#398250 - Sun Nov 25 2007 04:53 PM
Re: Mispronounced words
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Moderator
Registered: Thu Sep 30 1999
Posts: 12434
Loc: Kowloon Tong Hong Kong
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Yes you are right. Newsreaders who know their job always go though the bulletin first and check how to pronounce the names of people and places. We have a local one who repeatededly talks of Wimpleton,for the tennis venue, and a weather girl who says it will be ' Mitsy in Bisbrane'. Not very professional. I am pretty sure the BBC has a department for correct pronounciation.
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#398251 - Sun Nov 25 2007 05:32 PM
Re: Mispronounced words
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Administrator
Registered: Sat Mar 29 2003
Posts: 15117
Loc: Western Canada
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Quote:
I've always pronounced banal "baynal."
Well, they sure jumped on me when I did it....
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#398253 - Sun Nov 25 2007 05:44 PM
Re: Mispronounced words
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Multiloquent
Registered: Wed Apr 11 2001
Posts: 4224
Loc: Texas USA
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Yes Virginia, there is a Duck Tape. But is it really duct tape? Tape, by the way, that is no longer used for ducts! Just recently I saw a woman who made her wallet totally out of duct tape. Ingenuity! But then I have a whole book on what duct tape can be used for...
Then there are the mispronunciations: Chimbley for chimney, and libary for library.... Uck!
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If you can't sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there worrying. It's the worry that gets you, not the lack of sleep. -Dale Carnegie
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#398255 - Mon Nov 26 2007 12:49 AM
Re: Mispronounced words
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Participant
Registered: Tue Nov 20 2007
Posts: 9
Loc: Oceanside, CA
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I have a friend who, despite being repeatedly corrected, keeps using the word "supposably."
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#398257 - Mon Nov 26 2007 04:06 AM
Re: Mispronounced words
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Multiloquent
Registered: Sat Feb 25 2006
Posts: 2869
Loc: Adelaide South Australia
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Quote:
I have a friend who, despite being repeatedly corrected, keeps using the word "supposably."
Whoops, I think I am still guilty of that one occasionally.
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#398258 - Mon Nov 26 2007 06:23 AM
Re: Mispronounced words
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Mainstay
Registered: Mon Jan 08 2007
Posts: 512
Loc: Jerusalem Israel
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'Israel', surprisingly, is commonly mispronounced.
I often hear 'Izreel', 'Izriyel', 'Izrayel' and other similar versions by native English speakers.
The word actually starts with a soft 'Y' sound and the 'S' is soft (often written 'ss' in English words.
So, start with 'Yiss...'
a is simple short a as in hat and 'el' is like ale ( =beer) If you don't make the slightest glottal stop between the 'a' and the 'e' there will be a 'y' sound there.. doesn't belong.
So.. from the top- Yiss-ra-ale that was easy wasn't it? I think it's important to pronounce non-English words the way they're supposed to be pronounced according to the rules of their own language where possible.
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#398259 - Mon Nov 26 2007 07:03 AM
Re: Mispronounced words
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Moderator
Registered: Thu Sep 30 1999
Posts: 12434
Loc: Kowloon Tong Hong Kong
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In that I agree, but we don't talk about 'Paree' and 'Roma' do we? I thought of another one, My Gran , master of mispronouncement, called a robe you put on top of your nightie, a ' dressing gownD' ,always. But she , bless her , could never bring herself to say the word 'sex'. It was " members of the opposite ...erm.er...SEC"!! She also couldn't call anyone 'gay' or anything else for that matter. They were 'hermafrites' . Funny how these things come back to you .
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#398260 - Mon Nov 26 2007 08:22 AM
Re: Mispronounced words
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Participant
Registered: Tue Sep 11 2007
Posts: 48
Loc: Iowa USA
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My son used to say mazza-gines for magazines. My youngest daughter says sum-mage instead of massage.
My brother in law grew up in Hawaii and spoke pidgin English. I could not understand that man at all when I first met him. Between his accent, his speaking very fast and expressions that made no sense to me, it was a challenge to have a conversation with him. Sometimes, I would just nod and smile becuase I got behind in trying to puzzle out his words.
"Jalike" means "just like" "Dis, dat and da utter ting"---This, that and the other thing "foeva"--forever "Dass it"--that's it
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#398263 - Mon Nov 26 2007 07:38 PM
Re: Mispronounced words
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Mainstay
Registered: Mon Jan 08 2007
Posts: 512
Loc: Jerusalem Israel
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You don't talk about 'Paree' and Roma? ::gasp:: ! Just kidding you, Ren:) (And you have to say it with the right accent too;)
I think it all really depends on whether your audience will understand. Saying 'Israel' correctly is recognizable.
What about Des Moines? When I hear 'Moyn' I cringe! It's obviously a French name, why isn't everyone pronouncing it 'Mwan?'
