this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2024
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I've always pronounced the word "Southern" to rhyme with howthurn. I know most people say it like "suthurn" instead. I didn't realize that the way I pronounce it is considered weird until recently!

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[–] MIDItheKID 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I over-pronounce Wednesday. Like wed-nes-day. Most people say wendsday.

Also apparently I'm weird for pronouncing jewelry correctly. I pronounce it like it is spelled, and what it means. It is personal ornaments often containing jewels. Jewel-ry. Not Joolery.

Same thing with Aunt. It's not Ant. There is a U in there.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

It may surprise you that outside of the US, the word is spelled 'jewellery' (three syllables)

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago (2 children)

agghh these comments my eyes the fauxnetics please god why can't Lemmy have a bigger linguistics community and you mfs wonder why i still use Reddit

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

There just aren't many linguists unfortunately. I'm a huge grammar and language nerd but learning IPA takes time and exposure to a lot of sounds you're not used to. I wish more of the reddit linguists would come over. Even the grammar communities here are dead.

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[–] [email protected] 45 points 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (11 children)

I'm fluent in both Spanish and English (obv). When speaking English, I'm conflicted on whether I should pronounce Spanish loan words in a shitty English accent like everyone else, or in a proper Spanish accent. So instead I pronounce them as horribly as I can.

Jalapeño is "yah-la-PEEN-oh". Fajita is "fa-JAI-tah". Quesadilla gets "QUAY-sah-dilah"

(As a joke of course)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 hours ago

Yeah everyone knows it's kwe-SAD-il-uh.

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[–] hakunawazo 1 points 2 days ago

I purposely pronouce "download" like dunlaad to annoy my SO.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I pronounce dragon as dragòn, if you know what I mean.

[–] slazer2au 33 points 4 days ago (1 children)

.ǝdoɹnƎ uᴉ ƃuᴉʌᴉl uɐᴉlɐɹʇsn∀ uɐ ɯɐ ᴉ ʇnq .ǝɯᴉʇ ǝɥʇ ll∀

[–] robocall 2 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Australia is so hellbent on making words sound cute by shortening everything. It makes me giggle even when they are mad.

[–] Archer 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The sprinkles on bread is adorable

[–] slazer2au 3 points 2 days ago

Fairy bread is the best.

[–] slazer2au 2 points 2 days ago

My wife has to be careful when picking child names because I will immediately Australianise it to something stupid.

[–] SlothMama 3 points 2 days ago

I say appree-see-ate for appreciate, and artif-isss-ee-al for artificial.

[–] tobiah 2 points 2 days ago

I used to pronounce "adjacent" as adjuhsent.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 4 days ago (7 children)

As an American, it didn't click for me until I visited London for the first time why names like Leicester and Gloucester were pronounced the way they are by Brits. My dumb American brain sees the names as Lei-cester and Glou-cester rather than Leice-ster and Glouce-ster.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago

oh wow, you blew my mind

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

I'm German. One day my house was being renovated and they were working with jackhammers to remove parts of the facade. It was incredibly loud and I couldn't bear it. I lived close to university and had recently stopped working in one of the institutes. I knew though that my former colleagues had couches in some of their offices so I thought I'd give them a visit. I walked over to the institute and greeted my Australian former coworker. I explained about the noise in my house and said I was "looking for asylum". Knowing the word "asylum" only from written language, I had no idea it was not actually pronounced "ay suh lum". He asked "you're looking for what?" as he obviously hadn't understood. I repeated "ay suh lum" confidently and he politely said "ah". Not long after, I learned the correct pronunciation of asylum and that memory has haunted me ever since. It's been almost 10 years but I still cringe about it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago

I understand the feeling, but that fear of being wrong is a plague, it prevents learning altogether. Especially languages ! we should be brave enough to proudly make mistakes and learn from them. Proudly. With pride

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 4 days ago (11 children)

Living in Los Angeles as a white person, I refuse to pronounce street and city names that are Spanish the English-speaking way. Knowing Spanish since I was a kid from school and using it on a daily basis, my brain simply doesn’t butcher the pronunciation by default.

