The Pronunciation Thread

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I pronounce "worry" to rhyme with "slurry", NOT "furry" OR "lorry". But I guess "furry" rhymes with "slurry" if you're American.

― Sam (chirombo), Thursday, 5 June 2003 08:42 (twenty years ago) link

Are there fewer distinct vowel sounds in American English, do you think? For me, none of the following words rhyme: worry, furry, lorry, Corey, testicle.

― Sam (chirombo), Thursday, 5 June 2003 08:47 (twenty years ago) link

In Ireland certaintly furry rhymes with worry.

Though down the country, furry rhymes with worry rhymes with lorry.

So what do you rhyme furry with, Sam?

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Thursday, 5 June 2003 08:50 (twenty years ago) link

Furry rhymes with blurry. Worry rhymes with hurry (although since I've lived oop north, worry sometimes also comes out rhyming with lorry).

Similarly: glass, grass, bath?

― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 5 June 2003 08:53 (twenty years ago) link

So is blurry bluh-ry?

I should have pointed out that down the country furry and worry stay mostly the same, but lorry becomes lurry.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Thursday, 5 June 2003 08:56 (twenty years ago) link

I'm a strong believer in pronouncing place names the way the locals would. So Bath is "Barth" but i rhyme Hull with "pull" rather than "cull".

However, I don't extend this to places overseas - I don't call Paris "Pa-ree".

― MarkH (MarkH), Thursday, 5 June 2003 08:59 (twenty years ago) link

Furry rhymes with blurry. ie blur-ree, fur-ree. (not bluh-ree)

― Sam (chirombo), Thursday, 5 June 2003 09:00 (twenty years ago) link

One day (ie never) I will write a wonderful computer program that works out where you are from on the basis of your vowel sounds.

― Sam (chirombo), Thursday, 5 June 2003 09:01 (twenty years ago) link

I shocked a fellow ILXer recently by revealing that I say 'Kraftwerk' rather than 'Kraftverk'. He thought it was appalling so I pointed to the 'Paris'/'Paree' case. He thought about it a while and decided the 'pronounce it as the locals do' rule didn't apply to places.

When I lived in Manchester, I asked for clarification of the pronunciation of Bury. People from Bury say Buh-ry rather than Berry, but the consensus was that this was considered ridiculous to everyone else and not to be followed.

Shrewsbury = Shrewsbury to the working class and Shrovesbury to poshos, whether or not one is local.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 5 June 2003 09:08 (twenty years ago) link

Surely no-one says Shrovesbury, N. Don't you mean Shrowsbury?

― MarkH (MarkH), Thursday, 5 June 2003 09:17 (twenty years ago) link

Yes.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 5 June 2003 09:27 (twenty years ago) link

A few years ago, I had a colleague in a customer service job who always pronounced 'warranty' in the same way as 'guarantee' - ie with the emphasis on the last syallable. I've never heard anyone else do this.

― robster (robster), Thursday, 5 June 2003 09:41 (twenty years ago) link

but ppl in bath don't pronounce it with the 'r' in. also i rhyme cull with pull...

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Thursday, 5 June 2003 09:41 (twenty years ago) link

OK, help needed. We're just having a discussion in our office about the proper way of saying 'scone'. I pronounce it 'scoan' & they pronounce it 'scon'. I say the posh way is 'scon', but what's write?

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Thursday, 5 June 2003 10:00 (twenty years ago) link

I don't think it's quite that simple. Scone/Scon variation is all over the place, culturally and geographically. I was brought up to say 'scon'. In Scotland, everyone seems to say 'scon' too. I think I saw a map of scone/scon variations across the country once. Like I say, it was a complex picture. Maybe you're right that regardless of region, poshos say 'scon' but I'm not sure.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 5 June 2003 10:05 (twenty years ago) link

I'd have thought the other way. Scoan takes longer to say, and is thus a sign of the leisured classes. (cf Shrewsbury)

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Thursday, 5 June 2003 10:09 (twenty years ago) link

More of a sign of the 'milk in first' aspirational middle classes, I would have thought.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 5 June 2003 10:12 (twenty years ago) link

Being a foreigner, it took me a while to notice that "extraordinary" is pronounced "extrordinary", and not the way it's written.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Thursday, 5 June 2003 10:16 (twenty years ago) link

Does anybody know someone with one of those irritating surnames like Featherstonehaugh (Fanshaw) or Chalmondley (Chumley) that are pronounced nothing like what they look like, like?

