Pronunciation of "semi"
JM
Until fairly recently, it had been my perception that the American
English pronunciation of "semi" was a fairly distinct one, particularly
with regard to the "i" - that is, whereas I (English/British) would
say sem-ee, an American (possibly a Canadian also?) would say sem-eye.
However, I now realise that such a difference in pronunciation lies
within (North) America itself. A recent example struck me when I was
watching "Friends" - the episode when Rachel goes into hospital to give
birth - wherein the nurse/receptionist said "sem-eye" (in reference to
a semi-private room) and Rachel said "sem-ee" in the very next sentence.
Another example occurred when Michael Johnson was working as a pundit
for the BBC during the Commonwealth Games. If I remember correctly, he
said "sem-ee-final" rather than "sem-eye-final", though I got the
impression that maybe he was adjusting his pronunciation to suit the
British audience (at one point, he fairly clearly changed his
pronunciation of "baton" in mid-sentence).
Could someone please clarify whether the above two examples are very
much exceptions to the rule or is "sem-ee" fairly commonly heard in
North America. If the latter, is it possible to pinpoint the
pronunciation by region or backgound (if I'm not mistaken, Jennifer
Aniston's parents are Greek so perhaps her family all say "sem-ee")?
Thanks for any input.
--
JM
Harvey V
-snip re: NAmer use of sem-ee/sem-eye-
>
> Could someone please clarify whether the above two examples are
> very much exceptions to the rule or is "sem-ee" fairly commonly
> heard in North America.
I grew up in Canada; sem-ee was all I ever used or heard.
For what it's worth, I always considered "sem-eye" as a southern US
pronunciation, but that may be because I originally heard it in that
context.
--
Cheers, Harvey
Ottawa/Toronto/Edmonton for 30 years;
Southern England for the past 20 years.
For e-mail, harvey becomes whhvs.
Pat Durkin
"JM" <R807...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:GE6G9.5321$t77.44...@news-text.cableinet.net...
I don't hear the single word "semi" pronounced as "sem-ee", but must admit I
don't get around much. If we are referring to the truck (tractor-trailer
combo, tandem truck, or semi) I pronounce it "sem-eye", and most people I
know say that, too. On the other hand, there is a Dodge auto commercial out
on the airwaves now in which the word "hemi" is used. It is pronounced as
"hem-ee" in the commercial:
" http://www.allpar.com/mopar/hemi/hemi.html :
Chrysler produced their first engines with hemispherically-shaped combustion
chambers in the 1951, but these early motors (301, 331, 354, and 392 cu.
in.) share nothing in common with the 426 except for spark plug location and
basic valve train arrangement. These "old style" hemis were primarily
passenger-car motors, although later versions did power the legendary
Crysler 300 "letter cars" until 1958. "
I am not at all sure this would mean a thing with regard to "sem-eye". I
expect the entire subject of these mechanical things is both trade jargon
and local (regional) usage.
Pat Durkin
Wisconsin
my-wings
I have some sympathy for the millipede that was asked which foot he used
first and subsequently found himself unable to walk for thinking too hard.
I'm sure that I pronounce the word used alone as "sem-eye." (That semi
nearly ran me off the road!) I THINK I would be inclined to use the sem-ee
pronunciation when semi is part of another word. (The hospital gave her a
semi-private room.)
I'm from the Midwest, Milwaukee/Chicago area, if that helps.
Alice
Dan W Scott
(all or part of a semi-trailer).
DWS (from all over US, principally southern).
Mark Brader
> Until fairly recently, it had been my perception that the American
> English pronunciation of "semi" was a fairly distinct one, particularly
> with regard to the "i" - that is, whereas I (English/British) would
> say sem-ee, an American (possibly a Canadian also?) would say sem-eye.
>
> However, I now realise that such a difference in pronunciation lies
I'm not sure that I'm entirely consistent. The word "semi", a contracted
name of a type of truck, is not one that I regularly use, but if I did,
I'd pronounce it sem-eye, because I think that's what the people who do
use it say. And I guess I'd use sem-eye in the long form for consistency.
Otherwise, within a well-established word that happens to contain the
prefix "semi-", like semifinal, I would say semi-ee. But if constructing
a nonce formation, or using a formation rare enough that it feels like
one -- say, "semi-nonce" (*) -- then I might be more likely to say
sem-eye as a way of putting a bit of emphasis on the unusual prefix.
