Simple words, difficult pronouncement? - Page 4

ahhell · 11th November 2019, 07:57 AM

Originally Posted by arthwollipot

Yeah, that's funny every single time I hear it.

You know there's a reason why we send all that **** overseas, right?

Some jokes never get old.

Side note, I drank a lot of it in the UAE, it cost the same as every other beer that came in smaller cans,$1 right on the pier. It never occurred to me to check the alcohol content. Didn't really matter, the other beer available also sucked.

Vixen · 11th November 2019, 08:19 AM

Originally Posted by TragicMonkey

I always wonder when people want to change place names to earlier versions why they don't translate them. "We're undoing colonial imperialism by restoring the name of Lake Whiteman to Yamotahominagashaw! Which means 'Deer Lake'." "So, why not name it 'Deer Lake'?" The people who named it were trying to convey it's a lake with deer, they weren't committing to a particular set of syllables regardless of whether anybody knew their meaning.

If that were the case, many place names would revert to 'meeting place' or market place' (*Toronto, Turku, *Ontario, *or so our guide told us, but seems to mean 'beautiful lake').

Vixen · 11th November 2019, 08:26 AM

A lot of the Irish guys I knew in London found it impossible to say, 'film' or 'Euston', substituting 'filim' or 'Houston'.

varwoche · 11th November 2019, 08:35 AM

Originally Posted by wasapi

I don't know how common it is, but there are a few words that I always have difficulty saying. "Aluminum" is one. It always came out 'alumumnun'. It is feels as if my mouth jumbles the word, not allowing me to say it correctly.

There are other words, but that is the primary, life long, frustrating one I deal with. Anyone else have a word/words?

A good friend of mine in high school had a speech impediment. He had problems with n's in combination with certain other letters. We teased him mercilessly over his pronunciation of aluminum. We lost touch after high school, and many years later we re-acquainted. He was IT manager at Kaiser Aluminum.

ahhell · 11th November 2019, 09:19 AM

Originally Posted by Vixen

A lot of the Irish guys I knew in London found it impossible to say, 'film' or 'Euston', substituting 'filim' or 'Houston'.

In my experience(My father and Grandmother), the Irish have a really hard time with "H" and where it belongs.

Dr. Keith · 11th November 2019, 10:00 AM

Originally Posted by TragicMonkey

"Materiel" is another military word that falls to false correction these days.

I worked on a project once that involved the term insolation (the amount of solar radiation reaching a given area). Every time a document passed through me I first had to run a find/replace for "insulation", because either through spell check or some well meaning secretary that word would end up all over the damn place.

TragicMonkey · 11th November 2019, 10:07 AM

Originally Posted by Dr. Keith

I worked on a project once that involved the term insolation (the amount of solar radiation reaching a given area). Every time a document passed through me I first had to run a find/replace for "insulation", because either through spell check or some well meaning secretary that word would end up all over the damn place.

Medical words have issues too. We had a problem with software automatically "correcting" the word "dilatation" to "dilation". They're related terms but in medicine at least the distinction is relevant.

wasapi · 11th November 2019, 12:46 PM

Kaffeeklatsch. That word has always interested me. I have heard the last part, the 'klatsch', pronounced different ways.

Dr. Keith · 11th November 2019, 01:46 PM

Originally Posted by wasapi

Kaffeeklatsch. That word has always interested me. I have heard the last part, the 'klatsch', pronounced different ways.

A common word among the German immigrant communities in Texas. I've never actually seen the word in print and it took me a moment to decipher.

It is an odd experience this late in life to read a familiar word for the first time!

Gord_in_Toronto · 11th November 2019, 02:23 PM

Does anyone really know how to pronounce "pshaw"?

wasapi · 11th November 2019, 03:45 PM

Originally Posted by Dr. Keith

A common word among the German immigrant communities in Texas. I've never actually seen the word in print and it took me a moment to decipher.

It is an odd experience this late in life to read a familiar word for the first time!

It was commonly used back when I was growing up in Texas.

arthwollipot · 11th November 2019, 04:52 PM

Originally Posted by Gord_in_Toronto

Does anyone really know how to pronounce "pshaw"?

