How do you pronounce words?

[wx4caster]

Scallops - scall rhymes with all and hall not Hal.  Hearing it wrong makes my ears itch.

Where we live, 'scoll-ups' are decorations on clothing as in 'a scalloped hem'.  'Skall-ups' are the delicious things you eat with shallots and butter. 

This brings up the pronunciation of 'gingham'.  Is the second 'g' pronounced as soft or hard?  Here, it's usually soft.

Not. 

[Mental Magpie]

"lr" make a lurr sound I guess. The "r" sound is on the middle syllable not the end one, so it changes the sound of that syllable. Jew-lurr-ee, its simply how I've always heard it said by everyone, in person, on TV, etc, I never questioned it. Lots of words slightly change pronunciation as they get longer.

Heck "pronounce" (pro-noun-sunce) versus "pronunciation" (pro-nun-ci-a-shun) changes in the middle from a nown sound to a nun sound.

   What?  Where from are you getting that third syllable?




Jew-ull-ree, but the first two syllables smear into one another so much I can see where Diane hears 2 syllables instead of 3.  What Kaora said.

February is fe-broo-airy.

[Girlie]

Haven't had the chance to read all the way through, but I'm always stumped when I watch those cooking shows and they insist that the "Southern" way to say "pecans" is "Pee-cans." Which just sounds gross to me. My mother, born and raised in rural Alabama, has always said "peh-cahns," and so do I. It's a much softer variation on the word that I think sounds much prettier.

Why in the world would anyone want a "pee-can" pie?

[WillyNilly]

"lr" make a lurr sound I guess. The "r" sound is on the middle syllable not the end one, so it changes the sound of that syllable. Jew-lurr-ee, its simply how I've always heard it said by everyone, in person, on TV, etc, I never questioned it. Lots of words slightly change pronunciation as they get longer.

Heck "pronounce" (pro-noun-sunce) versus "pronunciation" (pro-nun-ci-a-shun) changes in the middle from a nown sound to a nun sound.

   What?  Where from are you getting that third syllable?




Jew-ull-ree, but the first two syllables smear into one another so much I can see where Diane hears 2 syllables instead of 3.  What Kaora said.

February is fe-broo-airy.

I didn't know how to phonetically write the "ce" sound. To me, written "ce" does not convey at all the sound at the end of pronounce. I guess the sound is more like simply the phonetic sound of just "C".

[Mental Magpie]

"lr" make a lurr sound I guess. The "r" sound is on the middle syllable not the end one, so it changes the sound of that syllable. Jew-lurr-ee, its simply how I've always heard it said by everyone, in person, on TV, etc, I never questioned it. Lots of words slightly change pronunciation as they get longer.

Heck "pronounce" (pro-noun-sunce) versus "pronunciation" (pro-nun-ci-a-shun) changes in the middle from a nown sound to a nun sound.

   What?  Where from are you getting that third syllable?




Jew-ull-ree, but the first two syllables smear into one another so much I can see where Diane hears 2 syllables instead of 3.  What Kaora said.

February is fe-broo-airy.

I didn't know how to phonetically write the "ce" sound. To me, written "ce" does not convey at all the sound at the end of pronounce. I guess the sound is more like simply the phonetic sound of just "C".

Ah, gotcha, that makes a lot more sense.  Thanks for explaining!

[Mikayla]

I say 'cumin' either 'kuh-min' or 'kyoo-min' and have been corrected both ways.

Same here.  And it's highly significant because it is the only spice I refuse to eat. 

I also want to third the Illinois thing.  Seriously?!?  I've even heard it recently on the Weather Channel.  Do they pronounce the "s" in Iroquois, too? 

Another one is fiance vs fiancee.  I've always pronounced them differently, but it's just  a minor change in emphasis from second to third syllable.  Most people seem to pronounce them identically, but none of this matters because it seems nobody knows how to spell the one they're trying to use!  (Not here, btw)   

[Bottlecaps]

Queue, I say Cue, and I know someone who INSISTED it was pronounced cwayway, no matter how much I said, no, it's CUE! Then again, she was a piece of work in general 

LOLOL! I'm sorry, but "cwayway" is hilarious!

 

Haven't had the chance to read all the way through, but I'm always stumped when I watch those cooking shows and they insist that the "Southern" way to say "pecans" is "Pee-cans." Which just sounds gross to me. My mother, born and raised in rural Alabama, has always said "peh-cahns," and so do I. It's a much softer variation on the word that I think sounds much prettier.

Why in the world would anyone want a "pee-can" pie?

