#398303 - Fri Dec 28 2007 07:28 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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I found a new one today I have been looking at the name of a lovely singer, and today realised she is not Mary J. Bilge!
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Wandering aimlessly through FT since 1999.
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#398306 - Sat Jan 05 2008 12:57 PM
Re: Mispronounced words
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Participant
Registered: Thu May 24 2007
Posts: 10
Loc: Barbourville Kentucky USA
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In our family we usually end up calling spaghetti paseggty, only because the young children often call it that. My granddaughter at age 2-3 pronounced the 'f' sound 'th' as in thinger for finger, so we sometimes revert to that as well. She is 9 now, and grins everytime someone does it because she knows the origin.
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Put on your big girl panties on and deal with it!
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#398307 - Sat Jan 05 2008 02:19 PM
Re: Mispronounced words
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Forum Champion
Registered: Wed Dec 03 2003
Posts: 9455
Loc: Virginia USA
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My girlfriend and I still say "remembery" (memory) because of a little boy she used to babysit over twenty years ago. He proudly stated "I have a good remembery" once to her and we loved it so much we immediately adopted it into our own vocabularies.
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>^..^< "The big yellow one is the sun."
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#398308 - Mon Jan 07 2008 02:38 PM
Re: Mispronounced words
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Participant
Registered: Mon Jul 23 2007
Posts: 26
Loc: Ontario Canada
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I think some words are pronounced differently depending where you're from. In Canada, 'aluminum' is pronounced 'al-loo-min-um', but in England I've heard people say 'al-loo-min-eee-um', which drives me nuts. Same with 'axe' for 'ask'.
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"I don't drink these days. I am allergic to alcohol and narcotics. I break out in handcuffs." - Robert Downey Jr.
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#398310 - Mon Jan 07 2008 05:39 PM
Re: Mispronounced words
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Champion Poster
Registered: Sun Oct 05 2003
Posts: 23950
Loc: near Stafford, Virginia
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The history of that word is interesting. I knew that both spellings were used, but did not know the IUPAC had standardized the spelling with the -ium ending. It only makes sense as most other metallic elements end in the same fashion.
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The way to get things done is NOT to mind who gets the credit for doing them. --Benjamin Jowett No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. --Eleanor Roosevelt The day we lose our will to fight is the day we lose our freedom.
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#398311 - Mon Jan 07 2008 07:57 PM
Re: Mispronounced words
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Explorer
Registered: Mon Jan 07 2008
Posts: 51
Loc: Nova Scotia Canada
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I was watching a TV show the other day where the word lingerie was pronounced linger-ee (rhyming with finger-ee). I laughed because I had not heard the word pronounced that way before, I wonder is this a common pronounciation anywhere?
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#398312 - Mon Jan 07 2008 08:00 PM
Re: Mispronounced words
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Champion Poster
Registered: Sun Oct 05 2003
Posts: 23950
Loc: near Stafford, Virginia
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I've never heard it in the fashion you're referring to. Seems like the person reading the text had never heard the word before and sounded it out the way they thought it was...?
_________________________
The way to get things done is NOT to mind who gets the credit for doing them. --Benjamin Jowett No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. --Eleanor Roosevelt The day we lose our will to fight is the day we lose our freedom.
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#398313 - Mon Jan 07 2008 11:45 PM
Re: Mispronounced words
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Forum Champion
Registered: Sun Jun 16 2002
Posts: 5337
Loc: Nijmegen/Brisbane
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Maybe they were trying to pronounce it the French way and failed? After all, it is originally a French word. In French, the first i sounds like more like a nasal English e (like in pet), the g sounds more like the s in measure, and the middle e is (nearly) silent. But the ending ee is the way the French do it.
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The cost of living has not affected its popularity - Loesje
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#398314 - Tue Jan 08 2008 01:47 AM
Re: Mispronounced words
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Multiloquent
Registered: Mon Apr 22 2002
Posts: 4861
Loc: Western Australia
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Quote:
I think some words are pronounced differently depending where you're from. In Canada, 'aluminum' is pronounced 'al-loo-min-um', but in England I've heard people say 'al-loo-min-eee-um', which drives me nuts.
Well, I'm the opposite. I find the American pronunciation really grates on my nerves. Of course, the Americans can blame Noah Webster for this language problem (as well as many others).
