Naughty reply

[Geoff Bannister]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)" <catlady at ...> 
wrote:
>
> Carol wrote in
> <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/35624>:
> 
> << 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. >>

Catlady: 
> I remain fond of the theory that the decade 1900-1909 was the Oughts
> and the decade 2000-2009 is the Oh-Ohs. While the first years of this
> decade was pronounced Two Thousand, the rest are like, this year is
> two-oh-oh-eight. (The Oughts when people oughted to have behaved like
> Victorians; the Oh-Ohs when we have a lot to say Oh-Oh about.)

Geoff:
Well, in my experience in the UK, the current year is either pronounced 
"two thousand and eight" or "twenty-oh-eight". I use the latter form. I 
very very rarely hear "two-oh-oh-eight."

Catlady: 
> I always thought that Naughty came from Naught and that Naught is the
> same as Nought. I'm far from being a Brit, but I pronounce them the
> same, with the awww sound, also found in cough and coffin. This is
> different from how I pronounce knot and not, with the aah sound. This
> is quite different from the ah sound, as in gnat.

Geoff:
You must have an odd accent. I can' t see how you get anything approaching 
an 'a' sound for any words you mention. I pronounce naught and nought as 
'nort' a bit like 'north' without the 'h'. And 'knot' and 'not' are simple short 'o' 
sounds. GAnt would be different because it's a short 'a'.

Catlady: 
> In the famous 'Mary, marry, merry', I pronounce Mary and Merry the
> same, with an eh sound, and I pronounce Marry differently, I think
> with the aah sound, but it's hard to compare vowels with R to vowels
> without R. Murray and Myrrh have yet a different sound.

Geoff:
I pronounce 'Mary' as 'Mairy' - the middle rhyming with 'air' (the stuff 
wot you breaves' as a Cockney might put it) so all your three have a 
different sound for me.

Catlady:
P. S. If I said 'nowt', I'd use the ow sound, like in 'now'.

Geoff:
Yep. Good Yorkshire accent; same goes for 'owt'.