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dont know if anyone has covered this or not, but I was thinking, theres that cliche "you say tomato, I say tomahto".. I have never heard anyone call it a tamahto. just curious if anyone else ever has.

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kweh!

Welcome back.

One of the many differences between general British and American English is the tendency to use a short a where you might expect a long a. I think you'll find that anyone speaking English who is not American or did not learn to speak it here will probably say "tomahto."

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

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It's fun to mess with people who speak differently. For instance there was this British chick I was trying to date and here is how the conversation would go:

"Hey wanna go out on Friday night?"
"I cahn't."
"Yeah, you are!"

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"That Light has bestowed upon me the greatest black magic!"

I say "ta-mar-to", although I have heard SOMEONE say "tomahto" - doesn't seem right.

I'm not sure why you called it a cliche, but that phrase basically means that there are different accents and dialects all over the world. If I write "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" and every CoN member said it aloud, there would be hundreds of different versions of it. Even just spelling "lazy" aloud would get different results, as I would say el eh zehd why, and a lot of Americans say el eh zee why.

This post has been edited by Elena99 on 5th January 2007 16:51

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I had an old signature. Now I've changed it.

Welcome back again, KoC.

I say "tuh-may-toe" but New Jerseyans, apparently, have a tendency to say things differently than, say, Pennsylvanians. (For example, caw-fee, cah-fee) Also, southerners might say tuh-may-ter, or maybe that's a stereotype, I don't really know...

In any case, I've only heard the phrase as a way of saying things differently, but not pronunciation-wise. For example, I turned off the light vs. I closed the light. I've heard both, and the one time in particular I heard an argument about it, someone said "tomato tomahto".

There ya go.

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I say "tur-mar-to", and I'm British, but I'm not sure if that means anything. I wonder how and why dialects evolve; there must be an interesting reason behind it.

Quote ("Quad")

I turned off the light vs. I closed the light

"I turn off the light" for me.

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"You say tomato I say tomahto" is just an excuse for ignorant fools that don't know how to say things correctly and feel threatened when you mention it to them. Rarely does a person genuinely say tomahto when they use the expression. It can be applied to so many situations its sickening.

"Look at this new pitcher I got."
"You mean picture."
"You say tomato I say tomahto."
"You're an ignorant tool."

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Another good example is the way people say Zebra.

But I think Zero Hawk may have a good point. Most people who use the expression most likely use it so they don't have to admit their pronounciation is a bit rubbish.

Some people don't like to be informed they're wrong about these things, and this saying might come in very useful in their eyes.

Good luck to them I say.

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'Let that be a lesson to all oppressive vegetable sellers.'

So you mean that people who have been learning English for only a short time or foreigners trying to speak it are ignorant fools?

Funny, classism and racism are supposed to be outdated.

This post has been edited by Sinslayer on 8th January 2007 19:56

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Quote (Sinslayer @ 8th January 2007 19:53)

So you mean that people who have been learning English for only a short time or foreigners trying to speak it are ignorant fools?

Funny, classism and racism are supposed to be outdated.

Certainly not, don't be silly.
I've met a lot of people learning to speak English and I've never heard any of them say "You say tomato I say tomahto," when you give them some constructive critisism.

Please try not to take these things in such a negative manner.

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'Let that be a lesson to all oppressive vegetable sellers.'

I don't "take stuff in such a negative manner", I simply dislike foreigners being called ignorant because they aren't as good at English as people who make no effort to learn their language at all.

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Okay, let's all take a breather. There, that's better.

I once had a teacher who said tomahto. I don't really know why, considering no one else around in my neighbourhood says it like that. Maybe he was just saying it to be different. There are people out there who just say it for fun.

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No, you're right, Sinslayer. Anybody who says Tomahto is indeed ignorant, if not somewhat foolish, or perhaps both.

Go look up the word ignorant.

Then look up foolish.

If somebody pronounces it tomahto on purpose, full well knowing the correct pronunciation, that makes them foolish, even if it's only a little.

If you don't know any better, that makes you ignorant, by definition.
In fact, foreigners *are* ignorant of the correct way to speak english, unless they are completely fluent. That's part of the territory that comes with being foreign- Lack of knowledge about the english language due to unfamiliarity.

