# Words and names you mispronounced for years, before eventually realising...



## philistine (Jul 1, 2012)

I made this thread on another forum several months ago, and it turned out to be hugely popular. This being a writing forum, I can only imagine it'll be even more of a surge. Everyone makes mistakes; some common, some very uncommon, and hopefully this thread will clear up some headaches. 

Here's a couple to get the ball rolling:

*Johann Wolfgang von Goethe*: not pronounced 'go-uff', but 'gurt-uh'.

*Herodotus*: not 'he-ro-to-duss', but 'he-ro-doh-tuss'. Although this one seems obvious, you'd be amazed at how many people, myself included, swapped the d and the t, and only realised the error of their ways several years later!

*Euler's identity*: not 'you-ler', but 'oi-ler'. Same as in D_eu_tsch.

*Magdalen College Oxford*: not 'mag-duh-len', but 'maud-lin'.

*Segue*: not 'seg', but 'seg-way'. I actually confused this, but in another manner, up until a few days ago. I thought it was segue way (the double syllable being unique to that word, as far as I know), but it's actually just segue! _Segway_ on the other hand...

*Cillian Murphy*: not 'silly-un', but 'kill-ee-un'. I was going to omit any Irish names, as, well, they're all bloody hard to pronounce.

*Epitome*: not 'eh-pi-tome', but 'ee-pi-toh-mee'

*Antonín Dvořák: *not 'voor-ack', but 'voor-zhak'. 

*Aeschylus*: 'ay-skya-luss', though I've also heard the first syllable pronounced similarly to the ae in aegis. Both are acceptable.

*Jalapeño*: not 'jalluh-pee-no', but 'halla-pin-yo'

Feel free to point out my stupidity, though I've done my best to represent them phonetically, in a dumb-dumb kinda' fashion. Ideas for contributions would be varieties of pasta, classic musicians, artists, Irish names, British place names (I'm looking at you, Leominster), loan words, etc. 

ride:

Let's consider this thread a public service. If I ever heard another 'dire-beetus', I'll go absolutely insane.


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## dale (Jul 1, 2012)

"versailles". and really, it's not my fault. we have a town in my state named "Versailles, Indiana". and here, everyone pronounces
the "sailles" part like as in "sails a boat". so my wife when she 1st moved here from the west coast heard this and found it hilarious.
funny part is, a year later we had a daughter and decided that Versailles (pronounced the proper french way) would be a beautiful
 name for her. so now when we take her to the doctor and sign her in, they always end up mispronouncing it when they call her from
the waiting room...and i'm sure in a couple years when she starts school, all her teachers are going to pronounce her name in true
hick indiana fashion on the 1st day. but oh well....i'm still glad we chose the name.


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## JosephB (Jul 1, 2012)

When I was a kid, I thought homemade was whole made – as in; you make the whole thing yourself.


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## philistine (Jul 1, 2012)

dale said:


> "versailles". and really, it's not my fault. we have a town in my state named "Versailles, Indiana". and here, everyone pronounces
> the "sailles" part like as in "sails a boat". so my wife when she 1st moved here from the west coast heard this and found it hilarious.
> funny part is, a year later we had a daughter and decided that Versailles (pronounced the proper french way) would be a beautiful
> name for her. so now when we take her to the doctor and sign her in, they always end up mispronouncing it when they call her from
> ...



I've heard it pronounced 'ver-say-lees', too. Crazy.


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## Jon M (Jul 1, 2012)

Long time ago, I was mad at someone one night and let slip _chas-uhm_, instead of _kaz-uhm_. 

Ugh. Never heard the end of it.


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## philistine (Jul 1, 2012)

Jon M said:


> Long time ago, I was mad at someone one night and let slip _chas-uhm_, instead of _kaz-uhm_.
> 
> Ugh. Never heard the end of it.



A split second after you said it, I bet you thought 'bugger'. 

That reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend in school; I was around... fifteen or so. God knows what we were talking about, though I remember citing a quite by _Descartes_. My friend stopped for a second, and said 'who said that?'

I said, with the gusto of a man who had just seen the white flag flying from my friend's face, 'why, it was Descartes, of course!'

I pronounced it 'Des-cart-uz'. The joshing was immense, and continued well up until high school graduation.

N.B - It's 'day-car', or 'day-cart', if you're really feeling French.


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## Kevin (Jul 1, 2012)

"laserbean"- all of my illustrations, up until about the age of 7, included the little 'bean' on the tip of the weapon. Of course it was where the _beam of light_ emanated from. Okay, so maybe I was a little slow...


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## philistine (Jul 1, 2012)

Kevin said:


> "laserbean"- all my illustrations up until about 7, included the 'bean' on the tip of the weapon, of course it was where the beam emanated from.



Could that little gaffe be attributed to a Freudian slip, too? :icon_cheesygrin:


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## Kevin (Jul 1, 2012)

We are all generally 'prepared' in the jewish manner, gentiles(males) here in the states that is... I don't know why. It's just something the medical profession pushes.


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## GonneLights (Jul 1, 2012)

I have never met anyone able to identify the correct pronunciation of crepuscular or crepuscle. My mentor pronounces it 'cre-poo-schu-lar', Cre as in Creole; I pronounce it 'Crah-Puss-Cul-ar'. Most of them are one of those two, or variations. I dunno who's right, but I've got it down as 'crah-puss-cul-ar' in a recording on an EP, so I'd better be right, goddamnit. 

Also, neither of us can pronounce ennui. I've got a recording of a song where the word 'ennui' features seven times and I've pronounced it seven different ways throughout the recording.


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## philistine (Jul 1, 2012)

KarKingJack said:


> I have never met anyone able to identify the correct pronunciation of crepuscular or crepuscle. My mentor pronounces it 'cre-poo-schu-lar', Cre as in Creole; I pronounce it 'Crah-Puss-Cul-ar'. Most of them are one of those two, or variations. I dunno who's right, but I've got it down as 'crah-puss-cul-ar' in a recording on an EP, so I'd better be right, goddamnit.
> 
> Also, neither of us can pronounce ennui. I've got a recording of a song where the word 'ennui' features seven times and I've pronounced it seven different ways throughout the recording.



There's a song by _Les Frères Jacques_ entitled _Rue Saint-Vincent_, in which they clearly say 'creh-puss-kyool'. I realise that that's a completely French accent, though the word is a loan word, so I think it's reliable. 

For the former, I'd imagine the emphasis is more on the 'p', as in, 'creh-PUSS-kyoo-luh', though the jury's out as far as I'm concerned. 

I watch a lot of French classics, and have heard _ennui_ pronounced almost exactly as you'd imagine; something like: 'enn-u-ee'.


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## Tiamat (Jul 1, 2012)

My fiance and I have a long-standing debate about the pronunciation of "radiator" and "salmon."  He gives "radiator" the short A sound instead of making it ray-dee-ate-er, and he distinctly pronounces the L in "salmon."

Also, about seven years ago when I was a telemarketer, I called a lot of Asian families with the last name Nguyen.  To this day, I have no idea how that last name is pronounced.  I only know that I made a lot of people angry by getting it wrong.


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## philistine (Jul 1, 2012)

Tiamat said:


> My fiance and I have a long-standing debate about the pronunciation of "radiator" and "salmon."  He gives "radiator" the short A sound instead of making it ray-dee-ate-er, and he distinctly pronounces the L in "salmon."
> 
> Also, about seven years ago when I was a telemarketer, I called a lot of Asian families with the last name Nguyen.  To this day, I have no idea how that last name is pronounced.  I only know that I made a lot of people angry by getting it wrong.



You don't pronounce the L in salmon; your loveable beau is wrong on that one. 

