Pronunciation that makes you cringe

[Cudzoziemiec]

I don't know how you actually say Ncuti Gatwa, the new Dr Who actor – I'd never heard of him before – but I guess that could be another example?

I saw/heard a video with an African.

It's 'Shootee Gatwa'

Thanks! Now I'll have to find an excuse to talk about him.

[pcolbeck]

That particular consonant cluster doesn't seem to come easily to English speakers.

I knever had any trouble with it.

Surely most people can say 'knock-knee' without it sounding like 'knocker-knee', even if they live in Hackney...

Is it still a cluster when it's separate words though? Don't we insert a micro-pause? The final k of knock is attached to the preceding o, and the n of knee is attached to the following ee.

Knipex is pronounced sort of like kn'ipex. The k isn't silent and is like the first k in kick. Its like if you pronounced the k in "knight"

[Peter]

What is knipex - and why (or y)?

I've just thought.  Maybe a correcting fluid for unnecessary consonants?

[Kim]

What is knipex

Molishment of the highest quality wrong tool for the job.

[pcolbeck]

What is knipex

Addictive.

[Mr Larrington]

While I do not expect 21st century BBC announcers to sound like John Snagge I do expect them to know that the word they seek is “episode”.  Not “efisode”

[Feanor]

While I do not expect 21st century BBC announcers to sound like John Snagge...

I just can't help myself...

Snagge: My name is Snagge, John Snagge.
FX: [Two coins land in a cup]
Snagge: Thank you Sir Ian. It was June, 19-quifty-qua that the lad, Wallace Greenslade, first came to the BBC seeking refuge from hard work.
FX: [Typewriter]
Greenslade: Good morning, Miss, I'm Mr. W. Greenslade.
Receptionist (Female - Sellers): Oh, yes, you've come for the vacant post of announcer.
Greenslade: Yes, I have.
Receptionist: Do take a seat with the other applicants.
Greenslade: Thank you. I sat down next to a man wearing a brass deerstalker, white cricket boots, and a shredded cardboard wig.
Eccles: Ha-llo!
Greenslade: Good morning.
Eccles: Winds light to variable.
Greenslade: Pardon?
Eccles: I said, "Winds light to variable."
Greenslade: Oh, really.
Eccles: Yeah. Winds light to variable. I'm practising, you know.
Greenslade: Don't tell me you're applying for the post of announcer?
Eccles: Oh, yeah! And I'll get it too, you'll see! I'm wearing a Cambridge tie!
Greenslade: You? You were at Cambridge?
Eccles: Yeah!
Greenslade: What were you doing there?
Eccles: Buying a tie.

and many others.

[Mr Larrington]

Oh yes.  Good old Snaggers!

[ElyDave]

I have that one^^ and a few others on CD, still worth a guffaw

[Cudzoziemiec]

Not a cringe, because apart from anything else I haven't heard anyone say it, but how on earth would you pronounce Auroralumina attenboroughii? The problem, obviously, is the combination of the English surname with the Latin ending. If you just stick the -ii on the end of a normally pronounced Attenborough, there's an almost overwhelming urge – even a need – for an intrusive R. (Or is it a connective R? I can't remember the technical difference now.) That would be fine in an English context, but in a scientific context, where the name is supposed to internationally uniform or at least recognizable, it could lead to confusion. If on the other hand you elide the -ii straight on to the attenbor-, then your international audience will think you've missed a syllable. There probably isn't an Auroralumina attenborii, so in practice they'll probably know what you're talking about, but still. And of course, some of them are likely to pronounce the -gh, probably in an amusing variety of ways (to English ears, but again possibly confusing to others: Attenborouf? Attenboroug? Attenburg? Attenburoh? Attenborow?).

But I guess he probably has the advantage of being sufficiently well known that many people are familiar with his name, unlike all the other names this has already happened with!

https://www.science.org/content/article/david-attenborough-gets-namesake-oldest-known-relative-living-animals

[hubner]

I'd say go with the sound, not the spelling.

Add "ee" /i/ to the end of atenbora*.

*approximate spelling

[T42]

Or even eeyee.

