The Magnificent Goldberg Posted May 23, 2012 Report Share Posted May 23, 2012 Intregal, instead of integral. Now that's not a local variation, that's just people can't read and make the letters into words. MG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skeith Posted May 23, 2012 Report Share Posted May 23, 2012 almost no one in this country pronounces the word "jewelry" correctly. Everyone pronounces it as "jewlery" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cih Posted May 23, 2012 Report Share Posted May 23, 2012 Well I went to look up enervated in the dictionary and I'm stunned!! Intregal, instead of integral. Now that's not a local variation, that's just people can't read and make the letters into words. MG same with 'eck-cetera' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Magnificent Goldberg Posted May 23, 2012 Report Share Posted May 23, 2012 almost no one in this country pronounces the word "jewelry" correctly. Everyone pronounces it as "jewlery" That's 'cos jewels is propnounced jools MG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete C Posted May 23, 2012 Report Share Posted May 23, 2012 (edited) In Brooklyn, cauliflower is collie flower. Or collie flowah. Edited May 23, 2012 by Pete C Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neal Pomea Posted May 23, 2012 Report Share Posted May 23, 2012 Prolly (yes, that's very prollable) I am just glad it's ok to pronounce February without the r after the b, or Connecticut without the c after the e! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted May 23, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 23, 2012 In Brooklyn, cauliflower is collie flower. Or collie flowah. That sounds like the British pronunciation. How is it said in the U.S. generally? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete C Posted May 23, 2012 Report Share Posted May 23, 2012 That sounds like the British pronunciation. How is it said in the U.S. generally? I don't know! But my friend from the state of Organ says call-a-flower, as in "My liar is eating call-a-flower." I am just glad it's ok to pronounce February without the r after the b, or Connecticut without the c after the e! My friend from Vancouver says Wed-nes-day, and the day before it is Chewsday. I don't know if that's the common Canadian pronunciation. I'm always annoyed when I hear grocery (which I pronounce "grosserie") pronounced "groshrey." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted May 23, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 23, 2012 My friend from Vancouver says Wed-nes-day That's how my Scottish father used to say it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul secor Posted May 23, 2012 Report Share Posted May 23, 2012 My pet peeve is the mispronunciation of the word forte. Forte in French means strength and is pronounced "fort". Better still: It is even WRITTEN "fort" (and is proncounced "for"). As long as you are referring to a MALE person, of course. "forte" as a word all by itself in French only exists in the sense of a MUSICAL "forte" (i.e. loudness too) As for your pronunciation, never mind if it is "for-tay" or "for-tee", but if somebody would like to point out, for example, that "spelling is not my strong point", do you actually expect him to state something that sounds like "spelling is not my fortified 19th century Far West soldier outpost"? C'mon ... No, seriously, except in certain female variants of the word that means "strong" in all shadings (including a strong = loud voice) the French language has no such "forte" as you imply. I don't know about French, but my dictionary - Merriam-Webster's Collegiate - gives the first pronunciation of forte as fort. It says that for-tay is also used. My wife corrected me some years ago when I said for-tay, and I've said fort ever since. I sometimes get the feeling that people think it's pretentious or just plain wrong, but I don't care. Here's a common one - Febuary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave James Posted May 23, 2012 Report Share Posted May 23, 2012 I like the commercial narrators who try to spiff up their products by pronouncing luxurious with a "g" sound. This is especially prevalent in automotive advertising. Speaking of cars, ejp626 mentioned Jaguar. How anyone can coax Jag-wire out of that is beyond me. My S.O. pronounces sherbet with an extra "r' at the end like "Herbert". That never fails to draw a comment from me. I suppose that could be why she does it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffcrom Posted May 23, 2012 Report Share Posted May 23, 2012 Strangely, a lot of people seem to have a hard time pronouncing my first name. Instead of "Hey, Jeff," many folks pronounce it "Hey, asshole!" (I axed asked my wife if it would be okay to post this joke - she said to go ahead. If you're offended, blame her.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete C Posted May 23, 2012 Report Share Posted May 23, 2012 ejp626 mentioned Jaguar. How anyone can coax Jag-wire out of that is beyond me. But you're OK with Jag-you-uh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejp626 Posted May 23, 2012 Report Share Posted May 23, 2012 ejp626 mentioned Jaguar. How anyone can coax Jag-wire out of that is beyond me. But you're OK with Jag-you-uh? Much of the US uses something more like Jag-gwar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinuta Posted May 24, 2012 Report Share Posted May 24, 2012 Seems that most peeves are about American vs British pronunciation. A few that come to mind as annoying are- Aye-rack for Iraq aluminum for aluminium lab-rat-ry for laboratory. My all time favourite mispronunciation is Joe Pesci in My Cousin Vinnie with his classic courtroom utterance of 'Yoots' for youths If I may stray from the topic, the American usage of bring vs take is illogical and puzzling. Let's not mention 'bathroom' either. 