Ignorant local pronounciations that stick...

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  • dmarsh1018
    dmarsh1018 Posts: 70 Member
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    Yikes! It's one thing to completely mispronounce a word. But to be called ignorant for using your local accent/dialect is pretty harsh.

    And I have to say that people spelling things wrong is way worse than people saying things wrong, especially with so many communications these days through email, text, internet forums, etc....

    *Hope I didn't spell anything wrong here*
  • sharonKay65
    sharonKay65 Posts: 93 Member
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    I am from Colorado, and to me it seemed like we were the only ones without a noticeable accent. I have lived in Oklahoma now for over 25 years, and all the words and phrases that the Locals seemed to butcher when I first moved here now seem common and barely noticeable, I am sure I have picked up on many of them without realizing it.. It wasn't until a few years ago, that my Sister seemed a little confused by me saying "I'm fixin' to go to the store, her reply " Wait, what are you fixing, and what store do you have to go to?" I had to correct myself and restate that I was "getting ready" to go to the Grocery store, and no I did not need to fix anything! Also People from Boston, seem to drop and add "R's" where they should not. Yet it was an Ex-Sister-In-Law that used to bug me when she would say "Specific Ocean" or she told me one time that her Mom had Ammonia :)
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
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    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!

    Our colonial cousins LOVE dropping letters for words :-p "U" mostly .. Colour, flavour, humour

    That is because we are giving back all of those extra vowels you guys stole from the Welsh.
  • darkguardian419
    darkguardian419 Posts: 1,302 Member
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    I grew up in Lancaster, PA.

    It's pronounced lan-kiss-ter

    Easiest way to figure out if someone is local or not.
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
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    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

    That is only the ignorant ones (who also refer to the AYE-mish). Most Yanks (well, except for a former president) use the correct pronunciation for Iraq and Italian.
  • 1HappyRedhead
    1HappyRedhead Posts: 413 Member
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    I'm from Tennessee..... I think that says it all. :grumble: :laugh:
  • jasonmh630
    jasonmh630 Posts: 2,850 Member
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    I'm not sure if this happens country-wide, but it's definitely prevalent in the South. People mispronouncing REALTOR as REAL-A-TOR... The latter of which being entirely wrong.

    Also, this next one is not necessarily local, it just happens to be a pet peeve of mine... But people saying NUCULER instead of NUCLEAR
  • ashleydawndill
    ashleydawndill Posts: 242 Member
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    Haha, aluminium! I'm definitely guilty of "ah-LOOM-in-um".. but I was never aware of the alternative!

    There's a street here in Halifax called "Agricola". Pronounced "Ah-grick-oh-la", always mispronounced as "Egg-ri-cola". -_-

    Not a pronounciation, but a lot of people also say "seen" when they should be saying "saw." Example: "I seen you at the grocery store". Um, what?

    A lot of people also say "All-timers", instead of AlZHEIMers. Just bugs me since I work with the Alzheimers Society, lol.
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
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    I grew up in Lancaster, PA.

    It's pronounced lan-kiss-ter

    Easiest way to figure out if someone is local or not.

    Which is one reason Shibboleths exist. There was a story that the Dutch resistance in WWII could pick out the German spies in their midst because only a local could pronounce the name of the resort town Scheveningen correctly. In fact, the term "shibboleth" comes from the Bible where the armys of Gilead knew if someone was an Ephraimite by how they pronounced the word (which is Hebrew for "stream" or the "current in a stream"). Then, pronouncing a word different than the locals could get you killed.
  • the_arghbowl
    the_arghbowl Posts: 63 Member
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    Live in Central/Upstate NYS and we sound like a mix of Minnesota, South Dakota, & Appalachian. In other words, we all sound like drunk rednecks. I mean, we are, but that's besides the point.
  • joet60
    joet60 Posts: 13 Member
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    There's a large difference between pronouncing words incorrctly and those same words sounding different because of an acent. Also some one brought up the pronounciation of French words, such as foyer.....the proper ENGLISH pronunciation is FOY_ER....not FOY_EY.....that would be the French ponounciation. Same with names of cities in Europe....Munich in english....Munchen in German....Turino in Italian, Turin in Englsih.
  • AglaeaC
    AglaeaC Posts: 1,974 Member
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    There's a large difference between pronouncing words incorrctly and those same words sounding different because of an acent. Also some one brought up the pronounciation of French words, such as foyer.....the proper ENGLISH pronunciation is FOY_ER....not FOY_EY.....that would be the French ponounciation. Same with names of cities in Europe....Munich in english....Munchen in German....Turino in Italian, Turin in Englsih.
    München and Torino, sorry.
  • bennettinfinity
    bennettinfinity Posts: 865 Member
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    I grew up in Lancaster, PA.

