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Most annoying "spoken phrases" you hear
- Thread starter 840quadra
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840quadra said:I wished I had plugged my ears whenever I hear the following words pronounced in the following way;
Audi - when it is pronounced "awe-dee"
Porsche - when it is pronounced "Porch" or "Poor-shee"
BMW - when it is pronounced "B-M-Dubbya"
Volvo - when it is pronounced "Voll-va"
Volkswagen - Any time it's not correctly (I guess I only like the way Germans pronounce it with the V sounding like an F and the W sounding like a V).
I dunno... if visiting France do you tell your friends you're going to Pa-riss or Pa-ree?
There's irritation, then pickiness, then bloody-minded pedanticosity.
Blue Velvet said:I dunno... if visiting France do you tell your friends you're going to Pa-riss or Pa-ree?
There's irritation, then pickiness, then bloody-minded pedanticosity.
I see your point, however if a word is created by a certain people, shouldn't it pronounced as the originators deemed it by all the people? I guess it should be however I realize it seldom is. Prime example is the British sayings us US'ers pick up and then slaughter, sorry
Yeah, that's another one. People who try to sound sophisticated by using "I" where they should use "me". As in, "if you have questions, call Bob or I." No, "call Bob or me."devilot76 said:Just make those people watch The King and I.
People should watch the king and me.
efoto said:I see your point, however if a word is created by a certain people, shouldn't it pronounced as the originators deemed it by all the people? I guess it should be however I realize it seldom is. Prime example is the British sayings us US'ers pick up and then slaughter, sorry
Over the past few years we've seen Peking become Beijing, Bombay become Mumbai... however, there's yet no word from the Italians insisting that we start to use Milano or Roma instead of Milan or Rome.
Cologne or Köln?
I dunno... *shrug*
Haha, I'm such a doofus. I completely forgot about Chinese originated words... or other Asian words for that matter. I'd almost prefer it if people just up and gave up and used the English translations-- example? People have no problem saying 'fried rice' instead of 'chow fan' and yet 'fried noodles' are consistently known as 'chow mein.' And believe you me, there are worse English-proununciations of Chinese words.Blue Velvet said:
As a general rule I would say no, perhaps unless it's a trademark. Although I must say that I'm not able to figure out how I'm supposed to pronounce "Sundae" in the ice cream they sell at MacDonalds.efoto said:
Words always cross over between languages. At the beginning most will understand that the word is borrowed from another language and it may keep it's pronounciation and spelling, but if it's use becomes so common that most people don't realise that it's a foreign word, it will get a localised pronounciation and sometimes a new spelling.
There's also the problem that sometimes a sound or a rythm from one language isn't present at all in another language.
Actually, it is pronounced Hun-day.Chundles said:
Hyundai holds an annual meet for owners to get together, called 'Hyundai Sunday' - an obvious play on words. If it didn't rhyme so, that name would have never been chosen.
I run a Hyundai site, and visit several on a daily basis, and have Hyundai driving friends all over (including Korea, where Hyundai is based) - and it is widely agreed on that Hunday is the proper way to say it. Only the new folks try to pronounce it "Hee-yun-day", which is incorrect.
The word is Korean, and even Korean speaking people pronounce it "Hunday" (rhymes with Monday, Sunday, etc). Only in Korea, the "H" is slightly silent and sounds more like a soft "Y".
But nonetheless, Hunday is the proper pronunciation.
Blue Velvet said:
Well. typically it goes either way. When the Olympics were in Barcelona, the United States was towards the beginning for Estatos Unitas de America (I think, and Spanish speakers forgive me for the mangledge.)
The one exception is Cote D'Ivorie which is by law never translated.
Then you have places that have multiple native languages and two different spellings of places. cf. Switzerland.
I agree on mispronounced cache being annoying. It almost made Demolition Man unwatchable. Sandy Buttocks lost a lot of respect in my book for that. The e is silent and the a is not long because cache and cachet (ka-SHAY, a bouquet of flowers) came to us from the French.
As a friend in college said. English doesn't borrow words from other languages, it follows them down dark alleys, beats them over the head and rifles their pockets for loose change.
Let me also add hir to the list of annoying words.
MongoTheGeek said:
It's not just English that does that, French is notorious for taking English words and giving them entirely inappropriate meanings. Take, for example, a car parking space, which becomes "un parking". A smoking jacket becomes (you guessed it) "un smoking".
