounce
> > "noughties" (or "noughty," if you prefor the singular form, which I
> > can't imagine being used)? Is "noughty" a homonym of "naughty" (which,
> > to me, sounds exactly like "knotty") or is it more like "nowty"?
> >
> > Carol, for whom British spelling, pronunciation, and vocabulary are
> > endlessly fascinating
> 
> 
> montims:
> 
> My two pennorth: Noughty IS a homonym of naughty, which is the punning
> aspect of it, but it is pronounced norty in both cases (well, fellow Brits -
> not quite, but good enough for the purposes of this discussion...)  Just
> don't stress the r...    It is, of course, derived from "nought", meaning
> nothing, and now I have it - that rhymes with thought.  For example, how
> would you pronounce Dreadnought?  In Yorkshire where I lived for a few
> years, the word would be pronounced, and spelt, nowt...
> 
> Back to an old hairy/harry pronunciation controversy - How do you say Bill
> Haley, and Halle Berry?  I heard both these names spoken on tv recently, and
> had the aha moment - change the l for an r (like those old bad Chinese
> impersonations) and you have the pronunciation of Hairy and Harry.  Dadah!

Geoff:
"Nowt" would be pronounced to rhyme with"out" - according to my 
father, who was a Yorkshireman.

I would pronounce "Dreadnought'"as "Dreadnort".

I am reminded of the old Yorkshire verse:

Eat all, drink all, pay nowt,
See all, hear all, say nowt.

And what about the traditional Yorkshire song "On Ilkla' Moor baht 'at" 
- which for the benefit of totally flummoxed non-Brit group members 
translates as "On Ilkley Moor without a hat".

Continuing to rabbit on, readers may be interested to know that there 
is a BBC presenter called James Naughtie, who is a Scot. His surname 
is pronounced Noch-ti, the "ch"  being the guttural form found in 
Scots "loch", Welsh "bach" or German "nacht".

Returning to Harry/Hairy, a British person would normally go for the 
'Harry' version, The standard pronunciation in UK English is that a 
doubled consonant is preceded by a short vowel.

This is why, for example, the past tense of "travel" is "travelled", 
otherwise it would be pronounced 'tray-veld" or something akin to 
that. Sssh - don't tell our American friends, they've been spelling it 
the wrong way for years.
:-)))

If I don't reply to this thread again today, have a good Leap Year Day 
and, guys, if you're not hooked already, watch out for low-flying 
maidens of the non-cricket variety.