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'

My dutch friends definitely say something that sounds more than anything like vincent van cock.

Also, I live near Slough, which we call Sluff as a joke. That's yet another pronunciation to add to your list of Clough readings. Clow!

What about Barnoldswick, Bacup and Oswaldtwistle in Lancs?

@BobbinThreadbare123

What about Barnoldswick, Bacup and Oswaldtwistle in Lancs?

I only know Oswaldtwistle because of Victoria Wood (although this clip cuts off before they mention it).

I know them all Bobbin because I'm fairly local and my Grandma used to live in Bacup ,fun fact about Bacup,Bacup (old) police station was used as the outdoor scenes for the police station in Juliet Bravo ,and a,lot of Juliet Bravo was filmed in and around Bacup.

Ah confusing place names.

Near where I used to live we had Cosham (pronounced Cosh-um) but up the road was Bosham (pronounced Bozz-um).

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

but that makes no sense. Why were they given a transliteration which sounds completely unlike them?

(I can cope with Illinois by assuming there was some kind of French going on, but I don't know of any Latin-alphabet language that spells -aw by using an s)

www.sos.arkansas.gov/education/arkansas-history/how-did-arkansas-get-its-name

@merryhouse my explanation would be "Americans"

(not really, I hadn't read the explanation @tabulahrasa posted, what I posted was everything I could remember from my American Studies degree!)

That Arkansas link is interesting.

It brings to my mind the dichotomy between the town of DuMbarton being the administrative centre of the county of (now specifically West) DuNbartonshire, which obviously got its name from the same root as the town.

One that I'm always baffled by is when in a coffee shop.

I always say la tay with a sort a but I often hear others say lar or lah to rhyme with aah tay.

I say Lahtay

La-Tay (a as in apple) just doesn’t sound right in my mouth and makes me feel ick lol. I’m a Northerner so I have baristas roll their eyes and repeat “a LA-Tay?” sometimes.

I know actually it’s wrong with the Italian pronunciation but I can’t bring myself to say la-Tay. In my accent it sounds really common and I’m a bit of a snob . I’d sound like more of a dick if I really went with the full Italian version as my opera singer friends do so...Lahtay it is...sorry .

I also say Mocka when here in the UK and Moh-ka in the US. My ex used to really take the piss out of me about it, especially as I was travelling back and forward between the States and here for most of our relationship.

Just landed off the red eye at Manchester Airport and we met and went for coffee; “Hi, I’ll have a Mocka, please.”

Him: “Are you sure about that? Don’t you mean Mooohhhhh-ka? Moke. Ah.”

Me “What? Where am I? No...I’m in...Manchester...so it’s Mock...I think? I’m tired.”

@StickersandStripes

One that I'm always baffled by is when in a coffee shop.

I always say la tay with a sort a but I often hear others say lar or lah to rhyme with aah tay.

It's an Italian word so the A should be short but a lot of southerners can't do a short A and it turns into lartay!

My partner says lar-tay.. I say he sounds like a knob even though I'm not sure of the correct pronunciation . He also pronounces restaurant as restaurawh (no idea how to write it phonetically) which is probably more technically correct than the hard 'nt' most of us pronounce but it sounds so wanky.

I say lar-tay - is that not right then?! 🤦🏻‍♀️

Lar tay is not right if you remember that latte means milk in Italian.

If you google it there's a pronunciation (and in the toilets at Frankie and Bennies) it says la (like ha!) tey.

@Namechangex10000

I say lar-tay - is that not right then?! 🤦🏻‍♀️

No, it's La - tay

Surely if someone’s got an accent that adds an r after an a, lartay is no more right or wrong than any other word with an added r that doesn’t actually exist in that word?

@tabulahrasa

Surely if someone’s got an accent that adds an r after an a, lartay is no more right or wrong than any other word with an added r that doesn’t actually exist in that word?

It's wrong because it's an Italian word and Italian pronunciation is not lartay

“It's wrong because it's an Italian word and Italian pronunciation is not lartay“

Well lots of words don’t have an r in them in English pronunciation either, yet some accents put them in.

Not mine, I add extra rs where there’s only the one, lol, I’m just saying... if that’s how people pronounce an a sound in their accent that’s how people pronounce an a, surely? They’re not purposefully going, there should be an r in there, they’re just saying a how they say it...

I love asking for a 'lar-tay' it's so outrageously wrong. ....Anyway if you ask for a 'latte' in Italy you get a glass of milk...

Some English people seem incapable of pronouncing a short 'a'.....twisting 'kalamata' into 'karlamarta' for example..

Southerners and posh people pronounce bath as Barth and headmaster as headmarster.
I have a surname that they insert an r into. Drives me mad!

So how is Bacup pronounced?

@SoftBlocks

Growing up in the North I used to pronounce the word ‘nougat’ as ‘nugget’. I‘ve had the piss taken out of me for doing so by some Southerners but I still think ‘noo-gah’ sounds weird.

same...noo-gah is just wrong!

@emwithme my Grandma lived in Bacup ,it's pronounced Bay cup in a Lancashire accent 😂