HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1993-05-19, Page 5nternational Scene
aymond Canon
THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MAY 19, 1993. PAGE 5.
Strange
pronunciations
can trip up
the prose
There's a famous old broadway song by
George and Ira Gershwin that contains the
plaintive lament:
Eether, eyether,
Neether, nyether,
Let's call the whole thing off
The Gershwin boys had tapped into
something that makes the English language
one of the most baffling, infuriating — and
delightful — adventures a human tongue can
undertake. Pronunciation. When it comes to
English you might as well throw the rule
book out the window. Although if it goes
through and lands on a rough bough, try not
to cough.
That last sentence used five words that end
in 'ough'. Each one of them is pronounced
differently.
And it's not just words ending in 'ough'. I
grew up just down the street from a kid
named Bruce Kahoon.
I thought.
I was astounded one day when I saw his
last name written out properly. It was spelled
Colquhoun.
Free
Trade
revisited
I recently was invited (for the third time)
to speak at a yearly leadership seminar of
high school students which takes place each
May for three days and which is represented
by a member from each high school in
southwestern Ontario. The foundation in
charge of all this is called HOBY, after its
founder Hugh O'Brian, and movie actor best
known for his portrayal of the TV character
of Wyatt Earp. He had previously been
inspired by one of my heroes, Albert
Schweizer, and it was out of his inspiration
that the HOBY Foundation was born.
The goal is to develop leadership in young
people and they are chosen by their school
with that in mind. I can vouch for the fact
that they are certainly a lively group; they
are filled with questions of all sorts and I am
sure they come away from it all with a
feeling of accomplishment.
At any rate, during the seminar there are a
number of workshops at each of which four
invited speakers explain their views on a
specific topic and then answer questions
afterward. The seminar is then split up into
small groups which the speakers attend on a
rotating basis for further discussion on the
subject.
The session I attended was entitled "Free
Enterprise — Competitive Markets — Can We
Flourish Under Free Trade?" The other three
speakers were the NDP member from one of
the district ridings, a small business/
entrepreneur and a member of the National
Executive of the Canadian Auto Workers.
We had all been asked to bring something
positive to the seminar but I must confess
this was honoured as much in the breach as
in the observance. I guess it must be rather
I have two friends with the surname
MacKay but one pronounces it Mac-Hi and
the other says Mac-Hay.
Then of course there's MacLeod
(pronounced Mac-lowd), and McKeown
(pronounced Mick-Yew-en) and
McLaughlin and McCullough and
McEachern and ...
Well, you get the idea. Some of the odd
pronunciations are totally baffling. Others
have perfectly good explanations. The story
behind the Scottish name of Home, for
instance. During the 16th century Battle of
Flodden Field, Lord Home, who was one of
the Scottish nobles, tried to rally his troops
to drive back the Sassenachs. Lord Home
began waving a banner and shouting his
name "Home! Home! Home!"
His soldiers heard the shouts, thought it
sounded like a good idea, turned on their
heels and headed for home.
The story goes that the next day Lord
Home decreed that the family name would
henceforth be pronounced "Hyoom".
Not that the Scots have any corner on the
wonky pronunciation sweepstakes. In Britain
you can find the rather magnificent family
moniker Cholmondeley.
It's pronounced Chtunley.
There is also Magdalen College in Oxford.
Pronounced Mawdlin.
And Worcester is Wooster and Leicester is
Lester and Ulgham is Uff-im and a place on
difficult to be positive when you dislike the
whole free trade deal as much as the
Canadian Auto Workers do and certainly
that organization's speaker found it difficult
to say anything nice about it. However, I
have been through all that many times so it
did not come as any surprise.
When it came time to do my bit, I pointed
out that the expression "free trade", was, in
fact, misleading in that we do not haVe free
trade now, nor are we likely to have it at any
time in the near future. A far more accurate
expression would be "trade liberalization"
since that is what has been going on ever
since the end of World War II when the
concept was espoused through the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade or GATT as
it is widely known. What we are seeing,
then, is not free trade but trade which is
being systematically liberalized through the
reduction of tariff barriers.
My next clarification was that I was
becoming a bit weary of those who were
either totally against or totally for "free
trade." Like anything else (e.g. social
contract), there are both good and bad points
even when the overall direction is the
preferred one. There is going to be a
considerable distortion in the labour market
and, while this is unfortunate, it would
probably come sooner or later with or
without free trade.
Instead of blaming all job losses on free
trade, as some people are prone to do, such
losses should be viewed with the total scene
in mind. Other probable causes could be a
drop in consumer demand for the product,
poor management, too high labour costs,
high interest rates, or any of the normal
distortions that come with the business
cycle. In short, there are any number of
causes for layoffs, and to blame them all on
free trade is something less than honest.
Nor should it be overlooked that the only
bright spot in the current recession has been
that of exports. Since this brightness was
taking place partially when the Canadian
the south coast of Englapd called
Mousehole.
The pronunciation should be fairly
straightforward, should it not? We have
mouseholes in Canada.
Except the British one is pronounced
Mow-zul.
