LBS

[Jonathan Lighter]

When I was learning to read, I said "el-beez."  Then I asked what it meant
and switched to "pounds."

I've never looked back.

JL

On Sat, May 14, 2011 at 7:04 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> I wavered about the /d/, finally decided that either it was inauduble or
> too nearly inaudible to worry about in broad transcription.
>
> /'wadEv at r/.
>
> JL
>
>   On Sat, May 14, 2011 at 4:43 AM, Tom Zurinskas <truespel at hotmail.com>wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: LBS
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Do we not say a wee bit of a "d" in "pounds"?  In truespel ~poundz.
>>
>> Note the letter string "au" is not used (in the top 5k most popular words)
>> to spell the ~ou sound (as in "out") in English.  The only good choice for
>> an English based phonetic is ~ou.
>>
>>
>> Tom Zurinskas, Conn 20 yrs, then Tenn 3, NJ 33, now FL 9.
>> The FREE English-based phonetic converters, URL and text , are at
>> truespel.com
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> >
>> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> > Sender: American Dialect Society
>> > Poster: Jonathan Lighter
>> > Subject: Re: LBS
>> >
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >
>> > At least OBGYN (pronounced as letters) is shorter than something even
>> more
>> > unwieldy.
>> >
>> > But what's shorter than /paunz/?
>> >
>> > Too surreal?: they don't know that "lbs." really means pounds. They
>> think
>> > it abbreviates something that is the practical equivalent of pounds, but
>> not
>> > pounds themselves. Like "legal burden sizes" or something.
>> >
>> > JL
>> >
>> > On Fri, May 13, 2011 at 9:04 PM, James Harbeck wrote:
>> >
>> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> > > -----------------------
>> > > Sender: American Dialect Society
>> > > Poster: James Harbeck
>> > > Subject: Re: LBS
>> > >
>> > >
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> > >
>> > > >We recently discussed the unusual use of "tornado" in automated
>> National
>> > > >Weather Service Warnings.
>> > > >In a local Amber Alert this week, the abducted girl was described as
>> > > >weighing "115 /el bi es/", while her abductor weighed "184 /el bi
>> es/."
>> > > >
>> > > >What's wrong with /paunz/? What's with these people?
>> > >
>> > > That's even worse than "oh bee gee why en" for OBGYN, which is short
>> > > for "obstetrician-gyncologist" and is sensibly (but seemingly less
>> > > often) said /AbgaIn/ (forgive me if I'm using the wrong character for
>> > > the cursive small a here).
>> > >
>> > > James Harbeck.
>> > >
>> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> > >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
>> truth."
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>>  > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>
> --
>  "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org