Phrases customarily mispronounced - "want to" etc.

[Mark44]

We went to a cute little village, Saffron Walden. kind of touristy with lots of old buildings.
The name we were told was derived from their agricultural product of the time, saffron (a money crop spice) and the fact that it was had a wall around the place (walled in --> walden) to protect it against plunderers.

I would guess that the "walden" portion means "wooded valley" rather than "walled-in," for the same reason that Walden Pond got its name. Also, most towns that arose in the Medieval Ages that had anything of value, had walls around them, so a town without walls around it would be unusual, and thus justify including that fact in the name.

According to this source, https://www.houseofnames.com/walden-family-crest,

The surname Walden comes from the Old English words wealh and denu, which mean foreigner and valley. Thus, the surname would have been given to a person who was a stranger from a valley. Another source claims a slightly different origin of the place name: "The name Walden is said to be derived from the Saxon words Weald and Den, signifying a woody valley. At a latter period the place was called Waldenburgh.

They also mention Saffron Walden in the same article.

 

[sysprog]

i once did a year post-doc in the UK and we tuored around abit with some friends knowledgeable about the history/culture of the area.
We went to a cute little village, Saffron Walden. kind of touristy with lots of old buildings.
The name we were told was derived from their agricultural product of the time, saffron (a money crop spice) and the fact that it was had a wall around the place (walled in --> walden) to protect it against plunderers.

Apparently whoever told you that didn't just make it up $-$ from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saffron_Walden:

Saffron Walden's unofficial coat of arms showed the saffron crocus within the walls of the castle in the form of an heraldic pun – as in, "Saffron walled-in".​

 

[Evo]

I worked with a manager that would say "we have a 50% chance of participation today, you might want to bring an umbrella, don't want to get wet". WUT?

 

[symbolipoint]

I worked with a manager that would say "we have a 50% chance of participation today, you might want to bring an umbrella, don't want to get wet". WUT?

A few people mishandle or badly mispronounce certain words; for some reasons, they just do not know how to say them correctly. I had met a very small number of people like that. This goes to something about neurology.

 

[wukunlin]

Where do we draw the line between accent and common mispronounciation?

 

[Ophiolite]

Most of time, I will pronounce "want to" as "wantah". The word "to" also gets pronounced as "tah" or "tuh" in such phrases as "to do", "to see".

Being a naturally courteous and retiring individual I could not possibly say anything as aggressive as "I want to", preferring the gentle "If you don't mind, I would like to." :)

 

[phinds]

Being a naturally courteous and retiring individual I could not possibly say anything as aggressive as "I want to", preferring the gentle "If you don't mind, I would like to." :)

And what if they mind? Do you STILL want to?

 

[Ophiolite]

And what if they mind? Do you STILL want to?

Of course. But being British I suppress it and smile disarmingly.

 

[phinds]

Of course. But being British I suppress it and smile disarmingly.

Ah. I'm from New York. I just stab them and do it anyway.

 

[jsgruszynski]

That looks like what is usually called a 'twist' $-$ Dunkin' Donuts French crullers look like this:

View attachment 264303

In Mandarin, the word for donut is different in Taiwan vs. China.

甜甜圈 - Taiwan - tián tián quān - sweet-sweet ring (or very sweet ring)

圈饼 - China - quān bǐng - ring cake

Two different words divergently evolving with only 70 years of separation. That's how fast languages can diverge!

 

[Mark44]

Two different words divergently evolving with only 70 years of separation.

I don't think it's just 70 years of separation. The main language dialect on Taiwan is Taiwanese Hokkien, which is different from Mandarin.

I lived with a family long ago where the wife was of Chinese origin (she was born here in the US). Her parents and grandparents spoke a dialect called Toisan, which I believe is a dialect of Cantonese. In that dialect, chopsticks were called "fai jee" but in Mandarin, they're called "kwaitse" - at least to my ear.

 

[sysprog]

In Mandarin, the word for donut is different in Taiwan vs. China.

甜甜圈 - Taiwan - tián tián quān - sweet-sweet ring (or very sweet ring)

圈饼 - China - quān bǐng - ring cake

Two different words divergently evolving with only 70 years of separation. That's how fast languages can diverge!

They're two different categories of pastries $-$ the second term refers to traditional wedding or courtship cakes. Also, Taiwan has a strong heritage from the Guangdong (Canton) region, which has for a time much longer than 70 years been culturally and linguistically more or less divergent from other parts of China. The Cantonese wedding cakes tradition dates back at least as far as the Three Kingdoms period.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marry_girl_cake

 

[Ivan Seeking]

About the time I was 30 years old, it suddenly struck me that my mother's side of the family would say things like, "Take the chicken out of the freezer to dethaw it." If they wanted something thawed, they and I would say we want it dethawed. I had heard it my entire life and for the first time it struck me that to dethaw something would logically mean to freeze it!

I happened to be talking with another moderator here back around 2003, Monique, who mentioned that this sounds like be-thaw, which would mean "to thaw" as a logical extension of German. And my mother was German and came from a town settled by German people. So it makes sense that the original be-thaw, loosely translated from German, evolved into dethaw, and stuck.