I've always associated it with a contemptuous puff of breath, generally accompanied by a sneer.

Gord_in_Toronto · 11th November 2019, 09:21 PM

Originally Posted by arthwollipot

I've always associated it with a contemptuous puff of breath, generally accompanied by a sneer.

So you don't know either? I'm disappointed.

quadraginta · 12th November 2019, 06:58 AM

Originally Posted by Gord_in_Toronto

Does anyone really know how to pronounce "pshaw"?

Just like it's written.

It isn't complicated.

Dr. Keith · 13th November 2019, 10:45 AM

Originally Posted by wasapi

It was commonly used back when I was growing up in Texas.

Central Texas, then?

I've never heard it in Houston, Dallas, the Valley or East Texas. Always in the heart of the old German communities.

elgarak · 13th November 2019, 03:13 PM

Originally Posted by wasapi

Kaffeeklatsch. That word has always interested me. I have heard the last part, the 'klatsch', pronounced different ways.

What's so difficult? Just learn German, then it's pronounced just as written (Klatsh, with the "a" as in "yacht").

wasapi · 13th November 2019, 03:56 PM

Originally Posted by Dr. Keith

Central Texas, then?

I've never heard it in Houston, Dallas, the Valley or East Texas. Always in the heart of the old German communities.

Dallas, as well as relatives in Grand Prairie, used it. My mother, who was French and Irish, used it frequently, and called it coffee-clutch.

arthwollipot · 13th November 2019, 04:10 PM

What the heck is coffee-clutch?

wasapi · 13th November 2019, 04:14 PM

Originally Posted by arthwollipot

What the heck is coffee-clutch?

As a child, I gathered it meant a group of women sharing coffee and gossip. It is simply what my mother told me.

Vixen · 14th November 2019, 05:52 AM

Gossip calypso -pouring out the coffee and taking it back.

ahhell · 14th November 2019, 06:32 AM

Originally Posted by wasapi

Dallas, as well as relatives in Grand Prairie, used it. My mother, who was French and Irish, used it frequently, and called it coffee-clutch.

I was raised a farm town of less than 2000 people in California, I knew the term as coffee clatch, and it was pretty much any group of people spreading gossip at some regular meeting, usually morning coffee.

TragicMonkey · 14th November 2019, 09:42 AM

I'm sick of seeing Craigslist real estate ads announcing "house for sell". Do people really think that's the word?

Dr. Keith · 14th November 2019, 10:09 AM

Originally Posted by wasapi

Dallas, as well as relatives in Grand Prairie, used it. My mother, who was French and Irish, used it frequently, and called it coffee-clutch.

The pollution of the DFW area has changed a lot over the last few decades. Interesting that such words will still in use when you were here.

Either that, or I just hang out with more octogenarians in the hill country than I do in Dallas. Hmm . . .

bobdroege7 · 14th November 2019, 12:22 PM

Anyone been to Kauii?

The locals pronounce it about seventeen different ways, I have no clue how it's supposed to be pronounced.

bobdroege7 · 14th November 2019, 12:24 PM

Originally Posted by dann

What happened to Nucular?

Well, I work for a different CEO now, so I don't pronounce it that way anymore!

arthwollipot · 14th November 2019, 06:29 PM

Originally Posted by TragicMonkey

I'm sick of seeing Craigslist real estate ads announcing "house for sell". Do people really think that's the word?

I think they just don't care.

Trebuchet · 14th November 2019, 07:11 PM

Originally Posted by TragicMonkey

I'm sick of seeing Craigslist real estate ads announcing "house for sell". Do people really think that's the word?

Originally Posted by arthwollipot

I think they just don't care.

I'm far more sick of the Realtor(TM) industry always saying "home" instead of "house". It's not home until you live there, and sometimes not even then.

More on topic, there's Alec Douglas-Home, former PM of the UK. Whose last syallable was pronounced "Hyoom". Or some such.

alfaniner · 14th November 2019, 09:17 PM

Originally Posted by Trebuchet

I'm far more sick of the Realtor(TM) industry always saying "home" instead of "house". It's not home until you live there, and sometimes not even then.

More on topic, there's Alec Douglas-Home, former PM of the UK. Whose last syallable was pronounced "Hyoom". Or some such.

