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Things that you thought were said differently

428 replies

BabyLlamaZen · 19/06/2020 15:55

When I first read Harry Potter I thought it was 'hermy-own' - was gobsmacked when I heard how it was pronounced when the films started coming out! I also thought mirror of Erised was pronounced 'i-rye-sd'

OP posts:
WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 21/06/2020 01:08

Speaking to a guy I kind of liked in my 20s and I was trying to sound smart and said “we have a plethora of those” and pronounced it “ple-thor-a” instead of “pleh-thuh-ruh”

He laughed and said “a what?? Do you mean plethora??” Oh the shame.

We appreciate your willingness to share that - it means a lot Grin Grin Grin

NameChange84 · 21/06/2020 01:20

Renumeration/Remuneration

Prowst/Proust (Proost)

Pantomine/Pantomime

Doggy dog/ Dog eat dog

Go-eth for Goethe (Go-tuh)

Another thing coming/ another think coming

ClitORis/CLIToris

VirGin (as a child, with a hard guh sound)

Febyouary for February

Sked-yoo-ull instead of Shed-jool (Schedule)

Sangwidge

Bye-Chester instead of Bister for Bicester

Skeligton

There was a boy at school who did a lonnnnnnngggggggg bible reading in whole school assembly about the Genitals. Instead of the Gentiles. He was going redder and redder. He genuinely thought it was all about the Genitals.

MsLumley · 21/06/2020 01:53

Did your mother also call you a daft apeth? Pretty sure I was in my twenties before the - ahem - penny dropped on that one.

Daft apeth is just a northern (Yorkshire I think?) expression isn't it? Confused

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 21/06/2020 02:25

It's 'ha'p'orth' - a contraction of half-penny-worth - presumably meaning a little/diminutive person (i.e. a young child) as a ha'penny/half-penny was a very small coin.

Nothing to do with apes at all!!

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 21/06/2020 02:28

....as merryhouse had already (cryptically) alluded to!

turquoise50 · 21/06/2020 04:32

The brand name Segway is a phonetic (ish) representation of the pronunciation of 'segue', which is an Italian musical term meaning 'flowing into the next thing' or 'following'. It comes from the same Latin root as the word 'second'.

Ass-PART-a-mee. Like Calliope, Hermione and Penelope. All Greek.

Lingerie. Oh god do not get me started. The 'lonjeray' pronunciation, which seems to have started in the US where French is traditionally not taught, is just insane. It bears no relation at all to the actual correct French pronunciation! Words ending in -ie in French sound like EE at the end (like Natalie, Sophie). The AY sound is never, ever, ever correct. The nasal vowel which most people are doing in the first syllable is wrong too. Do yourselves a favour and listen to how it should really be pronounced on Google translate or something, and either say it like that, or else just say 'Linger-y' because honestly that makes more sense in English, rather than wrongly Frenchifying something.

It's like Mallorca somehow mutating into Majorca which some English people insist on pronouncing as 'Madge-orca' when it wouldn't be said like this in Spanish if it was really spelled 'Majorca' (which of course it isn't)! This is a process called 'back formation' in linguistics, which essentially means 'extrapolating a rule from one thing and applying it incorrectly to another' which can then become 'correct' over time if enough people do it. It's the reason we now pronounce 'forehead' and 'waistcoat' as we do, when originally they were pronounced 'forr-ed' and 'weskit'.

This can be a bona fide (which is pronounced 'Bona Fidey' btw, not 'bonafied' like the Americans do) process by which languages can evolve, but when it's a foreign word entering the English language and getting mangled into something which is neither English nor its original language, it's kind of weird and annoying.

LadyOfTheCanyon · 21/06/2020 07:39

But waistcoat is a garment that covers ( coats) the waist.
Unless waist used to be pronounced "Wes" and coat "kit" I don't think that and forehead ( again, was head pronounced "Ed"?) are great examples of back formation as both make complete sense to someone encountering the words for the first time if they comprehend all parts of the word (i.e that forehead is the "fore" of the "head"). The fact that they were pronounced differently in English originally is not the same as the mangling of Mallorca due to unfamiliarity of how the Spanish language works.

as I understand it, back formation is extrapolating one word from another. For example liaise as a verb was back formed from the noun liaison . Happy to be corrected as this is completely not my area. I just read a lot.

Fifthtimelucky · 21/06/2020 07:53

My father (from Lancashire) used to call me a 'daft ha'p'orth'. This was pre decimal times so I knew perfectly well what a ha'penny was, but it still took me some years before I put two and two together ( I also assumed it was a small ape). I think it was the dropping of the 'h' that confused me. He pronounced them in every other word.

ohoneohtwo · 21/06/2020 08:39

@Fifthtimelucky

I have read your post 6 times and still don't have a clue what he was calling you Blush

Fifthtimelucky · 21/06/2020 08:48

See post from @WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll at 2.25 this morning!

ohoneohtwo · 21/06/2020 09:08

Ohhhhh

It all makes perfect sense now!

BobbinThreadbare123 · 21/06/2020 09:10

Aspartame is ass-par-tame. There's no link to female Greek names here. /ˈæspərteɪm/

NameChange84 · 21/06/2020 09:16

Agree about ass-par-tame.

Do the asspartamie people also say Sertralinie and Famie?

iklboo · 21/06/2020 09:22

Very few people are named after musical instruments

That'll come as a surprise to our Glockenspiel GrinGrin

ColonelNobbyNobbs · 21/06/2020 09:49

Majorca and Mallorca are the same place???!

7ofNine · 21/06/2020 09:51

Name change Goethe is pronounced Ger-teh, rather than Go-teh.

7ofNine · 21/06/2020 09:52

A double L in Spanish says 'yuh' doesn't it?

BMaman · 21/06/2020 09:59

Hang on.

Segue?

You say that Segway?

As in it was a word and Segway is a play on it?

I'm feeling not very bright right now....

Destroyedpeople · 21/06/2020 10:06

Well I always thought it was 'seeg' and that a 'segway' was something quite different...but there you go...

Destroyedpeople · 21/06/2020 10:22

I mean...you don't say 'leg-way' for 'league' or 'brog-way' for 'brogue' do you?Confused

NameChange84 · 21/06/2020 10:32

@7ofNine fair enough but in my accent in my accent go and ger sound the same Blush

NameChange84 · 21/06/2020 10:41

The musical term is most definitely pronounced SEG-WAY It’s not English...like Andante. And-ant-ay

The scooter thing is a play on the meaning of the word Segue and is also pronounced SEGWAY as it looks.

League is not an Italian or Spanish word. Neither is Brogue.

Que? Is pronounced Kay not Kwee in Spanish.

Yet Quay is Kee in English.

Language is complicated!

Destroyedpeople · 21/06/2020 11:04

Ah ok thank you Name change. .I did hear somebody say 'segway ' on radio 3 the other day but it did throw me....ofc the vehicle is a play on words ..I just never got it..Grin
When I was in year 3 equivalent the teacher used to tell us to get into 'high torder' for assembly....it took me weeks or months to realise it was 'height order' even though I knew quite well ofc what the 'high torder' instruction meant....

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 21/06/2020 11:06

I mean...you don't say 'leg-way' for 'league' or 'brog-way' for 'brogue' do you?

Does anybody remember the 80s band Sig-way Sig-way Sputnik? Grin

WinningEveryDay · 21/06/2020 11:08

As a child I had an obsession with lingerie which I thought was linger-ee. And my favourite actor was Seen Been (Sean Bean).