(*) I actually did construct this as a nonce formation in writing this
message, but I find that it occurs in one document to be found in
two places on the Web by google.
> A recent example struck me when I was watching "Friends" - the episode
> when Rachel goes into hospital to give birth - wherein the nurse/
> receptionist said "sem-eye" (in reference to a semi-private room)
> and Rachel said "sem-ee" in the very next sentence.
In each case, did they say "semi-private" in full, or just "semi"?
For foreign readers: in Leftpondia, the rooms where patients stay in
a hospital may be "private" (for one patient only) or "semi-private"
(for exactly two patients). Around if there are more than two patients
the room is a "ward" (and usually has four patients), but I don't know
if that applies elsewhere. The hospital charges (the patient, insurer,
whoever) more for a semi-private room and still more for a private room.
--
Mark Brader | "Earthmen learned how to send ships through space, and
m...@vex.net | so initiated human history, though I suppose there was
Toronto | previous history on Earth." -- Jack Vance, "Emphyrio"
My text in this article is in the public domain.
Aaron J. Dinkin
> Until fairly recently, it had been my perception that the American
> English pronunciation of "semi" was a fairly distinct one, particularly
> with regard to the "i" - that is, whereas I (English/British) would
> say sem-ee, an American (possibly a Canadian also?) would say sem-eye.
I had the opposite impression about the distribution of the two
pronunciations.
Personally, I pronounce the prefix "semi-" both ways, but probably with
/i/ more often than with /aj/. The word "semi", referring to a kind of
truck, I only say with /i/.
-Aaron J. Dinkin
Dr. Whom
JM
> "JM" <R807...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Until fairly recently, it had been my perception that the American
>> English pronunciation of "semi" was a fairly distinct one, particularly
>> with regard to the "i" - that is, whereas I (English/British) would
>> say sem-ee, an American (possibly a Canadian also?) would say sem-eye.
>>
>> However, I now realise that such a difference in pronunciation lies
>> within (North) America itself. A recent example struck me when I was
>>
>> Could someone please clarify whether the above two examples are very
>> much exceptions to the rule or is "sem-ee" fairly commonly heard in
>> North America.
>
> I have some sympathy for the millipede that was asked which foot he used
> first and subsequently found himself unable to walk for thinking too hard.
I'm not familiar with this particular millipede but I love the analogy
and I can certainly relate to the feeling. As a small aside, before
returning to the topic in question ....
When I was at university many moons ago, I put my name forward for, and was
appointed as, coach of my college's womans' football (soccer) team. At
that time, they had no goalkeeper so it was a case of looking for
volunteers and teaching them the 'art'. "No problem", I thought, "I've
been a 'keeper myself since I was knee-high to a grasshopper and I've played
rugby for nearly as long so it should be a doddle to teach someone else to
throw themself about like an idiot".
Of course, much like the millipede, the more I thought about it, the
less I knew how I actually did it. What had been second nature to me for so
long, suddenly became a minor miracle.
But anyway ...
> I'm sure that I pronounce the word used alone as "sem-eye." (That semi
> nearly ran me off the road!) I THINK I would be inclined to use the sem-ee
> pronunciation when semi is part of another word. (The hospital gave her a
> semi-private room.)
Hmmm, admittedly, when I posed the question I hadn't considered a
variation in pronunciation according to whether "semi" was spoken as a
stand-alone word or in combination with another largely, I suppose, because
there is no variation in the way I say it. It's always "sem-ee" to me.
This is something I will doubtless keep an ear out for in future.
> I'm from the Midwest, Milwaukee/Chicago area, if that helps.
Thankyou.
--
JM
JM
> "J.M." writes:
>> Until fairly recently, it had been my perception that the American
>> English pronunciation of "semi" was a fairly distinct one, particularly
>> with regard to the "i" - that is, whereas I (English/British) would
>> say sem-ee, an American (possibly a Canadian also?) would say sem-eye.
>>
>> However, I now realise that such a difference in pronunciation lies
>> within (North) America itself. ...
>
> I'm not sure that I'm entirely consistent. The word "semi", a contracted
> name of a type of truck, is not one that I regularly use, but if I did,
> I'd pronounce it sem-eye, because I think that's what the people who do
> use it say. And I guess I'd use sem-eye in the long form for consistency.