Funny you should mention the surname _Nguyen, _which is just as initially problematic as its ilk: Ngai, Ngi and whatever else there exists out there. I think this is where the Americans the British draw swords, as I've heard differences in the pronunciation thereof several times. 

The British would say (though I personally prefer the American): 'guy-en', or just 'gai', or 'gee', for the other examples I mentioned. The N is completely omitted, and not a trace of is spoken. 

The Americans pay attention to the N, though it comes completely from the throat, and is almost not pronounced at all. I'm saying it to myself now, and the sound produced is made entirely in my throat, before moving onto the 'guy-en'. I'd imagine, of course, that this isn't paid much attention to at all. Most would probably omit the N altogether. 

But who knows; this could be one example where all common pronunciation is wrong. Much like the Irish who live in England, and have altogether stopped correcting their sausage-eating brethren on how to say Caoimhe, Padraig, Cillian, and god knows what else. We'd need to get that fruity fashion designer on the case; he must know, as he's named Nguyen!


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## Nemesis (Jul 4, 2012)

Maleviolent - when I was 12 I saw this on a yu-gi-oh card and pronounced it male-violent not mal-ev-alent


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## Nemesis (Jul 4, 2012)

Also beau. It is french and pronounced Bo. Hard o sound. Not bu hard u sound.


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## Bloggsworth (Jul 4, 2012)

Never start an Englishman on pronounciation, it provides hours of fun:

_Featherstonehaugh

Pontefract

Ferneaux Pelham

Theydon Bois_

Just for starters.

Americans insist on pronouncing bouy (boy) as  boo-ee...


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## Fin (Jul 4, 2012)

All these bigger words make me feel silly that I pronounced 'pickpocket' as 'picketpocket' for years.


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## starseed (Jul 7, 2012)

Meme..... I used to think it was "me-me"...

I feel proud that I've always known how to say "epitome"... A lot of people mispronounce that one.


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## Extinct_Stimulus (Jul 8, 2012)

I was telling my buds that they were the "ep-i-TOMES" of things before they even knew to correct me. I was flabbergasted when I found out. On another note: The name "Delacroix" and the word "debacle." I choked on the latter earlier today when I attempted using it and realized I'd only ever written it. According to the venerable Dictionary.com, it's pronounced both "de-BUH-kuhl" and the more yokel-ish "de-BAK-uhl," but I dunno.


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## Olly Buckle (Jul 8, 2012)

My brother paddled his own cay- no for years until he heard it said.


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## The Backward OX (Jul 8, 2012)

Featherstonehaugh

Cholmondeley

garage


...look 'em up.


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## philistine (Jul 8, 2012)

Bloggsworth said:


> Never start an Englishman on pronounciation, it provides hours of fun:
> 
> _Featherstonehaugh
> 
> ...



I used to pronounced buoy as 'bwoy' as a child. Thankfully, it isn't a word which comes up in frequent usage. 



starseed said:


> Meme..... I used to think it was "me-me"...
> 
> I feel proud that I've always known how to say "epitome"... A lot of people mispronounce that one.



I actually pronounced it that way up until last year. 



Extinct_Stimulus said:


> I was telling my buds that they were the "ep-i-TOMES" of things before they even knew to correct me. I was flabbergasted when I found out. On another note: The name "Delacroix" and the word "debacle." I choked on the latter earlier today when I attempted using it and realized I'd only ever written it. According to the venerable Dictionary.com, it's pronounced both "de-BUH-kuhl" and the more yokel-ish *"de-BAK-uhl,"* but I dunno.



It's from the French, so it makes perfect sense. I've never heard the other way of saying it though.

Last night, whilst giving shelter to a couple of bitters, my friend used the word 'farcical', but pronounced the first C as a K. I was horrified, and if not for the ale, the stickler inside me may have come out.