Strange pronunciations can trip up even
the pros. There's a story told in the halls of
the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
concerning how the late, great Lome Green
early in his career as an announcer, once
bungled a weather forerAst CBC radio.
The script gave the highs and lows for an
Ontario town named Kapuskasing.
When Lorne read it, it came out Ka PUS
kasing.
Oh well, no surprise in a country that has a
city spelled Toronto but pronounced
Trawnna and a province spelled Kwe beck
but pronounced Kay Bek.
Could be worse. We could have Spanish
pronunciations to contend with, the way they
do south of the border.
There's a story about a loud New York
tourist stopping at a restaurant on the
outskirts of Mexia, Texas, buttonholing a
waitress and braying "Now lissen, honey. I
want you to say very slowly and very clearly
the name of this place we're in okay?" The
waitress says "Sure", takes a deep breath,
looks right in the tourists eyes and yells very
carefully "Daaaaaaairy Queeeeeeeeen."
dollar was trading in the 90 cent U.S. range
it says something for the ability of Canadian
exporters to compete when not all the odds
are in their favour.
One example which amused me greatly
was when Canadian National chose to buy
some locomotives from a plant in Erie, Pa.
instead of at General Motors Diesel in
London. The opponents of free trade were
predictably right off the mark screaming
about the injustice of it all and, if I
remember correctly, even the mayor of our
fair city got in the act with a letter of protest
to Ottawa. There was, in fact, little if any
good which could be said about the deal. A
few months later, a huge order came in for
locomotives from a U.S. railway. Was there
any praise from the above mentioned
opponents of free trade? Are you kidding!
Not even a whisper!
Trade liberalization agreements are not
perfect documents; I have already expressed
my reservations about the one with Mexico
which still has to be ratified. However, when
it is the only game in town, we have to take
advantage of the benefits which are provided
so that the winners far outweigh the losers.
Looking back
From the files of the Blyth Standard, Brussels
Post and The Citizen
12 YEARS AGO
May 20, 1981
Sam Sweeney attracted major media
attention when he built his own plane. It
took the Brussels man two years to
complete, about 2000 man hours. It was
supposed to be the fastest home-built plane
there is.
Brussels Fire Department sold its 1929 fire
truck for $5,200 to Larry Shaw of St.
Thomas for use as an antique in Shriner's
parades.
Residents admired the tulip beds at the
municipal building. The bulbs had come
from Holland as thanks to the Canadian
Armed Forces for their involvement in the
liberation of Holland.
The
Short
of it
By Bonnie Gropp
A pause to refresh
I've said it before and Fli say it again; time
is moving much too quickly.
Everyone's in such a hurry to do so much
that there no longer seems to be 24 hours in
a day. Therefore, taking this into account,
doesn't it follow that if we took our time,
we'd have more of it?
Why is it that our lives are geared to go,
go, go, while our minds are saying whoa,
whoa, whoa?
The other day while driving (an exercise
that seems to take up a good portion of my
time) I noticed a man who obviously knew
how to get the most out of his day. I had
followed him for several miles, when he
gently pulled onto the shoulder of the road
and reversed, before coming to rest beside a
pasture, where some spirited horses were
kicking up their heels, dancing in delight of
spring's arrival. The man appeared to have
no other motive than to watch the horses
play.
Overwhelmed by the idea that someone
could take the time out of a busy day to 'park
it', so to speak, I turned around at the first
discreet opportunity to satisfy my curiousity.
Sure enough, there he was sitting with his
arm slung back across the seat, gazing out
the passenger window, apparently just
killing time.
While I tried to come up with other
reasons for why he may have been there, few
seemed likely. The scenario did, however,
bring back to me my affirmation that like
this man I should take advantage of
moments like this. Though I have often said
that we are going to slow down the pace in
the Gropp household we are really not very
good at it.
For example, this past weekend my
husband and I took the occasion of our
anniversary as a chance to get away from the
boisterous dinner table at our home and
partake of a quiet and relaxing meal. I
selected one of those spots where dining is
an event, where the atmosphere and time
spent are to be savoured almost as much as
the food.
However, as the parents of four very
active, healthy kids, dining for us is usually
like driving into a gas station — fill up
quickly and get going. It would seem a habit
that's hard to break. This really became
noticeable the other night, as I watched the
couple at the next table, who incidentally
arrived before we did and had just ordered
when we were ready to leave. It was clear to
us that it wasn't in the back of their heads
that the last person at the table might get
stuck doing dishes.
It wasn't until we were too stuffed to move
quickly, that we finally reached a more
appreciative pace. Perhaps we realized it
was the last chance to extend a rare evening
together that was too quickly coming to its
conclusion, but we tacitly agreed to a
leisurely stroll which was highlighted by
only the lightest of conversation topics.
The time spent was worth it as that bit of
self-indulgence rejuvenated me for a
typically challenging weekend, where even
the task of dividing two cars by three people
proved undaunting.
I recently read that to de-stress your life
you should relax when you least have the
time. It didn't make sense then, but upon
thinking about it I can see the logic. Work is
important, but as it is with a good night's
rest, we accomplish more with a fresh start.
Even a minute's pause could add time to
your day.
Arthur Black