One theft of a French word in English that really gets to me though is "niche". Nothing wrong with the word, but it is pronounced neesh, not nitch. And don't get me started on Versailles
One funny thing I once heard in Paris though about French pronunciation. On métro line 6 there going towards Nation (that's Nasseeon, not Nayshun), there is always a few minutes' delay at a station called Kléber while the driver goes for a break. It's always deathly silent in the station unless there's another train there, and you can hear other people on the carriage perfectly. There was an American couple a few seats away from me, and I heard them speaking. The conversation went thusly:
Her: "What's the name of this station? I can't pronounce French words".
Him: "It looks like "Clebber".
Her: Is that the right way to pronounce it?
Him: "They always miss letters out of the pronunciation in French, so I guess it's pronounced "Cler".
Her: "Oh, OK."
Words failed me at the time, and still do.
Yes, and even worse, they pronounce it "ekcetera." !!!!!!!emw said:How do you pronounce "croissant"?
Okay, so this isn't spoken, but it just happened and reminded me how much I hate it. Ending lists with "ect." It's etc.! Et cetera.
nomad01 said:
Our accents lead to this distinction, all the english seem to say lattay, whilst we aussies say Lahtay. I don't have a problem with this, it's when some of your countrymen come up to me and say "Can Oi 'av a lah'ay?" that it starts to really give me the irrits. It's as if they weren't born with the ability to make plosive consonant sounds.
It's not just you guys though, I have to deal with middle-aged and elderly folks, as well as total bogans ask for their cup-of-chinos everyday, I just want to smack them upside the head everytime.
efoto said:
Looks like you and I pronounce Audi the exact same way "ow-de"
.I wasn't initially planning on responding to so many of those, but the more I thought about it I realized that they really do bug me, so I thought I would. Thanks for bringing them to my attention 840quadra
No problem
Edit: About the only credit the American auto makers deserve is choosing names that few people can mess up, like Ford and Dodge. At least they have innovation somewhere in their company
Good point!
kasei said:
Does it really? I always thought it was a corruption of the word "negro." Well, there you go, something new everyday.
Anybody else want to know something? Nullabor is not an Aboriginal word, it's a corruption of the latin meaning "no trees."
This random fact brought to you by 2:29am - I'm orf, sleep calls.
Blue Velvet said:I dunno... if visiting France do you tell your friends you're going to Pa-riss or Pa-ree?
There's irritation, then pickiness, then bloody-minded pedanticosity.
I am Damn picky when it comes to car names
Chundles said:
Not at all! I was talking about the English! I hear loads of people over here ordering Lah-tays!! Then again, I come from near Birmingham and the Brummie accent is about as close as you can get to Australian! I can remember seeing a guide to Kath and Kim pronunciations and it just sounded like Brummie! Right - Roight. Please - Ploise.
Although I'm certain I've heard Americans pronounce latte the same way. Maybe not quite so pronounced but not with a hard "a".
devilot76 said:Haha, I'm such a doofus. I completely forgot about Chinese originated words... or other Asian words for that matter. I'd almost prefer it if people just up and gave up and used the English translations-- example? People have no problem saying 'fried rice' instead of 'chow fan' and yet 'fried noodles' are consistently known as 'chow mein.' And believe you me, there are worse English-proununciations of Chinese words.
I love the reaction I get when I go to Chinatown in Chicago and order food. I usually impress the hosts by actually saying and pronouncing the dishes correctly.
I try to pronounce words as the natives intended. I love hearing midwestern people pronounce Pho
.Chundles said:
Actually, to the Japanese ear, /mazda/ is a mispronunciation, and really annoys some of them. The original Japanese is ???, or matsuda, the Z was basically added to look cool, but it became part of the pronunciation when it was imported.
Edit: As has been mentioned, borrowing occurs all the time in languages, and it's part of their natural growth. I guess the line for me is when the word is not yet considered part of the language. If it's still considered 'foreign,' then pronounce it as it is pronounced in the language of origin, but when it establishes itself in the borrowing language, then I won't complain about adjustments. Look into the etymology of almost any English word that we think we are pronouncing 'correctly' and we usually find a very different historical pronunciation.
thequicksilver said:
Like North Versailles near Pittsburgh?(pronounced ver-SAYLZ)
There is Dubois as well (DEW-boyce)