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## Deleted member 49710 (Aug 1, 2012)

Oh, my SO loves catching me with these. I don't know how it is that I'm supposed to be the wordy, hyper-educated one but he's the one who knows how to pronounce things. Recent conversation:
SO: "By the way, it's PREvalent, not preVALent."
lasm: "What? No, preVALent, like prevailing."
SO: "PREvalent has nothing to do with prevailing."
lasm: "Well, what about POLyvalent, then?"
SO: "That's poLYvalent."
(lasm smacks her forehead) 

Apparently I am also unable to get the correct stress on "superfluous." I always treat it like two words: SUper FLUous. This has been going on for years. Curse these prefixes.


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## Max22 (Aug 1, 2012)

I used to pronounce deus ex machina, des - ex - machine - na. It's not too far off the right pronunciation but I said this in class once and everyone looked at me. It wasn't until I got home that I found out I was saying it wrong. Also when I was a kid I used to think handbags were called hambags. I thought this to I was around 7-8!


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## felix (Aug 1, 2012)

My girlfriend pronounces pillow as pell-o. It drives everyone up the freaking wall.


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## jroland0482 (Aug 1, 2012)

I live in the south so I feel like I am constantly hearing incorrect pronunciations.... here are just a few.
fingers--- I say fing-ers, everyone else says fang-ers
Library-- I say Lie-Brear-ie everyone else says -Lie-Bear-ie
Salmon--- I say Sam-un they say Sal-mun
French--- I say French, they say Franch
I could go on, but those are the worst... I personally thought the name Kahlan Amnell (from the Sword of Truth Series) was pronounce Cow-Lan instead of
Kay-lin (which is how the pronounce it in the terrible tv series.) And Hermione (sp?) I used to think it was Her-mee-own instead of Her-my-oh-nee


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## patskywriter (Aug 1, 2012)

LOL, jroland0482! I went to college in Alabama (I'm originally from Chicago) and got such a kick hearing people say "warsh an' rainch" instead of "wash and rinse"! The laundromats were called washaterias!

The first time I went to the grocery store in rural Alabama, the cashier asked, "Yuwonsayck?" I was like, "Hunh? 'Scuse me?" I was totally clueless. He repeated it a few times, and finally, after realizing that I was a complete idiot, said slowly, "Do you won't a bay-ag (bag)?" I'm sure after I left the staff discussed how dumb kids are nowadays, LOL. 

While in college I worked in the dining hall; nearly all of the workers were town folk with local accents. Actually, *I* was the one with the accent! One day I asked one of the workers if I could have one of the potato sacks for a craft project I had in mind. She couldn't understand my ridiculous Northern, standard-English accent and she asked, "Whatchu say, chile?" I took her to the room where the bags were and asked again. We went back and forth a few times. Finally, I went over to one of the bags and said, "These! Can I have one of these?" She laughed and said, "Chile, you won'tchu a croaker sack!" It was then that I realized that I hadn't properly prepared for living in the American South.

While working in Chicago, one of my office mates told me that she was sent to live with relatives in Chicago at age six after her mom had died. She eagerly went to school, folded her hands on her desk, and waited for her name to be called when the teacher took the role. The teacher called "Linda" a few times. Nobody answered. The teacher looked directly at my friend, called "Linda" again, and wondered why she didn't answer. When my friend finally caught on, she patiently corrected the teacher and said, "My name's not 'Linda,' it's "Lon'na." She was so used to her family pronouncing her name country-style that she had never heard the "correct" pronunciation.

And if you're talking about street names in Chicago, you say "GOH-thee" (short 'thee' as in 'these'). If you ask the bus driver to call out "GUR-ta" (Goethe), you will definitely miss your stop!

Jewel Foods is a chain of grocery stores in Chicago. I've heard eastern Europeans say, "I'm going over to the YEH-val."

It's funny how words are mispronounced on foreign-language TV and radio. Well, maybe I shouldn't say 'mispronounced'—they're really adapting foreign words to the rules of their language. On Spanish-language TV commercials, the Popeye fastfood chain is pronounced "Po-PAY-yay," and Colgate toothpaste is "Col-GAH-teh."


