Author Topic: Pronunciation that makes you cringe  (Read 147217 times)

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #700 on: 26 October, 2020, 05:24:58 pm »
USAnians pronounce a certain South Korean car manufacturer as “Hunday”.  Rhymes with the day after Saturday.  I wot not whether this is closer to the original Korean but it still grates.  As do “Marzda” and “Neesan” for a couple of their Japanese rivals.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #701 on: 26 October, 2020, 05:28:29 pm »
IIRC it's "Hunday" in India too. Have a fun day in your high and dry!
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #702 on: 30 October, 2020, 12:27:06 am »
We own a malfunctioning Kärcher floor sweeper that D has taken to the Service Centre a few miles away.

I phoned to ask about progress of the repair.

Their answering machine pronounces the brand as 'Carcher'.

I know that's fair enough for we monoglot Brits but it still grates...

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #703 on: 30 October, 2020, 08:52:54 am »
Herbs pronounced urbs "because it's French". Why pronounce the S, then, knothead?
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

nicknack

  • Hornblower
Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #704 on: 30 October, 2020, 08:54:26 am »
Herbs pronounced urbs "because it's French". Why pronounce the S, then, knothead?
'otel also.
There's no vibrations, but wait.

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #705 on: 30 October, 2020, 11:13:48 am »
Herbs pronounced urbs "because it's French". Why pronounce the S, then, knothead?
'otel also.

That's just people making liaison. The pukka grammar/pronunciation is awkward.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #706 on: 30 October, 2020, 11:57:50 am »
Herbs pronounced urbs "because it's French". Why pronounce the S, then, knothead?

Just checked the etymology. Apparently it's Middle English from Old French, and we only started pronouncing the H in the mid-19th century.

I've long since got over my problems with Americanised pronunciation of French words, bearing in mind how badly we treat them ourselves. But I don't think I'll ever make peace with "massoose".
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

ian

Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #707 on: 30 October, 2020, 12:08:34 pm »
Because of my time in the US and the number of American ladies I lured into betweensheeted dalliances with my British Accent, I find their pronunciation of 'erbs curiously alluring. Talk dirty. Oh oh oh cilantro!

They do, in return, correct our foolhardy pronunciation of Filet-o-Fish.

Of course, to be proper, I suggest we all go back to the time before the great vowel shift (not to be confused with the great bowel shift).

Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #708 on: 30 October, 2020, 12:29:32 pm »
I will never forgive English people (with estuary accents) pronouncing "z" as zee. FFS. If USAnians can cope with pavements and lifts and flats, they can cope with zed.

Auntie Helen

  • 6 Wheels in Germany
Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #709 on: 30 October, 2020, 12:38:57 pm »
Of course, to be proper, I suggest we all go back to the time before the great vowel shift (not to be confused with the great bowel shift).
In Germany I live quite close to the Benrather Linie which divided a massive consonant shift aeons ago. My bit of Niederrhein the locals say “wat ist dat” and the people just a bit further south say the normal German ‘was ist das’. I find it really interesting to hear the Niederrheiners talking as it’s more like English when you hear it, even though it’s fully understandable German.
My blog on cycling in Germany and eating German cake – http://www.auntiehelen.co.uk


Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #710 on: 30 October, 2020, 12:39:46 pm »
They do, in return, correct our foolhardy pronunciation of Filet-o-Fish.


To which the reply is, "What's that place called where they have the mardi gras?"
I'm fairly confident the French don't have a place called "Or-leens"

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #711 on: 30 October, 2020, 12:43:04 pm »
I'm fairly confident the French don't have a place called "Or-leens"

They have a town called Beaulieu but I don't think they pronounce it byoo-lee.

People in glass houses and all that.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

ian

Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #712 on: 30 October, 2020, 12:47:15 pm »
They do, in return, correct our foolhardy pronunciation of Filet-o-Fish.


To which the reply is, "What's that place called where they have the mardi gras?"
I'm fairly confident the French don't have a place called "Or-leens"

To the locals, it's more of a New AHL-lee-ins. You've got to extract all three syllables yet blend the New into the AHL so its NAHL-lee-ins. But you've also got to make it sound effortless, it should be the pronunciation equivalent of rolling over in bed and going back to sleep. They'll still have warm beignets at 2pm so why hurry?

