Author Topic: Pronunciation that makes you cringe  (Read 147230 times)

Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #400 on: 02 December, 2017, 07:41:14 pm »
I have just started working at a place where they have an enormous number of mnemonics. But why does everyone insist on calling them pneumonics?

I've also logged an issue that, although the company is from the US, we work in in the UK, and here schedule does not have a K in it.
Quote from: tiermat
that's not science, it's semantics.

Kim

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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #401 on: 02 December, 2017, 08:02:10 pm »
I've also logged an issue that, although the company is from the US, we work in in the UK, and here schedule does not have a K in it.

I can never remember which one it's supposed to be  :-[

Mr Larrington

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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #402 on: 04 December, 2017, 07:31:22 pm »
Apparently the cricket team of the BRITONS' England taking four quick Australian wickets has given them a slither of hope of salvaging the second Test :facepalm:

Get in the cannon.
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citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #403 on: 05 December, 2017, 01:06:44 pm »
Not a new one but I've heard it a few times recently and it's most irksome...

'Coup de grace' pronounced as 'coo de grah'.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #404 on: 05 December, 2017, 01:12:30 pm »
Not a new one but I've heard it a few times recently and it's most irksome...

'Coup de grace' pronounced as 'coo de grah'.

That's really common. So common that I though it was correct (its not its "Coo de grass") Mind you I never did French at school so have no idea how French pronunciation works.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #405 on: 05 December, 2017, 01:21:32 pm »
Mind you I never did French at school so have no idea how French pronunciation works.

I have to admit that I am on shaky ground here - I studied French to degree level but my pronunciation is appalling. Once when I was speaking to a French friend he cracked up laughing because my pronunciation of 'coup' sounded more like 'cul' to him...

If you're not careful, you could end up saying 'fat arsehole' rather than 'killer blow'.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #406 on: 05 December, 2017, 01:28:50 pm »
Master Pcolbeck has an impeccable southern French accent (Arles to be precise) due to him attending French classes with a teacher who was a native of Arles on a farm down the road when he was at primary school (she was a qualified teacher as well as farmers wife and the kids had a ball learning the names for piglets etc). Unfortunately he hated languages at secondary school (said the teacher couldn't pronounce anything correctly) and gave it up ASAP.
This has resulted in him at 21 having a French  accent like a native but the vocabulary of a 10 year old English primary school kid. Always results in much hilarity on holiday when he asks for something in a shop etc as they assume he can speak French properly and reply with a high speed tirade of French which leaves him completely clueless.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

ian

Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #407 on: 05 December, 2017, 01:41:07 pm »
I pronounce all French words as though they are English, mostly to annoy people, and especially to annoy French people.

And then there's the English people who throw their nasally Frenchified inflections onto such words as 'entourage.' I'd guillotine the pretentious fuckers.

Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #408 on: 05 December, 2017, 01:46:52 pm »
Mrs Pcolbeck annoys me when she's navigating by doing that. She will make a stab at the French pronunciation of some town saying something like "take the exit of the roundabout in the direction of xxxxxxx" then get annoyed when I get it wrong as her pronunciation bears no resemblance to how the place is spelt. How the hell am I to know that's how it sounds?
Apart from that she is a fantastic navigator I must admit, has got us all over France with just a Michelin map for years before we had SatNav and even now she often comes up with a better route.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #409 on: 05 December, 2017, 01:53:44 pm »
In my first year of secondary school, I had two French teachers, both French natives. One was from Paris, the other from Marseille. They could barely understand a word each other said. What chance did us poor kids have?

(I think the Marseille accent is roughly the French equivalent of Glaswegian. If they ever did a French remake of Rab C Nesbitt, it would have to be set in Marseille.)
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

ian

Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #410 on: 05 December, 2017, 02:02:04 pm »
I've described what a bunch of dialectically challenged English schoolchildren did to the French language and our poor teacher Ms Brassiere. God, that must have been grim, we couldn't even speak English that was intelligible to anyone who lived more than 5 miles away. I think she gave up in the end and just downed a bottle of Courvoisier before and after every lesson.

