I’ve always pronounced the word “Southern” to rhyme with howthurn. I know most people say it like “suthurn” instead. I didn’t realize that the way I pronounce it is considered weird until recently!
Nawwlinz - New Orleans
You know the famous mage from Forgotten Realms? I pronounce their name “EL-ah-min-ster”
Oh, I also have a terrible Boston accent so I nearly caused an HR incident when talking about “hooked horrors” aka “hookt ho-ahs” or as my coworker heard “hooked whores”. Horror is the best word to check for a Boston accent with.
“jaws” is an equivalent of that for a metro NY accent. i could never hear my own accent until someone had me say it and really listen for it. now if you’ll excuse me i need to walk my dawg to the cawfee shop
What? Why? There’s not even an A in Elminster.
Solder. I taught myself, never really talked to anyone about it, and for like a decade, I pronounced it like it’s spelled. With an L.
I just can’t break the habit
If it makes you feel any better, that’s the correct pronunciation in England.
Thats the correct pronunciation outside of the USA.
My aunt does the same with ‘salmon’.
Garage.
GraJ
Catch shit for it all the time, but at this point I think it’s more like a harmless Easter egg.
My grandma rolls the R in “Three”, and it’s become a game to get her to say it. She handles it with great humor.
I’m cool to have my own version of that.
Always just call it a car hole.
You’d feel at home in Ontario.
- Toronto: Tronnah
- Grocery: grosheree
Team grosheree 4 lyf
Anyone who says gro-suh-ree can fuck right off back to whatever prep posh school for fancy people they came from
Anyone using 3 syllables may as well be the queen of England.
Grow-shree
Living in Los Angeles as a white person, I refuse to pronounce street and city names that are Spanish the English-speaking way. Knowing Spanish since I was a kid from school and using it on a daily basis, my brain simply doesn’t butcher the pronunciation by default.
It’s caused confusion though for sure. I used to live near a street called La Tijera, but Americans pronounced it almost like Spanish “la tierra” which is a completely different word, and I couldn’t figure out where this street was that everyone was talking about.
There was a street in the town I grew up in that everyone called “Awkwee-estahh” . It was Aqui Esta, which is a cute street name, but if you pronounced it correctly no one knew what you were talking about lol
That is a hilarious street name, omg
Does that translate to It’s Here Street??
Yeah, something like “it’s here” or “here it is.” With the proper accents the phrase is “aquí está.”
So, do you call it “Loss Anjeless” or “Lōs On-hay-lays?”
Loss An-hell-ess.
Low’ En’hee-lews
Houston, Texas has a street called Kuykendahl (or something similar). People kept mentioning this ‘kirkendall’ street and I could never find it.
But that’s one where they’re leaning much closer to the Dutch pronunciation
Maybe there’s some vestige there but I asked upwards of 20 people and no one could explain it. Texas did historically have german-speaking communities and even cities, but I wasn’t aware of any Dutch nor had I heard anyone mention it. It’s interesting?
US American. I’ve lived overseas a long time and pronounce the ‘h’ in ‘herbs’ because, as Eddie Izzard once said, “it’s got a fucking ‘h’ in it”. I don’t know when I switched but my mom laughed at me when we had a call recently.
One I only noticed a couple years ago: turmeric (was saying, and still frequently hear) ‘toomeric’.
Do you also pronounce the ‘h’ in hour and honor?
Those two examples have an “o” after the “h”. Are there any other words starting “he” that Americans treat the “h” as silent?
I lived in Philly for years and never noticed the way people say “erbs” but since returning to Australia I hear it constantly.
Edit: I hear Americans say it constantly. No one in Australia says “erb”.
Heir
Also anything starting with hema-, like hematology or hematoma… though that might be because of the æ.
Yeah you’ve been away a while, we say 'oagies now.
Hno. I do say ‘historical’ rather than ‘istorical’, but that’s the only one I can think of in the global English-speaking world that has any number of adherants off the top of my head.
I pronounce the Texas Houston the same as the. NYC street
I don’t know enough about New York or football to understand this.
Texas: like the name Hugh (hyuu)
NYC: like House (how)
The -ston bit doesn’t change.
I over-pronounce Wednesday. Like wed-nes-day. Most people say wendsday.
Also apparently I’m weird for pronouncing jewelry correctly. I pronounce it like it is spelled, and what it means. It is personal ornaments often containing jewels. Jewel-ry. Not Joolery.