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## Gamer_2k4 (Aug 1, 2012)

Subtle was the first world I remember being shocked by.  (For some reason it never struck me as weird that the word I spelled in my head as "suttle" had the exact same meaning as the word I read as "subtul.")

More recent misconceptions include Euler (yoo-ler), dossier (similar situation as "subtle" where I recognized the word in print but never made the pronunciation connection), and discrete/discreet (which I didn't realize were two separate words until college).

Also, I still don't know how to pronounce scenario.  Sen-air-ee-oh? Sen-arr-ee-oh? I use both.


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## jroland0482 (Aug 1, 2012)

Some more gems...
Curious- I pronounce Cure-ie-us, they say Ker-us
Tea- I say Tee, they say Tay
My home state, I call it George-a they call it Jawj-a
Flower/Flour- I say Flou-er... they say Flir
Corn- I say Corn, they say Kohn


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## patskywriter (Aug 1, 2012)

Here's one more:
My great-aunt used to live in the Bronx (New York), and it was my job to take care of her funeral arrangements when she died, and to clear out her apartment. Save for my great-aunt's scrapbooks, I really didn't want anything she had—even if I did, I wouldn't have been able to drag it through the airport and home to Chicago. So I told a few of her friends that they could come and take anything they wanted. They were all low-income so, naturally, the information spread and things got a little out of hand. People I didn't know started coming in, and when a total stranger wandered in from off the street I greeted him at the door. In what sounded like a Bugs Bunny accent, he asked what was going on. I told him, and he said, "Yeah I can tell you from outta town awright. You got a accent." 

I was like, "Excuse me, *I* got an accent? *You* got an accent." We went back and forth with this … *so* funny.

Ahhh, good times. … You had to have been there.  :tears_of_joy:


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## Cat M. (Aug 1, 2012)

I live in the part of the country where people say pink as "pank," horse as "hawss," Alabama as "'Bammer," and they say... this kills me... "bull" and "bowl" the same way... "Baw-uhl" *shudder*


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## Potty (Aug 2, 2012)

philistine said:


> I pronounced it 'Des-cart-uz'. The joshing was immense, and continued well up until high school graduation.



Where_ did _you go to school? I was picked on for having a Burghaus rucksack and nothing by JJB Sports, then later for trying to learn the flute.

Well... I think I'm going to beat you all.

"If the sun was to die tomorrow-"
"It wont die for a long time yet."
"I know, I'm just talking menopausally."

Yup, I said menopausally instead of hypothetically.


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## OC-138 (Aug 2, 2012)

In the name of the wind i always thought that Kvothe was pronounced like Kwoth however apparently it is more like Qwothe. I still say it my own way though, i am to used to it now to change.


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## Cran (Aug 2, 2012)

Add to the Brits list: 

*Worcestershire*

and wherever English is spoke:

*February*


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## Gamer_2k4 (Aug 2, 2012)

OC-138 said:


> In the name of the wind i always thought that Kvothe was pronounced like Kwoth however apparently it is more like Qwothe.



Um...what's the phonetic difference again?


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## Davana (Aug 30, 2012)

I came to England a few years ago so there are a few words I've mispronounced without realising it. 
Aphrodite is pronounced Aph-ro-die-tee but I didn't pronounce the 'tee', I pronounced it Aph-ro-die-t. Hard to explain over the Internet. 
Also, Sakura (I know it's a Japanese word but still). I thought it was pronounced Sak-oo-ra but it's just Sak-uh-rah. When my friend said the correct way I was just thinking 'My whole life has been a lie


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## patskywriter (Aug 30, 2012)

dale said:


> … all her teachers are going to pronounce her name in true hick indiana fashion on the 1st day. …



I remember stopping at a gas station in Indiana some years ago. A woman told the manager to put her purchase on her tab and pronounced her first name "why-vaughn." It took a second for me to realize that she was saying "Yvonne."

