Spyke
TWeaKreply

Ahhh yeah you can see it, there's a bit of fluff that looks like it's the right leg going over, but it's just fluff.

Owls are 90% fluff, so this checks out.

7
lemmy.world

I mean hey its important to note that its not scientifically accurate. I think its a nice meme though as it really does look like criss cross applesauce.

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I agree. I didn't respond with malice... the truth just stole our collective enjoyment of the idea that an owl could and would sit criss-cross applesauce. There's just something adorable about the notion. :)

I considered adding a /s but decided to roll with the down votes... lol

5
lemmy.world

Americans are goofy af "criss cross applesauce" bitch that don't even rhyme

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HeapOfDogsreply
lemmy.world

Am American, I know the phrase criss cross applesauce, but have never heard it used seriously. I've always said and heard, cross legged. Years ago it was called Indian style but I haven't heard that in years.

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Dozzi92reply
lemmy.world

Yeah, was Indian style as a kid in the early '90s. Little kids need some mnemonic device to literally just not fly off the face of the earth, and so that was the replacement they came up with. Cross-legged just doesn't grab a kid's attention like mashed apples.

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Lesridreply
lemm.ee

My teacher had a whole other verse. /Criss-crossed applesauce /Quiet as a mouse

1

You're missing the rest of the rhyme.

OK kids, come over and sit criss cross applesauce, quiet as a mouse. Do as I say, or I'll come to your house. That's where I might just talk to your mother, and see if we should replace you with another.

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funklessreply
lemmy.world

uk we say "cross legged" or "cross leggéd" if you're feeling Shakespearean

14
lemm.ee

Fun fact: in Hungarian we say "Turkish sitting" (törökülés).

6

Boring fact: it's also "sit like a Turk" or "sit the Turkish way" in Russian (сидеть по-турецки).

Now I'm curious what they say in Turkish.

UPD: me and @[email protected] are referring to the Lotus position which is what it is called in Turkish.

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Lesridreply
lemm.ee

American accents seem to prefer the Shakespearean version: "Wicked", "Dogged" but not "Curved" for whatever reason. Maybe it has to do with the tendency for the word to be used as a verb. "Curved" is usually an adjective but sometimes a verb, while "Wicked" is nearly always an adjective.

3

I think it's often to distinguish between two words that would otherwise be homophones.

There's "wick'ed" (two syllables) as in "something wicked this way comes" and "wicked" (one syllable) as in "Grady wicked away the spilled avocaat from Jack Torrence's jacket with a towel".

There's "dogg'ed" (two syllables) as in "dogged perseverance", but also "dogged" (one syllable) as in "Javert dogged Valjean for many years".

I don't have one for "curved" though. I think i've only ever heard it as one syllable, except for maybe in cases where poetic meter requires use of an "èd". Although, I think "curv'ed'ly" has three syllables, but I might be making that up. Typing up this comment has given me semantic satiation.

But, yeah, I think you're right about the adjective vs verb thing. The two-syllable examples are adjectives, while the one-syllable examples are verbs. Except for curved...

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BigDictionreply
lemmy.world

Is this a quote? I don’t understand how it doesn’t rhyme.

13
irmozreply
reddthat.com

It does in an American accent, I guess

In my accent (UK), "cross" rhymes with "boss", and "sauce" rhymes with "horse". Pretty sure boss and horse don't rhyme.

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lemm.ee

If I'm understanding correctly then the words "sauce" and "source" are indistinguishable when spoken by a brit?

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Agent641reply
lemmy.world

Its important because if youre at the dinner table and ask for sauce wrong, mum will pass you 273,000 lines of javascript.

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Cethinreply
lemmy.zip

Wait, so the non-rhotic accent adds an "r" into words that don't have one? I guess all your "r"s at the ends of words need to go somewhere...

9
irmozreply
reddthat.com

Huh? Well, yes, but that's not what's happening, here. What you're referencing is "that sofa is red" becoming "that sofa rizz red". I'm not adding an "r" to "sauce" haha.

1
Cethinreply
lemmy.zip

Are you adding an r to cross or removing one from horse?

7

You are adding or removing a letter sound if horse rhymes with sauce.

7
Soggyreply
lemmy.world

...which UK accent? Big place, loads of regional differences.

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buzziebeereply
lemmy.world

Great video! His stuff is brilliant. I'm a native speaker but every now and then one of his videos will pop up in my feed and I'll end up learning about how I talk lol. Highly recommended for anyone interested in fascinating deep dives into speech.

Whenever there are these kinds of threads there's always loads of people posting things like "sauce rhymes with boss not horse" or something.

This rhyming and text based approach is confusing because in different accents words might be pronounced differently than how the writer is pronouncing them and they may all rhyme or none of them may rhyme.

If you're not familiar with phonetic spelling (most people I know aren't) then audio clips with the differences are probably the way to go. Just typing random words isn't a great way of comparing accents.

