Anyone know how the rules of the english language work? My friend is pronouncing the would "Cavalry" as "Calvary...

Anyone know how the rules of the english language work? My friend is pronouncing the would "Cavalry" as "Calvary." I told him how to pronounce it correctly and he's being very stubborn and defending the way he's saying it. Is this literally incorrect? Or is it a dumb interpretation thing.

They are actually two different words:

>cavalry, soldiers who fought on horseback.
>calvary, place outside ancient Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified/place near ancient Jerusalem

I only know the calvary because the church I went to growing up had Calvary in the name

dont listen to this dubble nigger he is a CIA Nigger

Well if anything I was siding with OP. Cavalry is said cav-al-ry, whereas calvary is said cal-va-ry.

So what I meant with my post here is that your are correct and your friend is wrong. But it is very common for people to say it wrong, at least where I live in America. (Eastern USA)

throw him in the gulags

No, he's literally retarded. Standardised English means you don't have to be subject to the whims of metathesis.

If you want more info on why this is, look up the pen/pin argument. Where I live pen/pin and said the same way, but further north there is a distinct difference between pen and pin. This happens a lot with accents. Plus words change regionally over time.

So your friend is wrong over all, but correct for his local accent. If you are curious, just ask family and friends to say the word. If the majority say it wrong, just accept it and move on. Don't be that ITS LEVIOSA, NOT LEVIOSAH asshole who constantly corrects people's accents.

objectively wrong

it doesnt matter if your friend is mispronouncing it a little or a lot - its still mispronounced

ask him why he doesnt say: kal vor are la ee ing

English is a bastardized language that is constantly changing.

USA is closer to old English now then Britain since they decided to copy how the kings and queens talked in the 19th century

It depends what you mean, they are both words.

My Canadian girlfriend and her family drive my English ass crazy. "Lantern" becomes "lantren" and "northern" becomes "northren"... fucking tards.

Not as bad as Americans though with all their wrongness. They really couldn't care less about correct English pronunciation. And I mean COULDN'T care less.

Language and history graduate here, and you're talking shit.

type in 'which accent is closest to old english' into google.

Other linguists agree that British has changed their accents much over the past few hundred years.... While US southern accent is closer to old english since that is pretty much who they were trying to emulate.

Cavalry is an adopted word from French. So it doesn't necessarily follow English language rules. But as mentioned it's pronounced cav-el-ry.

You have to understand English was formed by rural and suburban retards in England perverting and mashing together words from dozens of different languages. Any rules to it are more patterns that were observed after the fact.

That's incredibly inaccurate due to it being a massive generalisation.

You have to define what you mean by "British" as the UK has probably the most variety of accents of any country on the planet. Some English accents have changed drastically but some retain their old qualities.

I'm going to assume you're talking about the classic, upper class actor's English accent, received pronunciation. That is indeed far from Old English or Middle English as it's lost it's rhotic quality. But in the North of England and in Scotland, the rhotic is still present.

The reason Southern American accents are considered (shallowly) as closer to Old English is because of the pronunciation of vowels and rhotic Rs.

This fails to take into account the sheer variety of accents in the UK. Think about Cornwall and how they still speak Cornish, a completely different language than English, and how it influenced the West Country accent, for example. I could go on but I can't be bothered. Suffice to say, it's not that clear cut.

Community college maybe

His dad says it, but nobody else as far as I'm aware.

>uses 'then' to compare
Anything you say about the English language is invalid

>they don't even exist in England

Nice try faggot.

Where do you live? You don't have to say exactly, but I'm sure others do as well, or maybe where his dad is from. Like I said, I think the majority of people near me say it like your friend does. It is one of those cases where "I know this is wrong, but if I say it correctly then I will look like a posh asshat."

Even British accents, who claim they are always correct do the same thing. Ask any Brit to say "Nissan" and they will say "Neh-saan".

I'm a Brit and I've never heard anyone pronounce nissan as 'neh-saan'

Englishfag here, and no we don't. In my experience it is in fact the Americans who would say "Neh-saan" which is actually the correct Japanese.

Further, us English tend to pronounce most cars and indeed most brand names wrong, as we translate the word into an English pronunciation rather than use their own nationality's pronunciation.

We call porche "porsh" for example.

see British are NEVER wrong. Even when they mispronounce a foreign word, they are still correct. You Brits never fail to deliver.

You're not making sense. If it's mispronounced then it can't be correct, by definition.

I and also literally just admitted that us Brits pronounce a lot of shit wrong.

Australia

your friend and his dad are both retarded

Oh fuck off, queerbait, youre pretending to know how to use proper english, but all you fucks talk like "OI, U FAKKIN WUT M8? BLOO'Y 'ELL GUV, OI'LL FAKKIN SMASH YE MAFF WIF ME GOLF BAT ME FINKS. JOLLY FAKKIN 'ELL, YA TWAHT COONT BOLLOCKS KNOB SPANNAH...."

Well I leave near a hillbilly-ish part of the USA, so I hear a various accents, so it doesn't surprise me when I hear something said super weird. I sound closer to the "Standard American" accent, but my older relatives sound more Appalachian.

But as I said before, you are right by official pronunciation standards, but regional accents dominate when everyone is mispronouncing the words the same way. So if he is truly the only one person who you who is saying this, I hope he corrects himself. If most people are saying it incorrectly, just know what they are trying to communicate and life will go on.

You must realise what a retard you're being right now, yes?

Why so salty? All I did was admit English fuck up brand names and you're acting like a spastic. Grow the fuck up.

meh, only british make a huge deal out of this shit.

That's why they have 50 different accents and the whole UK is only half the size of California.

If anyone has a right to different accents its USA with it's vast size difference.

Make up your own fucking language and you can do what you want with it. I love how it makes you faggots so fucking mad to call it English and not American. Hahah. Fucking linguistic cucks hahah.

>implying you created jack shit
>implying modern English isn't a byproduct of the British isle being invaded by several European groups

I didn't imply any of that, shitdick.
Just that it's called English, hahaha, get used to it faggot.

And I bet you think that Brazil speaks Brazilian.