I don't want to learn Queen's English

No, read the other posting about California accents. The Valley isn't a suburb. It's a large valley (duh) with many cities within the city of Los Angeles. It has some poor, some middle-class, some rich. You probably won't find too many actors/actresses there, though.

<<You probably won't find too many actors/actresses there, though.>>

Yes there are many working actors and actresses living in the Valley. They just aren't CELEBRITY actors and actresses. Those people usually move to big mansions in Beverly Hills, Bel-Air, Holmby Hills, and the Malibu Colony.

Do people in LA say GAWD, MAWM (AW like in the NYC pronunciation of RAW, SAW.. AW being a sound like O in FOR, DOOR) like in the Valley Girl accent or do they pronounce it like GOD [gahd], MOM [mahm]....???

many thanks

"God" and "mom" in California are pronounced in the Valley Grrl form [Oh my Gahd!"]

Vanessa, people in New York don't pronounce "mom" and "dad" "mawm" and "gawd". We say mahm and gahd

Vanessa wrote:
-AW like in the NYC pronunciation of RAW, SAW.. AW being a sound like O in FOR, DOOR-

I believe nyc pronuncation is RAW, SAW and WesternUS pronunciation is RAH, SAH

John Wayne always pronounced HAWK like HAHK, never with a closed, NYClike sound...

And its Ross [rahs] not Rooooooooooooooooooous,
Lost [lahst] not Looooooooooooooust

I know what vanessa meant and again - she's wrong! Mom is not pronounced with a closed "o"!

Madonna now lives in a large palatial mansion deep in the English countryside, and she has turned it into a sort of Fort Knox type place with all the security precautions. It is a very old property several centuries old which, of course, has been totally modernised internally as most of them have. Her land (an area of oustanding natural beauty) attached to the property contains public rights of way which local people have used for centuries as a means of recreation..walking, rambling etc.

Now sweet Madonna has reportedly resorted to legal measures to deny the local people (lesser mortals I guess) of this privilege, so they would be only too pleased if she returned to The Valley, or anywhere for that matter as long as it's not rural Wilthsire.

typo: Wilthsire = Wiltshire (a county in SW England)

Madonna should be stoned to death. I can't stand her.

I just love the idea that Madonna will become entangled in some arch-English right-of-way legal suit! Just like Mr. Frankland in the Hound of the Baskervilles, who studied old documents to find rights-of-way across his property and invite local people to use them, just so that he could prosecute them for illegal trespassing... With the result that he was regularly burned in effigy (in the form of a hay doll) in the village of Fernworthy. His passion was the common law of merry old England...

Fredrik:

I have heard nothing more of Madonna aka Esther and her controversy over rights-of-way and the locals of a sleepy English village so I have no idea which side was victorious. Nasty Mr Frankland.....how can you explain the mentality of such a character, but they exist I reckon.

Back to the Queen's English.

In my coursework right now I have to plough through the British Press and if I come across a language related link I try to post it in here hoping that it will be of interest. The link below refers to an article in the business section of a daily national.

Basically, the point of this article is to pinpoint the lack of appreciation by many British business people that most foreigners do not understand colloquial or idiomatic English, especially of course British English because that's what we are talking about. Certain phrases can lead to misunderstandins and even acute embarrassment all round. A good many phrases and idioms are easily understood Brits but mean nothing to foreigners (including Americans in some instances!) or are completely misconstrued with either amusing or highly embarrassing results.

Sorry it's about a mile long but just click on it.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2005/01/20/cneng20.xml&menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2005/01/20/ixcity.html

The phrase "over the moon" is used quite often here in the UK, but has nothing to do with being pregnant. I'm over the moon imparting that bit of useless information to you!

Damian:
Look at this:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtmlxml=/news/2004/09/13/nmad13.xml

Madonna had to let local Quakers bury on of their own on her estate because they have a right-of-burial on her estate, dating from 1699! This is really what I love about Britain...That every little nook of landscape is steeped in centuries of history...That a Roman road may go through your garden, or a holy ley line, connecting Stonehenge with Glastonbury or Quakers having a right to bury people in your garden!

And I love Mr. Frankland... When I think more about it, I think he opened cases in order to tear down fences that were against old rights-of-ways and naturally people started using this new ways. But then he sued them for trespassing. It is perhaps unnecessary to say that he spent all his money, just for the pleasure of rejoicing in the tradition of common law...

Funny that you mention phraseology / idiomatics... I am just learning about that in my German classes. Interesting article! As a fellow-Germanic speaker I get most of the English idiomatics, but phrases like "pulling your leg" is really absurd, untill you get the hang of them.

In German they have a phrase: Das geht auf keine Kuhhaut = That doesn't fit in on any cow-skin! It means that something is unacceptable and comes from medieaval times, when people were writing on cow skins!

Ok, correction: The Quakers (bless them, for they make life funnier!) only have right-of-way across the land of the Kabbala lady, in order to come to their burial ground, which was given to them in 1663 by a former owner of the estate, who had been converted to the Society of Friends.

And while we are talking about rights-of-way and trespassing. In Norway (and Sweden, I think) we can rejoice in the liberties of the ancient "allemannsrett" (=everybody's right) that allows you to ramble, camp and pick berries and mushroms on ALL land that are not cultivated. That includes land used for grazing (as long as the grass is not regularly cut).

I think this right is the wet dream of the Scottish National Party...

But even in our little democratic paradise there is a snake... One of the richest women in Norway, Mille-Marie Treschow (snobbish German name...boooooh!), who is married to a man who owns lots of food stores, has a castle-like mansion, Fritzøe, in Larvik outside Oslo. It was the seat of one of Norway's two counties/earldoms, which was abolished together with the tiny rest of the Norwegian feudal peerage (one barony) in 1821. This woman has shut her game park off from the public and you have to get a permit from her office in order to ramble in the park. How humiliating! And the town council does not want to apply the allemannsrett with force, because she owns the biggest industry in the town!

But in all other parts of Norway, you can just ignore the few no-trespassing signs, as long as the land is not cultivated and ramble, camp (though 500 meters from any house) and pick mushrooms and berries (as long as you are not in the land of the sami people in the far north, because they pick cloudberries commercially!)