For entertainment, get a formal Frenchy and drop them in a room with a Quebecois. Get some popcorn and find a comfy seat.

Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #411 on: 05 December, 2017, 07:05:07 pm »
For entertainment, get a formal Frenchy and drop them in a room with a Quebecois. Get some popcorn and find a comfy seat.
I used to have a Quebecois colleague whose French girlfriend would only speak to him (and only acknowledge what he was saying) in English as she thought his French was so bad.
"No matter how slow you go, you're still lapping everybody on the couch."

clarion

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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #412 on: 06 December, 2017, 08:48:19 am »
Not a new one but I've heard it a few times recently and it's most irksome...

'Coup de grace' pronounced as 'coo de grah'.

'Cul de gras'? ;)
Getting there...

Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #413 on: 06 December, 2017, 03:48:46 pm »
Mrs Pcolbeck annoys me when she's navigating by doing that. She will make a stab at the French pronunciation of some town saying something like "take the exit of the roundabout in the direction of xxxxxxx" then get annoyed when I get it wrong as her pronunciation bears no resemblance to how the place is spelt. How the hell am I to know that's how it sounds?
Apart from that she is a fantastic navigator I must admit, has got us all over France with just a Michelin map for years before we had SatNav and even now she often comes up with a better route.

Are Mrs Ham & Mrs Pcolbeck related? Anyhow we opt for AngliFronk names to avoid confusion, such as aiming for Clement Freud - doesn't everyone?

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #414 on: 13 December, 2017, 01:35:05 pm »
Consequences of not pronouncing your aitches: just saw a French advert for an Overboard Electrique.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Mr Larrington

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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #415 on: 29 December, 2017, 11:57:33 am »
I do not know who was fronting the BBC News Channel last night before Martine Croxall and her new specs took over, but it seems that new Liberian president George Weah made his name playing foopball for "AC Milaaahhhhn".

FX: >>> THWACK!!1! <<<
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Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #416 on: 29 December, 2017, 06:15:49 pm »
'Often', pronouncing the 'T', is becoming more common—"Spelling pronunciation" says the Oxford Guide dismissively.

I have only once heard 'soften' pronounced with the 'T'. 

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #417 on: 30 December, 2017, 12:16:18 am »
'Often', pronouncing the 'T', is becoming more common—"Spelling pronunciation" says the Oxford Guide dismissively.

I have only once heard 'soften' pronounced with the 'T'.

I think this is subject to regional variation.

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #418 on: 05 January, 2018, 09:10:53 pm »
In a similar vein: Gee-ography and Thee-atre

Diphthongs, people. Diphthongs.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #419 on: 05 January, 2018, 09:13:40 pm »
Also: tyoomeric

Ignorant tyoods
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #420 on: 05 January, 2018, 09:37:44 pm »
Diphthongs, people. Diphthongs.

Aren't they Brazilian beach wear (hence the "Brazilian" wax)?
"He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." ~ Freidrich Neitzsche

Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #421 on: 06 January, 2018, 08:14:22 am »
In a similar vein: Gee-ography and Thee-atre

Diphthongs, people. Diphthongs.

Newsreader on BBC WS last weekend kept talking about the eye-ron fist.
Quote from: tiermat
that's not science, it's semantics.

Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #422 on: 06 January, 2018, 08:18:22 am »
Also: tyoomeric

Ignorant tyoods

Tyoomeric is what you add to Basmarti rice. For a dish flavoured with coomin.
Quote from: tiermat
that's not science, it's semantics.

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #423 on: 06 January, 2018, 06:50:17 pm »
In a similar vein: Gee-ography and Thee-atre

Diphthongs, people. Diphthongs.

Newsreader on BBC WS last weekend kept talking about the eye-ron fist.

Isn't this common usage north of Hadrian's Wall?

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Pronunciation that makes you cringe
« Reply #424 on: 06 January, 2018, 08:35:09 pm »
Chemistry teacher used to deliberately talk about "eye-ron ions" to avoid confusion. Normally he was non-rhotic.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.