RE: Stupid Words (Full Version)

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Dvr22999874 -> RE: Stupid Words (5/11/2016 10:35:57 PM)

And when I worked in Germany, there was a chef de partie there called 'Fetherstonehaugh' which drove the Germans crazy trying to pronounce it and they never understood why it SHOULD be pronounced 'Fanshawe'................I have to admit that neither could I.



PeonForHer -> RE: Stupid Words (5/12/2016 12:55:32 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: DesFIP

US versus British pronunciations. In the US, trough rhymes with cow.

British speakers including Canada and Australia will have the gh produce a F sound.

So no, you're not pronouncing it wrong since you are an American.


Reminds me: 'route' is pronounced 'rowt' in the USA but 'root' in the UK. But I've noticed the UK pronunciation must sound so wrong to American ears that British actors playing British parts in American films always say 'rowt'. Even Captain Picard used to say 'rowt' in Star Trek - there's no way poor Patrick Stewart would have said it that way in real life.



freedomdwarf1 -> RE: Stupid Words (5/12/2016 2:02:07 AM)

A bit like Americans pronounce 'semi' as sem-eye where we say semee.



Greta75 -> RE: Stupid Words (5/12/2016 2:03:33 AM)

I live in a country where the official English is British. But all our TV programs are American. We seldom get British TV here. So when English oral comes, we get in trouble mixing up all the pronunciations. It's still not so bad for writings. Although my computer is on American spell check, so it always tell me I am spelling it wrong when I am typing British English Spelling.

But some things, as simple as the word "can't", British kinda say "cunt", and American kinda say, "ciant" which sounds like "can".

So when I was younger and talking to Americans, whenever they say, "can't", I always thought they meant "can". Because they would say "can't" very fast, without strong emphasis on the "T", at least to my ear.






Greta75 -> RE: Stupid Words (5/12/2016 2:16:41 AM)

What I hate most in English is why is "Quay" called "Key". And all those french sounding fancy words like, "Lingerie" called "laungerei".




WickedsDesire -> RE: Stupid Words (5/12/2016 2:58:09 AM)

weather trough

Row.
Row is also a verb meaning "to paddle." Row also means a noisy argument, but when you use it this way, it rhymes with cow, rather than toe.



PeonForHer -> RE: Stupid Words (5/12/2016 3:10:50 AM)

Heh. I was watching The 100 the other day. That baddies were going to use a bomb on the goodies. The goodies were all running around shouting 'We're going to get bummed! We're going to get bummed!'. What an awful war-crime, eh? Well, it would be if you were a Londoner. Made me titter, anyway.



PeonForHer -> RE: Stupid Words (5/12/2016 3:13:04 AM)

quote:

British kinda say "cunt"


Really? Gawd. I shall have to make a point of saying that word *very* carefully the next time I speak to a Singaporean woman.



Greta75 -> RE: Stupid Words (5/12/2016 3:16:10 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: PeonForHer

quote:

British kinda say "cunt"


Really? Gawd. I shall have to make a point of saying that word *very* carefully the next time I speak to a Singaporean woman.


Well, that's the closest spelling of a sound to that word I can think of.

It's close to "cunt". If you say "cunt" and "can't" side by side in British, you can't deny they are similar sounding with vague differences.



PeonForHer -> RE: Stupid Words (5/12/2016 3:45:05 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Greta75
It's close to "cunt". If you say "cunt" and "can't" side by side in British, you can't deny they are similar sounding with vague differences.


Well, I've always been able to tell. Mind you, what sound like minor differences to foreigners will sound like big differences to natives. Similarly, maybe, Chinese people might look very similar to each other in the eyes of Westerners, but not in the eyes of other Chinese people. I think it's possibly one of those things.




Greta75 -> RE: Stupid Words (5/12/2016 4:14:26 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: PeonForHer
Well, I've always been able to tell. Mind you, what sound like minor differences to foreigners will sound like big differences to natives. Similarly, maybe, Chinese people might look very similar to each other in the eyes of Westerners, but not in the eyes of other Chinese people. I think it's possibly one of those things.

I guess that's true. That's why whenever an American say, "I can't", I always misunderstood, his saying, "I can". I always have to clarify, if it's can or cannot? Ha!