3

Per the (extremely fascinating) video, it seems that phonetic spelling from the dictionary doesn't always capture the correct pronunciation, or mechanically what is happening with the mouth... E.g. US "blue" with the 'w' at the end where we release the lips when done with the o. Hm.

I hadn't really thought much about how, mechanically, one has to reposition one's tongue, jaw, and lips to shift between the end and beginning of words and that can lead to a glide(?) or modulation if we speak without stopping airflow between words.

I suppose we should think of pronunciation in terms of motor planning for tongue, jaw, lips, etc. to be more accurately descriptive.

1
Agent641reply
lemmy.world

"Why Im I being fired, Bauss? Is it because I pronounce it 'Hoss?'"

4
Grassreply
sh.itjust.works

I need an example pronunciation of how it doesn't rhyme because the only way I can hear it in my head rhymes. I've never heard of this name for the seating method though.

9
gmtomreply
lemmy.world

Cross rhymes with boss, toss, moss, loss, Ross.

Sauce rhymes with horse, coarse, force.

So for them to rhyme you would either have to say "crawse" or "Soss"

3
chiliedoggreply
lemmy.world

"Soss" is how we pronounce "sauce" and I don't know where you're finding the "r" sound.

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gmtomreply
lemmy.world

the "au" makes a sound like 'oar' like in "pause"

2
lemm.ee

Wait.. if "sauce" is "sorse", how is "source" pronounced?

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octopersonreply
sh.itjust.works

Those are homophones. If I told you about the source of the Nile I could be talking about something Egyptians put on their chips.

7

All occurrences of "au"? Audience? Cautious? Daughter? Or is there some kind of restraint like only if the proceeding consonant is hard or soft?

2

Exactly the same way. Sauce and source are the same for us in England.

So to us, it's like OP is saying "criss cross apple source", which just sounds silly.

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abraxasreply
sh.itjust.works

In the US, it really doesn't.

The proper American phonetic for sauce is "saas". The proper american phonetic for cross is "craas".

I think you MIGHT be able to defend it for British English, which use phonetics "kros" and "haws" and "saws" for above words. But I would say "aws" and "os" phonetics are close enough to to count as rhyming by most standards, and classical poetry uses far less clear rhymes commonly.

2
octopersonreply
sh.itjust.works

I (Brit) didn't even recognise it as intended as a rhyme until I read this comment section

3

That's really interesting. I ran it through a british tts and it sounded closer than a lot of classic poetry rhymes.. Yeah, it's not exactly the same, but it's similar.

Run that string through an American English TTS, and you'll see exactly how perfect it rhymes.

1
TWeaKreply

Have you ever been to Bristol? The way they pronounce "half" reminds me of American accents. Not "half" like the Queen's English, not "haff" like some places oop norff, but "haaaff" said with kind of a wide mouth. It perhaps makes sense, as Bristol was a port town that a lot of early immigrants to America started from.

That and Scottish kids. I think they watch so much YouTube these days (particularly up in the middle of nowhere) that they pick up a twang of American.

1
Moneoreply
lemmy.world

Sorry sauce rhymes with horse? Y'all say source?

7
gmtomreply
lemmy.world

Yeah, why do think people as for a "sauce" when someone posts a picture on the internet?

4

...I thought that was a cutesy joke. But that's not what I meant. They said sauce rhymes with horse. So either they say "source" for sauce or hoss for horse.

But that actually checks for a Boston accident now that I think of it.

1
TWeaKreply

How can you downvote literal British humour against someone trying to do fake British humour?? Sarcastic depravation is the name of the game.

2

It doesn't work in my accent either, but think about how some people write 'lawl' as a phonetic of 'lol'

2

I think that was the transitional terminology from when they used to tell kids to sit "indian style"

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octopersonreply
sh.itjust.works

in British

😒 Watch it Dutchie, or we'll start sending more drunk stag weekenders

(I put in an edit to make clear that I am, in fact, British)

3

Well, I still don't see how it does not rhyme.

Watch it Dutchie

😒 Even though I am a slim 2-meter tall blonde blue-eyed rude narcissistic guy with a strong Dutch accent living in Amsterdam, eating sandwiches for lunch, even though I can ride a bike and skipper a ship in any weather with equal ease, and I do enjoy making fun of Brits, I am not Dutch. I also drink more tea than you do :P

2

I literally has this exact conversation back when I saw this on Reddit.

"History always repeats itself" or something.

2

Always remember the acronym A.V.I.A.N.:

A - Birds
V - Are
I - Not
A - Real
N -
4
TWeaKreply

I think that's a hawk.

Owls have sausage eyes, they are fixed focal length and go back into their skulls, leaving very little room for a brain.

Edit: with a reverse image search, it seems I'm not the first to say this. My guess is that this is just dodgy taxidermy - maybe it was an owl, but taxidermy is notoriously bad at eyes.

6