Author Topic: Pronunciation that makes you cringe  (Read 147195 times)

hellymedic

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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #150 on: 16 October, 2014, 07:54:59 pm »
I was probably 30 before I realised 'awry' was pronounced a-rye, not aw-ree.

Steph

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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #151 on: 16 October, 2014, 08:03:00 pm »
I have a colleague who talks about feeling ember rast...
Mae angen arnaf i byw, a fe fydda'i

Basil

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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #152 on: 16 October, 2014, 08:12:20 pm »
I have a colleague who thinks "Good morning, Basil" is pronounced "Fuck off, cunt"
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Pedaldog.

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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #153 on: 16 October, 2014, 11:27:06 pm »
I keep getting telephone calls from India asking to speak to "Mister Stee-Fen Please"!
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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #154 on: 17 October, 2014, 01:50:24 pm »
I disagree - if it's someone's name it's downright rude not to pronounce it the way they do. It's not the same as an accent, the name does not have an H sound in it so don't put one in. How would you pronounce Thierry Henry?

Many foreigners have an awful time pronouncing 'Ian' in the proper way. I don't go around correcting them and forcing them to say it as I would. I do correct people who spell it 'Iain' though. The only true Ians are cycloptic Ians.

That's a fair point, all languages have sounds in them that non-native speakers find difficult or impossible. Certainly the newsreaders referred to by pcolbeck would not get Hugo Chavez's surname correct as the Spanish v does not have an exact match in English, they'll probably get the z wrong too and the o at the end of Hugo. But that is not an excuse for saying we should deliberately pronounce Hugo as "Hyoogoe" instead of "oogo" because "we're not Spanish".
Yeah, they'll say z instead of s.  ;D
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T42

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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #155 on: 17 October, 2014, 02:45:29 pm »
Another one that I "mispronounced" for around 60 years is detritus. When I was at school Latin was compulsory so I know exactly how it would be pronounced if English got it right, but RP makes it sound like inflammation of the debtor. Shit, even French gets it right (while treating it as a plural - barf).

Still on the i-aye front, anyone else wince every time they tried to say primer in Contact? Fortunately, it's not a film to be watched more than once, if that.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

red marley

Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #156 on: 17 November, 2014, 01:21:45 pm »
In the Imitation Game (biopic of Alan Turing released this weekend), one bright Cambridge mathematician to another discussing solving a mathematical proof:

"Why not use Euler's formula to solve that?" [pronouncing it "you-ler" not "oi-ler"]

OK, so it's a bit smartarse to criticise pronunciation of word that may not be obvious to many non-mathematics inclined people, but it's hardly obscure, and this is a biopic about a mathematician! One on which they spent millions on set design, actors, effects, Keira Knightley's cheekbones, marketing etc. Surely they could have spent a few quid on a least one advisor on the authenticity of the subject matter?

T42

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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #157 on: 17 November, 2014, 01:31:57 pm »
Can't remember how our phys. master at school used to pronounce Euler, but he pronounced Poiseuille as Pwazerelle. And (more understandably) bowdlerized Kuntz.  Can't help thinking, though, that talking about a "Koonz Tube" in class these days would attract more censure than pronouncing it correctly.

There used to be a current of opinion that held correct pronunciation of foreign names to be unpatriotic, particularly in the diplomatic services. Dunno if it still persists.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

red marley

Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #158 on: 17 November, 2014, 03:11:25 pm »
There used to be a current of opinion that held correct pronunciation of foreign names to be unpatriotic, particularly in the diplomatic services. Dunno if it still persists.

That's a good point that I hadn't thought about. Given its German origins, perhaps there was a studied Anglification of the pronunciation during the 1940s. Anyone know for sure?

Torslanda

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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #159 on: 17 November, 2014, 07:41:11 pm »
Had two howlers on Friday, Radio 2, from that paragon of pronunciation Sarah Cox.

A shout out for someone in Down-ray (that's in Scotland, y'know) and someone else in Beecons-field . . .

GAH!
VELOMANCER

Well that's the more blunt way of putting it but as usual he's dead right.

Eccentrica Gallumbits

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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #160 on: 17 November, 2014, 08:29:52 pm »
STV are currently showing a programme about Anstruther (no, I don't know why either) and the narrator has pronounced it Anstruther all the way through.  ::-)
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Feanor

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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #161 on: 17 November, 2014, 08:36:15 pm »
STV are currently showing a programme about Anstruther (no, I don't know why either) and the narrator has pronounced it Anstruther all the way through.  ::-)

So enlighten me.
What is the correct pronunciation?

Eccentrica Gallumbits

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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #162 on: 17 November, 2014, 08:44:03 pm »
Ainster.

Same Slaithwaite is Sla-wit.
My feminist marxist dialectic brings all the boys to the yard.


Feanor

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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #163 on: 17 November, 2014, 10:07:21 pm »
Thanks.   That may save me some embarrassment in future.

I must have been off school the day they did that :-)

Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #164 on: 17 November, 2014, 10:14:29 pm »
Trottescliffe anyone ?
Rust never sleeps

LittleWheelsandBig

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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #165 on: 17 November, 2014, 10:47:21 pm »
One of these days, the English will learn to pronounce their towns' names correctly. Either that or learn how to spell them correctly.
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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #166 on: 17 November, 2014, 10:58:39 pm »
One of these days, the English will learn to pronounce their towns' names correctly. Either that or learn how to spell them correctly.

Cycled through Leominster yesterday, Weobley today.

hellymedic

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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #167 on: 18 November, 2014, 12:10:22 am »
One of these days, the English will learn to pronounce their towns' names correctly. Either that or learn how to spell them correctly.

At the very least, place name pronunciation should be consistent; it isn't so Wymondham (leics.) sounds rather different from Wymondham, Norfolk .
Then there's Gillingham...

Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #168 on: 18 November, 2014, 12:14:32 am »
Kent or Dorset?  ;D
"A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering." The Type-Writer Girl, 1897

hellymedic

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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #169 on: 18 November, 2014, 12:38:01 am »
Jillingham in Kent and Guillingham in Dorset, innit?

Mr Larrington

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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #170 on: 18 November, 2014, 01:49:18 am »
One of these days, the English will learn to pronounce their towns' names correctly. Either that or learn how to spell them correctly.

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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #171 on: 18 November, 2014, 10:43:00 am »
On the Toady prog this morning Harvey Goldsmith declared the ebola crisis to be 'heart rendering' That paints quite a picture.
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tiermat

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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #172 on: 18 November, 2014, 10:54:03 am »
One of these days, the English will learn to pronounce their towns' names correctly. Either that or learn how to spell them correctly.

If that sort of thing (mispronunciation of town names) makes you laugh, try listening to the traffic news on Planet Rock, especially when their American DJ (IIRC Darren Redick)is presenting.  It can be highly amusing.
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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #173 on: 18 November, 2014, 06:29:44 pm »
Jillingham in Kent and Guillingham in Dorset, innit?
Exactly.
"A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering." The Type-Writer Girl, 1897

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #174 on: 18 November, 2014, 06:35:03 pm »
Jillingham in Kent and Guillingham in Dorset, innit?
Exactly.

I am told the Northumbrian town of Bellingham is pronounced 'bellinjam'...