With some irony, I think one of the proposed theories for the great vowal shift is 'middle class hypercorrection.'

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #713 on: 30 October, 2020, 12:54:16 pm »
With some irony, I think one of the proposed theories for the great vowal shift is 'middle class hypercorrection.'

I'm sure hypercorrection, middle class or otherwise, is the reason behind a lot of manglings of dirty foreign words - the aforementioned "massoose" being a prime example from the US.

Here in the UK, I often hear "coop de grah" for coup de grace, which will mean something very different to French ears. The idea of delivering a coupe de gras to finish someone off is quite amusing.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #714 on: 30 October, 2020, 01:59:27 pm »
No more so than Cocteau's ballon de foutre.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #715 on: 30 October, 2020, 02:05:55 pm »
No more so than Cocteau's ballon de foutre.

An arresting image, but not one I've come across before. Where is that from?
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #716 on: 30 October, 2020, 02:28:11 pm »
No more so than Cocteau's ballon de foutre.

An arresting image, but not one I've come across before. Where is that from?

Apparently he asked for one in a restaurant.  It's usually rendered in English as glass of sperm.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

ian

Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #717 on: 30 October, 2020, 03:12:24 pm »
With some irony, I think one of the proposed theories for the great vowal shift is 'middle class hypercorrection.'

I'm sure hypercorrection, middle class or otherwise, is the reason behind a lot of manglings of dirty foreign words - the aforementioned "massoose" being a prime example from the US.

Here in the UK, I often hear "coop de grah" for coup de grace, which will mean something very different to French ears. The idea of delivering a coupe de gras to finish someone off is quite amusing.

I am sure I've mentioned by request for the buffet to be corrected by the waiter to the 'do you mean the burf-ET?' It turned out that I did because it was Texas and who knows if any given day isn't Bring Your Firearms to Work Day and I didn't want to the one supercilious hotel guest between him and an 'active shooter' incident on WNTV-9.

Re the great vowel shift, some didn't shift. I half-speak an obscure dialect called Erewashian and fight is generally still pronounced as 'fate', water as w-HAT-ter, etc. Time didn't so much as forget the place, as take an alternative route. Still, we only emerged blinking from our tunnels in the late 1980s, finally saved from centuries of molish servitude by the great St Margaret of Thatcher. Bless her. I never knew coal wasn't an actual vegetable before then.

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #718 on: 30 October, 2020, 06:22:47 pm »
Herbs pronounced urbs "because it's French". Why pronounce the S, then, knothead?

Just checked the etymology. Apparently it's Middle English from Old French, and we only started pronouncing the H in the mid-19th century.

I've long since got over my problems with Americanised pronunciation of French words, bearing in mind how badly we treat them ourselves. But I don't think I'll ever make peace with "massoose".

Nor yet “shon-tooze”, as used by people talking about the German lady singer on The Velvet Underground & Nico.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

ian

Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #719 on: 30 October, 2020, 07:29:55 pm »
I think we've done several episodes of Americans vs. Irish names before. That never fails to entertain.

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #720 on: 04 November, 2020, 02:40:18 am »
No, TV's *** Boulting, whichever city in Idaho Team CCC's Will Barta hails from it ent “Boys”.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #721 on: 04 November, 2020, 09:43:37 am »
That's his own private pronunciation.  ;)
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #722 on: 21 November, 2020, 07:58:31 pm »
The new Moto GP World Champion is from Spaign-o, Mr BBC sports reporter, and thus his name is emphatically not pronounced “Jone Murr”.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Pingu

  • Put away those fiery biscuits!
  • Mrs Pingu's domestique
    • the Igloo
Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #723 on: 04 December, 2020, 06:57:59 pm »
Various TV news types trying to say BioNTech.

Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #724 on: 04 December, 2020, 09:15:16 pm »
I'm hearing "dep-portation" instead of "dee-portation" which sounds wrong, as though it's something to do with deputy, deputising or something.