Author Topic: Pronunciation that makes you cringe  (Read 147246 times)

Paul

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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #800 on: 25 May, 2021, 04:24:10 pm »
I hate to say it, and I know it's partly in jest, but the entire 'Americans say something differently' thing grates because of course they do.
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Yebbut hearing a Peaky Fucking Bloinder saying clurk and skedule does grate when you realize they're doing it as a concession to the American ear.

Could it be an Oirish pronunciation? I don’t know about clerk, but I say skedule. Both my parents were Irish. Could it be that? I don’t watch PBs, but I believe some of the characters are supposed to be Irish or of Irish decent.
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Mr Larrington

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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #801 on: 28 May, 2021, 12:42:55 am »
What kind of a bollockbrain speaks of a price being “Thirty-nine point ninety-nine”?  I mean, apart from smarmy mid-Atlantic twats trying to flog a cheap monocular which is “taking the world by storm”.

The day after I lead the Panzers down Whitehall anyone using the phrase “taking X by storm” will wish they hadn’t.
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Salvatore

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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #802 on: 28 May, 2021, 03:36:55 am »
The same bollockbrain which claimed the revolutionary monocular had been developed at Joe (sic) Hopkins University while showing a picture of New College Oxford.
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et avec John, excellent lecteur de road-book, on s'en est sortis sans erreur

Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #803 on: 28 May, 2021, 05:54:21 am »
And the same bollockbrain who's ad (a different one from the above) claimed the monocular was developed by someone who was brought up immersed in mother nature, but with the caption showing 'brought up immersed in mother'.

Incidentally I read this thread and then clicked on a YouTube subscription notification for something completely unrelated (a news item) and the monocular ad was the 'skip ad' that appeared before it which I, for once, was happy not to skip.

T42

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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #804 on: 28 May, 2021, 08:10:25 am »
I hate to say it, and I know it's partly in jest, but the entire 'Americans say something differently' thing grates because of course they do.

Yebbut hearing a Peaky Fucking Bloinder saying clurk and skedule does grate when you realize they're doing it as a concession to the American ear.

Could it be an Oirish pronunciation? I don’t know about clerk, but I say skedule. Both my parents were Irish. Could it be that? I don’t watch PBs, but I believe some of the characters are supposed to be Irish or of Irish decent.

Not any Irish pronunciation I ever heard in N.I.  My dad in the 50s mentioned remarking on the sh/sk different to an American colleague, who replied that they had a different sheme of speaking in the shool he went to.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Paul

  • L'enfer, c'est les autos.
Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #805 on: 02 June, 2021, 07:43:54 am »
I hate to say it, and I know it's partly in jest, but the entire 'Americans say something differently' thing grates because of course they do.

Yebbut hearing a Peaky Fucking Bloinder saying clurk and skedule does grate when you realize they're doing it as a concession to the American ear.

Could it be an Oirish pronunciation? I don’t know about clerk, but I say skedule. Both my parents were Irish. Could it be that? I don’t watch PBs, but I believe some of the characters are supposed to be Irish or of Irish decent.

Not any Irish pronunciation I ever heard in N.I.  My dad in the 50s mentioned remarking on the sh/sk different to an American colleague, who replied that they had a different sheme of speaking in the shool he went to.
If I remember, I’ll ask mammy when I next speak to her.
What's so funny about peace, love and understanding?

Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #806 on: 03 June, 2021, 12:28:43 pm »
Simon Sebag Montefiore's pronunciation of "warrior" I really like his programs but this just grates every time he says it. "Wahr-rior".
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

Mr Larrington

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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #807 on: 22 June, 2021, 10:42:05 pm »
Kudos to Spaign-o's Marc Marquez who won Sunday's German Motorcycle Grand Prix after recovering from a crash last year that saw him break his humus.  Or possibly his hummus.
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Cudzoziemiec

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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #808 on: 09 August, 2021, 04:07:34 pm »
A couple of days ago I heard "re" pronounced as initials. As in "We have a question from John Smith of Morgan Stanley R.E. working capital in the second quarter".
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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #809 on: 29 August, 2021, 09:22:11 am »
Komoot. Yes I know it's text-to-speech, and I know place names often have weird pronunciations, but surely you can get country-specific versions nowadays?

In the UK:

Stress is firmly on the second syllable. Eg Cotterstock comes out as K'tair-stock, and so on.
Standard words: Sing-gla-track and Brid-la-way. Goose as Juice.

Romania:

Bizarrely, given Brid-la-way, Mare and Vale are pronounced Mair and Vayle

Czechia:

Czech prononciation is hard, and mine's pretty bad, but Komoot's is hilarious.

