Things you were shockingly old when you learned

you can get it in the pyrenees too, i guess it's kind of classic ski food. i like the little slo-melt grill thingies. but where would you put them??

https://vetstreet.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/f12dfd4/2147483647/crop/0x0%2B0%2B0/resize/645x380/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fvetstreet-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F30%2F803710a75611e0a0d50050568d634f%2Ffile%2FGreat-Pyrenees-4-645mk062411.jpg

My wife only learned yesterday that Milkshake by Kelis is about boobs.

― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Friday, November 9, 2018 2:24 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Whoa

Honestly always thought it was about ass

Were you weaned on a danish?

You're thinking of Frederick.

I was at a restaurant in Maryland some time ago where the chef was all officious and pedantic, like "rassalette is like fondue, but you drizzle cheese on top of things rather than dipping things into it," and I'm sitting there pretty sure he's mispronouncing it (should be a hard c, ra'klet" rather thatn how he said it, ras'a'let"). But I didn't say anything.

If it my quarrel with him were merely linguistic I would have let it go; as it happens the food was merely okay while the service was spotty best.

We sat with conspicuously empty wine glasses for half an hour while he effusively misinformed other tables; I eventually waved down the hostess with arm semaphore and suggested that we might benefit from some liquid refreshment while waiting for our upside-down fondue, n'est-ce pas?

Petty in the grand scheme of things but my one raclette memory is not a good one.

No one should ever be shamed for mispronouncing a foreign word… except when they're being a snooty dick about it. Then it's your duty to tell them off.

i’ve been “corrected” for pronouncing a foreign word correctly, by people (mostly in my family) who think an english hack job of the word is more appropriate.

also people (outside my family) almost always “correct” the pronunciation of my last name, which… why? why are people like this?

are you vvv sure youre saying it right

like

an awful lot of english ppl with irish last names are making a balls of it, i feel its a favour to tell em

Fwiw English people are probably better at it than most non-Irish people.

are you vvv sure youre saying it right

yeah, i've properly checked, it's definitely more accurate than the hordes of thumping bogans who think they're an expert at my name 1.5 seconds after hearing it

i mean i don't care how people say my name, they can pronounce it "underpants party" for all i care, it's more the attitude of people who think i'm saying my own name wrong and feel the need to correct me

Like when Cathal Coughlan of Microdisney changed his name to Blah Blah on their second album because he was so pissed off with English people not being able to pronounce his name.

nice

Fwiw English people are probably better at it than most non-Irish people.

Definitely not.

The IPA phonetic symbol (x) represents a voiceless velar fricative that does not occur in English, except for Scottish loch (lox), normally pronounced (lok) in Received Pronunciation or General American.

I think a raclette video went viral a couple of years ago in the US so it got a surge of popularity. I like to just grill slices of raclette in a frying pan and then pour it over eggs (because I don't have other methods).

What I meant to say is that English people are statistically likelier to know something about how Irish names are pronounced due to centuries of contact, whereas your average Eastern European, for instance, doesn't know the first thing about Ireland other than 'lol alcohol'.

Ah but getting names wrong because they can't be arsed trying and don't care anyway is a long standing tradition.

I believe you, though I'm also convinced that France is the worst offender in this regard.

I imagine it's similar!

Arsene Wenger was at Arsenal for 22 years and, after 22 years, football fans were still calling him Wenger in radio phone-ins - Arsenal fans, mind you.

xps
and as is finding "foreign" surnames much more pun-worthy or hilarious than any common Anglo-Saxon derived surnames are, but not in an intentionally racist/offensive way of course - just having a laugh etc.

You don't often hear English speakers say 'John Sebastian Bach', for instance, whereas in French it's almost systematically 'Jean-Sébastien Bach'. Likewise, Gregor Samsa, the protagonist of Kafka's Metamorphosis, suddenly becomes Grégoire Samsa in earlier French translations (I don't recall any anglophone referring to him as 'Gregory'). There's a greater willingness to erase the unfamiliarity of foreign names in French culture. When you become a French citizen, you can even request that your name be 'francisé'.

