I’ve always pronounced the word “Southern” to rhyme with howthurn. I know most people say it like “suthurn” instead. I didn’t realize that the way I pronounce it is considered weird until recently!

  • Drusas
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    25 months ago

    Agate. Apparently I pronounce it the British way rather than the American way because I had read the word many times while never having heard it spoken aloud.

    • @[email protected]
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      15 months ago

      I didn’t know what this was so I had to Google it. Then I had to look up a video of how to pronounce it. Doesn’t seem like a word that many people would know you’re pronouncing incorrectly unless it involves their hobby or field of study, but maybe I’m just dumb or something.

      • Drusas
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        15 months ago

        I think I mostly learned it from EverQuest.

  • @[email protected]
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    35 months ago

    Two immediately come to mind.

    First is “Comfortable”. I pronounce each part of the word: “COME-for-tuh-bull”. Many people give me weird looks and insist on “Comf-turr-bull”.

    The other is more niche and has to do with League of Legends.

    There is a champion whose theme is moonlight. His backstory is that he belongs to a moon cult who opposes a group that is am Order of the Sun type group. This character is an edgelord whose whole thing is darkness and midnight etc etc.

    His name is a combination of the Greek “Ap” meaning “furthest from” and “Helios” meaning the sun. His name is Greek for “the one furthest from the sun” in this moon cult.

    In Greek, “ph” does not make the “fuh” sound. His name should rightly be pronounced “App-Hee-lee-ose”

    But all the casters and developers call him “Uhh-fell-ee-ose” and it drives me absolutely insane.

    • @[email protected]
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      35 months ago

      Et cetera is similarly “et ketera”, unless you’re using Italianate ecclesiastical pronunciation. Then it’s “et chetera”, hard ch like church in English.

      • @[email protected]
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        25 months ago

        Nice ! have you studied Latin ? I studied very shortly but my interest piqued only after that brief period

        • @[email protected]
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          25 months ago

          Only bit at uni and that was over two decades ago. I only use what I learned to produce technically correct yet insufferable Latin pronunciations to lovingly harass friends and family.

  • @[email protected]
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    5 months ago

    I pronounce milk like melk. Is it wrong, definitely but I’m not gonna change it at this point

  • @[email protected]
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    85 months ago

    The mountain range on the eastern side of the U.S. is the ‘apple-at’chans’. At least nearly everyone from the southern end of them say it that way (source: I’m from there).

    ‘Apple-ay-shuns’ is just as strange as saying ‘Nor-folk’. Immediate indicator of you’re an outsider.

    • sp3ctr4l
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      25 months ago

      Huh.

      I’m from the PNW and I’ve always pronounced it Apple-Ah-Shuns.

      For Norfolk… I’d basically pronounce that as Nor-Fuck.

      • @[email protected]
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        25 months ago

        Yeah, I’m saying a whole lot of people say it with a “shun” at the end. I blame the media and people originally trying to differentiate themselves from a perception of being an ignorant hillbilly. The hillbilly prejudice is much better now, but I was still personally encountering it even in the aughts. And the pronunciation has stuck because "that’s the way you’ve always heard it said. "

        Everyone who lives in those hills (with the exception of a few pockets of yankees) says it “at-chan”.

      • @[email protected]
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        25 months ago

        Ok, at least the Virginia version is ‘Nor-fuck’. And some long time residents say ‘Naw-fuck’.

  • Enkrod
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    75 months ago

    It’s Helico-Pter not Heli-Copter. It’s a greek word from hélikos (screw, spiral, winding) and pterón (wing).

    And since I’m fun at parties, I consequently pronounce it with a slight pause before and stress on the P and not a miniscule pause after the I and a slight stress on the O.

  • @[email protected]
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    15 months ago

    I dont have any problems saying Albuquerque but I can’t stop calling it “yabba-yerkee”

  • Blackout
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    45 months ago

    I pronounce the Texas Houston the same as the. NYC street

    • Rhynoplaz
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      85 months ago

      I don’t know enough about New York or football to understand this.

      • tiredofsametab
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        65 months ago

        Texas: like the name Hugh (hyuu)

        NYC: like House (how)

        The -ston bit doesn’t change.

  • @[email protected]
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    55 months ago

    I cop it from my friends and family for the way I say “baloon”

    I say bloon with no a sound.

    I think it stems from learning to spell it wrong as a child I never put the a in there to begin with and no one corrected me and by the time I realised it was to late

    I also can’t pronounce “regularly” to save my damn life.

    When I say it i add syllables to the thing I think.

    Reg u ar ly

  • tiredofsametab
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    125 months ago

    US American. I’ve lived overseas a long time and pronounce the ‘h’ in ‘herbs’ because, as Eddie Izzard once said, “it’s got a fucking ‘h’ in it”. I don’t know when I switched but my mom laughed at me when we had a call recently.

    One I only noticed a couple years ago: turmeric (was saying, and still frequently hear) ‘toomeric’.

    • One2many
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      5 months ago

      Do you also pronounce the ‘h’ in hour and honor?

      • tiredofsametab
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        35 months ago

        Hno. I do say ‘historical’ rather than ‘istorical’, but that’s the only one I can think of in the global English-speaking world that has any number of adherants off the top of my head.

      • @[email protected]
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        5 months ago

        Those two examples have an “o” after the “h”. Are there any other words starting “he” that Americans treat the “h” as silent?

        I lived in Philly for years and never noticed the way people say “erbs” but since returning to Australia I hear it constantly.

        Edit: I hear Americans say it constantly. No one in Australia says “erb”.

  • @[email protected]
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    95 months ago

    agghh these comments my eyes the fauxnetics please god why can’t Lemmy have a bigger linguistics community and you mfs wonder why i still use Reddit

    • @[email protected]
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      35 months ago

      There just aren’t many linguists unfortunately. I’m a huge grammar and language nerd but learning IPA takes time and exposure to a lot of sounds you’re not used to. I wish more of the reddit linguists would come over. Even the grammar communities here are dead.