Lexigame Community
General Category => Words => Topic started by: pat on May 09, 2019, 08:24:14 PM
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Rejected in yesterday's 7-by-many game. Antpittas are a common (if hard to see) family of passerines in central and south America. Their counterparts on the other side of the globe are pittas, already accepted in Chi. I know some of my bird name suggestions have been considered a bit too rare for inclusion but I think antpitta definitely qualifies.
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Don't fancy your lunch much.
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Don't fancy your lunch much.
No comprendo.
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Ah, I get you now. Pitta bread. I guess that’s why pitta is already accepted!
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With added ants!
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Sounds almost as bad as 'fly cemetery' which we used to love as kids........in some parts of the country, that is!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flies%27_graveyard
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:-H
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AFAIK, the bread is always spelt with a single 't': pita.
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COD spells both bread and bird as pitta and shows pita (the bread) as 'North American'.
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The Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pita) article says the double tee (tt) is 'British English'. So that raises some questions. How is it spelt in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, etc? Do those who use a double tee pronounce the first vowel ɪ as in kit, lid, historic?
My Greek, Lebanese, Romanian, and Syrian friends all pronounce the first vowel as iː as in fleece, seed, mean, pedigree which favours the single tee. And both Greek (πίτα) and Romanian (pită) use a single tee.
So how did British English come up with a double tee?
Puzzled. ???
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No such problems with pronouncing or spelling pitta, the bird! >:D
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So how did British English come up with a double tee?
Puzzled. ???
I suspect (although I have no proof) that it has been modelled on the double z in the word pizza.
They are, after all, basically the same word, although one is Italian and one is Greek.
Many Italian restaurants started opening in UK in the 1960s, and European food became more popular after we joined the Common Market (aka the EEC / EU) in the 1970s.
As for pronunciation, I've always pronounced the word as a homophone of peter, although I have heard some people say it as pitter.
Finally, according to the COD, both bread and bird are pronounced in the same way - like peter.
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Finally, according to the COD, both bread and bird are pronounced in the same way - like peter.
I've never heard a birder call the bird a 'peter'. It's always 'pitter'.
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Yes, Pat, as in "It's a pitter the cat's just had his tea!" >:D
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Finally, according to the COD, both bread and bird are pronounced in the same way - like peter.
I've never heard a birder call the bird a 'peter'. It's always 'pitter'.
You are quite right, Pat. I was confusing the long and short phonetic signs.
pitter for both bird and bread.
And to think I've been mispronouncing it all these years!
:(
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Yes, Pat, as in "It's a pitter the cat's just had his tea!" >:D
You couldn't wish this beauty into a cat's belly! Not the best photo but it shows the bird's beautiful colours.
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I am often amazed at the absolutely stunning beauty of birds. Thanks for this picture - I wasn't aware of this bird before.
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Very colourful and probably very tasty!! >:D
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Going back to your first comment, Pat, I'd agree that antpitta is a good candidate for inclusion. But then, I'm a birder. I've only seen a couple, one in Panama and one in Costa Rica. They aren't the easiest ones to find - just like many of the words in Chihuahua.
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They’re a lot easier to see these days, birdy. There’s a farmer in Ecuador called Angel Paz. He realized that he had antpittas on his property and set about ‘taming’ them. He would provide worms for them at a specific spot and eventually these usually shy birds began to trust him to the extent that they would take worms from his hand. He seems to have started a trend; since seeing several species of antpitta on his property I’ve seen them on several other birding tours, both in Ecuador and in other countries, where they’ve been habituated in the same way.
These are three different species from Angel Paz's farm.
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Beautiful! I wonder if that is how we got to see one in Costa Rica? The one in Panama was definitely a wild one - wouldn't come to the tapes, so we eventually had to hike off the road to see it.
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OK, pat, I'll accept antpitta. It's listed in, for example, Merriam-Webster online:
any of various small to medium-sized chiefly Central and South American forest birds (family Grallariidae) that have a very short tail and loud, low-pitched song and usually live on or near the ground
Note: Antpittas have been placed especially formerly in the family Formicariidae.
Most of the places where I saw the word used were birder publications, but the Register-Herald, in Beckley, West Virginia had a whole article in 2017, Lost bird rediscovered in jungles of Venezuela (https://www.register-herald.com/sports/lost-bird-rediscovered-in-jungles-of-venezuela/article_80ed6370-b195-5d54-85f8-6f1c9b691604.html), about the rediscovery of the Táchira Antpitta.
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Thanks, Alan.