Don't you mean "Rela-tor"?

TragicMonkey · 15th November 2019, 06:42 AM

Originally Posted by Trebuchet

I'm far more sick of the Realtor(TM) industry always saying "home" instead of "house". It's not home until you live there, and sometimes not even then.

I wonder if they do that in the UK? For a long time "house" vs "home" was one of the "U/non U" class indicator shibboleths. "Home" was lower class. A peasant would use a looking-glass and serviettes in their home while an aristocrat would use a mirror and napkins in their house. (Funny to American perspective: the fancier-looking terms are usually the lower class ones.)

alfaniner · 15th November 2019, 07:08 AM

One term that rankles me is the pet adoption center always stating an adoptee has found their "forever home". To me it sounds like a euphemism for "The animal died" instead of "It got adopted!"

TragicMonkey · 15th November 2019, 07:49 AM

Originally Posted by alfaniner

One term that rankles me is the pet adoption center always stating an adoptee has found their "forever home". To me it sounds like a euphemism for "The animal died" instead of "It got adopted!"

Not only that. The adopted pet will haunt the premises after it dies!

CORed · 15th November 2019, 10:06 AM

Originally Posted by Meadmaker

Wednesday - It's actually fairly easy to pronounce, as long as you don't pronounce it the way it's spelled. At some point, it's fairly obvious that the entire English speaking world couldn't figure out how to pronounce Woden's Day, or spell it, but we kind of settled on how to spell it, and pretty much how to say it.

Although, when saying it, is there one d or two? I usually use one.

And then of course there is "nuclear". An awful lot of people apparently have a hard time with that one.

My wife, upon seeing somebody who didn't comb their hair or get their clothes on straight will declare that the person looks "disleveled". I'm pretty sure she would spell it out as "disheveled", but that's not how she says it.

ETA: Dictionary.com gives [wenz-dey, -dee] as the pronunciation. I sometimes say [wendz-day].

We've had at least two presidents who pronounced "nuclear" as "nucyalar" (Ford and Bush II), and Carter pronounced it with the Georgia silent "l" (nuceeyar).

llwyd · 15th November 2019, 10:48 AM

Finnish kids learn to read and write quicker than English speaking children as the language is written near phonetically - and we don't even try to teach them that eagerly as kindergartens are basically just for play and even the pre-school year at 6 is not very academically focused.

deadrose · 15th November 2019, 04:28 PM

Originally Posted by quadraginta

In Atlanta, were you?

Kidding aside, southern accents by actors always tickle me. To start off with there are quite a few more variants than most people realize, which is lucky for the actors, since most of them don't know any southern accent properly, and get by on some sort of generic version that only barely sounds much like any of the real ones.

Worse is reviewers who don't know the differences in accents. When I was still acting, I got a bad review for my accent in a production of "Night Must Fall". The reviewer didn't realize there was more than one sort of English accent, and that a maid would sound quite different than the upper-class ladies she worked for. They sounded quite toffee-nosed, and I was more Bow bells

Cheetah · 16th November 2019, 08:01 AM

I always trip over regurgitalith when talking too fast.

TragicMonkey · 16th November 2019, 08:30 AM

It just occurred to me that "lisp" and "stutter" are difficult words to say for people who have those conditions.

quadraginta · 16th November 2019, 09:25 AM

Although it's usually not a problem, I have at times had a little bit of trouble getting "encephalopathy" out without a pause to concentrate.

It's definitely one of those words that can be kind of tough to say fives times fast.

Not that there is often a need to.

alfaniner · 16th November 2019, 10:40 AM

Originally Posted by quadraginta

Although it's usually not a problem, I have at times had a little bit of trouble getting "encephalopathy" out without a pause to concentrate.

It's definitely one of those words that can be kind of tough to say fives times fast.

Not that there is often a need to.

Or even once, for most people.

Steve · 16th November 2019, 11:34 AM

Originally Posted by TragicMonkey

It just occurred to me that "lisp" and "stutter" are difficult words to say for people who have those conditions.

Onomatopoeia.

quadraginta · 16th November 2019, 06:07 PM

Originally Posted by alfaniner

Or even once, for most people.

