Ignorant local pronounciations that stick...

earlnabby

They are not wrong pronunciations, they are unexpected pronunciations. Without shibboleths, how would you know who was local and who was a transplant?

Around here we have Berlin and New Berlin, both pronounced BURR-lin. Also, Teutonia Ave is pronounce TIE-tone-yah

SE WI?

Yep. A proud cheesehead.

LINIA

FUN reading, so many mispronunciations at this website...and people using correct pronunciations are often verbally attacked:


http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-584913.html

alimac92

I'm curious... How do you pronounce it correctly? I need some phonetics here.

kike in doll

Thanks I was curious too. I would never have guessed "kike in doll".

Shropshire1959

Always crack me up when yanks say ...

Eye-Rack

Eye-tal-ians


Oh and they never get the town of Leominster right .... (it's Lemster BTW)


PS ... Aluminium ..bwhaaaaaaaaaa

FabulousFantasticFifty

Gonna have a bob -e-q out in the yad, invite Peta and Linder and cook up some of them Lobstah! :bigsmile:

EvgeniZyntx

Amerigo

Irenaekl

The one that I wonder about is Carnegie. Andrew Carnegie was from Pittsburgh, but was a titan of industry world wide. As such many places are named after him, New York for example. But everyone else pronounces it Car-nuh-Gee while we say it Car-Nay-Gee.

I really hope everyone else is saying it wrong and not us.

Andrew CAR- NAY- GEE came from Scotland and that is how you say it...with a hard 'G'

And for the record - it's Edin- buh-ruh- NOT Edinboro or Edinburg; Glas GO not Glas-GOW and Aber-DEEN not AH -berdeen. There's American 'English' then there's PROPER English!!

aedreana

I am irritated when people say FO-ward for FORward, as well as when they pronounce February as Feb-u-ary!

Dgydad

It's known as "regional dialects". If this is your biggest problem today, thank the Almighty for your good fortune! Might not be a bad idea to pull the log out of your butt as well....................

Shropshire1959

It's known as "regional dialects". If this is your biggest problem today, thank the Almighty for your good fortune! Might not be a bad idea to pull the log out of your butt as well....................

This board is called "Chit-Chat, Fun, and Games" ... lighten up Francis..

Velum_cado

As a person raised in Michigan, I must add "Sault St. Marie" to this discussion.

60sPanda

Okay, here's one for the Brits: Gloucestershire. I think I recall it without the "ce" in there, but I'm not sure.

There are many tricky areas in London, too. Marylebone looks to be read Mary-le-bone, but I vaguely remember Maryl-bone.

Yep glos-ter-shire. Same as Leicestershire -les-ter-shire.
My husband and I both say mar-lee-bone.

Ah ha! Thanks :flowerforyou:

Missed off a bit... Neither of us are from London so we may possibly be wrong.... Although that'd make everyone I've ever played monopoly* with wrong too. (*it's one of the stations).

Edit to add an apostrophe. Just incase it bothers fellow pedants.

I am an Londoner - we say Marl-e-bone / Glos-ter-shear / Les-ter-shear

My biggest grip is the mispronunciation of Leicester square - its not Lie-cess-ter Square its Les-ter Square. If you are a US tourist in London and you pronounce this correctly then you'll be well respected

IHateThinkingOfAUsername

Okay, here's one for the Brits: Gloucestershire. I think I recall it without the "ce" in there, but I'm not sure.

There are many tricky areas in London, too. Marylebone looks to be read Mary-le-bone, but I vaguely remember Maryl-bone.

Yep glos-ter-shire. Same as Leicestershire -les-ter-shire.
My husband and I both say mar-lee-bone.

Ah ha! Thanks :flowerforyou:

Missed off a bit... Neither of us are from London so we may possibly be wrong.... Although that'd make everyone I've ever played monopoly* with wrong too. (*it's one of the stations).

Edit to add an apostrophe. Just incase it bothers fellow pedants.

I am an Londoner - we say Marl-e-bone / Glos-ter-shear / Les-ter-shear

My biggest grip is the mispronunciation of Leicester square - its not Lie-cess-ter Square its Les-ter Square. If you are a US tourist in London and you pronounce this correctly then you'll be well respected

Assuming "Marl-e-bone" is eeeee as in knee not e as in egg then I'm feeling rather pleased with myself. Lol. And yep 'shire' = "shear" as in rhyming with hear and ear; not "shire" (as in the place hobbits live).

