Pronunciation differences - scone, castle etc

[BearSoFair]

Are there any more that are common?

Talking to a friend in another country last night and got onto words like 'bath' and 'castle' and how she's never sure whether it should be a long or short A. She wasn't aware of the great scon/scone debate! Are there any other words with well known/debated pronunciation variations? I feel like there must be but none are coming to mind!

[DrCoconut]

Giraffe and scarf don't rhyme to me. Nor do aunt and can't. But my DM's unofficial elocution lessons so I wouldn't sound "common" must have done some good because I can't say sikth without really concentrating. It comes out as sixth.

[SleepingStandingUp]

I'll be honest, I thought it was a hiccup

[Nomnomarrgh]

The phonetic alphabet when you grew up with u pronounced you your dd is being taught its oo!

[gretagreengrapes]

www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/02/15/upshot/british-irish-dialect-quiz.html

I was sent this quiz earlier which guesses where you're from in the UK based on how you pronounce/name things and it made me think of this thread!

It guessed very close to where I grew up based on my answers.

[BaldricksCoffee]

Paracetamol. Two pronunciations in this house: para-setter-mol and para-see-tamol.

[SleepingStandingUp]

@BaldricksCoffee

Paracetamol. Two pronunciations in this house: para-setter-mol and para-see-tamol.

I think I use them interchangeably.

Greta that one worked for me too

[Tempusfudgeit]

Someone at work uses 'barth' as the verb and 'bath' as the noun. So she goes to have a barth in the bath. Fascinating the variations of pronunciation!

[thirstythirsty]

It completely depends on accents on how anyone says anything surely? None of them are right or wrong just different. My accent makes me sound common (which I am) but to some people I sound stupid and lazy because of the I speak/type.

[Nomnomarrgh]

Its all fine until you try to have a conversation with someone from elsewhere and you can’t understand a word that they say.

[Bluesheep8]

Schedule - can be skedule or shedule.

Skedule is American. It's pronounced shedule in the UK.

[Sojo88]

We often argue in our house over "sloth" or "sloathe"! Personally I think either is right but anyone know?

[BaldricksCoffee]

@Nomnomarrgh

Its all fine until you try to have a conversation with someone from elsewhere and you can’t understand a word that they say.

I can understand someone from Glasgow or Wolverhampton or Chelmsford or Melbourne or Boston, Massachusetts just as easily as I can understand the people in my home town.

[Vello]

Schedule is one of our oldest and best known hypercorrections.

In Med. Latin it was scedula. In English we brought that in as sedule and then at some point in the late 18th (where this sort of hypercorrection really started kicking off) we started 'correcting' sedule to shedule, apparently after the French. The Americans also 'corrected', but they to the Latin, skedule. Everybody is wrong; everybody is right.

[Bluesheep8]

We often argue in our house over "sloth" or "sloathe"! Personally I think either is right but anyone know?

Weirdly, I say Sloth for the behaviour and Sloathe for the animal. I didn't realise that til now

[TheFormerPorpentinaScamander]

@Bluesheep8

We often argue in our house over "sloth" or "sloathe"! Personally I think either is right but anyone know?

Weirdly, I say Sloth for the behaviour and Sloathe for the animal. I didn't realise that til now

I say them the other way around

[Deedee248]

Not pronunciation, but I have recently learned that "outwith" is a word not used outwith Scotland. Mind blown.

Outwith is a word which I have only come across in Scotland. Likewise ‘uplift’.

Another Scottish thing is saying that a job needs done or that letter needs typed, rather than ‘doing’ and ‘typing’.

[HorridHamble]

@permanentlyfedup foo’s yer doos iday?

[Nomnomarrgh]

I’m glad you understand everyone @BaldricksCoffee. jolly good show that one!

[SleepingStandingUp]

@BaldricksCoffee is that a stealth boast 🤣🤣🤣

It's great but I think it's reasonable that lots of people wouldn't know what "doe put a donny on the os" means or what Horrid said for example

[TrickyD]

@Sojo88

We often argue in our house over "sloth" or "sloathe"! Personally I think either is right but anyone know?

The American poet Ogden Nash knew:

Today may be the day, who knows,
That sees me triumph o'er my foes:
Gluttony, simony, and sloth,
And drawing on the table cloth.