Thursday, March 28, 2019

Whinging



My title is a word I’ve read often lately, I suppose only on British blogs. I’m not going back to analyze my data. I read the word and mentally pronounced it as whining. That’s an old childhood fault of mine, making up pronunciations instead of looking up pronunciations. 

My favorite example is ‘cupboard’, as in Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard. I pronounced it ‘cup board’, and thought how unwieldy a word! I did not make the mental leap from Mother Hubbard’s board of cups to the cabinets in our kitchen with plates and cups until a year or two into school.

These last several weeks have been whinging weeks for me. I thought I’d blog a small treatise, but first I really should see if whinging is synonymous for whining. It is not.  And, they are not pronounced alike! I suppose anyone who ever looked it up knows that. Looking  it up isn’t all that easy, what with the silent ‘h’ at the beginning and the ‘dj’ at the end. There is a symbol for ‘dj’, as in judge or Joanne, but not on most typewriters.

For the first time ever I employed the speaker function at the end of the pronunciation explanation by letter sounds. That was so neat; like a kid I made the computer pronounce one word and then the other.

Years ago, when I still had a mother and we took road trips together, we got into the discussion of missed pronunciations. I confessed my cup board to her and she told me of a word that she also mispronounced and misconstrued for a long time. For years I remembered that word and used it. Now I don’t remember her word at all. If it ever comes back to me, I will share.

In truth, I have been complaining persistently, in an annoying way, I’m sure, these last several weeks. Nothing is proceeding brilliantly, or even to plan. I’m through mentioning most of them, as I also believe that only increases the jinx possibility exponentially. Whining is the making of a high pitched sound, as non-verbal babies do. That I have not done, I believe.

March essentially is over. This last week is Laura’s spring break. Last year we were in sunny, warm Texas, enjoying bluebells and Indian paintbrush (which probably has a less derogatory name), good company of family and friends.

This year, lacking garden flowers, I will share last week’s florist flowers. Then I will play ‘whinging’ vs. ‘whining’ for a bit.



32 comments:

  1. Joanne you never whine or whinge....and the flowers are lovely.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hari OM
    Whining is definitely NOT an adjective to be applied to Joanne Noragon! Even whinging would be a stretch. Letting off steam? Yeah, maybe, but that's what blogs (and the pals therein) are for! YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
  3. "Whining" is also defined as "complaining in a feeble or petulant way" so it would seem that whinging and whining are basically the same thing. But I don't think you ever do either one - you are very matter-of-fact in stating what's good and not so good. It's narration, it's catching up, it's filling people in on your life - and it's perfectly fine!

    Those flowers are very pretty. And I mispronounced "Penelope" until such a late age I blush to think of it :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Me too with Penelope and Phoebe also.

      Delete
    2. Ditto, when I was a kid. There were so many words in books that I didn't know how to pronounce! But the problem is that the adults around me (including teachers) didn't have any more of a clue than I did, so they were no help.

      Delete
  4. The difference between whine and whinge is small. The high pitched sound that is mentioned in the dictionary as whine can be used to describe a child saying, "Do I have tooooooooo?" The child might also say, "Do I have to?" knowing that it is a hopeless question because of course it must go whatever. I hope you remember your mother's word. It is important.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I think we earn the right to whine or whinge as we age. Don’t worry about it!

    ReplyDelete
  6. We all need some summer weather and flowers to call our own. Winter be gone.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Our family has always used whinging. My late mother in law told me it is something daughters are good at, hahaha.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I don't think you've been whining. Its your blog, I think you should write/share whatever you choose to do and if it is something you need to let off steam about or whatever, go for it. I'm not sure I know what whinging is, I just looked it up. I don't think you've been doing that either. Regardless, the flowers are beautiful and I'm sure your spring flowers eventually will be too!

    betty

    ReplyDelete
  9. In Australia and New Zealand the English are often referred to as whinging Poms. I am sure we deserve the title, always whinging about something.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I don't see your posts as whining, or even whingeing, I see them as venting, getting your exasperations off your chest instead of bottling it all up. Whining is also done by older children, that high-pitched nasally ' why?' or "why not?", "I want.."
    Whinging, sometimes spelled with the 'e' as I did above is not pronounced with a dj sound, it is more 'whin-j-ing' and often comes in the form of "why do I have to," "I don't want to," "why can't someone else do it?" "how come I never get to do..."

