Jack's House

Young Ahmed, whom I help improve his English, is convinced it's correct to say such as firs' an' las' or eatin' an' drinkin', because that's what he hears, even on the BBC.

While young Ahmed may be copying what he hears, there is a possibility that he is not copying what is actually being said. What a person hears can be strongly influenced by the sounds of his native language. In this respect, neither Standard Arabic nor Moroccan Arabic has the nasal sound which comes at the end of "thing" while they do have the sound which comes at the end of "thin". If you say these two words noting the position of the tongue for the final consonant you will find it is a little further back for "ng" than "n". These two sounds are clearly distinguishable by native English speakers, but may sound the same to a speaker of a language which does not have any words which require the sounds to be distinguished - such as "thin" and "thing". The consonant "t" is a plosive, a sound which, though short, consists of three phases: approach, hold and release. In English, when a plosive is not followed by a vowel the release, the point where the air leaves the mouth, is often missing. So, when a "t" follows an "s" it can get a bit lost and appear to merge with the "s" giving the impression that there is only an "s".

Here's an oddity.

If you click the link to the forum in the archive you get this message:

Thank you for visiting the New MMSA Forum.

The forum is currently unavailable and likely to stay that way for technical reasons, partly due to heavy traffic from bots or other bad actors destabilising our server.

More information may be available to authors shortly if you log in and visit this page. We apologise for the outtage which we know affects your ability to manage your stories, and we know the social value of the forum to many of you. Be assured that alternative arrangements are being planned.

If you click the direct link you get this message:

We regret that the forum previously at this location is now unavailable due to technical reasons.

More information can be found at the forum link from the main site index page – please click the logo above to visit our main index.

The message has now changed to:

Thank you for visiting the New MMSA Forum.

The forum is currently unavailable and likely to stay that way for technical reasons, partly due to heavy traffic from bots or other bad actors destabilising our server.
More information may be available to authors shortly if you log in and visit this page. We apologise for the outtage which we know affects your ability to manage your stories, and we know the social value of the forum to many of you. Be assured that alternative arrangements are being planned.

That is more reassuring for forum members.

I have been thinking along the same lines. Even so, before the MMSA forum went down I have been thinking this forum would benefit from some new blood as the number of regulars is very low.

Pending the revival or creation of a new official MMSA forum should we be encouraging people to post in this forum or in the back-up forum started a few years ago: https://msf.createaforum.com/index.php ?

The two halves of a chicken will be equivalent. How do you know what you're getting if you order a quarter?

Good to know Flag is on to it.

I was thinking this is the first Pope younger than me.