Arse not ass?!?

[johnuk1986]

Howdy Y'all!

Ok thats as American as my new Thread is gonna go.....
I wanna know why Americans say ASS instead of ARSE? I personally find it pretty funny when David says ARSE on the videos.. cos It sounds really out of place in his American Accent.. But why did they feel the need to change the word (and please do not even get me started on the word COLOUR!) We invented the language, hense ARSE is the correct way to say it, why change it to the word for DONKEY??... why did u change only some things?
Please can someone help me with this... It confuses, frustrates and kinda annoys me a tad!

Ok now I am drunk as hell so this is probably why I have started such a stupid thread that will make no sense int he morning once i read it over again... But hey something to chat about with my American (kissing) Cousins!!

pEACE AND LOVE
jOHHNY XXX

 

[raysvq]

Howdy Y'all!

Ok thats as American as my new Thread is gonna go.....
I wanna know why Americans say ASS instead of ARSE? I personally find it pretty funny when David says ARSE on the videos.. cos It sounds really out of place in his American Accent.. But why did they feel the need to change the word (and please do not even get me started on the word COLOUR!) We invented the language, hense ARSE is the correct way to say it, why change it to the word for DONKEY??... why did u change only some things?
Please can someone help me with this... It confuses, frustrates and kinda annoys me a tad!

Ok now I am drunk as hell so this is probably why I have started such a stupid thread that will make no sense int he morning once i read it over again... But hey something to chat about with my American (kissing) Cousins!!

pEACE AND LOVE
jOHHNY XXX

I guess it is the same reason they say tomato (tomaito) instead of tomato (tomarto)

 

[MissDeidra]

I say both, but I learned to speak english in England, and have spent the last 20 years in America...so I have carried a lot of English sayings over into my everyday vocabulary....

 

[slimvintage]

Pronunciations shift and evolve in isolated settings, just like the birds on the Galapagos Islands did.

In the USA there are lots of 17th and 18th C. usages and pronunciations that have become either archaic or simply disappeared from UK English, but have survived in North America.

The glossing over of "r" sounds in British English, dahling, is probably what produced, especially in the non-Southern states of the USA, the shift in morphology of "arse" to "ass". An American who saw the word for the first time wouldn't say it the way you do (aahce) but something closer to a Somerset farmer's version, with a very hard "rrr" sound. It's just the way we speak, hono(u)ring the values of consonants that in Brit have degenerated. By spelling it "ass" (nothing to do with a donkey) we're reflecting to a degree the pronunciation that you guys use today.

I think that's my take on the "r" in arse, right?, but as far as quibbling with our "a"s, you won't get us to pronounce them as "ah"s. Not, that is, unless we're gay and have the idea that we were Katherine Hepburn in our last life.

 

[raysvq]

There is a cue for a song ........

 

[amcovtime]

Howdy Y'all is a pretty southern American phrase.

I am not sure why it changed but I doubt it's really too important. Just different ways of saying things.

 

[scorpio]

I pretty much learned English here in the US, so the word "ass" is what I use. I think it's prettier than "arse"

 

[joeychuck2]

Even for Americans there s a BIG difference in pronunciation. Here in NYC different parts of the city have different pronunciations but ass is ass all over here.

 

[another1]

a hot arse in london would still be a hot ass in san diego.

 

[joninliverton]

LOL, I find it funny that a Scotsman who would normally pronounce it arrrrrrrrrrse (quote Rab C Nesbit), would choose such a word to compare different dialects.

 

[johnuk1986]

LOL, I find it funny that a Scotsman who would normally pronounce it arrrrrrrrrrse (quote Rab C Nesbit), would choose such a word to compare different dialects.

Why quote Rab C Nesbit? I dont talk like him?
And well the reason I chose that word... well think about it??

 

[joninliverton]

Why quote Rab C Nesbit? I dont talk like him?
And well the reason I chose that word... well think about it??

Oh I love the Rab C series and I love Glasgow too. I worked up there contracting for 6 months a while ago and loved it. My gay friend Iain, kindly showed me around the city and barrrrrrrrrrrrs lol.

 

[SayWhat]

I think it's prettier than "arse"

I agree. When people say "arse" it reminds me of my Grandpa.

Believe it or not, that's not very boner-inspiring

 

[raysvq]

Arse beats clarse any time
or is that
Ass beats class any time
Or is it
Arse beats class any time
or is it
Ass beats clarse any time

Damn it - I have a headache

 

[racer2438]

my question back is why do the Brit's call jacking off/beating off------Wanking and wanker--????

 

[joninliverton]

my question back is why do the Brit's call jacking off/beating off------Wanking and wanker--????

Not really Racer; The question is why do you call wanking - jacking off lol

 

[joeychuck2]

I think there are lots of terms for jerking off. to me jerking off is the only one I use.

 

[johnuk1986]

my question back is why do the Brit's call jacking off/beating off------Wanking and wanker--????

Not really Racer; The question is why do you call wanking - jacking off lol

Couldnt have put it better myself. I think its interested why language changes from region to region (never more so prevalent than in the UK) But for a word to change its spelling and event have an alternative meaning - but to still mean the same as its origional. (Arse changing to Ass) i think is very interesting. We calling it wanking - cos thats the word for it.
Not trying to be a smartARSE about it but The Oxford Dictionary - which is the definitive record of the English Language says:
Arse • noun: Brit. vulgar slang; a person’s bottom.
Ass • noun : a donkey or similar horse-like animal with long ears and a braying call.

wank • verb (also wank off) masturbate.
• noun an act of masturbating.

Jerk • noun 1 a quick, sharp, sudden movement.

But its ok - i have found out why it changed thats all I needed to know.
Thanks!

 

[slimvintage]

Ass is the phonetic spelling of what Americans hear when a Brit says arse, very simple. Same with jack off and jerk off. Standard Brits don't sound their Rs the way Americans, some Irish and lots of people from the Southwest of England (Somerset, Devon, etc) do, so when an American talks about jacking off, he's coming much closer to what he's hearing an English guy actually say when the Brit talks about jerking off, since the Brit's r is very soft, turning the phrase into...guess what...jack off.

ho hum

 

[angelone]

If White guys are debating how english words are pronounced or should be pronounced and cannot come to some resolution as to the proper pronounciation of these words; then how do you think people of color or colour feel when we learn American or the Queen's english and find ourselves in the wilds of Arkansas? After 8 years of American english in school taught by an instructor from Brooklyn, NY, I was fortunate to go visit a friend in Arkansas - a transplant from Calif. Even before I got to my destination I had trouble understanding the local dialect. When I finally got to Dexter I found it hard to understand their dialect and they found my english bookish and inauthentic. Thank God my friend could transition between their world and mine.