[citoyen]

When my headphones are running low on juice, I get a little voice message in my ears:
“Baddery very low, recharge now”

…with low rhyming with now.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Odd pronunciation happening yesterday. I was told I have a Scottish accent. Anyone who's ever spoken to me will be surprised at this. Probably.

sent from my McAndroid.

[Legs]

What determines whether you have one 'i' or two 'i's at the end of your binomial name?  My uncle (cue tenuous claim to fame) has a prehistoric Antipodean wading bird Hakawai melvillei named after him...

[Mr Larrington]

The BBC has just run a trailer for its Poetry Season.  I had to look at the screen to learn that the voiceover artist was not, in fact, talking about chickens.

[T42]

People saying blonk when they mean blanc.

[Tim Hall]

I'm watching an online lesson thing about Safe Manual Handling (such a rock'n'roll lifestyle). The slide has a diagramof the spine with Cervical, Thoracic and Lumbar vertebrae shown.

The voiceover refers to "Thorackic". Gah.

[Steph]

That particular consonant cluster doesn't seem to come easily to English speakers.

I knever had any trouble with it.

Surely most people can say 'knock-knee' without it sounding like 'knocker-knee', even if they live in Hackney...

Is it still a cluster when it's separate words though? Don't we insert a micro-pause? The final k of knock is attached to the preceding o, and the n of knee is attached to the following ee.

Knipex is pronounced sort of like kn'ipex. The k isn't silent and is like the first k in kick. Its like if you pronounced the k in "knight"

And in Wales we have a mountain named after an English knight, im which all letters are pronounced: Cnicht.

[T42]

That particular consonant cluster doesn't seem to come easily to English speakers.

I knever had any trouble with it.

Surely most people can say 'knock-knee' without it sounding like 'knocker-knee', even if they live in Hackney...

Is it still a cluster when it's separate words though? Don't we insert a micro-pause? The final k of knock is attached to the preceding o, and the n of knee is attached to the following ee.

Knipex is pronounced sort of like kn'ipex. The k isn't silent and is like the first k in kick. Its like if you pronounced the k in "knight"

And in Wales we have a mountain named after an English knight, im which all letters are pronounced: Cnicht.

Otherwise he'd be braw and bricht.

[T42]

Basil pronounced baysil in the American fashion. Goes with herb pronounced urb.

[Slave To The Viking]

Basil pronounced baysil in the American fashion. Goes with herb pronounced urb.

Happy enough with the British English non-pronunciation of the r though? Or not? Do you go full "herrr-b"? Or do you concede that spelling merely attempts (and fails) to reflect pronunciation, and say the word in the way that people in your part of the world do?

And how about the name of the first letter of the word in question? Have you pinned your colours to the mast of the point in history where the French hache (pronounced "ash") dropped its aitch to become aitch (like the formerly formal 'otel), or are you loyal to the anglicised haitch? Or does haitch make your (h)ackles rise, because hache should be aitch?

And, if hache should be aitch (because the French drop the (h)aitch), what about herbe?

Well, obviously, that should be herb, because the aitch (which drops its original French initial aitch) comes at the beginning and shouldn't be dropped to form erb. But it should be herb without an r, because it's English now...

Clear?

[T42]

Basil pronounced baysil in the American fashion. Goes with herb pronounced urb.

Happy enough with the British English non-pronunciation of the r though? Or not? Do you go full "herrr-b"? Or do you concede that spelling merely attempts (and fails) to reflect pronunciation, and say the word in the way that people in your part of the world do?

Herb has been an English word for the last 800+ years: there's no reason to elide the H any more than in hotel.  And if they're going to pronounce the word as if it were French, why pronounce the -s in the plural?

Mind you, my mum pronounced it the "American" way. She was Scottish, though.

[Mr Larrington]

Basil pronounced baysil in the American fashion. Goes with herb pronounced urb.

Canadians* do it too.  You'd think they’d know better

* sample size: 1

[Cudzoziemiec]

And how about the name of the first letter of the word in question? Have you pinned your colours to the mast of the point in history where the French hache (pronounced "ash") dropped its aitch to become aitch (like the formerly formal 'otel), or are you loyal to the anglicised haitch? Or does haitch make your (h)ackles rise, because hache should be aitch?

However we say it, we make a hash of it.