Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[MaximumZero]

"Warsh the Windles". Fuck you people from Pennsylvania and warshin' your windles.

And what the hell's up with Pittsburgh? Shouldn't it be pronounced "Pittsboro/Pittsburra?"

Pen/Pin are significantly different in my accent, Pillow is "PILL-oh" and "pellow" isn't a word. Michiganders/Michiganites (No one agrees on which is correct,) tend to drop the ends of words. Also, people from Detroit sound like they're from Atlanta. I wish I was making that up.

[G-Flex]

And what the hell's up with Pittsburgh? Shouldn't it be pronounced "Pittsboro/Pittsburra?"

Er, why?

[MaximumZero]

"Burgh" is a Scottish modifier, pronounced "Boro." There was a chain letter under one of the members of Monty Python's name about taking back America that spoofed this. I don't think anyone in the Pythons wrote it, though.

[scriver]

"Burgh" is a common namepart all over Germanian Europe, certainly not just Scottish (it isn't an especially Scottish word to begin with - it either came to them through the Saxons or later through the Norse, I believe, so it's more like English, or British, or British-English), and in most places it's pronounced "BURG" (Hamburg, Gothenburg etc). So whether Pittsburgh was ever even pronounced like that depends on who founded it, I guess, which I have no knowledge of.

Also, all you people are being silly. Do I have to start arguing about how languages work and develops over time again? I'm tired of it, but I will do it if you promise to listen this time

[Vattic]

I'm forever mispronouncing words I've only ever read. I guess I could look it up for each new word while I do the meaning. I'd still get called out for using RP rather than how common folk would say it.

[Loud Whispers]

There are two words I find others around me frequently at odds with:

1. Species (speeshees)
2. Hemorrhage (He-moar-raeg)

[G-Flex]

There are two words I find others around me frequently at odds with:

1. Species (speeshees)
2. Hemorrhage (He-moar-raeg)

That pronunciation is "species" is perfectly acceptable. I'm not sure about the one you listed for "hemorrhage" because I don't know how to quite interpret your pronunciation there.

[Loud Whispers]

That pronunciation is "species" is perfectly acceptable.

It's a good thing that's how I pronounce it then

But something about speeshees just gets on my nerves.

[Ancre]

Heh, I have a foreign (french) accent when I speak, so I probably get all sort of things wrong.

But hearing americans saying "Des Moines" or "Baton Rouge" or another inherited french word has always been highly entertaining. I mean, I know they pronounce it correctly in english, but it sounds really weird.

I tend to find mispronunciations really fun though.

[i2amroy]

Er, no, that's pretty common in damn near all American English, as far as I know.

Or close to it, anyway: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-glottalization

Hrm, very well. I was told by two separate teachers in high school that it was a local thing, but if it ain't, it ain't.

It's only a rather recent development for it to have spread throughout the entire US, actually. Up until the last few years the glottal T was mainly confined to the western coast (having originally spread down from the Washington-Alaska area) potentially leading to the old knowledge in your teachers. Even with the spread of glottal T's it's still fairly common to get people in the middle US that don't do so (excluding all of the "southerners" that is, as that accent tends to counteract the glottal T in exchange for other atrocities on the language, not to offend any who might be reading this).

As for me, my biggest mispronunciations are words that aren't pronounced the way that they are spelled. It's simply because the majority of my vocabulary comes from reading rather then speaking or hearing, so as a result I tend to mispronounce words like "superfluous" (super-flu-ous) or "tarot" (tear-et), at least until I hear somebody pronounce them the right way a few times (su-per-floo-us and tear-o respectively).

Edit: fixed my typos in the superfluous correct pronunciation. Blaming it on the fact that I was typing that post at like 2 am.

[Skyrunner]

Me too D:

I need more listening experience Dx

[Siquo]

I'm forever mispronouncing words I've only ever read. I guess I could look it up for each new word while I do the meaning. I'd still get called out for using RP rather than how common folk would say it.

Yeah, I do this, too, but will quickly adapt once I hear I'm wrong. I once had a colleague insisting on calling variables [vair-AY-ah-buhl] (instead of [VAIR-ee-uh-buhl]) and alias as [ey-LAY-as] (LAY as in lie) instead of [EY-lee-uhs]. Both words are written the same in both Dutch and English, and he persisted somehow in pronouncing them wrong in either language. My pronunciation is far from perfect but at least I try to improve.

People saying My-Sequel instead of My-S-Q-L also make my toes curl but alas, it is an accepted pronunciation.

[G-Flex]

su-perr-fll-us

This is definitely not how it is normally supposed to be pronounced.

[Blargityblarg]

People saying My-Sequel instead of My-S-Q-L also make my toes curl but alas, it is an accepted pronunciation.

The solution is to passive-aggressively call it 'miskwul'

My cousin used to work in a call centre that handled customer service for the only power company in Tasmania. His name is Bill. Many of the callers wanted to talk about their bills.

The Tasmanian accent renders -ill sounds as -iw sounds. Bill did not have a good time.

fakeedit:
soo-perf-loo-us

[Simmura McCrea]

It's pronunciation. That aside, the Scots word loch. The ch is pronounced as in the German ich. Not pronounced like lock.

Losh Ness.
No, that kinda sounds wrong.

Also, I keep pronouncing scheme as "sheme".

Well, that's how I pronounce ich.