Things that you thought were said differently

[BabyLlamaZen]

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'

Ameanstreak so if, hypothetically not hypothetically I had an American accent you don't really want me saying "plar" with my rhotic R, so I should say "Plah-stow"? First syllable to rhyme with "blah"? Or "PLASS-tow"like the first syllable "plaster"? (or even Play-stow which DH says and he is actually British, but I have lived in London longer!!)

I don't even live near Plaistow btw, I just used to think about it on the H&C line going to school every morning!

@honeylulu

I also used to pronounce Ciabatta as shar-bar-tar. I was really disappointed to find out it was see-a-bat-ah. I still prefer my version!

That’s not how it’s pronounced though? Isn’t it Chia batta?

Plaistow shoudl never be PLASS tow.

You should say PLAH stow. Those of us with non rhotic accents have a bad habit of writing PLAR when we mean PLAH, becuase to us it is the same, and adding the R is the obvious way to make the A long!

Your dh is wrong, just shows he isn't from the East End! (I lived next door to Plaistow for a few years.)

That poor girl Hermarnie.

It is awful, because it isn't right! There is a syllable missing!
The correct version is 4 syllables her - my- own - ee (well, sort of)

This version only has 3 syllables.

Isn’t it Chia batta?

I'd love to know because there was a Marks and Spencer advert pronouncing it see-a-batter. I'll see if I can find it.

I know what you mean though as I thought the Italian "Ci" is pronounced "chi" and "Chi" has a hard C (Chianti = Kee-an-tee).

I say "cha-badda" for ciabatta - which is even worse!

Apparently the correct Italian pronounciation is chi-a-BAA-ta. And it was invented in 1982!

Arkansas and Illinois are both Native American words, hence the spelling and pronunciation.

Ciabatta I would pronounce it chya batta. Very tiny emphasis on the first A.

I remember mispronouncing ‘epitome’ when I was a child and people laughed at me. It really embarrassed me.

My favourite source for pronunciation is the Pronunciation Manual on YouTube.

I can forgive Ar-KAN-sas. After all, Kansas is another state so I can understand non-Americans thinking that perhaps the Ar- is some kind of prefix.

On the flip side there are also quite a few place names in the USA where the local pronunciation there is not the same as the European place it's named after. Just off the top of my head, I can think of Berlin, MA (BER-lin), Milan, NY (MY-lin), Palermo, ND (PAL-er-mo) and Versailles, PA (Ver-SAYLES).

DH just laughed at me for a new one - I apparently say "bad-mitten" for badminton.

@NameChange84 ,
Waves to fellow Mancunian

I thought Pilates was pie-la-tees for a long while 🙈

Is it just me or is anyone else questioning how they normally pronounce words that they have been using for years .
Not if you pronounce it right but but forgetting how you normally pronounce it

I thought you said nous to rhyme with cous, like cous cous.

And I thought chimneys were chimleys.

Nugget for nougat is fine. I'm a southerner but both my parents are northern if that adds context to that.

It's only in reading this thread that vice realised that while I know what ee-pit-omy means, if i read it i would def say epitome. In my mind they are two dif words. That happen to mean the same thing.

My late FiL's boss used to say Com promise all the time and none of his staff used to correct him. He'd often say, we need to com promise 😁

I always say kway for quay in my head, luckily I know it's not pronounced that way

Americans saying ‘Eddin Burrow’
Any pronunciation of ‘Clough’ is wrong. Cloc? Clock? Cloff? Cluff? Cluh?

You can’t say noo-gah for nougat without getting slagged for being a posh twat here. A nugget bar.
English accents saying Irish names is ‘mayve’ ‘eefarr’ ‘sorsha’ bleeeagh.

I can’t get how omnipotent is ‘om NIP o tent’, or deity is ‘day it ee’
Saying Kweenwha is embarrassing, same for tchorithththo. Just say quinoa and chor-ee-tzo, it’s fine.

I can’t bring myself to say chor eet zo. I did Spanish up to A level and the ‘tz’ sound is just a completely made up pronunciation by the English. It’s more of an Italian feel to it.

I know I sound wanky which pisses me off, I don’t roll my Rs or anything but I have to say it properly, dammit!

It embarrasses me to hear people trying to authentically pronounce words from other languages unnecessarily 😄 people making throaty gargling noises to say croissant. Mate. Just say cwassont. Just say choreetzo, quin-oa. It’s fine, I’ll know what you mean and won’t have to suppress laughter at ‘qweenwahhhr’ 😄

I have to walk away when I hear my not-Spanish-at-all boss say ‘tschor eeththtzoh’ to another white, English person. The cringe level.

“Americans saying ‘Eddin Burrow’”

I don’t mind that one, I feel like they’re making an effort... eddinburg bothers me though.

Any pronunciation of ‘Clough’ is wrong. Cloc? Clock? Cloff? Cluff? Cluh?

I've never heard anybody say that word without 'Brian' or 'Nigel' in front of it - but I now see that it's a village in Antrim, pronounced very differently from the football chaps' surname.

For some reason, that makes me think of Vincent Van Gogh - I don't think I've ever heard a non-Dutch person or non-linguist pronounce it properly. I can understand the logic in the default of saying 'van goff', but I've never quite grasped the idea behind the American way, which seems to be thinking "well, I don't really know how to say that, so I'll simply ignore the last two letters completely and just say all the rest of it wrongly"! In case anybody cares, it should be something like 'finc-uhnt fuhn choch' (with the 'ch' as in 'loch', both times).

“Americans saying ‘Eddin Burrow’”

At least it isn't a city in their own country - most Brits insist on adding an extra 'o' into Middlesbrough! Granted, it isn't especially helpful that the football team is officially known as 'The Boro'....

@GarlicMcAtackney I agree with you on omnipotent. The meaning is all (omni) powerful (potent), so why do we say omNIp'tent? bonkers!

@7ofNine are you thinking of Horwich? ( near bolton) that is pronounced Horrich.

Vincent van gogh

To be fair, the Vincent and the van are pretty standard.

G is pronounced in the throat, sound slke you are gurgling. Scottish ch in loch is a good close.
So there is a g at the beginning and the end. I speak Dutch, and happily say 'graag' which also has a g on the front and back, but I do struggle with Gogh. Not even sure what the h is there for? But I mainly struggle because it sounds so pretentious!