It’s caused confusion though for sure. I used to live near a street called La Tijera, but Americans pronounced it almost like Spanish “la tierra” which is a completely different word, and I couldn’t figure out where this street was that everyone was talking about.

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[–] Tidesphere 3 points 2 days ago

Two immediately come to mind.

First is "Comfortable". I pronounce each part of the word: "COME-for-tuh-bull". Many people give me weird looks and insist on "Comf-turr-bull".

The other is more niche and has to do with League of Legends.

There is a champion whose theme is moonlight. His backstory is that he belongs to a moon cult who opposes a group that is am Order of the Sun type group. This character is an edgelord whose whole thing is darkness and midnight etc etc.

His name is a combination of the Greek "Ap" meaning "furthest from" and "Helios" meaning the sun. His name is Greek for "the one furthest from the sun" in this moon cult.

In Greek, "ph" does not make the "fuh" sound. His name should rightly be pronounced "App-Hee-lee-ose"

But all the casters and developers call him "Uhh-fell-ee-ose" and it drives me absolutely insane.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

My SO's family all like to pronounce "mauve" in a weird way, so I say it every chance I get to perturb them.

[–] logicbomb 19 points 4 days ago (47 children)

I don't personally do this, but many people in my family say the days of the week with "dee". Like "Sundee", "Mondee". I think it's charming, but one of their children said they were weird for saying it that way.

Also, as a programmer, there are some words that programmers use that are abbreviated which I refuse to pronounce the way that others pronounce them because I think it's weird, but virtually everybody pronounces them different to me.

For example, there is a common keyword in programming languages called "enum", and most people I know pronounce it as "EE-num", like it rhymes with "ME dumb". But "enum" is short for "enumeration", so I pronounce it as if it's the first two syllables of "enumeration", like "ee-NUUM". Although I think the normal pronunciation is weird, I don't say anything to people. I just pronounce it the way that I think it should be pronounced. But on multiple occasions, other programmers have called me out for it and asked why I pronounce it "wrong".

There are several other programming terms like this, but they don't immediately come to mind. Enum is the most common example.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Over time I switched to saying it like you. It's more internally consistent for me to pronounce all abbreviations the same as the words being abbreviated. That applies to enum, char, var, serde, num, regex, etc.

[–] techt 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

sudo is spoken soo-doo in my house. Where I live alone.

[–] logicbomb 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I pronounce it the same as you, and by the way, that's also the pronunciation listed on Wikipedia.

But I can't remember how other people that I've worked with pronounce it. I'm sure it's come up, but I just don't recall.

I think the fact that its configuration file is called sudoers is fairly decisive that other pronunciations are wrong.

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[–] waz 13 points 3 days ago (3 children)

My wife says I pronounce crayon wrong. The way she says it, it's a single syllable word that is the same as the first syllable of cranberry. I say it as two syllables: cray-on.

Being fully honest, I've started drawing it out and articulating both syllables more because I know she doesn't like it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago

"It is called 'baggel'. I lived in New York."

[–] qevlarr 2 points 2 days ago

I'm Dutch. I pronounce the -en at de ends of words, including the n. If you don't know, that's like 10% of all Dutch words

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

Yes but I do this on purpose. Mazda with a flat A like in Aztec. Bag is bayg, measure is maysure. My long Os are longer like Psy saying ope in Gangnam style or like the movie Fargo. Snow is Snew with an Irish accent like Ygritte. There are too many more to recount, about every fourth sentence on average I pronounce a word wrong on purpose, it has become my dialect.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago

It's Helico-Pter not Heli-Copter. It's a greek word from hélikos (screw, spiral, winding) and pterón (wing).

And since I'm fun at parties, I consequently pronounce it with a slight pause before and stress on the P and not a miniscule pause after the I and a slight stress on the O.

[–] garretble 2 points 2 days ago

Bala-tro, not Ba-lottro.

[–] EtherWhack 5 points 3 days ago (3 children)

How about Chipotle as chee~pot~ole

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 days ago (4 children)

Yosemite rhymes with Vegemite. Change my mind.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 days ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago

I'd never heard it pronounced until recently, and until I did I mentally pronounced it as if it's a very street way of greeting Jewish people.

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