AIBU to hate people who pronounce Chile "Chil-AY" and Kenya "KEEENyar"

[ipanemagirl]

you know, I just don't care if it's right it just sounds dreadful and a great trumpeting of Arse.

If you were supposed to pronounce the words of all the places in the world in the native tongue then we would. People only do it to be pretentious.

If you think we should make an effort to say latte 'properly' I hope you pronounce spaghetti correctly, and paella and dhal and keema naan ...

BouncingTurtle I don't mean to be pretentious but you say your father can speak catalan cos he was born in Andalucia. They don't speak catalan in Andalucia?

¿Que?

I say

Chil-eh (not quite an 'ay' but nearly)

I do not say Keeen-ya, I say Ken-ya, but I have always wondered which was correct

and not to mention rømmegrøt, a traditional Norwegian dish. You absolutely have to get the pronounciation right.

What is all this 'correct' business?? I speak French. In French, I say Angleterre, Londres and Pays de Galles. People would think I were thick if I said England, London and Wales.

Why is English any different? I think it must be the woo-hoo, I am one of the very few Brits who have made the effort to learn another language element. No one is that impressed outside of the UK

what is the woo-hoo?

Can I just add my tuppence worth - I lived in Kenya for 6 years and everyone said 'Ken-ya' when speaking English/Kiswahili. The only people I've ever heard pronounce it 'Keen-yar' are oldies here in blighty. Maybe just where I lived Nairobi/Mombasa/Kijabe but that seems right to me.

What bothers me is 'Madagascan' - I lived there for 8 years and always knew it as 'Malagasy' then you come back here and get 'Madagascan vanilla'...just isn't right! I'm English, not Englandan for crying out loud!

I think when in England pronounce it like the English do etc (unless it's blatantly wrong ) but I cannot say 'fa-jee-tah' [shudders] that's got to be 'fa-hi-tah' for sure...

I thought Keen-ya was how the colonial happy valley set pronounced it

I know a lot of Kenyan people and they ALL say Ken-ya

The woohoo is the 'I can speak Spanish doncha know, even though we're not actually speaking Spanish, I'm going to say Nicaragua in a really heavy central American accent so that you do'

ho capito

"Nicaragua in a really heavy central American accent "

am having a go at this atm

although I don't know how to do a really heavy central American accent

bummer

Try slurring. I tried to write it down as my friend's wanky brother says it but it's difficult

NEEquahRAAHKwah is about as good as I can get

With chorizo it depends whether you are asking in Asda or waitrose.

WE should spend this afternoon saying Nicaragua Nee-ha-ra-wa. It is much more fun than work.

If I can hijack for just aminute, how would you all pronouce 'melee'?

My DP and I have an ongoing argument between:

Mel-ay (French sounding, me)
Meel-ee (Lots of Es, him)

This is the part where I find out I'm a dunce...

"NEEquahRAAHKwah"

lol in t he middle of an English sentence is so .... what can I say? ...

so very wanky really unless you happen to be from there

Meel-ee????

I'd never heard that before. I guess melee is the most accurate. It is a French word after all.

Thank you, anonacfr! I've been trying for years to explain that to him to no avail...

... and zzzeen sounds like an Egyptian child all of a sudden.....

When in Egypt, we met loads of kids, and without fail they all said "Hello, where you from, I am from Nicaragua!"

Well, clearly, they were egyptian.

Melee as in mel-ay is what I meant.

YANBU!!

We have an office full of Americans at the moment - they asked for the "best rowt back to London".

Please say route. It is route. Rhymes with boot.

pedrothellama - don't mention that word. I once used the (correct) English pronunciation of the word "router" in a three hour telecoms hardware contract negotiation. Along with my female south african client. much to the amusement of the roomful of Aussie lads with whom we were negotiating - I had no idea what they found so funny until someone told me afterwards. (aussies use the US pronunciation - "rooter" having other overtones)

'Certainly it is not as bad as lapsing gratuitously into French and Latin in every day conversation.'

Bugger - I lapse into French and Flemish in everyday conversation, but I do live in Belgium - is that allowed?