• @Semjaza@lemmynsfw.com
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      14 days ago

      I love to poke at people’s conception of Western with these questions:

      Is New Zealand Western?
      Is Japan Western?
      Is Brazil Western?
      Is South Africa Western?
      Is Kenya Western?
      Is Lebanon Western?
      Is Israel Western?
      Is Hungary Western?
      Is Finland Western?
      Is Russia Western?
      Is Armenia Western?

      • @OmegaLemmy@discuss.online
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        114 days ago

        If your nation was within NATO, it’s likely western If after the collapse of the USSR, your nation joined EU, it’s likely western And anything outside this category would be third world or eastern (Russia, China, Vietnam)

        • @Semjaza@lemmynsfw.com
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          14 days ago

          I realise you were just offering a hueristic, but Ironically all of the three countries you listed were Second World nations. (I’ve also never heard Eastern used in a similar way to Western in the way you used it at the end there before.)

          Australia isn’t Western then, but Romania is?

          • @killabeezio@lemm.ee
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            214 days ago

            That’s because east-west is not based on the region, it’s based on cultural aspects, along with a few other things like how people communicate. This is why Australia is western as it has a western culture. So, the whole cold war NATO thing is not 100% accurate, but defining first, second, and third world is since those are defined by political ideologies.

            • @Semjaza@lemmynsfw.com
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              14 days ago

              Well yes, First (Cold War era capitalists), Second (Communist, Marxist, and Maoist nations), and Third World (non-aligned and all the rest of them) are all clearly defined.

              Western is more nebulous, which is why I like to push back at it. Each person’s idea of “Western” tends to be a little different.

              If we’re taking the cultural root then Brazil, Israel and Lebanon make a nice test cases.

              Edit: oh, you’re making the case that Western = First World Nations. That’s a fair and valid short cut, with Japan/South Korea/RoC, and various oost-Communist states in Europe.

  • @stinky@redlemmy.com
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    1515 days ago

    When talking about the letter of the alphabet, I say “double u”

    When that letter occurs in a word, it’s pronounced with pursed lips and full throated vowel sound like in “water”

      • @ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world
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        15 days ago

        That’s something I’ve never understood about German or Russian. Both languages have letters that make the English w sound yet they have trouble with it? It’s not like the “th” sound which doesn’t exist in German so it makes no sense to me.

        If you can pronounce the sound why can’t you pronounce it for w’s??

        • The German w sounds like the English v, while the German v sounds like the English (and German) f.

          IPA of the German word “wir”: /viːɐ̯/

          IPA of the English word “with”: /wɪθ/

          I actually had to look it up, but in German the /w/ sound doesn’t really exist? In some dialects the “qu” string is pronounced as /kw/ [according to Wikipedia] but in most it’s pronounced as /kv/ - at least that’s how I’d pronounce it and I’m mostly talking in Standard High German.

  • @Skunk@jlai.lu
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    15 days ago

    Double V (pronounced double vé, so it’s double you in English).

    www is “double vé double vé double vé” in France, but often said “vévévé” in Switzerland. I believe that’s coming from the German speaking part of the country and adapted to French language.

    • @Ledivin@lemmy.world
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      615 days ago

      Funny, opposite shortening in English - “double you double you double you” often becomes “dubdubdub”

    • Meldrik
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      615 days ago

      Same in Denmark. I think it’s only English that’s weirdly pronouncing it as “double you”, even though the letter “W” is clearly two V’s 😁

  • @med@sh.itjust.works
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    15 days ago

    How someone is pronouncing W is actually a good way to guess where the speaker is from, or where the person that taurht them learned english.

    double you for british/american accents

    dubba you for some american accents

    Dablu or dabloo is a clear indication that the speaker is not a naitive western english speaker, usually indicating indian for the speaker.

    double v (often pronounced as double we) usually points towards somewhere near germany/holland/belgium

    I’ve never heard anyone say just dub, curious if anyone has?

    Edit: I lied. W pronounced ‘dub’ is only ever used to indicate a ‘win’. e.g. ‘Took the dub’