The Pronunciation Thread

I'm just faking my way through being able to write words phonetically.

regional dialects ftw
there is no "wrong" if people understand you

also http://ipa.typeit.org/

Yes there is no such thing as mispronunciation &c but there's a weird mispronunciation I've been hearing more & more (basically from listening to US podcasts) that I can't help but find grating: this bizarre mangling of the word "processes" so the last syllable sounds like the last syllable of "indices", "theses" &c. It's obv an example of overcorrection & not a big deal but it sounds dumb as hell imo - god knows how the first person got it in their head to start doing this, having presumably heard other people speak before

Oh, I've heard that one lots of times. I never really knew where it came from. Is it new? I don't know if I personally know someone who does it. I also don't think I know anyone who drops the "h" in "historical" or "hotel" when speaking English or who pronounces "detail" like dəˈtāl, although I've heard all of these on TV.

who pronounces "detail" like dəˈtāl

What vowel sound are the "process-eez" people using in the first syllable? I use the same long "o" in "process" and "project" (as a noun) that I use in "program(me)" but I don't think anyone else in the US does. Does anyone outside Canada pronounce "project" with a long "o"?

Does anyone outside Canada pronounce "project" with a long "o"?

Yes.

processeees people are all american so use the short "o" sound which is more common over there I think

as far as being new, it's new to me at least

often have to suppress a slight cringe with hypercorrections but with this I lean towards confidently stating it's bad

"remember to tip your waitresseees"

loves his word sounds

Not that it matters much, but I am utterly puzzled by how to pronounce: Mafeking.

It's mentioned in a few Monty Python sketches.

I use the same long "o" in "process" and "project" (as a noun) that I use in "program(me)" but I don't think anyone else in the US does. Does anyone outside Canada pronounce "project" with a long "o"?

As an American I can say that long-o "process" is a Canadian tell for me.

It's mentioned in a few Monty Python sketches.

That doesn't get me any further than I was before.

Three years on I’m still pretty sure process-eez is bad, what the fuck are you doing Americans

This is war and you will have to hit the mattress-eez

Maff/e/king

... can't get the schwa symbol to work.

modern mafeking is renamed mahikeng ("place of rocks" in setswana) but the batswana people still generally call it mafikeng, which gives a good idea of how the locals say it

english english pron is maff-uh-king with maff the emphasised syllable and uh as just the colourless placeholder vowel

... what mark said.

Looks like I’ve been mispronouncing “piquant” all these years, at least in my head, never say it out loud.

http://www.blogissues.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/schwa_world_operations_manual.jpg

Pick-wannt?

Peek-want

pee-kont for me

Think mark is right about the schwa in the second syllable.

I lived on Mafeking Street for a while, and more than one taxi driver thought I was taking the piss and refused to drive me there.

How to say the 'o' In 'cognac'?

I use long "o" as in blow, but I think I've heard people say it like "aw."

I can't image either way would get you snickered at in a high-end liquor store.

I've only ever heard "aw" I think?

cone-yack is the other one

https://i.imgur.com/je6fQzl.jpg

What? It’s a short ‘o’. No one says Cone-yack surely?

In the US cone-yack is common.

Like the ou in cough

As a provincial American, I've often heard it pronounced cone-yack. As a person who tries, with varying success, to figure out how French people would say a word in French, I lean more toward cun-yack. But as a provincial American who most often converses with other provincial Americans, I will lapse into cone-yack as often as not.

Whats with yack?

Its guhnak

As a person who tries, with varying success, to figure out how French people would say a word in French, I lean more toward cun-yack.

Here you go:

https://forvo.com/word/cognac/#fr

Ha, I went to Forvo after I posted. I pronounce it mostly like the English speaker TopQuark, although maybe I have been saying something like Khan-yak or Kayn(e)-ak. I started thinking about this because I got hit with a cone-yack today.

And I just now enjoyed listening to the way this borrowed word is pronounced by speakers of different languages.

Just noticed Forvo has the pronunciation written out as well. For that sound it has ɒ, the open back rounded vowel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_back_rounded_vowel

Whereas for French it has the neighboring ɔ sound: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-mid_back_rounded_vowel

Also see: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cognac

Kog-knack

In any case, this seems like a classic case of trying to approximate a vowel sound that we don't have in English and getting on either side of it. Also now comparing saying it in English versus saying it in French, or even saying the Spanish version coñac. For those two I feel my lips pursing a bit.

Hey, Wiktionary led me to what seems to be a pretty nice French dictionary I never came across before. https://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/cognac

Dutch version uses the same vowel sound but the "gn' is pronounced a little differently and there is a strong accent on the second sylllable.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

i say Cone-Yak and Khan-Yak depending on the moment but more often hear it colloquially referred to as "yak" or by brand.
i also do not drink so it's less of an issue but i did tend bar for a year or two.

I recently heard someone use the word "epoch", pronouncing it somewhat close to "epic". It struck me that I'd never heard this word spoken out loud as I'd always imagined it would be "ee-pok".