― MarkH (MarkH), Thursday, 5 June 2003 10:21 (twenty years ago) link

I used to know a family called Wemyss (Weemz).

― Sam (chirombo), Thursday, 5 June 2003 10:24 (twenty years ago) link

(they were common as muck btw)

― Sam (chirombo), Thursday, 5 June 2003 10:25 (twenty years ago) link

There is apparently a Sussex thing of stressing the last syllable of place names - hence my parents live in SeaFORD, not 'Seafud' like 'Bradfud'. And we have ArdingLY(E) and ChiddingLY(E) not 'Ardinglee' and 'Chiddinglee'.

Pronunciation of 'scone' is for me determined by the 'what's the fastest cake in the world?' joke... geddit?

― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 5 June 2003 10:25 (twenty years ago) link

Maybe this should have been another .wav thread -- I will never understand American vowel sounds (furry? lorry?).

I was originally brought up to say "scoan" but then at school everyone said this was really posh and people who didn't go foxhunting should say "scon". However, since my mother comes from a lower class background than any of the people who told me that, maybe it IS the other way round. I never much liked scones anyway so I haven't needed to say it for years.

I thought I agreed on the rule about pronouncing placenames as the locals would but on reflection this only extends as far as halfarsed attempts not to lengthen the vowel in Glasgow or Newcastle (or I guess Castleford or wherever).

My dictionary's pronunciation guide tells me not to schwa-ify the last syllable of "inchoate", but that sounds so precise and laboured. Is it right?

― Frazer, Thursday, 5 June 2003 10:53 (twenty years ago) link

Ha ha, hello pronunciation thread, allow me to introduce you to my friend, the word 'banal'. I'm sure you'll hit it off splendidly!

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 5 June 2003 12:01 (twenty years ago) link

bun ahl

― mitch lastnamewithheld (mitchlnw), Thursday, 5 June 2003 12:19 (twenty years ago) link

as in "bun ahl retentive"

― mitch lastnamewithheld (mitchlnw), Thursday, 5 June 2003 12:20 (twenty years ago) link

Hey we've done this before!

― ambrose (ambrose), Thursday, 5 June 2003 12:42 (twenty years ago) link

Also: International Phonetic Alphabet to thread!

(Half of the "I pronounce [X] like [Y] posts" just leave me wondering, "But how do you pronounce [Y]?")

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Thursday, 5 June 2003 15:52 (twenty years ago) link

that should be

"I pronounce [X] like [Y]" posts

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Thursday, 5 June 2003 16:00 (twenty years ago) link

DOCK you men tarry

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 5 June 2003 16:06 (twenty years ago) link

Yeah? Well DOCK you men tarry, too!

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Thursday, 5 June 2003 16:09 (twenty years ago) link

Americans don't say mo' bile or mo bill for mobile, they say "cell phone".

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Thursday, 5 June 2003 16:48 (twenty years ago) link

"err"
ur or error? i think ur is correct but it sounds a bit much so i say it wrong deliberately, i think.

― dan (dan), Thursday, 5 June 2003 18:10 (twenty years ago) link

NOO-kyoo-luhr

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 5 June 2003 18:13 (twenty years ago) link

three weeks pass...

Could some cultured person help me with "Evelyn Waugh"? Is it really pronounced like "evil 'n' woe"?

― o. nate (onate), Sunday, 29 June 2003 14:29 (twenty years ago) link

more like "waw", I think (rhyming with jaw). The "evil'n'" bit is spot on.

― ailsa (ailsa), Sunday, 29 June 2003 14:42 (twenty years ago) link

eve-lin, surely?

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 29 June 2003 15:01 (twenty years ago) link

You mean there are only two syllables in "Evelyn", Martin?

― o. nate (onate), Sunday, 29 June 2003 15:21 (twenty years ago) link

Well that's how I pronounce it. There is sometimes a hint of an 'uh' between them, but it seems pretty optional to me.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 29 June 2003 15:33 (twenty years ago) link

slee-ter or slay-ter?

i gather it's probably the former, but i like the latter better

(sits in corner)

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Sunday, 29 June 2003 18:08 (twenty years ago) link

Does anyone knows how locals pronounce the name of the Peruvian football team Deportivo Wanka?

― Daniel (dancity), Sunday, 29 June 2003 20:33 (twenty years ago) link

Slay ter Kin knee, yup.