When I was living on Chicago's south side, one of the neighbor kids had a friend named "Desire." I'm pretty sure they were mispronouncing "Desirée."

… And getting back to "Nguyen"—that's the surname of one of the newspaper photographers here. She told me that it's pronounced "Wen."


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## JackKnife (Aug 31, 2012)

*queue* - I'm told it's pronounced like 'cue' and not 'kway'. I refuse to believe it.

*mischievous* - Well, to be fair, once I actually stopped defying spellcheck underlining it every time I wrote it as 'mischievious', it only took a couple days to break the habit of pronouncing it that way.

*tome* - I still don't know for sure, but I think it's 'toom', not like 'home'... right?
*
gatling* - Up until I was about 12, I always said 'gate-ling'. Then I realized 'gatt-ling' sounded so much cooler.

*Gotye* - Not a word, I know, it's a name... but 'goat-yay'. Almost like the French name Gauthier. Not 'got-yee'.

An older guy I work with is famous for his hilarious mispronunciations. His name is Ernie, and thus we call them Ernie-isms. Some of our favourites, in no particular order:

*Nicole* - A girl who also works there, who he constantly insists on calling 'Nik-awl'.

*vinegar* - Is he reading the French side of the bottle? We'll never know. He always calls it 'vin-ay-gur'.

*Leon's *- Ernie tried recanting a story of a funny commercial he saw to me one day. I had no idea what he was talking about. "Lee-ins? What is that?" "You know, Leein's! The furniture store!" "No, no I don't..."

*popcorn* - I can't give any explanation for this one. He says 'pup-kern', but stretches out the u sound so it _almost_ sounds like 'poop-kern'.

There are more. I'll throw them up here as I think of them.


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## The Backward OX (Aug 31, 2012)

*Taumata&shy;whakatangihanga&shy;koauau&shy;o&shy;tamatea&shy;turi&shy;pukakapiki&shy;maunga&shy;horo&shy;nuku&shy;pokai&shy;whenua&shy;kitanatahu...*


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## The Backward OX (Aug 31, 2012)

never mind


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## Cran (Aug 31, 2012)

JackKnife said:


> *tome* - I still don't know for sure, but I think it's 'toom', not like 'home'... right?


No. The one that sounds like toom is _tomb_.


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## Kevin (Aug 31, 2012)

The Backward OX said:


> *Taumata&shy;whakatangihanga&shy;koauau&shy;o&shy;tamatea&shy;turi&shy;pukakapiki&shy;maunga&shy;horo&shy;nuku&shy;pokai&shy;whenua&shy;kitanatahu...*


 Ya. We went to Maui once. Looks like some of the place names in Hawaii. This tourist from Finland said he'd have no problem saying those. "...just say every letter."


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## Kevin (Aug 31, 2012)

Cran said:


> Add to the Brits list:
> 
> *Worcestershire*
> 
> ...



Wur-che-size-ter ? It's the sauce, right?  (how's that for a mangle?)


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## JackKnife (Aug 31, 2012)

Cran said:


> No. The one that sounds like toom is _tomb_.


I thought that was the case, but I had a friend who constantly insisted it was pronounced like 'home'. You can't tell some people anything.


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## Cran (Aug 31, 2012)

Kevin said:


> Wur-che-size-ter ? It's the sauce, right?  (how's that for a mangle?)



*Wuss*-ter-sheer*. Yes, it's the sauce, but it's also a part of England that the sauce was named for. 

*_as in "what a wuss!"_; _rhymes with puss. _


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## Kevin (Aug 31, 2012)

Ah, a part of England, one of the shires (like where the hobbits live) 

How 'bout this one, "Cahuenga"?  kuh-weng-uh. I think it's a Spanish manglation of an Indian word. It's the pass between Hollywood and Burbank. People drive it everyday and have no idea how to say it.


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## Kevin (Aug 31, 2012)

Gamer_2k4 said:


> Um...what's the phonetic difference again?