And even that generally because it is abbreviated , e.g. "BSE". Or a common name used instead, e.g. "Mad Cow Disease".

11th November 2019, 07:57 AM	#121
ahhell Illuminator Join Date: Feb 2017 Posts: 3,217	Originally Posted by arthwollipot Yeah, that's funny every single time I hear it. You know there's a reason why we send all that **** overseas, right? Some jokes never get old. Side note, I drank a lot of it in the UAE, it cost the same as every other beer that came in smaller cans,$1 right on the pier. It never occurred to me to check the alcohol content. Didn't really matter, the other beer available also sucked.
ahhell Illuminator Join Date: Feb 2017 Posts: 3,217

11th November 2019, 08:19 AM	#122
Vixen Penultimate Amazing Join Date: Apr 2015 Location: Suomi Posts: 19,242	Originally Posted by TragicMonkey I always wonder when people want to change place names to earlier versions why they don't translate them. "We're undoing colonial imperialism by restoring the name of Lake Whiteman to Yamotahominagashaw! Which means 'Deer Lake'." "So, why not name it 'Deer Lake'?" The people who named it were trying to convey it's a lake with deer, they weren't committing to a particular set of syllables regardless of whether anybody knew their meaning. If that were the case, many place names would revert to 'meeting place' or market place' (Toronto, Turku, Ontario, *or so our guide told us, but seems to mean 'beautiful lake').
	__________________ Blott en dag, ett ögonblick i sänder, vilken tröst, vad än som kommer på! Last edited by Vixen; 11th November 2019 at 08:22 AM.

11th November 2019, 08:26 AM	#123
Vixen Penultimate Amazing Join Date: Apr 2015 Location: Suomi Posts: 19,242	A lot of the Irish guys I knew in London found it impossible to say, 'film' or 'Euston', substituting 'filim' or 'Houston'.
	__________________ Blott en dag, ett ögonblick i sänder, vilken tröst, vad än som kommer på!

11th November 2019, 08:35 AM	#124
varwoche Penultimate Amazing Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Puget Sound Posts: 14,923	Originally Posted by wasapi I don't know how common it is, but there are a few words that I always have difficulty saying. "Aluminum" is one. It always came out 'alumumnun'. It is feels as if my mouth jumbles the word, not allowing me to say it correctly. There are other words, but that is the primary, life long, frustrating one I deal with. Anyone else have a word/words? A good friend of mine in high school had a speech impediment. He had problems with n's in combination with certain other letters. We teased him mercilessly over his pronunciation of aluminum. We lost touch after high school, and many years later we re-acquainted. He was IT manager at Kaiser Aluminum.
	__________________ To survive election season on a skeptics forum, one must understand Hymie-the-Robot. My authority is total - Trump

11th November 2019, 09:19 AM	#125
ahhell Illuminator Join Date: Feb 2017 Posts: 3,217	Originally Posted by Vixen A lot of the Irish guys I knew in London found it impossible to say, 'film' or 'Euston', substituting 'filim' or 'Houston'. In my experience(My father and Grandmother), the Irish have a really hard time with "H" and where it belongs.
ahhell Illuminator Join Date: Feb 2017 Posts: 3,217

11th November 2019, 10:00 AM	#126
Dr. Keith Not a doctor. Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Texas Posts: 21,113	Originally Posted by TragicMonkey "Materiel" is another military word that falls to false correction these days. I worked on a project once that involved the term insolation (the amount of solar radiation reaching a given area). Every time a document passed through me I first had to run a find/replace for "insulation", because either through spell check or some well meaning secretary that word would end up all over the damn place.
	__________________ Suffering is not a punishment not a fruit of sin, it is a gift of God. He allows us to share in His suffering and to make up for the sins of the world. -Mother Teresa If I had a pet panda I would name it Snowflake.

11th November 2019, 10:07 AM	#127
TragicMonkey Poisoned Waffles Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Monkey Posts: 57,057	Originally Posted by Dr. Keith I worked on a project once that involved the term insolation (the amount of solar radiation reaching a given area). Every time a document passed through me I first had to run a find/replace for "insulation", because either through spell check or some well meaning secretary that word would end up all over the damn place. Medical words have issues too. We had a problem with software automatically "correcting" the word "dilatation" to "dilation". They're related terms but in medicine at least the distinction is relevant.
	__________________ You added nothing to that conversation, Barbara.