    ReplyDelete
  11. Nothing beats a good whinge every so often! I think of whining more as something kids do when they don't get their own way. It's your blog do what you want, we'll all still read it!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Most of my whining is done inside my head, I wish i could do it the other way.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Well Joanne, if you have been whingeing and whining I have totally missed it.. maybe I should pay closer attention!
    It has been interesting reading the comments and other people's interpretations.
    Rachel's comment made me laugh out loud. It was quite true maybe forty years ago, now it's the Australians who are whinging about nearly everything.
    The Mumbai escorts, on the other hand, never seem to whinge, they seem to be eternally optimistic and live in hope....
    Alphie

    ReplyDelete
  14. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  15. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I have always had difficulty in spelling it too. I end up winging it and hoping for the best.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I love that word and like to use from time to time.
    I see that Mumbai guy hits your comments too.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I don't think I've ever heard anyone use the word "whinging" in real conversation but every time I read it I think, "What a great word!"
    I definitely do NOT think of you as a complainer in any way. We all go through things that try us and there's nothing wrong with speaking out loud about those things. Otherwise we'll become one of those people who smile like Betsy Devos with a bizarre and manic fake smile pasted to our faces. You really don't want to be one of those people, do you?
    NO! You do not. So complain away when you need to.

    ReplyDelete
  19. bluebonnets. bluebells are different and almost never seen in the wild anymore because they were picked to extinction. you can find them in nurseries sometimes though. there are a number of words that I pronounced all my life and was never corrected and then I would hear talking heads pronounce them completely different. have I been wrong or are they?

    ReplyDelete
  20. I so hope you feel better soon. I do, but am still worried about it.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Beautiful flowers there at the end Joanne.
    Thank you so much for your lovely tea towels which arrived this morning. I can't wait to show them to my weaving friend as the stitch is one she will not be familiar with. The colour is perfect and they are so beautifully done - I can't thank you enough andI shall look after them very carefully. Kisses sent to you in an effort to cheer you up out of your rough period when things don't seem to be going right for you. xx

    ReplyDelete
  22. Two very different meanings. Whinging was used a lot in my house growing up - stop whinging, which is a kind of constant complaining, incessant. Different from a whine which can be an undefined noise.
    Here's a good description of the whinging Irish: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Whinging%20Irish

    XO
    WWW
    PS And no you don't whinge at all and if you want to whine, well have at it. We all do it. It's a healthy release.
    This is a good description:

    ReplyDelete
  23. It's your blog - you can whinge if you want to!!! I mostly whinge to myself as no one wants to hear it, but if I had a blog that's probably where I'd let it out! You have to release it somewhere.
    My Mom mispronounced quite a few words, but the one that always tickled me was her pronouncing "naked" as though it rhymed with baked. "Cupboard" really is a strange word, isn't it!

    ReplyDelete
  24. You must belong to the Whingers' Club. I hear it is an international one.

    With a Midwest pronunciation, all words can sound wrestling with the right sound.

    Have you read/heard about the poppies covering hills near Lake Elsinore, CA? They are a carpet over what is normally dried brown brush. We went to see them and they are indeed amazing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've read and seen the super bloom. And heard of the fools who landed a helicopter into a super bloom field of poppies.

      Delete
  25. Having a lot of Family in England, my mother from England, "whinging" is a very normal word in my house.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Whine and whinge are good'uns.

    I'm a fan of tetchy/testy & sledding/sledging. I never felt comfortable saying the British variant.

    Also fun: grotty (US: grody) & manky.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Whinging makes it sound so much more dignified. It reminds me how British people can insult you but it still sounds nice.

    ReplyDelete
  28. I used to work with a man who was originally from the UK. He used whinging. I thought it was a wonderful word and started using it, as well. I don't view your writing as whinging, merely as stating the facts, such as they are.

    ReplyDelete
  29. After visiting Australia several times, where that word is used all the time, I use it now, and loving it. I do whine for wine sometimes, though.

    ReplyDelete