If it's pronounced this way, why is it written that way?

[Dilbertian]

I've just watched an advertisement for Hyundai. If Hyundai is pronounced Shinday, why isn't it written Shinday?

I don't mean words like Ikea, where the same letters have different sounds in different languages. If a word is being transliterated from a non-Latin alphabet, why not use letters that have those values? HY is not generally proncounced SH.

and the comment underneath explicitly says...

"Marking the dawn of a new Hyundai, we are changing the pronunciation of the brand name on the market to bring it in line with our global organization and its Korean heritage. It's the dawn of a new Hyundai"

The family named Wriothesley derived from “wrythe”, a place on a stream, and would originally have been pronounced as spelled. But people in the sixteenth century had humorous, drunk friends and friends with regional accents just as we do nowadays, and colloquial pronunciations of it eventually morphed formally into something closer to Rizzley.

Good luck with that I say. If you wanted your brand pronounced a certain way I suggest you should have started with that and not try to change it (and the speech of a whole nation of people!) years later. Bit late now. We still often talk in pints, and feet and inches in this country, decades after decimalisation.

it’s all just a marketing trend that they think will get people talking about them, which I suppose has worked to an extent, but I’m not wasting any brain space trying to charge how I pronounce Hyundai or Ikea or anyone else who tries to get on the pronunciation change bandwagon. I have many many more important things to worry about.

His name was spelled “Shaun” until he changed it. Everyone I know pronounces it “Seen Been”, as a joke.

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Hyundai…

I’m in North America. Here it’s pronounced Hunday. I always pronounced it H’yun-die 🤷‍♀️

Literally nobody will say shin... despite adverts!

An elderly lady in Asda asked me to reach up and get her a packet of man get out and I’ve been calling them that ever since.

It's pronounced Fanshaw.

Firstly it’s pronounced Hun die, have a Korean friend so I trust her.

Sean is Irish so pronunciation is different to spelling.

W’s can be silent

and yes I pronounce chorizo properly because I speak Spanish, see also guacamole and Spanish things beginning with J. Wait until you hear the real pronunciation of Van Gogh… Dutch isn’t pronounced like the anglicised version!

🤣🤣🤣 That’s the exact sort of post where I am reaching for the laugh reaction @MNHQ #bringitback

Hie-oon-die is how I pronounce it whilst understanding the native pronunciation may be different.

The place in England Bicester looks like it should be pronounced bi-cesster but am I right in saying it's pronounced bister?

What was she asking for as I can’t work it out 🤨

Just take the gaps out of the words...

i say Nootella because i first had it in germany

Mangetout?

it’s too early for me as I’m still non the wiser 🤣🫨

Same to me too!

Wtf Have you heard a sh sound? It’s hyun-dae.

Yes, Bister, like blister minus the L.

I do hear an almost Welsh ‘ll’ at the start of that.

Not Shunday, llunday a softened, breathy ‘ch’

I don’t think it’s intentional though.

And yes, when you’ve lived somewhere everyone says Eekaya, or wacamole. Or horeetho, you tend to catch it.

The advert just tells us how they pronounce it in it's country of origin.

You've just made it weird by adding a Sh sound.

Nestle used to be pronounced nestles
Them changing it pissed me off

1. how is McDonalds an English word?
2. how the fuck are you pronouncing Mc?
3. please don’t tell me you pronounce it muck?
4. as someone with a Mc surname I can assure you it is pronounced the same as Mac.