>
> Otherwise, within a well-established word that happens to contain the
> prefix "semi-", like semifinal, I would say semi-ee. But if constructing
> a nonce formation, or using a formation rare enough that it feels like
> one -- say, "semi-nonce" (*) -- then I might be more likely to say
> sem-eye as a way of putting a bit of emphasis on the unusual prefix.
>
>> A recent example struck me when I was watching "Friends" - the episode
>> when Rachel goes into hospital to give birth - wherein the nurse/
>> receptionist said "sem-eye" (in reference to a semi-private room)
>> and Rachel said "sem-ee" in the very next sentence.
>
> In each case, did they say "semi-private" in full, or just "semi"?
Good question. I realise that I could have and should have been
been clearer here. I'm as certain as I can be (without actually watching
the episode again) that both characters said "semi-private" but
pronounced the "semi" part very differently.
> For foreign readers: in Leftpondia, the rooms where patients stay in
> a hospital may be "private" (for one patient only) or "semi-private"
> (for exactly two patients).
Interesting that you should explain this. As a native English speaker,
this strkes me as obvious, even if I'm not totally familiar with the
terminology. However, on the face of it, "semi-private" does seem a
little odd! Perhaps a ward with 4 people should be "quarter-private"!
--
JM
David Buttery
> Hi all,
>
> Until fairly recently, it had been my perception that the American
> English pronunciation of "semi" was a fairly distinct one,
> particularly with regard to the "i" - that is, whereas I
> (English/British) would say sem-ee, an American (possibly a
> Canadian also?) would say sem-eye.
<snip>
Definitely "sem-ee" on all occasions (English Midlands). One point that
hasn't yet been mentioned is the difference in meaning of "semi" alone
between Britain and the US. In America, I undersatand that it refers to
a type of lorry, while over here it almost always means a semi-detached
house (eg "we used to live in a semi down the road").
--
Above address *is* valid - but snip spamtrap to get me to *read*!
1a) WD Yahoo! Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/watershipdown
1b) Bits'n'Bob-stones: http://www.geocities.com/daveb75
2) The GPL Scrapyard: http://www.btinternet.com/~gplscrapyard
JM
> On Sat, 30 Nov 2002 17:34:30 GMT, JM wrote
>
> -snip re: NAmer use of sem-ee/sem-eye-
>> Could someone please clarify whether the above two examples are
>> very much exceptions to the rule or is "sem-ee" fairly commonly
>> heard in North America.
>
> I grew up in Canada; sem-ee was all I ever used or heard.
Thanks. I did wonder about the trend (if it can be called such a thing)
in Canada. I ought to know, perhaps, since I worked closely with a
Canadian ()that is, she was my immediate boss) for many years. However,
I don't have any recollection of her ever having saying "semi". Perhaps
that, in itself, is an indication that she said it the same way I would.
I remember her excitement over the Blue Jays winning the World Series
which is an indication not only of how long ago it was but also what a
miraculous event it was (given that she had previously expressed
absolutely no interest in sport of any kind).
--
JM
Harvey V
> In article <Xns92D6B785...@130.133.1.4>, Harvey V wrote:
-snip-
>> I grew up in Canada; sem-ee was all I ever used or heard.
> Thanks. I did wonder about the trend (if it can be called such a
> thing) in Canada. I ought to know, perhaps, since I worked closely
> with a Canadian ()that is, she was my immediate boss) for many
> years. However, I don't have any recollection of her ever having
> saying "semi". Perhaps that, in itself, is an indication that she
> said it the same way I would.
> I remember her excitement over the Blue Jays winning the World
> Series which is an indication not only of how long ago it was but
> also what a miraculous event it was (given that she had previously
> expressed absolutely no interest in sport of any kind).
To date myself to even older than your boss: I emigrated from Canada
when I was 30, and the Blue Jays had only been around for 5 years.
When I was growing up, baseball was a US thing -- so maybe they've
switched over to "sem-eye" since then, too........ ;)
--
Cheers, Harvey
Old fart......
Aaron J. Dinkin
> When I was at university many moons ago, I put my name forward for, and
> was appointed as, coach of my college's womans' football (soccer) team.
Was that the team that was made up of womans?
JM
Well, truth be known, it was barely a team (in the sense that it was
often difficult to find 11 people willing or able to play) and barely
made up (in the sense that they were probably less "made-up" on the
pitch than they were off it). As to whether they were womans or women, I
couldn't really care less - some of them were damn good players.
