hope your gigs went as smooth as the Guinness did, Ron
speaking of Ottawa, i wonder if there were more workers killed during the CPR construction or during the building of the Rideau canal...or how about the many 'hushed' losses of modern day construction of those skyscrapers in Dubai?
i suppose the spelling is navvy for singular and navvies for plural references...i can see the logic of the double v in order to keep the 'a' soft...but since it's a slang/short form for navigator and the 'a' is already soft anyhow in it's traditional pronunciation, then it makes little sense ...as does most of the logic in the English language
i was telling my little one, there are 1) many words that are spelled the same or may sound the same but mean different things (lead as in the metal vs lead as in 'lead the way')....and 2) there are some things that have several names that all mean the same thing (graveyard, cemetery)
he said why don't they take some of the extra words from 2) and share them with 1)?...yes, even young males are logical