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#398264 - Mon Nov 26 2007 09:10 PM
Re: Mispronounced words
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Participant
Registered: Tue Nov 20 2007
Posts: 9
Loc: Oceanside, CA
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Ha! I have to add my two cents on screwed up french. I grew up in northern Colorado and one of the rivers that makes it's route through the area is the Cache le Poudre. Now...it SHOULD be pronounce "Cash le Pooh-dreh" but everyone mangles it horribly. You MIGHT think we'd go all American on it and say "Catch luh Pooder" but no.... that would be too consistent. It's commonly accepted that this river, that's also given it's name to various businesses and even a high school, is pronounced "Cash luh Pooder" or even more affectionately referred to as "The Pooder." I do have to admit a fondness for this--like I said I grew up there knowing it was wrong but did it anyway. It kind of made it more our own river that way.
Also, there is a town between Boulder and Denver called Louisville. Do NOT refer to it as "Loo-ee-ville" for it's residents will sternly remind you that it is called "Loo-iss-ville."
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#398265 - Mon Nov 26 2007 10:12 PM
Re: Mispronounced words
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Multiloquent
Registered: Wed Nov 12 2003
Posts: 2165
Loc: Nebraska USA
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Some words, though, evolve into the primary language in which they are said. Des Moines may be French, but the origin of the name as an American city is just as possibly an anglicized version of a particular tribe that inhabited the area. Not only that, but in midwestern dialect, there's actually very little difference between "dehmwan" and "dehmoyn" as far as sound is concerned. Just be glad you don't more often hear the "s" on the end.
There's a town north of here named Norfolk. Unlike Norfolk, Virginia, which is pronounced more closely to the English way, Norfolk, NE is pronounced Norfork. The story is that when the town was incorporated, they intended to call it Norfork because it is located on the North fork of the Elkhorn river. The US postal service assumed it was a misprint and changed it to Norfolk, but it has been pronounced Norfork ever since.
Maybe Louisville is actually named after an English Lewis, not a French Louis?
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#398266 - Tue Nov 27 2007 05:38 AM
Re: Mispronounced words
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Multiloquent
Registered: Sat Jan 10 2004
Posts: 2470
Loc: Wollongong NSW Australia
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My daughter was a champion at mispronouncing words when she was little and they have stuck. A toaster was a toast popter, marmalade was marbeloot and a wheelbarrow was a wirrow barrow.
She went for quite some time substituting f/s and would always ask to watch Big Bird on "Feffa Freet".
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#398268 - Tue Nov 27 2007 07:00 AM
Re: Mispronounced words
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Moderator
Registered: Thu Sep 30 1999
Posts: 12434
Loc: Kowloon Tong Hong Kong
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Another of my dear old Gran's: She used to call me her " Glory da deejer Rose" I realised in later years that she was calling me after a rose, famous at the time " Gloire de Dijon" Ain't that cute?
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Wandering aimlessly through FT since 1999.
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#398269 - Tue Nov 27 2007 07:43 AM
Re: Mispronounced words
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Star Poster
Registered: Sat Feb 10 2001
Posts: 18813
Loc: California USA
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I only realized that the Nez Pierce or however they spell it were those of the pierced noses after knowing French for a long time. It was pronounced the way I just wrote it rather than the way you'd say it in French. You also have Tete Plate and other names for American natives from French explorers or trappers. Lake Huron comes from a word for Hure or boar with a crest as they saw the natives sporting the headdress or hairstyle that looked like the crest of a boar.
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#398270 - Tue Nov 27 2007 11:03 AM
Re: Mispronounced words
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Moderator
Registered: Wed Oct 17 2001
Posts: 8451
Loc: Hastings Sussex England UK
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While we're on the subject of French in the USA, how does one pronounce the delightfully named Grand Teton and Gros Ventre peaks?
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#398271 - Tue Nov 27 2007 11:44 AM
Re: Mispronounced words
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Star Poster
Registered: Sat Feb 10 2001
Posts: 18813
Loc: California USA
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I think the Grand Tea ton with accent on that Tea bit is the first. short O on the O.
Gros Ventre, not sure.
I used to laugh when going to Butte county as for us little Americans it meant butt. I think most of us say 'beaut' as in Beautiful.
come to think of it, one wonders how come we got to Bew tee full instead of Beau or Bo.
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I was born under a wandering star.
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#398273 - Tue Nov 27 2007 12:18 PM
Re: Mispronounced words
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Administrator
Registered: Sun Dec 19 1999
Posts: 37422
Loc: Jersey Channel Islands
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Having lived in Hampshire until I was almost twenty-five I was of course familiar with the correct pronuciation which didn't prepare me for the way they pronounce the name of a girls school here, Beaulieu Convent! Here it is Bow Lure, we also have a Ho Lure - Haulieu.
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