--
JM
rzed
"David Buttery" <gplscrapya...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:Xns92D6EB329946F...@130.133.1.4...
> JM <R807...@hotmail.com> wrote on 30 Nov 2002:
>
> > Hi all,
> >
> > Until fairly recently, it had been my perception that the American
> > English pronunciation of "semi" was a fairly distinct one,
> > particularly with regard to the "i" - that is, whereas I
> > (English/British) would say sem-ee, an American (possibly a
> > Canadian also?) would say sem-eye.
> <snip>
>
> Definitely "sem-ee" on all occasions (English Midlands). One point that
> hasn't yet been mentioned is the difference in meaning of "semi" alone
> between Britain and the US. In America, I undersatand that it refers to
> a type of lorry, while over here it almost always means a semi-detached
> house (eg "we used to live in a semi down the road").
>
Just what *is* a semi-detached house, by the way? Would it be two dwellings
sharing a common wall? A standalone house with loose pieces?
--
rzed
Don Phillipson
news:GE6G9.5321$t77.44...@news-text.cableinet.net...
> Until fairly recently, it had been my perception that the American
> English pronunciation of "semi" was a fairly distinct one, particularly
> with regard to the "i" - that is, whereas I (English/British) would
> say sem-ee, an American (possibly a Canadian also?) would say sem-eye.
>
> However, I now realise that such a difference in pronunciation lies
> within (North) America itself. A recent example struck me when I was
> watching "Friends" - the episode when Rachel goes into hospital to give
> birth - wherein the nurse/receptionist said "sem-eye" (in reference to
> a semi-private room) and Rachel said "sem-ee" in the very next sentence.
Received pronunciation of the part-word semi
is the same as for the part-word hemi as in
hemisphere etc. Other pronunciations are
phenomena of local accent and custom.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada)
dphil...@trytel.com.com.com.less2
my-wings
"David Buttery" <gplscrapya...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:Xns92D6EB329946F...@130.133.1.4...
>
>
> hasn't yet been mentioned is the difference in meaning of "semi" alone
> between Britain and the US. In America, I undersatand that it refers to
> a type of lorry, while over here it almost always means a semi-detached
> house (eg "we used to live in a semi down the road").
>
The use of "semi" in the United States to stand for a "type of lorry"
actually represents shift from the specific to a more general term. When the
word is used stand-alone, it is generally taken to mean one of those big
18-wheeler rigs. But that 18-wheeler rig is composed of a powered unit and a
trailer. More specifically, the powered unit is a truck-tractor (I assume to
distinguish it from a farm tractor) and the trailer is technically a
semi-trailer. I understand that the "semi" of the trailer comes from the
fact that the trailer only has wheels on the back end, unlike a "real"
trailer, which has at least one wheel on each corner. The front end of a
semi-trailer is supported by the fifth-wheel coupling device mounted on the
truck-tractor. The term "semi" has now become generalized to mean the entire
truck-tractor/semi-trailer rig. In fact, one even hears the term used to
refer to the tractor alone.
Alice
And then there are bobtailing and deadheading.
David Buttery
> Just what *is* a semi-detached house, by the way? Would it be two
> dwellings sharing a common wall? A standalone house with loose
> pieces?
The first. Here's a picture of some fairly typical semis in
Manchester:
http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/ewm/ic11/73.html
You can also have "link-detached" houses, such as the one I'm sitting
in right now - which means that one side of my house shares a common
wall with the garage, which itself shares a common wall with my
neighbour's house, and so on all down the road. ("Link-detached" is
never shortened to "link", though.)
Alan Jones
"rzed" <rza...@ntelos.net> wrote in message
news:kTcG9.20553$EY.18309@fe01...
It's one of a pair sharing a common wall.
My UK pronunciation is closer to /sEmI/ than /sEmi/, I think (the -i as in
hit, not heat).
Alan Jones
david56
> "rzed" <rza...@ntelos.net> wrote on 01 Dec 2002:
>
>>Just what *is* a semi-detached house, by the way? Would it be two
>>dwellings sharing a common wall? A standalone house with loose
>>pieces?
>
> The first. Here's a picture of some fairly typical semis in
> Manchester:
>
> http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/ewm/ic11/73.html
It's worth noting that the photo shows six homes, not three as it might
appear at first glance. Each building contains two separate homes - you
can see different front doors on right and left.
