To not realise I was saying this wrong...

[HelloBunny]

Stopped on the street today by a lady looking for a shop. She asked for the nearest “Shrov-Ski”.
Explained further that it’s a jewellery shop. I eventually cottoned on that she meant “Swaa-Rov-Ski”
Bit like “hyper-bole” with me as well... (until I heard it said on the News!) And the name “Beat-Rice”.

Back to debris:

In British English it's DAY-bree, as in the original French (débris, something broken).

But some Brits are now starting to say duh-BREE, under the influence of American English.

Thank you!

Huh. I say neither.

Deb-Ree

It's "Jesso".

I always thought it was as he said it! Never thought it would be as you've said.

So he used the York Notes pronunciation guide, and that was wrong?

It’s really unpleasant when these threads tip over from good-naturedly sharing pp’s own mispronunciations to simply laughing at other people’s. In my experience people who get complex literary terms wrong are auto-didacts who have only seen it written down. No need to gatekeep the pronunciation as a shibboleth for the ‘right sort’ of person. I am fortunate to have been highly educated and am in a job where I occasionally need to use ‘synecdoche’ and I have to make a conscious effort not to say sin-eck-DOE-kee. It’s just one of those pronunciations that doesn’t feel intuitive to me.

Ooh those fancy fridges and other appliances - I still say Smeg even though I believe it’s pronounced Smeech? (Waits to be corrected)

@sashh , yes. FBI, BBC, and MNHQ are abbreviations, SCUBA, POTUS and RADAR are acronyms.
If it's an abbreviation you say it as a word.

@heidipi , isn't it said as smegg?

@JustCakeInDrag

No, his lessons were taken from York Notes. Basically word for word what was written there. I assume they didn't provide a pronunciation guide or he'd have got it right!

"No need to gatekeep the pronunciation as a shibboleth for the ‘right sort’ of person"

That's a bit of a stretch! Who said anything about him not being the 'right sort' of person? If you're going to be teaching kids something you're not familiar with yourself, you'd think you might double check what it is you're saying. He was generally a rubbish teacher who put in the bare minimum, so it was hardly surprising, but absolutely nothing to do with being the 'wrong sort'!

Fage (fah-yay i think) and Phoebe (Fee--bee) always get me. I know how they are pronounced byt my brain still says Fayge and phoeeb for some odd reason. I have to correct myself

@RejectedCitizenOfMoronia , isn't it Fahg-eh?
I have to remind myself that Chicco is Keecko and that Joie isn't Joy.

@AlwynAllWin I was making a wider point, tbh, and it’s really not a stretch to state that people treat pronunciations as shibboleths. See the examples previously cited on this thread of Featherstonehaugh, Belvoir etc, where pronouncing the words phonetically shows you aren’t in the know.

It sounds like the teacher in question was lazy and a bit crap but that’s a separate issue. It’s pretty much always shitty to mock someone for mispronouncing an obscure / technical / classical term, because you’re mocking them for not being exposed to people who regularly use those terms in conversation.

Acronyms are said as words. Initialisms are said as separate letters.

This has come up before and there was a split between MNers who read AIBU as an acronym (ay-boo) and those who read it as an initialism. I’m in the latter camp!

I agree with you, I don’t think it’s gatekeeping.

But in the case of my teacher mentioned above, and the Ypres/ Wipers dilemma, I think my teacher was aware of the correct pronunciation and as pps have pointed out, probably wanted to use the prevailing pronunciation of the group in question at the time.

Also we were 13 or 14 and some did not have much French if any. So I suspect the teacher wanted to avoid a situation where pupils didn’t contribute for fear of getting it wrong.

She was a great teacher. What I’d give to be back in those days!

Gesso is Jesso like Gif is Jif

I want to know how parquet isn't pronounced parkay from further up the thread

@JustCakeInDrag Then I think you've picked on the wrong person to direct your "wider point" at as I don't think what I said is included in that category at all.

Yes, my mum laughed, but because she simply found the pronunciation funny, not in a "haha what a low-class oik your teacher is" way

Oh, I never knew Gif should be said as Jif😳
I also say parkay, hope that's right.

@BretonBlue , I meant acronyms are said at words but my fingers thought otherwise. I don't say Fubee-eye or Bubbuckuh.

I know it as Ayboo.
Parquet is Par-kay
I vallit by car, or get my vallay to do it
I say GIF like gift without a t, but say Rej-exp for regexp even though it doesn't make sense

as words !

A word I'd only read, and took ages to make the connection (after many episodes of Antiques Roadshow) was automaton.

In my head it was auto-may-ton
Apparently a mechanised puppet type thing is an or-TOM-a-TON!

It is 'parkay'.

I think GIF should be with a hard G, because it's short for "graphics interchange format".

Thank you Pinkittens and Dwevils!

And anyone else I haven’t spotted who has explained about gesso with a j sound!

I always say it Gif, not jif.