On Mon, 13 May 2013, Ardith Hinton wrote to mark lewis:   
      
    AH> Some things don't translate easily from one dialect to another.    
      
   very true...   
      
    AH> Here is a joke I read in a British magazine years ago, for example,   
    AH> which may leave some of my modem buddies wondering why it made such   
    AH> an impression on me at the time:    
      
    AH>                 Q.  A soldier, a sailor, and an airman were riding    
    AH>                    together in a car.  Who was driving?   
      
    AH>                 A.  The soldier, because he had the khakis.   
      
   i like that :hahaha:   
      
    AH> It's a pun.  Hereabouts "khaki" may be pronounced in either of two   
    AH> ways, one of which indeed sounds like "car key".  It seems to me   
    AH> that folks who live or once lived in London... or whose recent   
    AH> ancestors did... generally prefer the latter while USAians   
    AH> generally use a hard short "a" as they do in "drama" and save the   
    AH> /r/ for situations where they can actually see it in print.    
    AH> YMMV... [chuckle].    
      
   when i read it, it seemed to be more of a bostonian type joke...   
      
     Look at her psds!   
      
   translation:   
      
     Look at her pierced ears!   
      
      
   AH>  I figured that out years ago when as a newlywed   
   AH>  I used the latter in the presence of a uncle-in-   
   AH>  law I hadn't met previously... [blush].   
      
   ml>  ooohhh... that sounds like a story just begging   
   ml>  to be shared :)   
      
    AH>            Thankyou.  I'm not sure I have much to tell, however.    
    AH> For a variety of reasons I unexpectedly found myself alone with   
    AH> this person & both of us were trying to make polite conversation.    
    AH> I don't recall now why I mentioned "pants" ... but I could tell by   
    AH> the look on his face that I'd made a faux pas.  My GAGE CANADIAN   
    AH> DICTIONARY informs me in definition #3 that this word may be used   
    AH> with reference to underwear, but in those days I was working from   
    AH> an earlier edition and (as is fairly typical of native speakers)   
    AH> hadn't looked up the word because I thought I knew & because none   
    AH> of my students seemed to have problems with it. Where we came from   
    AH> most people would specify "underpants" and/or use a synonym.   
    AH> Meanwhile the only two individuals who might have been able to help   
    AH> out because they'd experienced life on both sides of the ocean were   
    AH> effectively absent.  As soon as I saw his facial expression I knew   
    AH> what was going on in his mind... but he was a schoolteacher too,   
    AH> and we managed to get on the same wave length.  :-)    
      
   hahah! yes, i've heard some older folks refer to their underbritches as   
   "pants" but never thought much about it... i can see where it would be a bit   
   of a situation at times depending on the company and circumstances ;)   
      
   )\/(ark   
      
   --- FMail/Win32 1.60   
    * Origin:  (1:3634/12.71)