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.

Yes, mangetout. The vegetable.

As referenced in one of my favourite clever shop names. Penge, in SE London is jokingly pronounced to rhyme with the mange of mangetout to sound French and posher. There is (or was) a gift shop there called Penge Tout.

Now I understand why I don’t get it

ive never heard of a mangetout, had no idea such a thing existed 😮

They're delicious!

They are peas in an edible pod. Like sugar snap peas

I googled them and also googled how it’s pronounced and I would’ve pronounced them as man get out as well 🤣

you obviously have never watched Only Fools and Horses

It means eat all in French, like a flat peapod but you eat the whole thing.

You're assuming it's been transliterated to English.

Just what I was about to say!

Defense de fumer Rodney.

Mc is an abbreviation of Mac, which means ‘son of’. So it should be pronounced the same way, which is generally ‘Mack’ for English speakers.

Sean is Irish so pronunciation is different to spelling.

And just to be a bit of a pedant, because I think it’s an important distinction: pronunciation isn’t ’different to spelling’ in this example. Pronunciation is fully aligned with the spelling of the word in the Irish language. When you say the name ‘Seán’, or ‘Henri’, or ‘Giovanni’, you’re briefly slipping into another language, and I think it’s helpful to think of it in that way, rather than the oft-repeated complaint that these names aren’t spelt phonetically.

It's because a good number of sounds in Korean are hard to transcribe using our alphabet, so someone got there a while ago, set up a standard, did it badly, but it's stuck.

Same with a lot of languages. We're just lulled into a false sense of security because we mostly learn ones which use the roman alphabet and share a lot of similar sounds. (Not including French here, it's a bastard for spelling.)

Sean is Irish so pronunciation is different to spelling.

That is not the case. The reason Sean is not pronounced as it is spelt is because he doesn't include the fada (accent) on the a. As it's spelt, it should be pronounced Shan and is the Irish word for old. The correct spelling is Seán and it is pronounced exactly as it is spelt. As with any word, that may not correlate to the pronunciation of the same collection of letters in a different language such as English.

They are. Sugar snaps are much nicer though.

Kwinnoah. Because that’s how it’s spelt. But obviously Leicester is Lester.

Tbf trying to explain why in Englishfor example it’s house, his, her, happy with the h all sounded but in hour it’s silent is a tricky one 😆

at least in portguese for example the h is always silent!

I haven't heard the Shin-day but they can pronounce it however they want. It's not an English word. Just like Siobhan is shi'von/shivawn. Wagner is Vagner in German. Jasper is Yasper in Dutch . And even English doesn't say Wurite you say ryt/rite. Enjoy this @Dilbertian

m.youtube.com/watch?v=BrJv_wUEKko&t=19s&pp=ygU3aG93IGVuZ2xpc2ggd291bGQgc291bmQgaWYgc2lsZW50IGxldHRlcnMgYXJlbid0IHNpbGVudA%3D%3D

Well people round here say Sayns-breeze.

Does my head in.

How else would you say it?

That's how I say it too, I remember they had TV ads in the US that said Hyundai, rhymes with Sunday.
For the others I say guacamole (with mowlay at the end) and Chorizo (with a th) have said it that way living in the US for about 30 odd years, now back in UK.

With the last syllable more like bris to rhyme with the start of Frisbee rather than breeze.

I would use the Frisbee pronunciation but the elongated vowel is perfectly reasonable too.

@Dilbertian

I don't mean words like Ikea, where the same letters have different sounds in different languages.

Hyundai is a South Korean company. It's exactly like your example of IKEA from your OP, just Korean not Swedish.

And it's H-yun-dai, there's no SH in it at all, in any of their adverts.

McDonald's should be pronounced Burger King 😋😁

For Mc vs Mac, I’m Scottish living in Scotland and plenty of people say “mick” and “mack” for these respectively.

McFarlane - Mick Farlane
MacFarlane - Mack Farlane

Just don't take a look at a sentence in Scottish Gaelic....your head will explode.

Thank you for this. I actually like this add and it explains why in the blub below.

Its a bit like Ikea is not said "I" key.ah. But Ee keh ah. Because the name is Swedish and the pronunciation is Swedish. (Or Korean in the case of Hyundai) its just more subtle between Swedish and English