Since I arrived in Austria, it has been my personal mission to correct the Austrian pronunciation of "V". For some reason, they think it sounds more "English" to pronounce "V"s as "W"s, which leads to such verbal catastrophes as "Ve had a werry vunderful time in Wienna!"
Last night I went to a Johnny Cash tribute at CCW. I went with my good friend and English colleague, Ingrid, and 5-6 of the graduating seniors were there taking a break from studying for Matura. The singer/guitarist had a rich, deep voice and he dressed in black; the violinist could play a mean "Devil Went Down to Georgia" fiddle. And everything was fine, until they sang...
"She walks these hills, in a long black WHALE"
I collapsed in giggles on Ingrid's shoulder, and I'm sure the students in the balcony saw me. By the time they sang the chorus through a second time, Ingrid leaned over to me and said, "it must have been a BLUE whale."
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