And for the record, I feel like theres a big chunk of America that falls n to the "ignorant of the english language" catagory, and because it's their native tongue, they also fall in to the "foolish" catagory.

Think a little bit before you decide to fly off the handle and call "isms". I suggest you stop imagining sleights against your person, and quit being an elitist know it all.

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If you've been mod-o-fied,
It's an illusion, and you're in-between.
Don't you be tarot-fied,
It's just alot of nothing, so what can it mean?
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Sins exist only for people who are on the Way or approaching the Way

Except that you're the ones who are wrong, because English comes from England, and we say it ahh/ar.

Take that, ignoramus.

This post has been edited by Tiddles on 8th January 2007 22:00

<--owned.

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If you've been mod-o-fied,
It's an illusion, and you're in-between.
Don't you be tarot-fied,
It's just alot of nothing, so what can it mean?
~Frank Zappa

Sins exist only for people who are on the Way or approaching the Way

You guys seem to be misconstruing what I was saying a bit.

I wasn't directly applying it to someone verbally saying tomahto. Rather, I was talking about people using 'You say tomato I say tomahto' as an excuse for improper pronunciation where appliable, i.e: the example I posted. Picture is not 'pitcher', said person either feels some sort of threat towards the correction, or genuine irritation and given his inability to defend himself in any other way goes "You say tomato I say tomahto." That's what it is, its an excuse for ignorance. I never once said that tomahto was invalid, but rather said that the majority of people that i've both seen and encountered use it as an excuse.

As for calling them ignorant, hey man they are ignorant. If the truth hurts you that much you've got a long sad life ahead of you. Or maybe you're just ignorant too and don't really know what it is that i'm saying. Like me, hell, i'm ignorant of the Spanish language. I'd expect people that aren't fluent in or learning English to be the same. Get off your high horse mang.

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This one time I punched a bear in the forehead TO DEATH! I still have the scars on my chest. I am the manliest man that ever did man.

League: Z3roHawk
Steam: Zero_Hawk
Wii U: Zero_Hawk
FF14 - Goblin - Zero Hawk <Fiend>

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Funny, classism and racism are supposed to be outdated.

Get thee, like Hermes, with feet deftly winged and be away! Tarry not, cur, or I will take upon me the seat of Olympus and cast you into Hades. Zounds!

You see. Classicism is never outdated.

Oh...classism, not classicism. Sorry.

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What gets me is America taking the English language, changing a lot of the pronounciation and spelling but still calling it English.

I call it cheeky!

They should call it Americish or something.
Ok, I admit it... that was foolish.

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'Let that be a lesson to all oppressive vegetable sellers.'

Quote (fatman @ 8th January 2007 18:02)

What gets me is America taking the English language, changing a lot of the pronounciation and spelling but still calling it English.

I call it cheeky!

They should call it Americish or something.
Ok, I admit it... that was foolish.

I actually read an article about that somewhere, and it was started by Webster (yes, the Webster of the American English dictionaries) in the 1700s, who thought American English should be different, because we're not the same country. I think it was after the Revolution. In fact, my social studies teacher says in 200 years British English and American English will be two separate languages.

So call them cheeky if you like. It's not a word many Americans use .

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Squenix games completed:

FFIII
FFIV
FFVI
FFVII
FFIX
FFX
FF Tactics: Advance 2
Chrono Trigger
Dragon Quest 8
Dragon Quest 11
Super Mario RPG

Pronounce words however you want to.

If that comes from upbringing or location or region or speech impediment or whatever, it doesn't matter. Fact is, it's your voice and you should use it however you like.

All of you in here who are denouncing pronounciations as "ignorant" need to take a step back and realize how much you sound like sanctimonious

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assholes

. People can speak however they like, and it's not you're place to tell them different.

I'm in a management job that deals heavily with the public from all over the country and world. From arabic accents up in New Jersey to the most southern southern belle calling me from San Diego to the flat northwestern voice of that army colonel in Japan who does his bases' tax returns, I've heard it all. If there's one thing I can say about all of them, it's that I've learned to celebrate our different voices, rather than point out criticisms with them.

Just my .02

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I think it's fairly obvious that though England was speaking it first America speaks it better.

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"That Light has bestowed upon me the greatest black magic!"

OK, this topic has gotten even dumber than I would have imagined.

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?