Words your parents pronounce/use that drive you CRAZY!!!

[Notsurehwhattdo]

My parents say ON-velope. Rather than EN-velope. Cin-a-MAR, rather than Cin-a-ma.

Slightly differently, they also say 'trod on' rather than 'stepped on'. I know it's not incorrect, I just hate the posh way they say trod and think it's a horrible word!

All the above drives me crazy! Aaaaarrrghhhh

Inspired by the theatre thread!

😂😂😂😂

I hope she never went to the USA and confused the two out loud.

She could have got herself into serious trouble if the C&A had overheard her

Sambwidge (instead of sandwich)

Yet I'd say that a clear majority of people call a handbag a 'hambag', which annoys me just as much as would sambwidge.

it’s a linguistic feature of connected speech. Try seeing Green Park, Hyde Park, last year, in Bath. The last syllable of first word changes in connected speech…..

DF says wardrove rather than wardrobe, which I almost get anatomically, both labial sounds, but he also says windowsilv not sill, no idea where that comes from.

Yes, it used to be called Brufen on the packet years ago.

I'm genuinely not getting how any of those change from being tagged on to another word - how are you hearing them?

Is it maybe something similar to the random 'r' that you often hear people add in when a word ending in a vowel precedes another word beginning with a vowel e.g. law rand order; in awe rof you; Pamela Randerson?

Tiss-yoo and iss-you for tissue and issue. Makes me want to scream every time.

And Bei-zhing instead of Bei-jing. There's no phonetic 'h' sound in that word, there's no reason to pronounce the J as a Zh, even the Chinese don't pronounce it Bei-zhing, so just why?!

I'm genuinely not getting how any of those change from being tagged on to another word - how are you hearing them?

Is it maybe something similar to the random 'r' that you often hear people add in when a word ending in a vowel precedes another word beginning with a vowel e.g. law rand order; in awe rof you; Pamela Randerson?

Exactly!! That’s an example where we insert an ‘ r ‘ sound where two vowel sounds meet..just as you said, eg in Pamela ( last SOUND not letter) is a vowel and it meets the A in Anderson. In English, we (GENERALLY😉) insert an R sound to creat elision. We do..even if we don’t think we do!

My DGM (the same one I mentioned above, with her soo-up) always said 'voulevard' (in a pronounced Anglicised way when used for UK street names, i.e 'vulla-vard') rather than 'boulevard' (or indeed 'bulla-vard'). I never quite understood why she did that.

Tiss-yoo and iss-you for tissue and issue. Makes me want to scream every time.

I say it the same way, though - I never understand where the random 'h' comes from. Maybe it's gone far away on holiday, on a consonant exchange trip with the 'r' in February and the 'd' in Wednesday?!

It's probably just a normal variation, though - like PP who mentioned words with a sound that some (like me) pronounce as 'see' and others pronounce as 'she' as in 'a-PREE-see-ate' vs 'a-PREE-she-ate'.

Cuttle-rey instead of cutlery.

But, I mentioned it a few times and now she sounds out the word like she’s been abused and scared to get it wrong.

I’d now take cuttle-rey back for an easier life.

I don't! Maybe because I speak more slowly than many people do; and I try to pronounce words carefully, because it annoys me when others don't!

So are you saying that e.g. the 'n; in Green Park becomes an 'm' sound, then? And does the 'd' in Hyde Park just disappear?

Do they become 'Greem Park', 'Hy Park', 'lass year', 'im Bath' if people speak too quickly, then?

FatherJackHackettsUnderpantsHamper

Linguists accept that there is always individual difference. That’s why these debates always roll on on MumsNet and everywhere else about how we ‘should’/ shouldn’t speak. There are ‘rules’ and then there are individual perceptions of correctness and the realities of everyday speech. You may well pronounce these differently but linguists accept this elision as a feature of connected speech. Out of interest, ask a friend to listen to you pronounce those and see if you really do pronounce them as you think you do….🤣🤣

'MarshmEllow' - which a good 90+% of people say - baffles and irritates me beyond belief, though.

How does randomly swapping the 'a' sound for an 'e' sound make it easier to say or more 'natural' in any way?

Maybe it's one of those words that a historical king got wrong, so the common people also deliberately adopted the wrong pronunciation as a new custom (whether out of respect or knowing their place/ in fear for their lives) - like an 'Emperor's new clothes' scenario, rendering 'IV' as 'IIII' on clocks or deliberately leaving buttons on your waistcoat undone to avoid showing up Henry VIII/other wealthy indulgent eaters who are too fat to be able to (is that actually true or apocryphal?!)?

Here’s another one interesting for linguists and historic roots…🤣
how do you pronounce ‘any ‘ then?? Don’t you use the ‘e’ phoneme as in ‘egg’?? Its the great vowel shift…

Until I had to explain what it meant and why we shouldn’t use it in public 😭😭😭

Sorry..meant ‘many’…

She also says Dee-Jay instead of DJ.

like elongates the words

I say on-velope and cinemar - as does everyone else i know. I'm not posh! How are you meant to say it?? I don't care about pronunciation but PILs have little passive aggressive phrases that annoy me e.g. they say 'I'm not worried' when they mean 'no thanks'. E.g. would you like a cup of tea? 'I'm not worried'. WTF? Does it mean they don't want me to go to any trouble or does it mean I don't want one? Because they require quite different responses from me.

No, I completely accept that I'm the weirdo in the minority, and I'm not presuming to declare the vast majority of native English speakers 'wrong' or 'bad' for wanting to make their speech flow more freely (even if it does annoy the likes of me!)

I know that I wouldn't pronounce these words using the common* elision, as I make a conscious effort to pronounce my words carefully. I get that it's a personal thing that the vast majority of people neither think nor could care less about, but it matters to me, for me.

*common meaning normal or standard, not a patronising value judgment in any way!!

It works the other way around if people eagerly seek to engage me in the finer points of a particular footballer's/team's/Strictly contestant's performance; it's important and it matters a great deal to them yet not a sausage to me!

I'll always remember a beautifully-observed in its simplicity cartoon by the wonderful late German cartoonist Uli Stein, where a cat and a dog were in love and got married and began setting up home together; but neither of them could comprehend for a second why the other could possibly want the fish-patterned/bone-patterned wallpaper rather than the 'obviously best and correct' one

We're all different, in how we do and show interest (or lack thereof in) so many things; so there's no issue (or ishoo!) as long as we accept, celebrate and observe that - when it's things that, if we're realistic and honest, don't really matter in the slightest.

I would pronounce the phoneme for many or any as in 'egg' - but I'm aware that a lot of people, especially Irish folk, pronounce it as in 'man'.

I see your point in relation to my comment about marshmallow(!) - but I maintain that most people who say 'marshmellow', would not pronounce the standalone word mallow as 'mellow'!

its fascinating. I’m teaching now but will return later!!!!

But how is this different when speaking, unless she's stringing out the vowel sounds for 15 seconds each?

You don't say 'DJ' as 'duhdj' - as though it's an actual word rather than two letters - do you?!

It is indeed - and you are sometimes challenged to examine your own preconceptions and prejudices.

I have work I should be doing too, but will return later!

It’s hard to explain in writing 🤣

so I would just say the letters DJ

but she says it like two different words - Dee Jay