I am reminded of the Bonzo Dog Doodah Band's song "My Pink Half of the
Drainpipe" - the central drainpipe is shared and people often paint the
half on their side to match their own house's decor.
--
David
... there ain't no Devil, it's just God when he's drunk ...
=====
The address is valid today, but I will change it to keep ahead of the
spammers.
Tony Cooper
picture of some fairly typical semis in
>> Manchester:
>>
>> http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/ewm/ic11/73.html
>
>It's worth noting that the photo shows six homes, not three as it might
>appear at first glance. Each building contains two separate homes - you
>can see different front doors on right and left.
The only part of this that is not familiar to the American is the
term. We'd call such housed "doubles" or "duplexes". If there's a
difference between these two terms, I don't know it.
--
Provider of Jots, Tittles and the occasional "Oy!"
Tony Cooper aka tony_cooper213 at yahoo.com
david56
> On Sun, 01 Dec 2002 10:45:27 +0000, david56 >> The first. Here's a
> picture of some fairly typical semis in
>
>>>Manchester:
>>>
>>>http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/ewm/ic11/73.html
>>
>>It's worth noting that the photo shows six homes, not three as it might
>>appear at first glance. Each building contains two separate homes - you
>>can see different front doors on right and left.
>
> The only part of this that is not familiar to the American is the
> term. We'd call such housed "doubles" or "duplexes". If there's a
> difference between these two terms, I don't know it.
But my experience is that they are nowhere near as common in the US as
in the UK. I would wager that nearly everybody here from the UK bought
either a flat or a semi as their first home. I wouldn't be surprised if
half the UK homes were semis.
Tony Cooper
<bass.b...@ntlworld.com> wrote:
>Tony Cooper wrote:
>> On Sun, 01 Dec 2002 10:45:27 +0000, david56 >> The first. Here's a
>> picture of some fairly typical semis in
>>
>>>>Manchester:
>>>>
>>>>http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/ewm/ic11/73.html
>>>
>>>It's worth noting that the photo shows six homes, not three as it might
>>>appear at first glance. Each building contains two separate homes - you
>>>can see different front doors on right and left.
>>
>> The only part of this that is not familiar to the American is the
>> term. We'd call such housed "doubles" or "duplexes". If there's a
>> difference between these two terms, I don't know it.
>
>But my experience is that they are nowhere near as common in the US as
>in the UK. I would wager that nearly everybody here from the UK bought
>either a flat or a semi as their first home. I wouldn't be surprised if
>half the UK homes were semis.
I wouldn't argue with you there. However, if you drive through
certain areas in and around Chicago you would feel right at home.
my-wings
"Tony Cooper" <tony_co...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:abekuu0fantnl2qag...@4ax.com...
> On Sun, 01 Dec 2002 10:45:27 +0000, david56 >> The first. Here's a
> picture of some fairly typical semis in
> >> Manchester:
> >>
> >> http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/ewm/ic11/73.html
> >
> >It's worth noting that the photo shows six homes, not three as it might
> >appear at first glance. Each building contains two separate homes - you
> >can see different front doors on right and left.
>
> The only part of this that is not familiar to the American is the
> term. We'd call such housed "doubles" or "duplexes". If there's a
> difference between these two terms, I don't know it.
>
I always thought a duplex was a two-story with one flat above the other,
although that is not how the only Real Estate Glossary I looked at (
http://www.websiteupgrades.com/glossary/free/ ) defines it.
DUPLEX: A building which houses two separate dwelling units.
on the other hand:
TOWN HOUSE: A type of dwelling which shares at least one common wall
with neighboring dwellings.
So, I guess an English "semi" might be a duplex townhouse (as opposed to a
quadraplex) if it were relocated to Providence, RI?
Alice
wild horses couldn't drag me from my coach home
david56
> "Tony Cooper" <tony_co...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:abekuu0fantnl2qag...@4ax.com...
>
>>On Sun, 01 Dec 2002 10:45:27 +0000, david56 >> The first. Here's a
>>picture of some fairly typical semis in
>>
>>>>Manchester:
>>>>
>>>>http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/ewm/ic11/73.html
>>>
>>>It's worth noting that the photo shows six homes, not three as it might
>>>appear at first glance. Each building contains two separate homes - you
>>>can see different front doors on right and left.