Same thing with Aunt. It’s not Ant. There is a U in there.
It may surprise you that outside of the US, the word is spelled ‘jewellery’ (three syllables)
Cape CANNA VERR ALL = Cape Canaveral
Why? Because I can.
Ever since that IT Crowd episode I can’t not pronounce pedestal as “pedal stool”.
Not me, but I know a bondage instructor who pronounces “bondage” like you would in French.
I think if you’re teaching something you should know the pronunciations. Didn’t take long to find other stuff wrong with him. My wife and I quickly left and sought our education elsewhere.
This makes me think of the State Farm commercial showing football players in a ballet class. “Boon-dlay…sah-vey…”
The mountain range on the eastern side of the U.S. is the ‘apple-at’chans’. At least nearly everyone from the southern end of them say it that way (source: I’m from there).
‘Apple-ay-shuns’ is just as strange as saying ‘Nor-folk’. Immediate indicator of you’re an outsider.
Huh.
I’m from the PNW and I’ve always pronounced it Apple-Ah-Shuns.
For Norfolk… I’d basically pronounce that as Nor-Fuck.
Yeah, I’m saying a whole lot of people say it with a “shun” at the end. I blame the media and people originally trying to differentiate themselves from a perception of being an ignorant hillbilly. The hillbilly prejudice is much better now, but I was still personally encountering it even in the aughts. And the pronunciation has stuck because "that’s the way you’ve always heard it said. "
Everyone who lives in those hills (with the exception of a few pockets of yankees) says it “at-chan”.
How do you pronounce Norfolk?
Ok, at least the Virginia version is ‘Nor-fuck’. And some long time residents say ‘Naw-fuck’.
I like to pronounce Numeric like Tumeric
UK English spells and pronounces that spice as “turmeric” (so the first syllable is pronounced like “turn” without the N), so I’m now imagining you saying nurmeric
As an American, it didn’t click for me until I visited London for the first time why names like Leicester and Gloucester were pronounced the way they are by Brits. My dumb American brain sees the names as Lei-cester and Glou-cester rather than Leice-ster and Glouce-ster.
Was on holiday in Scotland with my father. And bless this girl at the tourist information who realised that when we stupid Germans said “glennis law” that we meant Glenisla (glen ila).
Unfortunately our linguistic history is a huge tangle and there are few safe assumptions. Depending on where you are in Scotland, the places names might derive from Gaelic, Pictish, Welsh, Norse, or English, and then they probably got Anglicised at some point but it could have happened at basically time within the last five centuries. A substantial number of the non-Gaelic ones are doubly messed up because they got Gaelicised first and then the Gaelicisation got Anglicised. Glenisla is a good example - glen derives from Gaelic, and nobody is sure where isla comes from.
Still, Glenisla is a lovely area! Lots of good hikes there. I hope you had a good time.
It was awesome. Best vacation ever. We went to Glenisla for their comparatively small highland games. They had dancing competitions, bag pipe competitions and of course various sport competitions. Apparently one of the competitors was the reigning shot putting or hammer throwing or so world champion. Every time he threw something the judges went back extra far and still he managed to go beyond the field. He was huge. My father and I dubbed him Monster.
Wow, I’m certain I would’ve done the same. Think I’d make myself a cheat sheet for Scotland and Wales when I get around to visit. Knowing that Cymru is pronounced “com-ree” gave me anxiety about butchering names there if ever I’ll need to ask for directions.
We’ll usually understand if you get it wrong. There’s a lot of extremely counterintuitive ones. If you’re American, the most likely trap is Edinburgh - it’s not EE-den-berg, it’s EDD-in-buh-ruh or EDD-im-bruh.
I’ll also just have to ask that the same grace is returned when I inevitably fuck up basically any place name based on anything Native American, because I don’t know how any of those languages work
I went to school and now live outside Pittsburgh and it’s such a mishmash of Native American place names (Monongahela, Allegheny, Youghagheny; which is Ma-nahn-guh-hey-la, Al-uh-gain-ee, and yaack-uh-gain-ee), French (Duquesne, Versailles; Doo-cain, Ver-sales), and English. Combine that with the Pittsburghese dialect and then mash that with not pronouncing foreign words anything like how they natively would be (but only sometimes) and it’ll make your head spin.
oh wow, you blew my mind
Where did you grow up to learn to say south-urn?