Speaking of Wenger, Alsatian names are routinely butchered by the French: cf. 'Schlumberger', which becomes 'Schlyoumberzhé' or some such.

John Sebastian Bach

> that is like a portmanteau of John Sebastian (Lovin' Spoonful) and Sebastian Bach (Skid Row).

Lewis of the Beet Farms
John Golden Mouthed Wolf Path Friend of God Boggy
Francis Cobbler
John Broom
Peter Son of Elijah from Lapwing
Joseph Anthony Bridge Toll Collector

When you become a French citizen, you can even request that your name be 'francisé'.

This sounds like when you meet someone named 茉莉花, pronounced "Kimberly".

contact!

in the US, my other half had this conversation more than once - not his name but an equivalent example:

him: "hi, I'm Steven"
new acquaintance "oh, do you pronounce it 'Stefan'?"
him: "... no..?"

lmao

Lewis of the Beet Farms

Richard George Bouquet (or Richard George Ostrich if you prefer), John Henry Table-Leg

I do appreciate the French pronunciation of Greek names like Antigone in a completely French way (e.g.), though I admit English pronunciation of classical names and particularly scientific binomial names often follows a weird logic that is neither English nor Latin/Greek

and let's gloss over the old British boarding school pronunciation of Don Quixote, Don Juan as if they were just some English words - see University Challenge thread every time the presenter says either of these. (Quicksoat! This is thankfully p unusual these days, don't know why the presenter hasn't been told to knock it off by the BBC's pronunciation dept)

What I meant to say is that English people are statistically likelier to know something about how Irish names are pronounced due to centuries of contact

nah

No francophone ever pronounces it 'Don Huann', it's always 'Don Zhyou-an', like this. And Quixote sounds like Kishot.

Speaking of classical names, the bastardized English pronunciation is often closer to the original than its French variant. All I'm saying is that English (I'm anthropomorphizing here) is at least vaguely aware of the possibility that its pronunciations might be wrong, whereas French generally doesn't give a fuck.

Man, you guys are really taking self-flagellation (or flagellation, depending) to the next level. I'm just saying that it's not as bad as it could be, not that it's all a-OK.

oh the French are a terrible bunch of lads too. No argument there

(xp) None of the people having a go at the English are English btw. Apart from calzino and he has a bit of the Irish in there anyway.

Fair enough. Fire away, then!

xp I think it's fair to say that English people including myself have trouble even with Anglicised spellings of Irish names, and if you put them in front of the Irish spelling then terror, confusion or disdain will result - perhaps all three at once

my general approach to Irish spellings of Irish names, which you don't see v often in GB but still, is to rack my brains for an anglicised name with the same first letter and some of the same consonants in the middle, which is bad, but maybe still slightly less bad than the average English person's reaction

(yes I would like to get better at this - I actually attempted Irish on Duolingo and a Futurelearn Irish 101 course recently but my conclusion after week 1 was that it's bloody difficult and, alas, probably going back in the "so not gonna happen" compartment of my brain)

contact!

tbf contact is also why we know how to say bungalow

ref to mic "can we review the period from 1603-1994 please, im looking for any contact that may have influenced pronunciation"

video ref "yes i can confirm, you can give the penalty"

Anyway, being Romanian I have an innately superior sense of how to pronounce Irish names due to my non-Englishness, much like my Bulgarian and Hungarian neighbours. I’m sure my distant cousins, the Tatars and Malaysians can say the same.

its committal to the throaty vulgarity, im sure you do grand

Bloody contact makes for more mingling than no contact at all. But the phonemes!

Same reason I’m likelier to pronounce csárdás and kürtőskalács correctly.

Reminds me, there's a Scottish guy who comes into the Library who always exaggeratedly pronounces his name as McCulloCCCCCHHHHHH. I'm like, "Yeah, we get the message, mate".

sure it could be a local thing, theres five ways to say gallagher on the island and by chrisht youd better be clear about which one youre claimin

golloher
gallaher
gallager
galacher
gollocher

seein as u asked

gallacher otoh is scotch afaict

How would you say it in Dublin?