Awareness -> RE: Stupid Words (5/12/2016 3:31:56 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Lucylastic
I did NOT know that trough in the us rhymes with cow:)
It doesn't - she's talking fucking bollocks.



bounty44 -> RE: Stupid Words (5/12/2016 3:38:01 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: freedomdwarf1

A bit like Americans pronounce 'semi' as sem-eye where we say semee.



we go both ways on that, it depends on who's saying it, and what follows it.

your first usage is consistent with tractor trailers.

semi-circle is an example where people will use it both ways.



PeonForHer -> RE: Stupid Words (5/12/2016 3:43:28 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Dvr22999874

A couple of blokes I was at school with.................one called Cholmondley ( pronounced Chumley)................ and another called Menzies (pronounced Mingeez).......go figure those out.


Not really relevant but - you know that Siemens set up their UK head office just outside Staines, Surrey? They still get lots of calls a day from people who just say 'Have I got Siemens, Staines?' - followed by childish chortling. Well, it's Siemens own fault, IMO. What a mistake to make, setting up there.



Dvr22999874 -> RE: Stupid Words (5/12/2016 3:43:30 PM)

But lingerie IS a French word and 'launsheray' is about how the French pronounce it. How do you think it SHOULD be pronounced ?



Kaliko -> RE: Stupid Words (5/12/2016 4:07:43 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Awareness


quote:

ORIGINAL: Lucylastic
I did NOT know that trough in the us rhymes with cow:)
It doesn't - she's talking fucking bollocks.



Well, obviously there's enough controversy surrounding actual correct pronunciation that I can declare a mistrial.



Greta75 -> RE: Stupid Words (5/12/2016 4:49:55 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Dvr22999874

But lingerie IS a French word and 'launsheray' is about how the French pronounce it. How do you think it SHOULD be pronounced ?

We should pronounce it the English way! Using English pronunciation to pronounce it.

Because, there really shouldn't be like English words, exception of the rule, that isn't pronounced the way it's pronounced like all normal English words. I don't understand why create exceptions? Lingerie is a word, may have french origins, but adopted into a common English word now. If the Americans can move away from Britain and change the pronunciation of English words drastically. Why can't a word from the French be changed when pronounced in English?

Because, taking away "Lingerie", seriously, "Quay" is another example. And I think "Key" sounds damn weird to me, since it sounds like literal "Keys".




Dvr22999874 -> RE: Stupid Words (5/12/2016 5:07:33 PM)

In the English language though Greta, the exception is very often the rule. It's because English is a bastardised language built up over centuries of invasions and assimilations. If you took out all the foreign words now built into the English language, the sentences would be a lot shorter and possibly consist mainly of grunts. No insult is meant there, I promise.
One small thing that I remember American tourists getting totally wrong was a café in Windsor in England called 'Ye Olde Tea Shoppe'.............They pronounced it as they saw it spelled but the actual pronunciation is 'The Old Tea Shop'.............The spelling has changed over the years/centuries but that has always been how it has been pronounced.



bounty44 -> RE: Stupid Words (5/12/2016 5:10:16 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: WickedsDesire

weather trough

Row.
Row is also a verb meaning "to paddle." Row also means a noisy argument, but when you use it this way, it rhymes with cow, rather than toe.


and we've got a slough that rhymes with slow and a slough that rhymes with sluff.



bounty44 -> RE: Stupid Words (5/12/2016 5:13:33 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Greta75

quote:

ORIGINAL: Dvr22999874

But lingerie IS a French word and 'launsheray' is about how the French pronounce it. How do you think it SHOULD be pronounced ?

We should pronounce it the English way! Using English pronunciation to pronounce it.

Because, there really shouldn't be like English words, exception of the rule, that isn't pronounced the way it's pronounced like all normal English words. I don't understand why create exceptions? Lingerie is a word, may have french origins, but adopted into a common English word now. If the Americans can move away from Britain and change the pronunciation of English words drastically. Why can't a word from the French be changed when pronounced in English?

Because, taking away "Lingerie", seriously, "Quay" is another example. And I think "Key" sounds damn weird to me, since it sounds like literal "Keys".


greta, English is full of words that are called "loanwords"---which are actual foreign words we've adopted as they are into our language.

lingerie is very likely one of those words, so it is pronounced in English speaking countries in the same way the French would pronounce it.



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