>>
>>The only part of this that is not familiar to the American is the
>>term. We'd call such housed "doubles" or "duplexes". If there's a
>>difference between these two terms, I don't know it.
>
> I always thought a duplex was a two-story with one flat above the other,
I would call this a maisonette; I lived in one in Moss Side, Manchester
for about three years (stands back in order to collect respect from
other UK posters)
> although that is not how the only Real Estate Glossary I looked at (
> http://www.websiteupgrades.com/glossary/free/ ) defines it.
>
> DUPLEX: A building which houses two separate dwelling units.
I don't think we have a specific word for a building which contains
exactly two homes - many larger houses in areas of expensive housing are
split into two flats, one on the ground floor and one on the first floor
(yes, I know, but I'm British). This happens both to semis and detached
houses.
> on the other hand:
>
> TOWN HOUSE: A type of dwelling which shares at least one common wall
> with neighboring dwellings.
A town house in the UK is a specific sort of terraced house. A terraced
house is one of a row of homes, all connected together, like this
http://www.cory-and-co-properties.co.uk/prop25.jpg. A town house is
always taller than appears proper, and most usually has three or four
floors.
James Follett
<bass.b...@ntlworld.com> writes
>But my experience is that they are nowhere near as common in the US as
>in the UK. I would wager that nearly everybody here from the UK bought
>either a flat or a semi as their first home. I wouldn't be surprised if
>half the UK homes were semis.
My "starter" home in 1960 was a maisonette. Local planning authorities
have fallen out of love with them since the 1960s.
The important thing about English semis is that they're usually handed
pairs with shared sewage pipes routed along the backs of houses before
joining the main sewer.
--
James Follett. Novelist (Callsign G1LXP)
http://www.jamesfollett.dswilliams.co.uk and http://www.marjacq.com
david56
> In article <3DEA3BD3...@ntlworld.com>, david56
> <bass.b...@ntlworld.com> writes
>
>>But my experience is that they are nowhere near as common in the US as
>>in the UK. I would wager that nearly everybody here from the UK bought
>>either a flat or a semi as their first home. I wouldn't be surprised if
>>half the UK homes were semis.
>
> My "starter" home in 1960 was a maisonette. Local planning authorities
> have fallen out of love with them since the 1960s.
>
> The important thing about English semis is that they're usually handed
> pairs with shared sewage pipes routed along the backs of houses before
> joining the main sewer.
In 1953 when things were still difficult (and you couldn't get the wood
you know), my parents bought a plot of land with some friends, divided
it in two and had a pair of semis built across the centre line. Since
they controlled the whole process, each couple was able to design its
own home; these are identical in size but completely different in
layout inside - doors and windows and rooms in different places.
We children lived in and out of both houses until we moved away when I
was 11, so I never thought it was odd for a pair of semis to be utterly
different.
Mark Brader
>>> The only part of this that is not familiar to the American is the
>>> term. We'd call such housed "doubles" or "duplexes". If there's a
>>> difference between these two terms, I don't know it.
We've had this before. They're semi-detached houses in Toronto and,
as I recall, in some parts of the US as well. The short form "semi"
(semi-ee) seems ordinary to me, but I don't talk about them often
enough to know how common it is, even though the block I live on --
and here I mean this in the narrowest sense, the part of one side of
a street that's between two consecutive streets intersecting it on
that side -- contains 4 pairs of semis as well as 9 detached houses
and an office building.
By the way, one block away is a street called Duplex Avenue, so named
because when built it was intended to be one of a pair of streets
sharing traffic.
"Alice":
>> TOWN HOUSE: A type of dwelling which shares at least one common wall
>> with neighboring dwellings.
"David":
> A town house in the UK is a specific sort of terraced house. A terraced
> house is one of a row of homes, all connected together ...
"Row house" in North America, and "town house" here is just a real estate
euphemism for the same thing rather than having a more specific meaning;
but it's a term that the public has accepted. In practice people tend
to use whichever term was current when the particular row of houses was
built, I think.
--
Mark Brader "You can stop laughing now.
Toronto Well, maybe you *can't*, but you *may*."
m...@vex.net -- Rick Burger
Wood Avens
<bass.b...@ntlworld.com> wrote:
> I wouldn't be surprised if
>half the UK homes were semis.
You think? There's a heck of a lot of terraced houses around still,
and you get more of them to the mile.