― Mark C (Mark C), Sunday, 29 June 2003 20:48 (twenty years ago) link

How do you pronounce Bassey (as in Shirley)?

― Poppy (poppy), Monday, 30 June 2003 00:19 (twenty years ago) link

like the fish and the strait

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Monday, 30 June 2003 00:35 (twenty years ago) link

To rhyme with Lassie.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 30 June 2003 11:33 (twenty years ago) link

five months pass...

I would like to point out Tracer Hand is wrong, as I also pronounce "mountain" properly, with a "t" in it. How on earth can one pronounce it without a "t"? I can't figure it out!

― Allyzay, Wednesday, 10 December 2003 15:17 (twenty years ago) link

Mau-in

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 15:22 (twenty years ago) link

yeah, glottal stop (say 'bottle' with an english accent and the glottal stop is where the tt is).

― teeny (teeny), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 15:25 (twenty years ago) link

I associate mau!in with rough NJ guys. I say maun!n.

― Bnad, Wednesday, 10 December 2003 15:59 (twenty years ago) link

Mown-tin. I was in a band with someone named Mountain for 3 years, I know how to spell it! (It was her real name, too! Only one in the band!)

OK, she's Canadian, so she pronounces it Moohn-tin, but its her name, she can pronounce it how she likes.

― HRH Queen Kate (kate), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 16:03 (twenty years ago) link

Skipping 379 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

I think i know it's wave, but the pronunciation of a schoolmate from 20 odd years ago (southwest UK) has left me unable to move forward. I don't think this is like gif/jif where there was debate - and settlement? it's gif, right? - but curious if this is regional or just me and that one dude

― .xlsm (P. Flick), Wednesday, 19 January 2022 21:00 (two years ago) link

i've never heard anything other than a "wave" file. gif vs jif is a fight where if you care you lose

― Karl Malone, Wednesday, 19 January 2022 21:13 (two years ago) link

Didn't the inventor of the GIF format publicly announce it's jif?

― nickn, Wednesday, 19 January 2022 21:17 (two years ago) link

jif is the correct pronunciation of GIF, which is the acronym for Giraffe Information File.

― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Wednesday, 19 January 2022 21:24 (two years ago) link

Giraffe Interchange Format, surely.

― nickn, Wednesday, 19 January 2022 21:26 (two years ago) link

Who interchanges giraffes?!

― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Wednesday, 19 January 2022 21:28 (two years ago) link

Didn't the inventor of the GIF format publicly announce it's jif?

yes. then many years passed, and a lot of people who were born after the format were invented pronounced it in a different way. at this point, many people began losing by fighting about which way was best

― Karl Malone, Wednesday, 19 January 2022 21:32 (two years ago) link

I would say 'wav', fwiw.

― Nasty, Brutish & Short, Wednesday, 19 January 2022 21:32 (two years ago) link

i always used to say wav. I think I knew it was probably "wave" but I read things phonetically

― kinder, Wednesday, 19 January 2022 22:30 (two years ago) link

Waveform Audio File Format (WAVE, or WAV due to its filename extension; pronounced "wave"[8])

― Kim Kimberly, Wednesday, 19 January 2022 23:06 (two years ago) link

waff, or gtfo

― Vinnie, Thursday, 20 January 2022 07:22 (two years ago) link

like "suave"? Have never heard anyone ever say that.

― i cannot help if you made yourself not funny (forksclovetofu), Sunday, 23 January 2022 22:57 (two years ago) link

i say it, but only as i use their products every morning.

*looks in peepcam*

"suave"

― Karl Malone, Sunday, 23 January 2022 23:01 (two years ago) link

In the UK at least, Wav, like suave, never heard it called a 'Wave' file by anyone that has to actually deal with them in almost 30 years in audio.

― Maresn3st, Monday, 24 January 2022 00:05 (two years ago) link

What is it called? A wavv? New to me but seems good

― Karl Malone, Monday, 24 January 2022 00:10 (two years ago) link

Yeah, like 'have' with a w

― Maresn3st, Monday, 24 January 2022 00:15 (two years ago) link

my problem is i'm thinking of sin waves and triangle and square waves

― Karl Malone, Monday, 24 January 2022 00:18 (two years ago) link

just basic building block components of sound. i know that's different than the filetype and all of that. i just associate them that way, may be alone in that

― Karl Malone, Monday, 24 January 2022 00:19 (two years ago) link

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