Wait, that's how you say that?

[Stormborn]

And other questions.


Over the holiday season I was with my wife's family and the word "advertisement" came up in a game we were playing. My mother-in-law (who grew up in Birmingham, England the daughter of a Scot and a Brit but has lived in the Southeastern US for about 40 years), upon hearing us said "Wait, that's how you say that here?" In all these years she just never picked up on the difference in pronunciation, and seemed a bit taken aback to realize she hadn't thought about it.

Personally there are any number of words that in my younger years only encountered in print that I was suprised to hear pronounced. Galactus, for some reason, always had an extra syllable in my head (Gal-lac-ti-cus), which I reconize as wrong now but thats just the way I always read it.

Now, leaving aside the Great Drow Debate, have you ever been suprised to hear people pronouncing something differently than the way it was in your head? Was that revelation exacerabated by finding out that this was fairly normal and you just hadn't picked up on it?

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

I remember reading a Superman comic when I was younger, seeing the word chaos, and pronouncing it in my head as "Tch-ah-os". Because, well, it was a ch sound!

A friend in college insisted on referring to the Epic Titan Wars mega-titan Imperator as "Im-peer-ee-ay-tor."

And for some reason, I was pronouncing Nether in "Primal Nether" as "neither", as opposed to the proper "nether" pronunciation...which I was using when talking about other things with that same word in it, like netherweave cloth, netherdrakes, etc. That was embarassing.

Brad

 

[Cutty Sark]

Indefatigable.

 

[Tewligan]

For a loooong time, I thought "siege" was pronounced "sage". Also, I always pronounce "greasy" with a 'z' rather than an 'ss' sound, which is apparently quite mockable judging from my gf's reaction every time I say it.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I have a buddy who inserts "dd" in place of "tt", so "kittens with buttons" becomes "kiddens with buddons."

Travel across the American South, and you'll hear a half dozen different pronunciations of "Praline" (my family, native New Orleneans, opt for "prah-leen").

And speaking of New Orleans, "sink" was "zink" and my grandparents all lived near a neigborhood where the streets were named for the 9 Greek muses. You wouldn't know it though- Calliope (ka-LIE-o-pee) was "cal-ee-ope," Melpomene (mel-PAH-mo-nee) was "mel-po-mean," and Terpsichore (terp-SICK-o-ree) was "TERP-si-core."

 

[Talislan]

The ongoing battle between north and south here in the uk could fill an entire dictionary in some areas. Being a northerner in the south myself I am forever correcting the peoples use of words like dance, southerners say "DARN-ss" when it is clearly spelt "DAN-ss". Same with BATH - they say "bar-th", tell me - where is the 'r' in BATH!!! .

The argument of the uneducated north in the uk has always fallen down for this reason. We may not be born as close to the Queen, but at least we know how to pronounce her language!

T.

All said "in best possible taste!"

 

[Huw]

The ongoing battle between north and south here in the uk could fill an entire dictionary in some areas. Being a northerner in the south myself I am forever correcting the peoples use of words like dance, southerners say "DARN-ss" when it is clearly spelt "DAN-ss". Same with BATH - they say "bar-th", tell me - where is the 'r' in BATH!!! .

But we don't say the 'r' in words which have it either. Giraffe rimes with scarf. Class rimes with farce. Poor sounds like paw. Makes perfect sense when you're speaking it.

Just don't get me started on London accents...

 

[Umbran]

...when it is clearly spelt...

And, of course, while the way that is spelled is technically correct, to me spelt is a form of wheat.

 

[Talislan]

And, of course, while the way that is spelled is technically correct, to me spelt is a form of wheat.

well....it may be only the wiktionary but....

[edit] Etymology 1
Chiefly British, through French "Espeller" and dialect nuance.


[edit] Alternative spellings
spelled

[edit] Pronunciation
IPA: /'spεlt/
Rhymes: -ɛlt

[edit] Verb
spelt

Simple past tense and past participle of spell.

....Nice try though Mr Umbran. nice try.

 

[Talislan]

and now I re-read and realise you weren't playing the spelling game after all. I therefore retract my quip and give you another smily face.