(Tried to do a Google search, but all it would give me was estate
agents' websites (Leftpondian: realtors). )
--
Katy Jennison
spamtrap: remove number to reply
Brian Wickham
<tony_co...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>On Sun, 01 Dec 2002 10:45:27 +0000, david56 >> The first. Here's a
>picture of some fairly typical semis in
>>> Manchester:
>>>
>>> http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/ewm/ic11/73.html
>>
>>It's worth noting that the photo shows six homes, not three as it might
>>appear at first glance. Each building contains two separate homes - you
>>can see different front doors on right and left.
>
>The only part of this that is not familiar to the American is the
>term. We'd call such housed "doubles" or "duplexes". If there's a
>difference between these two terms, I don't know it.
>
In NYC there are many homes such as these dating back to the 1920s and
they are called semi-detached, at least in real estate circles. A
"duplex" is an apartment on two floors.
Brian Wickham
Frances Kemmish
> On Sun, 01 Dec 2002 16:41:55 +0000, david56
> <bass.b...@ntlworld.com> wrote:
>
>
>>I wouldn't be surprised if
>>half the UK homes were semis.
>
>
> You think? There's a heck of a lot of terraced houses around still,
> and you get more of them to the mile.
>
> (Tried to do a Google search, but all it would give me was estate
> agents' websites (Leftpondian: realtors). )
>
>
>
The two houses we owned in England were both "end-of-terrace" but were
described by the estate agents as "semi-detached".
Fran
R Fontana
> Until fairly recently, it had been my perception that the American
> English pronunciation of "semi" was a fairly distinct one, particularly
> with regard to the "i" - that is, whereas I (English/British) would
> say sem-ee, an American (possibly a Canadian also?) would say sem-eye.
>
> However, I now realise that such a difference in pronunciation lies
> within (North) America itself. A recent example struck me when I was
> watching "Friends" - the episode when Rachel goes into hospital to give
> birth - wherein the nurse/receptionist said "sem-eye" (in reference to
> a semi-private room) and Rachel said "sem-ee" in the very next sentence.
>
> Another example occurred when Michael Johnson was working as a pundit
> for the BBC during the Commonwealth Games. If I remember correctly, he
> said "sem-ee-final" rather than "sem-eye-final", though I got the
> impression that maybe he was adjusting his pronunciation to suit the
> British audience (at one point, he fairly clearly changed his
> pronunciation of "baton" in mid-sentence).
>
> Could someone please clarify whether the above two examples are very
> much exceptions to the rule or is "sem-ee" fairly commonly heard in
> North America. If the latter, is it possible to pinpoint the
> pronunciation by region or backgound
My impression is that /sEmi/ ("sem-ee") is more usual than /sEmaI/
("sem-eye") in the US, even though the same speaker may use one
pronunciation for some words and the other for other words. That's
true of my speech, certainly. I would tentatively say that the more
ad-hoc-ish a word with "semi-" seems, the more likely I am to consider
using /sEmaI/. Established "semi-" words tend to use /sEmi/. Your
"semifinal" is a good example of this -- that and "semifinalist" are
very commonly used words, and I would find a /sEmaI/ pronunciation to
be strange. But I can imagine myself using "semi-final" in a context
where "semi-final" was not an established usage, particularly if
"final" was an established usage, and there I might well use /sEmaI/
because it's like a new coinage.
> (if I'm not mistaken, Jennifer
> Aniston's parents are Greek so perhaps her family all say "sem-ee")?
Could you explain your logic there? "Semi-" is of Latin, not Greek,
origin (Greek _hemi-_ is a cognate). Would a British person of Greek
parentage (while Aniston is known to be of Greek ancestry,
Googling provides no reason to suppose her parents were not born and
raised in the US, by the way) be particularly likely to use
non-majoritarian pronunciations than, say, a member of the
Anglo-Celtic majority? Oy.
N.Mitchum
----
> Until fairly recently, it had been my perception that the American
> English pronunciation of "semi" was a fairly distinct one, particularly
> with regard to the "i" - that is, whereas I (English/British) would
> say sem-ee, an American (possibly a Canadian also?) would say sem-eye.
As a word on its own, meaning a large truck, I pronounce it
sim-eye. As a prefix, it comes out as sem-ee. The vowels are the
same as those in "pit pie" and "pet peeve."