I'm with you! I'm from West Virginia and I call them peh-cahns. Thanks to watching Paula Deen with my grandmother, I was convinced I would have to deal with hearing "pee-cans" upon moving from the kinda-south to the deep south. Imagine my relief when I found out that most people down here in 'Bama in fact pronounce it the same way I do. :-P

[Mental Magpie]

I say 'cumin' either 'kuh-min' or 'kyoo-min' and have been corrected both ways.

Same here.  And it's highly significant because it is the only spice I refuse to eat. 

I also want to third the Illinois thing.  Seriously?!?  I've even heard it recently on the Weather Channel.  Do they pronounce the "s" in Iroquois, too? 

Another one is fiance vs fiancee.  I've always pronounced them differently, but it's just  a minor change in emphasis from second to third syllable.  Most people seem to pronounce them identically, but none of this matters because it seems nobody knows how to spell the one they're trying to use!  (Not here, btw)   

Yes, they're different to me, too.  The Eagle is my fee-AWN-say; I am his fee-awn-SAY.

[daisy1679]

The word sauna drives me batty.  It's a Finnish word, and Finnish always has the emphasis on the first syllable.  It also pronounces every letter in a word.  So the correct way would be along the lines of SOU-na (like the first syllable of the word 'south').  I know the most common way to pronouce it in the States is SAW-na.  If you say it like that in the part of Michigan I'm originally from, it definitely marks you as an outsider.

I knew you had to be from Michigan. I learned to say it there and when I went elsewhere, I wondered why they didn't know how to say it!

I've lived in Michigan my whole life, (several towns, both up north and downstate, and spent a lot of time in the UP) and I have always heard it pronounced SAW-na. I'd think you were from somewhere else if I heard SOU-na (a pronunciation I have never heard before reading this thread)

[Ms_Cellany]

A random peeve: when people say "habaņero."  It's really habanero with an unadorned "n," but they put the "enye" sound as if it were "jalapeņo."

[SamiHami]

Queue, I say Cue, and I know someone who INSISTED it was pronounced cwayway, no matter how much I said, no, it's CUE! Then again, she was a piece of work in general 

LOLOL! I'm sorry, but "cwayway" is hilarious!

 

Haven't had the chance to read all the way through, but I'm always stumped when I watch those cooking shows and they insist that the "Southern" way to say "pecans" is "Pee-cans." Which just sounds gross to me. My mother, born and raised in rural Alabama, has always said "peh-cahns," and so do I. It's a much softer variation on the word that I think sounds much prettier.

Why in the world would anyone want a "pee-can" pie?

I'm with you! I'm from West Virginia and I call them peh-cahns. Thanks to watching Paula Deen with my grandmother, I was convinced I would have to deal with hearing "pee-cans" upon moving from the kinda-south to the deep south. Imagine my relief when I found out that most people down here in 'Bama in fact pronounce it the same way I do. :-P

Funny! Here in SC I've never heard it pronounced any other way than "pee can." My northern relatives all say it the other way.

I just remembered! My DH and I were in a Mexican restaurant one day and a young mom was talking to her toddler, explaining that, "This is a tortilla." Except she was pronouncing it "tor-till-yuh." DH and I have been joking about that ever since!

[SamiHami]

A random peeve: when people say "habaņero."  It's really habanero with an unadorned "n," but they put the "enye" sound as if it were "jalapeņo."

Hmmm...see, I thought that was the correct way to pronounce habanero. I just picked it up from other people. Now I know!

[Piratelvr1121]

It's interesting, anytime I take those tests that determine where you're from based on how you pronounce things, I'm always told "you have no accent" but I know I've got to. 

Let's see.

Baltimore usually comes out like "Baldimore" said quicker "Baldmore"
Ocean "Ohshun"
Caramel : Care-a-mel.
Pecan is p'cahn.
Jewelry is Joolree

I have a tendency to leave the g off of -ing words. 

There's apparently two different ways to say Weis in this town.  Some say "Wys" with a long i sound, some say Vys.  Considering the majority of this town is of German heritage, I guess that's correct too. 

[Outdoor Girl]

How do you say 'pasta'?

past-a or pahst-a

[SiotehCat]

My DH is always poking fun at me for the way that I pronounce some words.

Floor is more like fleur.
Three has a rolling r. In fact, any word that starts with "thr" has a rolling r.
Wolf is wool f.
Accept is assept.

There was a Family Guy episode where Stewie is driving Brian crazy with the way he pronounces some "wh" words like whip, what, when, etc... He puts emphasis on the H. That episode was particularly funny to us because I do the exact same thing. Nobody has called me out on it except DH.

Also, a poster in a previous thread mentioned emphasizing the r in February and the p in raspberry. Thats the way I pronounce both of those words.