pronunciation and language help (1 Viewer)

[Philip_G]

Like Glouchester Road

like eddie izzard said, it has a fucking CH in it.

 

[Yee-Ming]

I thought it ws Gloucester? Like Leicester and Worcester...

 

[Philip_G]

it might be, not sure.
either way they pronounce it funny.

edit: yep, no H. Still prounounced funny.

 

[andrew markworthy]

There's Manchester and indeed Chester, and on the other hand there's Gloucester, but not Glouchester. Incidentally, if there were such a place, then we Brits would almost certainly pronounce it as it's spelt.

 

[KerryK]

What about basil? I say it like the name of the guy in Fawlty Towers. The other day I ordered basil tofu and the busybody in line behind me took it upon herself to tell me it should be "bay-sill" Thanks, lady, but I'll call my lunch whatever I want. I do have some strange pronunciation habits because I moved around a lot when I was growing up so I think I picked up stuff from different regions.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Well, "basil" is one where I pronounce the seasoning bay-zill but the name baz-ill. Probably just due to where I've heard it in each context - UK productions for the name, US for the other.

 

[Leila Dougan]

I say "bay-zill" as well. Everyone I know says it that way too, so at least they aren't pointing out my mistakes.

 

[BrettB]

There's a Clash song (can't remember off the top of me ead ) where Joe pronounces aluminum something like "al a min e yum".

What the ell is that all about?

 

[Jason Seaver]

Heh. Isaac Asimov did an amusing Black Widowers story about a college prof who blew his stack when one of his English students used "aluminium". Just one of those wacky British alternate spellings.

 

[Rob Gardiner]

Truly, these are words to live by.

 

[Citizen87645]

With basil I pronounce it without the short "ih" sound so it's "bay-zl"

 

[Citizen87645]

Along with:

"I wear the cheese; it does not wear me."

 

[Yee-Ming]

I thought they were trying to figure out his password or something, the clue had something to do with the "most unnecessary element" or something, and his quirk about "aluminium" v. "aluminum" suggested the answer, which was the element with the most syllables in its name (it had six, started with "p" I think, but can't remember it offhand).

Anyway, why call it "wacky British alternate spellings", shouldn't it be "wacky American alternate spellings"? I still flinch when I see "color", "labor" and "honor"...

Also, "laboratory". There are two "O"s in the word, it's not spelt "labratory"...

 

[Adam Barratt]

The official spelling (IUPAC) is 'Aluminium' with an 'i', although 'Aluminum' was recognised as an acceptable variant in 1993 (as a wacky US alternate spelling). It was 'Aluminium' in the US until 1926 when the 'i' was dropped. In the rest of the English-speaking world, it's 'Aluminium'. It's also 'Aluminium' in French, Dutch, German, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish.

In the past when this 'misspelling' has been pointed out by my Merkin friends I have simply smiled politely. Don't even get me started on the dropping of 'in the' at the beginning of sentences, which drives me nuts; or of the the pronunciation of 'solder' as 'saa-der'. And what's with the pronunciation of Arkansas? Meantime...

Adam

 

[andrew markworthy]

Well, my fun job for this afternoon is to translate an academic paper I've written into American English (particularly spellings, but also avoiding words like 'whilst') so it can be submitted to an American academic journal. Apparently if American academics read Brit spellings their brains melt, or something.

 

[Cees Alons]

In most other languages 'aluminium' (with the "i") is the only spelling - and pronounced as well.

In this case you cannot blame your president for dropping the "i" though, the form existed in the US long before his time.

Funny that you say that.
In English English it's the second "o" that's not pronounced at all. So tell them there are two. Likewise in 'observatory'.

Another problem word is 'privacy'. Most people seem to pronounce it "prai'vecee" while some English say "prih' vecee" (but only: "prai' vut"). I was told, however, that the second pronunciation of 'privacy' is felt 'overdone' in the UK too.


Cees

 

[Sami Kallio]

So how is kilometer pronounced correctly in English? For Americans it is something like galametr instead of kilo-meter. Salmon, I pronounce it with l. I don't think saa-mon would sound right to me. Oregano is where people laugh at me, ore-gaa-no, like Oregon, instead of ooooooooooo-re-gano.

That's why I love Finnish language, you pronouce it the way it is spelled.

 

[Citizen87645]

Not exactly. You will identify yourself as a visitor (and get laughed at) the moment you pronounce Oregon as "OR-UH-GONE." The University of Oregon has stickers that help people with the pronunciation by spelling it "Orygun."

 

[Citizen87645]

"Willamette" and "Chemeketa" are a couple other words (Native American in origin) that elicit funny looks from native Northwesterners when pronounced incorrectly, usually by visitors. Not to say our pronunciations are correct in respect to the actual Native American languages...

 

[Ted Lee]

i've been doing a lot of video editing on my pc lately, so i've been using the term "capture" a lot.

it's driving my fiancee crazy because i pronounce it like kep-ture, instead of cap-ture ...

anyway leila, if someone digs on you for your pronunciation ... and they're being serious ... tell them to get a life!

as far as tips go, when you're just meandering or driving around, keep saying the word the way you want. ofen, ofen, ofen. maybe it will become habit!

just don't do it when people are around ... you'll get funny stares.