'He went to the bathroom on the lawn' cracks me up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted May 24, 2012 Report Share Posted May 24, 2012 I'm not at all fond of the habit some people have of mispronouncing "stop wasting my time, you meaningless piece of shit" as "ok, take care now!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PHILLYQ Posted May 24, 2012 Report Share Posted May 24, 2012 My all time favourite mispronunciation is Joe Pesci in My Cousin Vinnie with his classic courtroom utterance of 'Yoots' for youths What mispronunciation? That's Brooklyn style! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzmoose Posted May 24, 2012 Report Share Posted May 24, 2012 I like the commercial narrators who try to spiff up their products by pronouncing luxurious with a "g" sound. This is especially prevalent in automotive advertising. It was the fumes from the fine Corinthian leather that dood it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cih Posted May 24, 2012 Report Share Posted May 24, 2012 Sometimes my boss mispronounces 'you' as 'I' or 'we'... as in: "We need to get such-and-such done" or more usually "I need to action such-and-such" before getting me to do it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejp626 Posted May 24, 2012 Report Share Posted May 24, 2012 Sometimes my boss mispronounces 'you' as 'I' or 'we'... as in: "We need to get such-and-such done" or more usually "I need to action such-and-such" before getting me to do it That's so ironic, since my boss wants me to use "we" a lot more than "I" even though it is nearly always "I" that does the work. Maybe we should switch bosses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Beat Steve Posted May 24, 2012 Report Share Posted May 24, 2012 ... but mine is very much Saafend-On-Sea if I'm not careful... I understand that's the way they talk "oop narf"? Or ithis in fact how the Northerners are referred to by the Southerners? re. East Yorkshire - that 'err' sound I had trouble with as a student in Hull, phoning directory enquiries the lady was telling me the number - 'err.. err' until she got annoyed with my confusion and said firmly "ZE-RERR" (0) Funny about that "err". Isn't that a supposed to be typical for a certain kind of U.S. English spoken as among the "hicks in the sticks"? Browsed through that reprint of Fontaine Fox's Toonerville Trolley cartoons the other day, and his collection of hinterland town characters such as "Uncle Chew Wilson" who likes to spit his "TERBACCER JUICE" all the time (and "termorrer" is another day, of course must have been the result of some keen observation ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted May 24, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 24, 2012 ... but mine is very much Saafend-On-Sea if I'm not careful... I understand that's the way they talk "oop narf"? Or ithis in fact how the Northerners are referred to by the Southerners? I guess it's the latter. "f" in place of "th" is typical of Cockney (London speech), as in "yoof" or "fink" (= "youth", "think"). "oop" though is how "up" sounds with a northern accent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cih Posted May 24, 2012 Report Share Posted May 24, 2012 (edited) yes - and the 'err' that I mentioned for East Yorkshire isn't a hesitation - it's how they say the letter O (but without pronouncing the 'r's as Bill mentioned before) - so in a telephone number 'err err' is zero zero (assuming everybody else also says O in place of 0?) My worst crime in pronunciation, and one I had to iron out when I moved up north was dropping of the 'l' at the end of a word. So I would say something like 'ge-ow' for 'girl'. Living in Hull I was saying 'u-ow' for 'Hull' so had to adapt. Dropping the H is common in Essex and round here - but much more pronounced here, I see all the time people even writing words without the H - like 'as' for 'has' 'Saafend-on-sea' is the Essex/London way of saying it - a flat drawn out 'aaa' sound instead of an 'ow' sound First time I encountered a proper North-East accent - a lad from Consett - I thought it was Dutch or German! Edited May 24, 2012 by cih Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted May 24, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 24, 2012 Yes, the london final 'l' is very distinctive, as in Diamond Li(l). It only remains to mention the London sound for the vowel in "train" or "rain", which becomes something like "tryne" or "ryne". Can't leave vowels without mentioning New Zealand and Northern Ireland. I saw a New Zealand film in which the geeky teenage boy asks the geeky teenage girl, "Do you want six?" (= invitation to have sex) The one that fascinates me about Northern Ireland is the "ow" vowel, as in "now". It comes out as "noi". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete C Posted May 24, 2012 Report Share Posted May 24, 2012 What mispronunciation? That's Brooklyn style! You betcha. It really annoys me when anybody pronounces whore as one syllable. Everyone knows it's hoo-er. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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