11th November 2019, 12:46 PM	#128
wasapi Penultimate Amazing Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 12,630	Kaffeeklatsch. That word has always interested me. I have heard the last part, the 'klatsch', pronounced different ways.
	__________________ Julia

11th November 2019, 01:46 PM	#129
Dr. Keith Not a doctor. Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Texas Posts: 21,113	Originally Posted by wasapi Kaffeeklatsch. That word has always interested me. I have heard the last part, the 'klatsch', pronounced different ways. A common word among the German immigrant communities in Texas. I've never actually seen the word in print and it took me a moment to decipher. It is an odd experience this late in life to read a familiar word for the first time!
	__________________ Suffering is not a punishment not a fruit of sin, it is a gift of God. He allows us to share in His suffering and to make up for the sins of the world. -Mother Teresa If I had a pet panda I would name it Snowflake.

11th November 2019, 02:23 PM	#130
Gord_in_Toronto Penultimate Amazing Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 19,640	Does anyone really know how to pronounce "pshaw"?
	__________________ "Reality is what's left when you cease to believe." Philip K. Dick

11th November 2019, 03:45 PM	#131
wasapi Penultimate Amazing Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 12,630	Originally Posted by Dr. Keith A common word among the German immigrant communities in Texas. I've never actually seen the word in print and it took me a moment to decipher. It is an odd experience this late in life to read a familiar word for the first time! It was commonly used back when I was growing up in Texas.
	__________________ Julia

11th November 2019, 04:52 PM	#132
arthwollipot Observer of Phenomena Pronouns: he/him Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Location, Location Posts: 68,226	Originally Posted by Gord_in_Toronto Does anyone really know how to pronounce "pshaw"? I've always associated it with a contemptuous puff of breath, generally accompanied by a sneer.
	__________________ Self-described nerd. My mom told me she tries never to make fun of people for not knowing something. - Randall Munroe

11th November 2019, 09:21 PM	#133
Gord_in_Toronto Penultimate Amazing Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 19,640	Originally Posted by arthwollipot I've always associated it with a contemptuous puff of breath, generally accompanied by a sneer. So you don't know either? I'm disappointed.
	__________________ "Reality is what's left when you cease to believe." Philip K. Dick

12th November 2019, 06:58 AM	#134
quadraginta Becoming Beth Join Date: May 2009 Location: Central Vale of Humility (USA, sort of) Posts: 25,632	Originally Posted by Gord_in_Toronto Does anyone really know how to pronounce "pshaw"? Just like it's written. It isn't complicated.
	__________________ "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep." "Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation."

13th November 2019, 10:45 AM	#135
Dr. Keith Not a doctor. Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Texas Posts: 21,113	Originally Posted by wasapi It was commonly used back when I was growing up in Texas. Central Texas, then? I've never heard it in Houston, Dallas, the Valley or East Texas. Always in the heart of the old German communities.
	__________________ Suffering is not a punishment not a fruit of sin, it is a gift of God. He allows us to share in His suffering and to make up for the sins of the world. -Mother Teresa If I had a pet panda I would name it Snowflake.

13th November 2019, 03:13 PM	#136
elgarak Illuminator Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 4,472	Originally Posted by wasapi Kaffeeklatsch. That word has always interested me. I have heard the last part, the 'klatsch', pronounced different ways. What's so difficult? Just learn German, then it's pronounced just as written (Klatsh, with the "a" as in "yacht").
elgarak Illuminator Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 4,472

13th November 2019, 03:56 PM	#137
wasapi Penultimate Amazing Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 12,630	Originally Posted by Dr. Keith Central Texas, then? I've never heard it in Houston, Dallas, the Valley or East Texas. Always in the heart of the old German communities. Dallas, as well as relatives in Grand Prairie, used it. My mother, who was French and Irish, used it frequently, and called it coffee-clutch.
	__________________ Julia