As for lingerie being rhymed with "finger-ey", I think that the person pronouncing it may have been doing it on purpose - "tongue in cheek".
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Don't say "I can't" ... say " I haven't learned how, yet." (Reg Bolton)
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#398315 - Tue Jan 08 2008 05:02 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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According to the OED, "aluminum" (i.e. the US spelling) was "the name given" to the metal "by its discoverer, Sir Humphrey Davy, in 1812." However, "aluminium" (the British spelling) was preferred by some, on the analogy of other element names. So, since Davy was a Brit, Americans can say that here, as in so many other cases, they're simply following the original British usage.
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Dilige et quod vis fac
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#398318 - Tue Jan 08 2008 11:23 AM
Re: Mispronounced words
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Multiloquent
Registered: Mon Apr 22 2002
Posts: 4861
Loc: Western Australia
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Quote:
Americans can say that here, as in so many other cases, they're simply following the original British usage.
Yes, one of the things Noah Webster did when he compiled his American dictionary was to resurrect a lot of archaic and obsolete British words like aluminum. There were many words and expressions that were used in Elizabethan England which "died", and were subsequently resurrected and became part of "American" English. According to Bill Bryson's "Mother Tongue", these include:
fall, as a synonym for autumn mad, for angry progress, as a verb platter, for a large dish deck of cards, instead of pack of cards trash, for rubbish
Of course, many of these words are now back in the English language and used frequently because of the influence of the media and the prevalence of American television shows and movies.
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Don't say "I can't" ... say " I haven't learned how, yet." (Reg Bolton)
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#398319 - Tue Jan 08 2008 12:02 PM
Re: Mispronounced words
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Prolific
Registered: Sun May 21 2000
Posts: 1778
Loc: Body: PA USA Heart: Paris
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Can somebody explain to me why, in the US, we have a state spelled 'Kansas' which is univerally pronounced 'can-zas', and another state spelled 'Arkansas' but is universally pronounced 'ar-ken-saw'?
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I'm not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia. Let them walk to school like I did. Yogi Berra
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#398320 - Tue Jan 08 2008 12:20 PM
Re: Mispronounced words
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Forum Champion
Registered: Tue Jan 18 2005
Posts: 8717
Loc: Arkansas USA
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We down here have wondered over that for years, Vendome, but here's the story. The Quapaw tribe lived west of the Mississippi River and north of the Arkansas River. Quapaws were known as the "downstream people". Probably influenced by French pronunciation of Indian names, the Algonkian-speaking Indians from the Ohio Valley called the Quapaws 'Arkansas' which means "south wind" . Sometime in 1881, two senators started an actual floor debate over the pronunciation of both Kansas and Arkansas, which consisted of nothing more than personal preference. The present pronunciation was made legal in that year, maybe so that the Senate could get on with the actual business of running the country. Edited to add: I feel sorry for some of the Spanish speakers who actually think they are in Kansas, perhaps being overwhelmed by a whole new language and not noticing the 'A' at the front of their new written location. We hear it all the time and it's a shock at first. 
Edited by ktstew (Tue Jan 08 2008 12:27 PM)
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#398322 - Wed Jan 09 2008 10:21 PM
Re: Mispronounced words
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Forum Adept
Registered: Fri Apr 20 2007
Posts: 122
Loc: Wellington New Zealand
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Many years ago my Aunty came to NZ from the UK for a holiday. We were going on a drive, leaving Wellington and heading through Petone(pronounced:Pea-toe-knee)when my aunty proclaimed "why would anyone call a place Pet-One! Ooops:-)
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#398323 - Wed Jan 09 2008 11:57 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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Forgive me , I keep getting reminded of new ones when I read people's posts. I was very very puzzled indeed, and could not help the teacher next door ( a New Zealand girl) when she asked me if I had a spare "type dick" in my classroom. It got embarrassing (well honestly??) until she said "I have lots of types to ply, so I shall be needing a type dick." At last! A light shone through! She needed .... a tape deck..a tape player. Oh dear! Lately I have realised that the word 'portakabin' was the name for a portable shed . It didn't help that I was reading it as 'portaka bin'. Oh dear again!
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Wandering aimlessly through FT since 1999.
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