 Quothe/ cwoth (like cross with a lisp) Oc- Me too, I was thinkin' like 'Goethe' (goo-urrrteh), but it's on page (lemme see here...) Ya, the author comes right out and says...it's on page...


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## ethereal_flame (Sep 1, 2012)

Tiamat said:


> My fiance and I have a long-standing debate about the pronunciation of "radiator" and "salmon."  He gives "radiator" the short A sound instead of making it ray-dee-ate-er, and he distinctly pronounces the L in "salmon."
> 
> Also, about seven years ago when I was a telemarketer, I called a lot of Asian families with the last name Nguyen.  To this day, I have no idea how that last name is pronounced.  I only know that I made a lot of people angry by getting it wrong.



_Nguyen _is a Vietnamese surname, equivalent to "Smith, Anderson, or Williams" amongst American surnames in common abundance (I was a telemarketer before and every time I encounter a rare German/Slavic/Eastern European-sounding name make me gnash my teeth, but I ask him first how it is said). Native Vietnamese read it as "nguh-yen".
Pronounciation of surnames depend on person's native language and accent: Westerners will say "Sevilla" as "se-vil-luh" whereas Spanish-speaking peoples will say it "se-vee-yah".


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## Cefor (Sep 1, 2012)

ethereal_flame said:


> Pronounciation of surnames depend on person's native language and accent: Westerners will say "Sevilla" as "se-vil-luh" whereas Spanish-speaking peoples will say it "se-vee-yah".



Well, Westerners who haven't learned any Spanish will. When you learn the Spanish alphabet you're told that double L has a /y/ added onto the /l/ sound. So: "llamo", for example, is pronounced /lyamo/, but a subtle /ee/ at the beginning. It's the name with the Spanish *ñ*, or énye. 

Hola, me llamo Cefor. Which, interestingly, would sound a lot different in Spanish than the way I pronounce it.


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## Tiamat (Sep 1, 2012)

ethereal_flame said:


> _Nguyen _is a Vietnamese surname, equivalent to "Smith, Anderson, or Williams" amongst American surnames in common abundance (I was a telemarketer before and every time I encounter a rare German/Slavic/Eastern European-sounding name make me gnash my teeth, but I ask him first how it is said). Native Vietnamese read it as "nguh-yen".
> Pronounciation of surnames depend on person's native language and accent: Westerners will say "Sevilla" as "se-vil-luh" whereas Spanish-speaking peoples will say it "se-vee-yah".


I was recently told it was pronounced new-yen. 

Here's another word: I live in western Pennsylvania. We pronounce "creek" like "crick" here. I think I was 18 before I realized that was not, in fact, the correct way to say it. My roommate in college used to giggle every time I said it.


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## Olly Buckle (Sep 1, 2012)

I was told earlier today about a nasty disease carried by rats that has turned up in Yossemite National Park. Today must be the first time I have heard it said, I thought it was pronounced 'Yosser might', I argued, they played it to me on youtube, where is the red face emoticon?


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## Kevin (Sep 1, 2012)

Tiamat said:


> I was recently told it was pronounced new-yen.
> 
> Here's another word: I live in western Pennsylvania. We pronounce "creek" like "crick" here. I think I was 18 before I realized that was not, in fact, the correct way to say it. My roommate in college used to giggle every time I said it.


 She probably thought you were a heek.  
Olly- A friend of mine lives off of a 'Yosemite st.'  He thought it was called Yoze-eh-might. Funny thing is, he'd been to the 'real' Yosemite camping many times...just never put the name together with the spelling.


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## VelvetBulldozer (Sep 2, 2012)

For a long time I though Albert Camus was pronounced (cam - us). During a college literature class I was discussing the last book I had read at the time (Never read Camus in High School - Damn Jesuits!). The teacher looked confused and quickly corrected me once he realized. I also never knew how to pronounce Karenina. I think its (care - in -in - a). I had always pronounced it (care - in - nina). This is the price you pay for reclusively pursuing reading as a hobby.


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