How do you say and spell ........ ?

Where else can we go to discuss such matters?!

The world is our oyster!

Russ (who's-thinking-of-how-Brooklynites-pronounce-Erster).

O la la . . . comme c'est fou, ça

I am from the mid-west originally and have a slight "t" sound at the end of Uh, and it is a back of the mouth / front of throat beginning of a "t" sound as if I could easily turn it into a k sound or maybe the start of a guttural German sound, but that would be a silly thing to do.

It isn't a behind the teeth "t" sound. It isn't (aren't??) a "K" or beginning of a "Q" sound 'cause there's air being pressed through rather than cutting it off.

I think we need to rename the sound to ....? Hmmm. No, wait, a twenty seven letter alphabet would drive Omsig crazy.

S(is it hmmm or hummm?)quinney

What I can't get is how many USians say "all right"


It's with a consonant I have never heard anywhere else. It's almost allight, but isn't.

Me too, Chai. No t in there, tongue behind bottom teeth. But I'm a mixed vocal breed, Boston and Santa Rosa, California, with smidges of Chicago. As you'd guess, I'm a fool at italian.

I did think, when I read the first post, that I'd seen it as "oh oh", which is true, since I was bred on Spot and his dog life.

I was raised on all right as two words, much the same as re many other now-conjoined words I see around.

I hate my voice on tape, but I haven't heard it for a long time. First of all, it's a f'n monotone, part of why I am a miserable singer. I have a certain liveliness as a human that works to counter that, but I am capable of sending people to sleep. That's not fun from either side.

Damn it, if I'm saying it like Scooby Doo, I stop the first syllable with the back half of my tongue pressed against my soft palate, in anticipation of the "r" sound at the beginning of the second syllable. Still no tee for mee, tho it bee for thee.

It's more like 'ahright' for me.

A'ight.

When I was down in GA, a'ight was a popular affectation. Rarely did I hear it roll out like that naturally. Course, I can't hear you say it.

It doesn't sound like a black thing when I say it (shocking, I know), just lazy unenunciating murmuttering Californio. The tongue approaches the roof of the mouth and undulates forward in a half-assed attempt at an "R," and there may be a hint of that letter in the hearing, but the lips don't participate. Maybe it's more along the lins of aright

There's no "L" to be found, just like when grampaw said the word "almond."

I hear that!

Ah. My tongue has nothing to do with it...it's semi glottal stop.

On the uh-oh, I agree with you. But with the Scooby Doo ruh-roh, the stop is accompanied (in my mouth) by a movement of the tongue to "R" position, at which point it becomes involved in the stop as well.

It's "aw-right" here.

Hmm. Where did those Ls go?

Several things occurred to me over the past day:
1) No one has mentioned what I was taught by a girlfriend from Minnesota: The expression is not 'uh-oh' it's "ooftah" or, as she reported:
"You say 'oof-tah' when you see it, and 'ish-tah' when you step in it."

2) As about "all right": I lost many points on compositions because I couldn't remember to spell 'all right' as two words, I used 'alright'.
"That is -2pts again, Mr. Nation."
"Thank you, Sister."

Several years later I was in a music store looking at sheet music. (Do they still sell sheet music for popular songs? I think I was looking for American Pie because I wanted to memorize all the verses.) I found the sheet music for "Jesus is just alright with me." and for about two minutes I thought about buying it and mailing it to the convent on the high school grounds. (wise ass)

3) Americans do not use 'all right' as the British do- as a start point. I love it when they do that.
"George will now tell us about his weekend adventure."George stands and faces us. (Pause)
"Right." (pause) "We headed out early..... ."
It's a form of pre-punctuation that only exists in the American "Alright,....... " which is a lot softer unless it's being said in exasperation.
"Alright!! That enough!"

4) A search of the New York Times (god, I love the Internet) over the past year finds many instances of "uh oh" and several, but not as many ''uh-oh"s and (tah-dah) only one "ut oh" used by a reader, not a NYTimes writer, is his comment about an article. The reader was from ........ Michagen. Solid central USA.

So, I think it's Okay or OK for me to say "ut -oh" because I picked it up while I was wandering out West of here, but not spell it that way because it will just make people stare.

Right.
Now on to bigger and better things,
Joe(must get out in the sunshine of NYC)Nation

when ever i'm uncertain, i turn to my trusty

That much info about your tongue kind of makes me go pink.

It's spelled "uff da." It's kinda pronounced like "ooftah" though, you're right. I'd say it more "oofdah."

The meaning is somewhere between "uh-oh" and "oy vey."

More than anything, I wish you had said it sounded somewhere between "uh oh" and " oy vey".

Getcher tongue around that one, Joe Nation.