IHateThinkingOfAUsername

PS I love phonics.

jojokmack

well I'm from England and as far as I am concerned ALL Americans pronounce things wrong! *giggle*

Jodsmission

well to that I say the word is aluminium not "al -U -Min -e-um"

Shropshire1959

well I'm from England and as far as I am concerned ALL Americans pronounce things wrong! *giggle*

Dead right :-p

dammitjanet0161

.

dammitjanet0161

2 more food ones:

Chorizo pronounced as chorit-zo. Special rage points for trying to overdo a Spanish accent while pronoucing it as no Spanish person would ever do. It doesn't have a 'zz' like pizza! But everybody does it. If being strictly correct it's chor-ee-tho although I do agree that sounds a bit pretentious from an English person, otherwise chor-ee-so is ok for an English speaker.

Canape pronounced as canopy.

Abscominsoon

There are many streets with French names in Detroit. Everyone butchers them, and it drives me nuts.

How bout when people try to say Gratiot!!!

asdowe13

It's known as "regional dialects". If this is your biggest problem today, thank the Almighty for your good fortune! Might not be a bad idea to pull the log out of your butt as well....................

\

The Butthurt is strong with this one

Capt_Apollo

well I'm from England and as far as I am concerned ALL Americans pronounce things wrong! *giggle*

Dead right :-p

Dank uns können Sie nicht lesen

AglaeaC

well to that I say the word is aluminium not "al -U -Min -e-um"

They spell it alumiNUM, too. I don't get how that one started, because originally it is alumiNIUM and just about every other country includes the i in the name.

AglaeaC

2 more food ones:

Chorizo pronounced as chorit-zo. Special rage points for trying to overdo a Spanish accent while pronoucing it as no Spanish person would ever do. It doesn't have a 'zz' like pizza! But everybody does it. If being strictly correct it's chor-ee-tho although I do agree that sounds a bit pretentious from an English person, otherwise chor-ee-so is ok for an English speaker.

Canape pronounced as canopy.

I don't speak Spanish so this one has puzzled me a bit. Is it cho like chop or cost?

rosehips60

People around here (even newscasters) say Nor-FORK, instead of Norfolk for the town in Nebraska, many people also say Dez-Moinez, and it is the state capitol!

Jodsmission

It was phonetic . They spell it aluminium but the British pronounce the word " AL -U -Men- E -Um "
Sorry married to a Brit .

AglaeaC

It was phonetic . They spell it aluminium but the British pronounce the word " AL -U -Men- E -Um "
Sorry married to a Brit .

I don't know who you're referring to with your "they", but I take it you're American? If you go back and read, my "they" are the Americans.

Everywhere on the planet (with a few exceptions), the element is spelled alumiNIum. It is the original spelling and what I said earlier was that I don't quite see how the letter i was dropped in the U.S.

IHateThinkingOfAUsername

Lol I'm now having problem just saying the word aluminium in either the Brit or US way!.

Norfolk, uk, pronounced.... nor-fuk. Who knows if that's right!

rml_16

It was phonetic . They spell it aluminium but the British pronounce the word " AL -U -Men- E -Um "
Sorry married to a Brit .

I don't know who you're referring to with your "they", but I take it you're American? If you go back and read, my "they" are the Americans.

Everywhere on the planet (with a few exceptions), the element is spelled alumiNIum. It is the original spelling and what I said earlier was that I don't quite see how the letter i was dropped in the U.S.

I can't remember off the top of my head, but a quick google search will answer that question. I think there's even a Wikipedia page explaining the word's evolution in the US.

Technically, the correct pronunciation IS aluminium (the way the Brits say it). And I say this as an American who says aluminum. :-) And Google Chrome accepts both spellings as accurate.

AglaeaC

It was phonetic . They spell it aluminium but the British pronounce the word " AL -U -Men- E -Um "
Sorry married to a Brit .

I don't know who you're referring to with your "they", but I take it you're American? If you go back and read, my "they" are the Americans.

Everywhere on the planet (with a few exceptions), the element is spelled alumiNIum. It is the original spelling and what I said earlier was that I don't quite see how the letter i was dropped in the U.S.

I can't remember off the top of my head, but a quick google search will answer that question. I think there's even a Wikipedia page explaining the word's evolution in the US.

Technically, the correct pronunciation IS aluminium (the way the Brits say it). And I say this as an American who says aluminum. :-) And Google Chrome accepts both spellings as accurate.

I just want to add that both spellings are indeed correct. It's just an interesting etymology with a letter that was dropped; to me it makes no sense, but there obviously is a logical explanation for how it happened. Thanks for the tip to check out the history article of it!