Ask the Expert. (Page 3 of 3)

Charles_F_Bell wrote:

Dill Carver wrote:

Another quick North American lingo question, please.

Generally speaking, would an East Coast, North American, 'get round to doing something' or 'get around to doing it?' or are the two interchangeable?

Thanks!

You could have it both ways and write for dialogue: 'round.  "Round" (meaning it that way) is not standard English even if most Americans do not fully pronounce the "a".  "Round" itself has many meanings enough without adding another one.

My guess is that the non-standard pronunciation of around (round) by eliding the a has been used for so long that it has become accepted and, thus, the ' is no longer needed. Sort of like till has become standard for 'til. Still using the ' before 'round in dialogue would capture a sense of the speaker's dialect.

But, I would use it also in the narrative thoughts of the speaker who spoke 'round in order to lend a conversational quality to the narrative. If there were an enunciator in the speaker's tribe, I'd consider using around in his speech and narrative POV.

Memphis

Memphis Trace wrote:

Charles_F_Bell wrote:

You could have it both ways and write for dialogue: 'round.  "Round" (meaning it that way) is not standard English even if most Americans do not fully pronounce the "a".  "Round" itself has many meanings enough without adding another one.

My guess is that the non-standard pronunciation of around (round) by eliding the a has been used for so long that it has become accepted and, thus, the ' is no longer needed. Sort of like till has become standard for 'til. Still using the ' before 'round in dialogue would capture a sense of the speaker's dialect.

But, I would use it also in the narrative thoughts of the speaker who spoke 'round in order to lend a conversational quality to the narrative. If there were an enunciator in the speaker's tribe, I'd consider using around in his speech and narrative POV.

Memphis

Cept to-day round ain't good spellin fer around and putting it in narration makes yous look like dumbasses.

My opinion is that till and until or 'til were different words with similar meaning. In Southern U.S. and Scottish (?) till can mean to. Afore he goes till church, he stops at Ma's and eats his biscuits and gravy.

Getting around to it is idiomatic expression and does not depend on the same meanings of around and round used as prepositions. Coming around (or round) the corner.

Memphis Trace wrote:

Dumbass is my genre.
Memphis

That sounds so much more impressive if you write "Dumbass is my metier."

My question is about cans/tins. I’m from the UK but writing some lines featuring a North American male, from Boston.
In terms of tinned (or canned) food or drink would he say;

‘A can of Coke.’ or ‘A tin of Coke.’  ‘Tinned food.’ or ‘Canned food.’ ‘can-opener’ or ‘tin-opener’ or would it even matter i.e. are the two expressions completely interchangeable, neither sounding alien to the American ear?

Generally speaking, would an East Coast, North American, 'get round to doing something' or 'get around to doing it?' or are the two interchangeable?

"The Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE) is a multi-volume reference work that documents words, phrases, and pronunciations that vary from one place to another place across the United States.

Challenging the popular notion that our language has been "homogenized" by the media and our mobile population, DARE demonstrates that there are many thousands of differences that characterize the dialect regions of the U.S."

Actually, I think this is the link to the actual dictionary.

You are actually an actual toad choker!! x