13th November 2019, 04:10 PM	#138
arthwollipot Observer of Phenomena Pronouns: he/him Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Location, Location Posts: 68,226	What the heck is coffee-clutch?
	__________________ Self-described nerd. My mom told me she tries never to make fun of people for not knowing something. - Randall Munroe

13th November 2019, 04:14 PM	#139
wasapi Penultimate Amazing Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 12,630	Originally Posted by arthwollipot What the heck is coffee-clutch? As a child, I gathered it meant a group of women sharing coffee and gossip. It is simply what my mother told me.
	__________________ Julia

14th November 2019, 05:52 AM	#140
Vixen Penultimate Amazing Join Date: Apr 2015 Location: Suomi Posts: 19,242	Gossip calypso -pouring out the coffee and taking it back.
	__________________ Blott en dag, ett ögonblick i sänder, vilken tröst, vad än som kommer på!

14th November 2019, 06:32 AM	#141
ahhell Illuminator Join Date: Feb 2017 Posts: 3,217	Originally Posted by wasapi Dallas, as well as relatives in Grand Prairie, used it. My mother, who was French and Irish, used it frequently, and called it coffee-clutch. I was raised a farm town of less than 2000 people in California, I knew the term as coffee clatch, and it was pretty much any group of people spreading gossip at some regular meeting, usually morning coffee.
ahhell Illuminator Join Date: Feb 2017 Posts: 3,217

14th November 2019, 09:42 AM	#142
TragicMonkey Poisoned Waffles Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Monkey Posts: 57,057	I'm sick of seeing Craigslist real estate ads announcing "house for sell". Do people really think that's the word?
	__________________ You added nothing to that conversation, Barbara.

14th November 2019, 10:09 AM	#143
Dr. Keith Not a doctor. Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Texas Posts: 21,113	Originally Posted by wasapi Dallas, as well as relatives in Grand Prairie, used it. My mother, who was French and Irish, used it frequently, and called it coffee-clutch. The pollution of the DFW area has changed a lot over the last few decades. Interesting that such words will still in use when you were here. Either that, or I just hang out with more octogenarians in the hill country than I do in Dallas. Hmm . . .
	__________________ Suffering is not a punishment not a fruit of sin, it is a gift of God. He allows us to share in His suffering and to make up for the sins of the world. -Mother Teresa If I had a pet panda I would name it Snowflake.

14th November 2019, 12:22 PM	#144
bobdroege7 Illuminator Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 3,156	Anyone been to Kauii? The locals pronounce it about seventeen different ways, I have no clue how it's supposed to be pronounced.
bobdroege7 Illuminator Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 3,156	__________________ Un-american Jack-booted thug Graduate of a liberal arts college! Faster play faster faster play faster

14th November 2019, 12:24 PM	#145
bobdroege7 Illuminator Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 3,156	Originally Posted by dann What happened to Nucular? Well, I work for a different CEO now, so I don't pronounce it that way anymore!
bobdroege7 Illuminator Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 3,156	__________________ Un-american Jack-booted thug Graduate of a liberal arts college! Faster play faster faster play faster

14th November 2019, 06:29 PM	#146
arthwollipot Observer of Phenomena Pronouns: he/him Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Location, Location Posts: 68,226	Originally Posted by TragicMonkey I'm sick of seeing Craigslist real estate ads announcing "house for sell". Do people really think that's the word? I think they just don't care.
	__________________ Self-described nerd. My mom told me she tries never to make fun of people for not knowing something. - Randall Munroe

14th November 2019, 07:11 PM	#147
Trebuchet Penultimate Amazing Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Port Townsend, Washington Posts: 28,914	Originally Posted by TragicMonkey I'm sick of seeing Craigslist real estate ads announcing "house for sell". Do people really think that's the word? Originally Posted by arthwollipot I think they just don't care. I'm far more sick of the Realtor(TM) industry always saying "home" instead of "house". It's not home until you live there, and sometimes not even then. More on topic, there's Alec Douglas-Home, former PM of the UK. Whose last syallable was pronounced "Hyoom". Or some such.
	__________________ Cum catapultae proscribeantur tum soli proscripti catapultas habeant.