    It's pronounced lan-kiss-ter

    Easiest way to figure out if someone is local or not.

    We have one in Ohio, but we pronounce it LAIN-ca-ster... it's fun to listen to out-of-staters try to say it... :smile:
  • headofphat
    headofphat Posts: 1,597 Member
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    For the most part, regional differences in pronunciations don't bother me. But there's one that gets under my skin. I'm from Houston, Texas, and moved to Atlanta about six years ago. I just about fell out when I heard Houston County, GA, pronounced as 'HOW-stun.' Wrong, wrong, wrong.

    I'm actually from Houston County, GA and I can tell you now that Houston, TX can suck our balls.
  • 20Grit
    20Grit Posts: 752 Member
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    Oklahoma.

    Ya'll
    tump
    fixntah
    crick
    crooknick
    fanger
    worsh
    cern.
    Eyetalian
    and the whole Miami - My-am-uh thing irritates the crap out of me.

    I could ramble on for days.

    one of the funniest I heard was an In-law (southeastern OK) discussing his crooknicks....... (yellow squash).

    my neighborhood - all roads named after roads in France.....it gits interstin. :noway:
    we don't have streets, we have roads.

    and it get's worse the further south you go, I've lived here my entire life, and even I get confused there.
    However, I have no accent at all. :bigsmile:
  • headofphat
    headofphat Posts: 1,597 Member
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    For the most part, regional differences in pronunciations don't bother me. But there's one that gets under my skin. I'm from Houston, Texas, and moved to Atlanta about six years ago. I just about fell out when I heard Houston County, GA, pronounced as 'HOW-stun.' Wrong, wrong, wrong.
    Clearly, Georgians can't pronounce ANYTHING correctly!

    Delta has flights out of Atlanta purdy much evry 10 seconds. Y'all call feel free to be on one of them. We won't miss ya. Tell yur ma and dem we said howdy.
  • SunofaBeach14
    SunofaBeach14 Posts: 4,899 Member
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    For the most part, regional differences in pronunciations don't bother me. But there's one that gets under my skin. I'm from Houston, Texas, and moved to Atlanta about six years ago. I just about fell out when I heard Houston County, GA, pronounced as 'HOW-stun.' Wrong, wrong, wrong.
    Clearly, Georgians can't pronounce ANYTHING correctly!

    Delta has flights out of Atlanta purdy much evry 10 seconds. Y'all call feel free to be on one of them. We won't miss ya. Tell yur ma and dem we said howdy.

    Dem hue-stun county folk be ornery critters
  • jasonmh630
    jasonmh630 Posts: 2,850 Member
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    For the most part, regional differences in pronunciations don't bother me. But there's one that gets under my skin. I'm from Houston, Texas, and moved to Atlanta about six years ago. I just about fell out when I heard Houston County, GA, pronounced as 'HOW-stun.' Wrong, wrong, wrong.
    Clearly, Georgians can't pronounce ANYTHING correctly!

    Delta has flights out of Atlanta purdy much evry 10 seconds. Y'all call feel free to be on one of them. We won't miss ya. Tell yur ma and dem we said howdy.

    I'm from Alabama, but... :drinker:
  • headofphat
    headofphat Posts: 1,597 Member
    Options
    For the most part, regional differences in pronunciations don't bother me. But there's one that gets under my skin. I'm from Houston, Texas, and moved to Atlanta about six years ago. I just about fell out when I heard Houston County, GA, pronounced as 'HOW-stun.' Wrong, wrong, wrong.
    Clearly, Georgians can't pronounce ANYTHING correctly!

    Delta has flights out of Atlanta purdy much evry 10 seconds. Y'all call feel free to be on one of them. We won't miss ya. Tell yur ma and dem we said howdy.

    Dem hue-stun county folk be ornery critters

    Just wait till football season starts.:drinker:
  • Cliffslosinit
    Cliffslosinit Posts: 5,044 Member
    Options
    Oklahoma.

    Ya'll
    tump
    fixntah
    crick
    crooknick
    fanger
    worsh
    cern.
    Eyetalian
    and the whole Miami - My-am-uh thing irritates the crap out of me.

    I could ramble on for days.

    one of the funniest I heard was an In-law (southeastern OK) discussing his crooknicks....... (yellow squash).

    my neighborhood - all roads named after roads in France.....it gits interstin. :noway:
    we don't have streets, we have roads.

    and it get's worse the further south you go, I've lived here my entire life, and even I get confused there.
    However, I have no accent at all. :bigsmile:

    Now I miss my family!

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