North Macedonia:

I'm glad there was no-one in earshot when it told me to "turn left on to Strada General Tit-oh"
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Mr Larrington

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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #810 on: 02 September, 2021, 06:21:17 pm »
I know I should cut TV's Lyse Doucet some slack given that she hails from rural Neptune [“New Brunswick” – Ed.] but her not-infrequent referring to the Afghan capital as “Cobble” is starting to grate.
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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #811 on: 02 November, 2021, 10:22:33 am »
Hey, USAnians: there's no such place as Glass-cow.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #812 on: 02 November, 2021, 10:50:27 am »
And if we're doing Usanians, then no, Taylan and Rumpus, I do not want to start an "online teezhur business".
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Cudzoziemiec

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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #813 on: 07 November, 2021, 03:05:40 pm »
Not pronunciation this time but dialect or vocabulary. A child, maybe seven or eight years old, on a train, asked "Do trains have gas stations?" The striking thing about this Americanism was that the child and all three of her adults (who seemed to be mother, aunt and grandmother) had very British accents.
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Kim

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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #814 on: 08 November, 2021, 05:16:12 am »
Probably a YouTube influence.

Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #815 on: 08 November, 2021, 07:18:49 am »
Hey, USAnians: there's no such place as Glass-cow.
Southerners pronouncing the city as Glarrs-go.

T42

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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #816 on: 08 November, 2021, 08:22:05 am »
Not pronunciation this time but dialect or vocabulary. A child, maybe seven or eight years old, on a train, asked "Do trains have gas stations?" The striking thing about this Americanism was that the child and all three of her adults (who seemed to be mother, aunt and grandmother) had very British accents.

Sailing along in our little 1970s time capsule, we've noticed for a long time that UK vocabulary is becoming steadily more American.  While some Americanisms are expressive and worthy of adoption, others really grate: I'm still trying to get over train station, and I know I'll never use it myself.

FWIW I learnt to drive in Germany, where gas is the colloquial term for petrol & diesel, so I often think of the accelerator as the gas pedal.  Sometimes I can still almost hear the driving instructor say "Jetzt Gas geben" as I accelerate out of a bend.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #817 on: 08 November, 2021, 08:30:55 am »
And of course the girl's father, who wasn't present, might be American.

Train station used to grate on me too but no longer does. You go to a bus station to get a bus, so you go to a train station to get a train. I have noticed my son occasionally using "gotten", which I put down to movies or YouTube. But language changes and you can also find "gotten" in older British usage (though it might have been in slightly different contexts).
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #818 on: 08 November, 2021, 08:49:32 am »
Hey, USAnians: there's no such place as Glass-cow.
Southerners pronouncing the city as Glarrs-go.

Oh yes, that too.

Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #819 on: 08 November, 2021, 10:07:32 am »
Hey, USAnians: there's no such place as Glass-cow.
Southerners pronouncing the city as Glarrs-go.

Oh yes, that too.
I can imagine southerners having difficulty with Glastonbury. :-D

ian

Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #820 on: 08 November, 2021, 11:03:36 am »
And of course the girl's father, who wasn't present, might be American.

Train station used to grate on me too but no longer does. You go to a bus station to get a bus, so you go to a train station to get a train. I have noticed my son occasionally using "gotten", which I put down to movies or YouTube. But language changes and you can also find "gotten" in older British usage (though it might have been in slightly different contexts).

Several British dialects use gotten (though it's fallen out of favour), it's not really an American thing. I like the word so use it with some deliberation mostly because it might annoy someone on the internet, which is a curiously pleasant sensation.

I don't really get the criticism of placename pronunciation – it's not like we pronounce Paris the same way as the French is it?

Americans do struggle spectacularly with Edinburgh though. They gave up with the one in Pennsylvania and ran with Edinboro instead.

Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #821 on: 08 November, 2021, 11:23:11 am »
"Gotten" is definitely a recent USA import via the internet.

Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #822 on: 08 November, 2021, 12:31:26 pm »
I don't really get the criticism of placename pronunciation – it's not like we pronounce Paris the same way as the French is it?
No one is criticising. ::-)

T42

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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #823 on: 08 November, 2021, 01:00:35 pm »
"Gotten" is definitely a recent USA import via the internet.

Put an ill- or a for- in front of it and it's still UK English.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #824 on: 08 November, 2021, 01:29:12 pm »
"Gotten" is definitely a recent USA import via the internet.

Put an ill- or a for- in front of it and it's still UK English.

"Ill-gotten gains" is a set phrase. "Ill-gotten" could be analysed as a single word. "Bated" is another word that has fallen out of use but survives in a set phrase.

"Forgotten" is a separate word.

Anyhow, "gotten" will be increasing common, amongst young people it will be a normal word.