14th November 2019, 09:17 PM	#148
alfaniner Penultimate Amazing Join Date: Aug 2001 Posts: 23,287	Originally Posted by Trebuchet I'm far more sick of the Realtor(TM) industry always saying "home" instead of "house". It's not home until you live there, and sometimes not even then. More on topic, there's Alec Douglas-Home, former PM of the UK. Whose last syallable was pronounced "Hyoom". Or some such. Don't you mean "Rela-tor"?
	__________________ Science is self-correcting. Woo is self-contradicting.

15th November 2019, 06:42 AM	#149
TragicMonkey Poisoned Waffles Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Monkey Posts: 57,057	Originally Posted by Trebuchet I'm far more sick of the Realtor(TM) industry always saying "home" instead of "house". It's not home until you live there, and sometimes not even then. I wonder if they do that in the UK? For a long time "house" vs "home" was one of the "U/non U" class indicator shibboleths. "Home" was lower class. A peasant would use a looking-glass and serviettes in their home while an aristocrat would use a mirror and napkins in their house. (Funny to American perspective: the fancier-looking terms are usually the lower class ones.)
	__________________ You added nothing to that conversation, Barbara.

15th November 2019, 07:08 AM	#150
alfaniner Penultimate Amazing Join Date: Aug 2001 Posts: 23,287	One term that rankles me is the pet adoption center always stating an adoptee has found their "forever home". To me it sounds like a euphemism for "The animal died" instead of "It got adopted!"
	__________________ Science is self-correcting. Woo is self-contradicting.

15th November 2019, 07:49 AM	#151
TragicMonkey Poisoned Waffles Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Monkey Posts: 57,057	Originally Posted by alfaniner One term that rankles me is the pet adoption center always stating an adoptee has found their "forever home". To me it sounds like a euphemism for "The animal died" instead of "It got adopted!" Not only that. The adopted pet will haunt the premises after it dies!
	__________________ You added nothing to that conversation, Barbara.

15th November 2019, 10:06 AM	#152
CORed Philosopher Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Central City, Colorado, USA Posts: 9,620	Originally Posted by Meadmaker Wednesday - It's actually fairly easy to pronounce, as long as you don't pronounce it the way it's spelled. At some point, it's fairly obvious that the entire English speaking world couldn't figure out how to pronounce Woden's Day, or spell it, but we kind of settled on how to spell it, and pretty much how to say it. Although, when saying it, is there one d or two? I usually use one. And then of course there is "nuclear". An awful lot of people apparently have a hard time with that one. My wife, upon seeing somebody who didn't comb their hair or get their clothes on straight will declare that the person looks "disleveled". I'm pretty sure she would spell it out as "disheveled", but that's not how she says it. ETA: Dictionary.com gives [wenz-dey, -dee] as the pronunciation. I sometimes say [wendz-day]. We've had at least two presidents who pronounced "nuclear" as "nucyalar" (Ford and Bush II), and Carter pronounced it with the Georgia silent "l" (nuceeyar).

15th November 2019, 10:48 AM	#153
llwyd Muse Join Date: Sep 2010 Posts: 688	Finnish kids learn to read and write quicker than English speaking children as the language is written near phonetically - and we don't even try to teach them that eagerly as kindergartens are basically just for play and even the pre-school year at 6 is not very academically focused.
llwyd Muse Join Date: Sep 2010 Posts: 688

15th November 2019, 04:28 PM	#154
deadrose Illuminator Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: the wet side of the mountains Posts: 3,436	Originally Posted by quadraginta In Atlanta, were you? Kidding aside, southern accents by actors always tickle me. To start off with there are quite a few more variants than most people realize, which is lucky for the actors, since most of them don't know any southern accent properly, and get by on some sort of generic version that only barely sounds much like any of the real ones. Worse is reviewers who don't know the differences in accents. When I was still acting, I got a bad review for my accent in a production of "Night Must Fall". The reviewer didn't realize there was more than one sort of English accent, and that a maid would sound quite different than the upper-class ladies she worked for. They sounded quite toffee-nosed, and I was more Bow bells

16th November 2019, 08:01 AM	#155
Cheetah Master Poster Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: South Africa Posts: 2,690	I always trip over regurgitalith when talking too fast.
	__________________ "... when you dig my grave, could you make it shallow so that I can feel the rain" - DMB