----NM
JM
R Fontana wrote:
> On Sat, 30 Nov 2002, JM wrote:
>
>> Until fairly recently, it had been my perception that the American
>> English pronunciation of "semi" was a fairly distinct one, particularly
>> with regard to the "i" - that is, whereas I (English/British) would
>> say sem-ee, an American (possibly a Canadian also?) would say sem-eye.
>>
>> However, I now realise that such a difference in pronunciation lies
>> within (North) America itself. A recent example struck me when I was
>>
> My impression is that /sEmi/ ("sem-ee") is more usual than /sEmaI/
> ("sem-eye") in the US, even though the same speaker may use one
> pronunciation for some words and the other for other words. That's
> true of my speech, certainly. I would tentatively say that the more
> ad-hoc-ish a word with "semi-" seems, the more likely I am to consider
> using /sEmaI/. Established "semi-" words tend to use /sEmi/. Your
> "semifinal" is a good example of this -- that and "semifinalist" are
> very commonly used words, and I would find a /sEmaI/ pronunciation to
> be strange. But I can imagine myself using "semi-final" in a context
> where "semi-final" was not an established usage, particularly if
> "final" was an established usage, and there I might well use /sEmaI/
> because it's like a new coinage.
>> (if I'm not mistaken, Jennifer
>> Aniston's parents are Greek so perhaps her family all say "sem-ee")?
>
> Could you explain your logic there?
Well, I was clutching at straws a little but my thinking was probably
along the lines of, if her parents were born and raised (and learnt
English) in Greece then they would tend more towards British English
than American English.
> "Semi-" is of Latin, not Greek, origin (Greek _hemi-_ is a cognate).
Yes, I'm aware of that. It had no bearing on my logic (or lack of logic,
if you prefer).
> Would a British person of Greek
> parentage (while Aniston is known to be of Greek ancestry,
> Googling provides no reason to suppose her parents were not born and
> raised in the US, by the way) be particularly likely to use
> non-majoritarian pronunciations than, say, a member of the
> Anglo-Celtic majority? Oy.
No, not particularly, but then I wasn't suggesting that Jennifer Aniston
sounded particularly un-American. It was just this one word that stood
out and only really because the same word in the same context was
pronounced completely differently (by a different character) in the
previous sentence.
As for JA's parents (just by way of interest) IMDB suggests that her
father (http://www.imdb.com/Name?Aniston,%20John) was born in Crete
and that she spent a year of her childhood in Greece. Unfortunately, it
provides no clues as to where she learnt to say "semi" and who taught
her.
Anyway, thanks for the reponse.
--
JM
Jacqui
> Mark Brader wrote:
>> "J.M." writes:
>>> A recent example struck me when I was watching "Friends" - the
>>> episode when Rachel goes into hospital to give birth - wherein
>>> the nurse/ receptionist said "sem-eye" (in reference to a
>>> semi-private room) and Rachel said "sem-ee" in the very next
>>> sentence.
>>
>> In each case, did they say "semi-private" in full, or just
>> "semi"?
>
> Good question. I realise that I could have and should have been
> been clearer here. I'm as certain as I can be (without actually
> watching the episode again) that both characters said
> "semi-private" but pronounced the "semi" part very differently.
Thanks to the wonders of DVD I can confirm this. The nurse says sem-eye
private and approx 2 seconds later Rachel says sem-ee private.
Jac
Gwtwfanatic
hemeyedemeyesemeye...!
Kay
Mark Brader
> I'm not sure that I'm entirely consistent. The word "semi", a contracted
> name of a type of truck, is not one that I regularly use, but if I did,
> I'd pronounce it sem-eye, because I think that's what the people who do
> use it say. And I guess I'd use sem-eye in the long form for consistency.
However, yesterday while I was in a taxi, the driver had the radio tuned
to CBC, which was broadcasting an interview with a man who had survived
a farming accident. I can't find anything on the web about this, but as
I recall, he and one or more other people were working on loading or
unloading a "semi" with grain, specifically canola, and in trying to deal
with a problem, he fell into the grain and was nearly smothered.
He was from Saskatchewan, he seemed an articulate man, and he pronounced
it "sem-ee".
--
Mark Brader | "...where did they get the sunlight in such a hurry? I know
m...@vex.net | it can be delivered in about eight minutes, but there must
Toronto | be lots of paperwork involved." -- Michael Wares