Fun Stuff > CHATTER
Ridiculousness!!
Akima:
Even in Lancashire I might take a dislike to someone who suggested I was a triad gangster simply because I'm of Chinese descent.
--- Quote from: pwhodges on 13 Jun 2013, 02:30 ---The quark suffered a similar fate, being pronounced qu-ah-rk instead of the intended qu-or-rk.
--- End quote ---
Really? I thought the name was taken from Finnigan's Wake:
"Three quarks for Muster Mark!
Sure he has not got much of a bark
And sure any he has it's all beside the mark."
The rhymes suggest that qu-ar-k was intended, even in an Irish accent!
I say "jif". But English spelling/pronunciation is so inconsistent that it can't make up its mind how to say "gill", depending on whether it is part of a fish, or a unit used to measure the volume of, for example, a fish-tank.
pwhodges:
On quark:
--- Quote from: Gell-Mann, who invented the term ---In 1963, when I assigned the name "quark" to the fundamental constituents of the nucleon, I had the sound first, without the spelling, which could have been "kwork". Then, in one of my occasional perusals of Finnegans Wake, by James Joyce, I came across the word "quark" in the phrase "Three quarks for Muster Mark". Since "quark" (meaning, for one thing, the cry of the gull) was clearly intended to rhyme with "Mark", as well as "bark" and other such words, I had to find an excuse to pronounce it as "kwork". But the book represents the dream of a publican named Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker. Words in the text are typically drawn from several sources at once, like the "portmanteau" words in "Through the Looking-Glass". From time to time, phrases occur in the book that are partially determined by calls for drinks at the bar. I argued, therefore, that perhaps one of the multiple sources of the cry "Three quarks for Muster Mark" might be "Three quarts for Mister Mark", in which case the pronunciation "kwork" would not be totally unjustified. In any case, the number three fitted perfectly the way quarks occur in nature.
--- End quote ---
On gill: then how about the name which is pronounced one way but can be spelt Gill (short for Gillian, I guess) or Jill...
Thrillho:
I forget what that reason was, but there was a reason for my incredibly racist remark. Also I'm pretty sure he already disliked me. Also, we are now quite good friends, having bonded over my unlikely love of rap music.
nekowafer:
Masterpiece likes sausages.
Masterpiece:
And tacos.
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