Spelling shoosher or shusher

@Wreybies,

What about bush? To you, does that get push, put, foot sound. Or does it get hush, mush, shush?

 

Bush goes with push, put, foot, not with hush, mush, shush. ... for me.

 

I'm sorry, but for the obvious accent, they sound the same to me (no idea what part of the US this is taken from:

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/pronunciation/english/push

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/bush

Ahhh! Now I can hear a distinct difference in 'shush'

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/shush (switch to 'British' tab as you get UK and US side by side)

The ridiculous thing here, is that the UK version is clearly a south east accent, much different to my north west one, meaning that the US 'shush' is closer to my accent than the UK one

 

Such is the nature of vowels. Treacherous little buggers. From a linguistic angle, when one looks at word roots, they are never taken into account, only the consonants.

 

Vowels and prepositions are ungodly between languages.

Though, as you said, I appreciate my Spanish learning because I don't have to guess which sounds the vowels make.

 

Exactly. They always say their names. Ah, Eh, Ee, Oh, Oo.

Hardest bit for most Americans is not to close the vowels into a diphthong.

Qué is keh, not kay.

(which is probably not the best orthographic example because the -que and -gue clusters are the one exception to the rule since the U is not pronounced at all, but you get what I'm saying...)

 

In the above examples, the UK one sounds more like 'shash' to my ears, but that's because it's taken from the London area. The US one is much closer to how I say it.

 

Shush-push
shush-hush

Are pretty inter-changeable in London as well, I use both, or somewhere between the two.

 

Yes, but you say them 'shash / hash / pash' to northern ears.

 

I'm constantly having to remind myself to always say vowels the same way.

Equilibrada is a good example of one I often fudge.

OH! And when there are multiple vowels in Spanish words, it almost totally eludes me because in English, usually just one or two do the heavy lifting. But, in Spanish, words like aire are incredibly difficult for me to pronounce.

 

Where does aire trip you up?

 

The a + i in succession.

English doesn't have anything like that. When there are two vowels, usually the first one just makes a long sound and the second is silent. I can say it, but it took some practice.

 

Ah. Understood. Yes. In Spanish any time you are going to pronounce a diphthong, there has to be an actual, orthographic diphthong present, two vowels in a row.

Conversely, to a Spanish speaker, the pronunciation of a word like mile is completely unintuitive, and a word like through leaves us looking around waiting for the punchline to the joke, because.... what???*

*For anyone running across this comment in the future, I am perfectly well aware of the phenomenon of historical spellings. I don't need it explained to me. Spanish simply isn't a language that tolerates these kinds of shenanigans.

 

Hahahaha! I have thoroughly enjoyed this conversation, I'm giggling my head off and my husband is wondering what in gods name is wrong with me.

I think it's safe to say the accents are to blame here. Ourjud, I have the pleasure of knowing Englishman in Australia and I'm familiar with the accent, I can see your frustration. It is the English way of speaking, from what I can see that is confusing you.

I am Aussie mate and this to me makes no sense whatsoever, but it does to you. Because where you're from this is a perfect rhyme.

This has been most entertaining, thanks everyone

 

Yes, I do apologise, BREEZER. The frustration was real, but I'm glad you've taken it without offence

You're dead right that it's an accent thing, and I'm now trying to say 'shooser' in my best Aussie accent to see how it can possibly rhyme with 'pusher' etc

 

I would love to hear that! I think i'd be in for another grand belly laugh.

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/shush

 

@BREEZER

I have to start off with something stereotypical to get the accent flowing. Something like, 'G'day mate, but shush your mouth you stupid galah or you'll wake the neighbours.

Interesting. Is that a northern / southern English comparison of the word? I'm definitely closer to the one on the left.

 

I pronounce "shush" both like "push" & "bush" and at other times like "flush" and "hush."

I use "shush" like "push" when I'm just making the sound or a single word command to someone.

I use "shush" as in "hush" when I say things like "I shushed her for talking loudly in the library."

*I grew up in Southern California, but my dad is from New York and my mother grew up in Japan/Belgium/Germany+ learning English from HER mother who didn't actually speak English, so I grew up hearing my dad say "dah-ler" for $ and my mom originally thought "toenail" was pronounced "tunnel" and somehow "Brad" and "blood" are homonyms from my mother's side〜

So I think my family might be a fascinating linguistic mess.

 

But they're all pronounced the exact same way.

 

No. They. Are. Not.

 

You know this has serious implications on my poetry???

 

Back to the drawing board with you, then!

 

He whispered "shush, my darling, hush,"
And left her there beside the bush.
She knew that soon her tears would gush,
And turn her into soggy mush.

Then from that bush a bird did flush,
And landed there, beside her tush.
Its feathers were so soft and lush,
She reached it with a gentle push...



Yes. I see the problem.

 

If you changed one of the bolded words to match the other in Proper* pronunciation, you'd have an ABAB rhyme scheme throughout. So, I'm not seeing the problem.

*I'm right and everyone else is wrong.

 

Well, honestly, even if we kept to your absurd pronunciations, I think there would still be some pretty serious problems with the poem...