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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 6, 2010 14:40:42 GMT
As far as the links in Reply #20 -- I say Harry the way the link pronounces hairy. I'll never address any Harrys I know as "Hahrry". You soun' rill good there, Mark! I'd say I pronounce everything more or less the same way you do, except I sound American when doing so, particularly on Don and dawn. I also say the letter l in balm a little more strongly. I've only known two people in my life who really pronounce the wh at the beginning of a word. One was from Little Rock, Arkansas, and the other from Birmingham, Alabama. The guy from Birmingham had been in radio and his regular speaking sounds announcerish. Using the video feature on a camera has been discussed here before -- it's easy. There are two examples on this page, at #247 and #253. As in Mark's video above, the main thing was to record sound. You can aim the camera anywhere as you video/record -- at a blank wall, if you wish. Then open a www.youtube.com/ account. It walks you through the completely simple process of loading your video.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2010 14:43:11 GMT
When the French learn to speak English, they always want to acknowledge the 'L' in words like walk and talk. I find that admirable, but the results are disastrous.
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Post by happytraveller on Jun 6, 2010 14:43:39 GMT
So, for a world's first, you will hear my dulcet tones showing you how to speak wot is proper. If you can't hear the difference you need your lug 'oles steam cleaning out - Exactly how we learned at school. However, I cannot hear a difference between which and witch
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Post by onlymark on Jun 6, 2010 15:08:42 GMT
There isn't really one other than a bit of breathyness on 'which'.
I do wonder at times with German speakers and their English. They can speak English far better than I can German, and I applaud their efforts and knowledge. But many can't seem to get out of the habit of pronouncing every single letter in the word. What makes it even more confusing I suppose is when the English use a French word, like ballet. It can't be easy for them and is a lot easier for me reading German when my technique is 'if there is a letter I'm damn well going to say it'.
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Post by cristina on Jun 6, 2010 15:35:22 GMT
Thank you, livaco, for providing my morning's self-entertainment. I have just spent the last hour listening to myself pronounce pairs of words. At any rate, my personal findings are that I do pronounce the words differently, however subtle. Except for hairy vs. Harry. As I don't know anyone named Harry, I am not terribly concerned about causing any offense. My testing technique, for those interested, included using the words in sentences in an attempt to mitigate any conscious effort to pronounce them differently.
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Post by spindrift on Jun 6, 2010 21:12:50 GMT
This thread has been fun The 'wh' in 'which' is the same as in the word 'whisper'. I say which and witch very differently.
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Post by hwinpp on Jun 7, 2010 1:59:03 GMT
I pronounce each word differently.
Closest pairing is which and witch.
Germans go so far, they really and actually say iRon or OniOn. Even teachers.
Though I have to say university lecturers had good pronunciation generally.
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Post by imec on Jun 8, 2010 0:28:35 GMT
Although it's tempting to suggest that North Americans often butcher the pronunciation of English words, the reality is this butchering happens much closer to the home of the language.
My friend from the east end of London would often say "I'll aff ta fink abou it" when he really means to say "I must give that some careful thought". or he often says "fanks" when he means "I very much appreciate that".
Where I was born in the northwest of England, it was not uncommon to hear someone say "av yer gorra fag?", typically translated as "would you be so kind as to give me one of your cigarettes?". Suggesting that they should procure their own tobacco products might elicit the response "shurrup!".
Many words would be pronounced entirely differently by the English, depending on whether they were natives of London, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield or Cornwall - which one is the correct English pronunciation?
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Post by lagatta on Jun 8, 2010 1:50:35 GMT
Mark, I believe many of the examples in that article and the comments would be dreadful English anywhere. Of course I'm thinking of Canadian usage, drawing on both UK and US, but that horrible thing about getting someone a coffee or whatever it was sounds dreadfully boorish anywhere.
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Post by joanne28 on Jun 8, 2010 2:15:09 GMT
Hairy and Harry sound different, the rest all sound the same to me.
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Post by onlymark on Jun 8, 2010 5:26:42 GMT
Funnily enough, the word pronunciation is pronounced two different ways.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 8, 2010 5:27:16 GMT
eh?
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Post by onlymark on Jun 8, 2010 7:56:58 GMT
ProNUNciation - which is the correct way and ProNOUNciation.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 8, 2010 8:09:16 GMT
Oh, you are talking about people who mispronounce pronunciation.
That is a different can of worms.
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Post by onlymark on Jun 8, 2010 10:30:58 GMT
I'm just following on from imec.
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Post by spindrift on Jun 8, 2010 10:33:50 GMT
I say 'proNUNciation' but I say 'proNOUNce' ....and you, Mark?
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Post by onlymark on Jun 8, 2010 11:52:37 GMT
Me too. But I have heard news readers say proNOUNciation.
Another one for you then - controversy. CONtroversy or conTROversy?
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Post by Deleted on Jun 8, 2010 12:04:54 GMT
For me, it's CON.
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Post by joanne28 on Jun 8, 2010 13:47:38 GMT
It's TRO for me. I think that's North American.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 8, 2010 17:33:49 GMT
I didn't know there were two ways to say controversy. I say it with the accent on the first syllable, Joanne, & I'm from the US, so there must be regional variations. Pro nounciation is just plain wrong. There's a funny scene in Paul Theroux's The Kingdom by the Sea where he baits a young woman into saying that she doesn't like people from Cornwall because "they mispronounciate their words".
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Post by onlymark on Jun 8, 2010 18:49:35 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 8, 2010 19:55:05 GMT
Well, I'll be go to hell!
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Post by lagatta on Jun 8, 2010 20:06:28 GMT
Usually CONtroversy is US and conTROversy is UK. Canadian usage can vary between the two. CBC usually says shedule, not skedule, and I've heard several of the other variations.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 8, 2010 21:16:43 GMT
You Canadians are such fence sitters.
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Post by spindrift on Jun 8, 2010 22:27:58 GMT
I say CONtroversy...and I'm english
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Post by fumobici on Jun 9, 2010 2:27:47 GMT
Hmmm... I've never heard an Englishman stress the first syllable of 'controversy'. Next we'll be hearing you prefer coffee to tea, use 'while' instead of 'whilst' as a conjunction and drive a Jag-wahr.
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Post by lagatta on Jun 9, 2010 3:00:32 GMT
There are always exceptions to these things. And wasn't spinny born in Ireland? I was only observing what I generally heard among speakers at conferences.
As for fence-sitting, of course I hail from a place where people endlessly fence-sit as to whether we are Canadian or not. As humourist Yvon Deschamps said: "Un Québec libre et indépendant dans un Canada fort et uni". A true réponse de Normand, that. Peut-être ben que oui, peut-être ben que non...
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Post by onlymark on Jun 9, 2010 3:45:29 GMT
I've never actually found what Deschamps says to be very funny at all. I could never really find the humour in it.
It must be because I don't understand French.
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Post by onlymark on Jun 9, 2010 3:55:02 GMT
Anyway, I'm not pedantic enough to say one way is always right and anything else is wrong. It depends so much on region, nationality and accent. Language changes, as it should, otherwise we'd all still be speaking Proto-IndoEuropean.
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Post by Kimby on Jun 9, 2010 14:48:51 GMT
Very interesting discussion. Funny how almost everyone except me mispronounciates so many words!
This reminds me that the word that I have the most trouble spelling is "misspell", "mispell", "mis-spell" . Makes it hard to call someone out on their spelling of a word when I can't spell that word....
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