this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2023
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[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Every “e” in “Mercedes” is pronounced differently.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

An Austrian dude named the Mercedes line of cars after his daughter Mercédès Adrienne Ramona Manuela Jellinek. He got the name from Spanish, and in Spanish all the "e"s are pronounced the same

[–] Earthwormjim91 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Except for the ones with accent marks on them…

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well, in Spanish none of the "e"s in "Mercedes" have an accent mark in them, and in Spanish the accent mark only flags the tonic syllable, it doesn't change the pronunciation.

So no.

That's how you spell that name in French, though. And yes, you do say all those the same there, too.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I'd say they sound slightly different in French, the middle e is a bit lower than the other two.

[–] Unimperfect 3 points 1 year ago

Except that the name written in Spanish does not have any accent markings, and even if it did, it would not change the pronunciation of the letter. Accent markings over vowels in Spanish simply denote syllable stress.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Those are French accent marks... which only confuses me more🤔

[–] Matriks404 4 points 1 year ago

Then I guess I don't pronounce it correctly at all.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

Dr. Johnson (the dude in the meme) actually wrote a great preface to his dictionary. It is about how to think about language and how to write a book describing language.

Great read.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

That's fascinating and surprisingly appropriate for this meme.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

The bottom picture is also just in his favorite restaurant in London. I was kinda surprised when I came across it.

painting in ye old cheshire cheese

[–] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot 5 points 1 year ago

Truly a man worthy of one's most enthusiastic contrafibularities.

[–] ShroOmeric 4 points 1 year ago

People like you are the bright side of internet.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago

A rough-coated, dough-faced ploughman strode, coughing and hiccoughing, thoughtfully through the streets of Loughborough.

Ough

[–] ummthatguy 20 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Trying to learn "i before e"

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

True, but the full saying is, “I before E, except after C or when sounded as A as in neighbour and weigh. And weird is just weird.” There are still some exceptions to this rule though but most of the time, it’ll work.

There’s also a version that was taught to some people that goes like, “I before E, except after C, for words sounding like E” which worked most of the time too back when that saying was made (since we use more words of Greek origin now that break this rule).

[–] ummthatguy 25 points 1 year ago

Not mine, but gets the point across:

And yes, English is an endlessly exhaustive exercise in eloquence and execution.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Actually, that "full version" is still more wrong than it is right. For example: fancier, species, their, heist, foreign, vein, seize, science, Raleigh, Keith, Neil, either and neither, leisure, deity, atheism (ironic), reignite, albeit.

[–] pigup 2 points 1 year ago

How to reset an entire language

[–] dragonflyteaparty 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Currently going through this with my six year old. It's really hard to help her learn to read without just doing it for her over and over because pronunciation is shit. She can't just sound it out when the same letter sounds three different ways.

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

I learned English by watching shows first in Danish(my tongue) then in English, and was forced to use English in games, this was the way I learned it.

They tried in school but the way teacher's used to teach English just didn't made sense fore many of us.

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

Actually it’s pronounced “specific”.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

LMCO

Laughing My Coccyx Off

[–] x4740N 5 points 1 year ago

That's because we're not sounding out the c on its own

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Pakific othan

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Do a lot of people not pronounce the L in calm?

[–] asdfasdfasdf 3 points 1 year ago

Whoever wrote it was probably from Boston.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

most don't release it. It's usually a slightly rounding/coloring of the vowel, but most accents don't say "callum" / "callam" / "callem"

[–] StereoTrespasser 7 points 1 year ago

Really grasping at straws with Q and V there.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

a whole bunch of non-english words

ok buddy

[–] superfes 2 points 1 year ago

But... it's only one of the "C"s...