Author Topic: Pronunciation Poll  (Read 29682 times)

Offline David In Indy

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Re: Pronunciation Poll
« Reply #50 on: June 15, 2008, 02:48:59 pm »
My maiden name is Scottish and no one could ever pronounce it except when we were on holiday in Scotland,
It is spelled COLQUHOUN . Have a guess at how that mouthful is pronounced. A clue, there are several silent letters. So it is pronounced CAHOON !!!!!
Another Scottish one which i nearly always misspronounced is MENZIES which is pronounced MINGIS I kid you not and EWAN is YOU AN.

It was just my bad luck that COLQUHOUN/ CA HOON rhymed so beautifully with Baboon. Kids can be pretty cruel.I'll let your imagination run with that.


I went to college with a guy who's last name was Drzeweichi.

I'll give you all a few minutes to chew it over. A hint: the first half sounds like the name of a car! :D

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Offline David In Indy

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Re: Pronunciation Poll
« Reply #51 on: June 15, 2008, 02:57:45 pm »
It's pronounced Cheh-vee-EH-ski.

The first part sounds like Chevy, but with a hard ch sound like in the word church.

He was a real nice guy, and very cute. Smart too. Maybe even a genius.
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Offline Fran

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Re: Pronunciation Poll
« Reply #52 on: June 15, 2008, 05:04:41 pm »
My stepmother taught a child named "TaBronx" named for, you guessed it, The Bronx.



When one of my friends was a teacher, she had a male student named Usmail (pronounced OOZE-mail).  She used to joke that his mother must have gotten his name off of a mailbox.

Offline BlissC

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Re: Pronunciation Poll
« Reply #53 on: June 15, 2008, 06:23:50 pm »
Toe-mah-toe


this poll makes me wanna sing!

you say...... I say.......

LOL!

Well considering most of yous are Americanadians, looking at the results from the poll, looks like you've done a fair job of pronouncing things the "right" way. Now if we could just persuade you to start using the letter "u" properly, we'd really be making some progress!  ;) ;D

UK Bliss  ;)


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Offline BlissC

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Re: Pronunciation Poll
« Reply #54 on: June 15, 2008, 06:32:07 pm »
Another Scottish one which i nearly always misspronounced is MENZIES which is pronounced MINGIS I kid you not and EWAN is YOU AN.

Ah, strange lot the Scots are... *ducks and runs just in case there's any Scots around*

The leader of one of the opposition parties for a while here in the UK was called Menzies Campbell, and it was always quite funny watching the news with how the different reporters would pronounce his name.

There's also a chain of newsagents/stationers called Menzies, and though everyone knows that MENZIES should be pronounced MINGIS, round here at least, everyone still always called it Menzies - that particular shop in town's now been taken over by the WH Smith chain, which is a hell of a lot easier to pronounce!  :laugh:


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Offline optom3

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Re: Pronunciation Poll
« Reply #55 on: June 15, 2008, 08:55:25 pm »
I swear on everything that is holy and my own life,that while I was in practice in England I had a patient, actually a whole family of Fuckits.
They insisted that it was pronounced foo kay. At the time there was a terrible,(IMO)show on T.V where one of the families had the surname Bucket pronounced boo kay.
I never called the family anything other than Fuckit.I know, childish, but you have to have some fun.
 I also had a Mrs large who was in fact enormous.So much so that I had to raise the arms n the test chair otherwise she could not fit in.She wanted contact lenses and because of her bulk and the fact that I am only  5ft 2ins, I had to stand on a foot stool to get close enough to her to get the lenses in.That should give you an idea of her bulk.

The odd thing was I was more embarrassed than her.When it came time to swing a slit lamp (microscope on a hinged table ) in front of her so I could check the front of her eyes and also the contact lens fit.I simply could not do it.Her stomach and bust were simply too big to get the slit lamp close enough to check her eyes.In the end my partner who was, well still is i guess, had to come in, push all his weight against the table,she hoisted her bust on top of the table and I just about got to see enough of her eyes,
She was laughing, I was sweating like a pig and dying of embarrassment.Not an urban myth, a true story.
May I be forgiven but I could not cope with 1/month contact lens checks, so I lied and said she was unsuitable due to dry eyes.!!!!!!
I had a John who became Joanne,but had neglected to inform us.So when we got out the current record card I called in a MR------- ,when she stood up, I said no I called Mr.--------. Then I saw the size of her/his feet and twigged.That was not deliberate on my part and I was genuinely sorry.She took it all in good spirit and said ,no my fault I should have told you,so that you could update your records.

Offline ZK

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Re: Pronunciation Poll
« Reply #56 on: June 16, 2008, 06:56:09 am »
In the same spirit as Mrs Bucket, I once spoke to a lady whose name on the computer was parrott however who was high offended when I called her Mrs Parrott (as in bird) and was instructed with a very plum like tone to pronounce it as Pear row (like the PI) LOL.

PS Did you know that You Tube has shorts of "The Good Life" - I love Penelope Keith

Offline Kerry

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Re: Pronunciation Poll
« Reply #57 on: June 16, 2008, 10:24:23 am »

And where I grew up, the names Sara and Sarah were pronounced the same, like SAIR-uh.  But when I was living in Mi-SIP-pee, I remember someone explaining to me that one is SAIR-uh, but one is SAY-ruh.  I don't remember which is which.


I work with an English woman named Sarah. She pronounces her name Suh-ruh.

The name of New South Wales's Minister for Health is Reba Meagher. It's pronounce Ree-buh Mar (as in Mars, without the "s").

I once worked with a Nurse Onions. She pronounced it on-EYE-uns (as you would, if your name was Onions haha). Quizzically, at that same time, there was also a Nurse Pickles, pronounced Pickles! True story!  :laugh: 
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Offline ChrisC

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Re: Pronunciation Poll
« Reply #58 on: June 16, 2008, 05:31:45 pm »
Love the way some people pronounce some words, it's a great source of entertainment at work. Living in Devon UK when people say 'old' they say it as 'owed'.  Likewise 'told' is 'towd',  cracks me up each time.

Offline David In Indy

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Re: Pronunciation Poll
« Reply #59 on: June 16, 2008, 05:56:19 pm »
Love the way some people pronounce some words, it's a great source of entertainment at work. Living in Devon UK when people say 'old' they say it as 'owed'.  Likewise 'told' is 'towd',  cracks me up each time.

That sounds really cute! I love accents. I love listening to them. :)

We have three distinct accents here in my state. Up north they sound like they are from Michigan or Wisconsin. They sound like their noses are all stuffed up. In the central part of the state, it is more typically "midwestern" with what some people call a "twang". We often say "warsh" instead of wash. "Poosh" instead of push, etc.. Finally in the southern part, they have a rather distinct Southern accent, very similar to Kentucky or West Virginia. :)

 
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