First they came for IKEA

[viques]

Then they came for Hyundai………

AIBU to think if you want our money tell us who you are from the start.

I agree it's weird that marketing departments suddenly change the pronunciation of well established brands. Going forwards English speakers could make more effort in pronouncing foreign names correctly though; many other languages manage. I think it shows respect for other cultures. No one should be annoyed by people saying cho-ree-tho or pa-eh-ya or claim it's 'pretentious'. I've heard people talk about Bahk and Batch in a musical context until I realised they meant (Johann Sebastian) Bach.

Not quite the same but I remember when Cif was Jif - apparently Jif meant something rude in many countries where it was sold.

I thought it was to stop thick people being confused on pancake day. 🤷‍♂️

When Swedes make can prononce Tottenham (which I hear badly all the time in sports reports) I will consider changing my pronunciation of IKEA

She was wrong! It's a long vowel.

I can only assume she was like this people who say "refuge" when they mean "refuse" (rubbish, not refusal) or "single" for "signal", or "ax" instead of "ask".

<acrid aroma of simmering p*ss fills the air>

😄😄😄

@ichundich , but you get words where people can't say the sounds of certain letters, or can't distinguish between different sounds.

The ch in Bach, as in JSB, is not a sound that's easy for many monoglot English-speakers. Bach (as in flower remedies) is 'batch'.

How do you know, out of context, what pronunciation you should use?
If it was a name like Walter Meyer, would you immediately think to say it Valter Myer? What if it was a name like Peter, Richard or Jurgen. Peter might be german or british, Richard might be french, and Jurgen might be dutch.

@ichundich , I don't understand why people say brushetta, taggy-telly and pie-ella.

I agree - it’s like someone (some organisation like the BBC) suddenly deciding to refer to Munich as München in news reports: absurd when most UK residents have always referred to Munich!

I agree - to at least attempt an accurate pronunciation is respectful - but remember - many people don't hear the words they are using - they have only ever seen them written down. (I well remember my embarrassment when I realised how Goethe was pronounced.) This will get worse hewn fewer people are offered languages at school.

If we were told from the beginning that that is how ia word should be pronounced, we doubtless would. But when we are told/encouraged Eye-Kee-A, then suddenly it's Ick-Kay-A . . .

And there are also sounds in some languages that people who are native speakers of some other languages just can't pronounce. They can't even hear them because the era when the brain is able to discern and produce imitations is looooong past. This is why many, if not most, Japanese have difficulty with "r" and "l" - it's a stereotype, but stereotypes often contain a grain of truth.

And of course why we in the west have trouble with Slavic languages with their terrifying strings of consonants and comparatively few vowels. And of course, syllable emphasis varies, too.

And it's why very few people, no matter how good they are at a language, can rarely pass as a native.

😂

@Floydthebarber FIL has always pronounced Peugeot as Pew-Jo, I always thought he sounded a bit of a dick as I had never heard anyone else pronounce it this way, not in the area we live anyway. Seems I’m probably the dick 🤣

😂😂😂

Wow!

Well remembered! You are right.

Do you not think it might just be a way to bring attention back to their product?

Changing the the pronunciation is a way of getting people talking about it, as we have seen here.

Probably Bach is a bad example because like you say the German sound "ach" doesn't exist in English. And no, without context you wouldn't know whether Peter is English (peetah) or German (Pehtah).

I just can’t get used to the new name of Turkey: Türkiye. Thur-key-yeah?

Idk why the correction. This isn’t the advert I was thinking about, this is from 2001. I actually was living abroad at the time this was made and saying Ick-ee-a but ‘corrected’ myself to the British version as everyone was saying it that way at the time, which the ads confirm. The company screwed up, not us.

Ditto Nike. And I won’t be changing my pronunciation either.

Forgot the link.

I once sat down with a friend from Argentina and we went through the major car brands (no idea why - we must have been bored!) and our pronunciation of all of them was completely different. Apart from Ford.

These ad campaigns are cleverly designed yo get people talking about the brand. Nothing more. Looks like they have worked a treat on many of you!

Exactly

round of applause for the marketing department because they nailed it! 😂

we say 'Pontyland' and 'Ponteeland' the same This confused me, too.

But Ponty Land and Pont ee Land aren't the same.

I was disappointed that it wasn't Ponty Land like Ponty Fract but I think that Pont ee Land has a different pronunciation so that people know that it's a naicer place to live.

This reminds me of the Carling advert 😁

I've always pronounced it "Nai - key" because it is the Greek goddess of victory

I used to do the same, but then my friends' teenage kids took the piss out of me and told me I was being pretentious. I noticed that other people pronounced it to rhyme with "bike", and decided they might be right.

I'm glad people are now pronouncing it correctly, I feel vindicated.

Actually, it was "the creamiest milk, the whitest bar, the goodness that's in Milky Bar. Nestles' Milk Bar" and Nestles rhymed with trestles.