What's this?

I enjoy finding out about things. Now I'm retired (I have been for 14

years), I have time to research subjects I find interesting. So I

do!

The HPR project is going through a phase where the queue can get very

low, so I thought having a subject where I could fire off short shows

from time to time would help with this. Maybe we can make a series where

others who like the idea can contribute when the mood takes them!

My plan is to keep details to a minimum and provide links to sources

of more information if you're someone who likes to dig deeper!

TIL 1 - is it learnt

or learned?

I discovered that both are acceptable. Both are the past tense (and

past participle) of the verb "to learn":

learnt is an older form which is more common in British

English

learned is more common in US English, and is becoming more

popular in the UK

Links

Grammarist:

Learned vs. learnt

BBC

Ask About English

TIL 2 - the French word

for piggy bank

I watch a YouTube channel from a Canadian woodworker who produces

English and French versions of his episodes. His latest one is about

making a wooden piggy bank, or tirelire in French.

I learnt French at school (though I wasn't much good at it), but have

never come across this word. My questions are:

Where does it come from?

How do you say it?

The Wiktionary page below has answers to both.

It's of onomatopoeic origin (representing the rattling of

coins).

There's audio on the page showing how to say it (as well as the IPA

version [International Phonetic Alphabet], see below).

Links

YouTube channel - The Woodpecker:

L'gosseux

d'bois EP 305 - Une tirelire en bois

The Woodpecker

EP 305 - A wooden piggybank

Wiktionary:

tirelire

TIL 3 - how to

pronounce IPA coded words

I actually learnt about this a while ago, but I thought now would be

a good time to share.

The IPA form of tirelire is /tiʁ.liʁ/ (I

included the enclosing slash delimiters which aren't part of the IPA but

have significance; see the IPA Wikipedia page for details). I have seen

these symbols for years but have never managed to decode them

reliably.

A few months ago I wondered how to deal with them reliably (and

easily). There are many sites offering to transcribe English (and other

languages) to IPA, a few of which are free. I only found one that would

attempt to speak IPA, and that is IPA

Reader.

Paste the IPA into the form, select a reader voice, and click "Read".

Some of the voices seem a bit odd. I settled on "Brian" for British

English, and it seems fine.

Links

International

Phonetic Association - creators of the International

Phonetic Alphabet

IPA Reader