@?&®% Mispronunciations!

[issybird]

At least you're not attempting to defend "eriudite"!

[arjaybe]

Originally Posted by issybird

At least you're not attempting to defend "eriudite"!

Do you mean the pronunciation, air you dite, or with a more pronounced "i?"

[issybird]

Originally Posted by arjaybe

Do you mean the pronunciation, air you dite, or with a more pronounced "i?"

Air ee you dite

:shudder:

[poohbear_nc]

On a related note, I watch a lot of British videos, and usually have closed captioning on, to help understand dialogue in various dialects (Scots, Irish, etc.) that my American ear is not used to deciphering. It is also quite useful with Dr. Who episodes in which the noise of explosions, Dalek chanting, etc. can drown out the the dialogue, as well as for PBS dramas, in which the background music swells over the actors' voices. In many a Morse episode, the opera music completely drowned out the interchanges between Morse and Lewis.

I can't believe the typos or just wrong words displayed on the screen. Sometimes it's so wrong it's funny. Other times I speculate that they simply ran the sound track through a computer speech recognition program followed by absolutely no proof reading.

[arjaybe]

Originally Posted by issybird

Air ee you dite

:shudder:

I can see how that would put you off.

[issybird]

Oh, how could I have forgotten? David McCallion mispronounced "Bois-Guilbert" throughout Ivanhoe!

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by issybird

• Second are the more esoteric proper nouns. I understand that the narrator might not know how to say these off the cuff, but as professionals, they should find out! I've been listening to books on colonial America lately and a local river comes up fairly frequently. If a narrator sees "Piscataqua" and has never heard it spoken, that should be a flag. Instead they just go with it, stressing the first and third syllables. (It should be the second and fourth.) This also is unforgivable.
  
• Third is the toughest. It's when a seemingly innocuous proper noun has an unusual pronunciation. Nadia May's mispronunciation of Lady Mary Coke comes to mind. This one is understandable, but it still grates.

I think names should be pronounced so they can be understood by the listener. This may mean not using the "correct" pronunciation.

For example, the correct French-Canadian pronunciation of "Bujold" (Boo-jwah) looks nothing like the spelling.I had been mispronouncing it for years.

If you say it correctly many people will be confused.

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

I think names should be pronounced so they can be understood by the listener. This may mean not using the "correct" pronunciation.

For example, the correct French-Canadian pronunciation of "Bujold" (Boo-jwah) looks nothing like the spelling.I had been mispronouncing it for years.

If you say it correctly many people will be confused.

Really? Words should be deliberately mispronounced to pander to people who don't know better? That's just wrong.

How, for example, did you discover the correct pronunciation of Bujold? Presumably by hearing somebody pronounce it correctly. And yet you would deny others the opportunity to learn

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

Really? Words should be deliberately mispronounced to pander to people who don't know better? That's just wrong.

How, for example, did you discover the correct pronunciation of Bujold? Presumably by hearing somebody pronounce it correctly. And yet you would deny others the opportunity to learn

I believe conveying info is more important. But you are welcome to confuse hotel clerks and other people you meet by using the "correct" pronunciation.

Me, when I first heard the word Maori spoken aloud I listened to it twice and I still had to pause and try to figure out what they had said.

The mispronounced word would have been a lot easier to understand.

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

I believe conveying info is more important. But you are welcome to confuse hotel clerks and other people you meet by using the "correct" pronunciation.

Me, when I first heard the word Maori spoken aloud I listened to it twice and I still had to pause and try to figure out what they had said.

The mispronounced word would have been a lot easier to understand.

Will nobody think of the hotel clerks!!

Absolutely the rest of the world should mispronounce words in their own language for your convenience. God forbid that these despicable foreigners should get away with speaking their own language

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

Will nobody think of the hotel clerks!!

Absolutely the rest of the world should mispronounce words in their own language for your convenience. God forbid that these despicable foreigners should get away with speaking their own language

I just love it when people come up with straw man arguments; it means they can't come up with a valid argument, and that my position is pretty reasonable.

[pdurrant]

Of course, sometimes one must 'mispronounce' a word because, in a different place, the mispronunciation is the correct pronunciation.

There's a city in England, Warwick, pronounced 'worrick'. There is (or was) a hotel in Denver, CO, the Warwick Hotel, prononced 'wor-wick'.

When I was in Denver, it took me a minute or two before I worked this out and my taxi driver understood where I wanted to go.

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

I just love it when people come up with straw man arguments; it means they can't come up with a valid argument, and that my position is pretty reasonable.

Do you even know what a straw man argument is? I guess it's in the same category as all those words you can't be bothered to learn how to pronounce

I really never have understood why people are so proud of their ignorance. I suppose if you have nothing else then you have to be.

I'll stick with preferring people to learn how to pronounce words properly thanks; I'm not insecure enough to expect people to mispronounce words for my convenience.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by issybird

Oh, how could I have forgotten? David McCallion mispronounced "Bois-Guilbert" throughout Ivanhoe!

As I've no idea how to pronounce that myself, I'd not even have noticed, probably. It took me a while to figure out that Guy of Gisbourne (from Robin Hood) wasn't prounced "guy" (as in the man, the guy)...

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

Do you even know what a straw man argument is? I guess it's in the same category as all those words you can't be bothered to learn how to pronounce

I really never have understood why people are so proud of their ignorance. I suppose if you have nothing else then you have to be.

I'll stick with preferring people to learn how to pronounce words properly thanks; I'm not insecure enough to expect people to mispronounce words for my convenience.

LOL, and now you've moved from putting words in my mouth to personal attacks.

As much as I would like to win this discussion by crafting a better argument, I am not above winning by default.