# American English Pronunciation that bugs the bejeezus out of me **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 9, 2008, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182 "2008-10-09T16:53:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2008, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/41 "2008-10-10T02:04:13Z")
You all invented the “hay-ch”, so I don’t want to hear your complaints. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2008, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/42 "2008-10-10T02:10:03Z")
Ed’-in-bu-rah ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2008, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/43 "2008-10-10T02:36:00Z")
> [@cher3](#): > > I’m an American and I rack and I ran drive me crazy, too. And I know how to pronounce Edinburgh. I felt rather silly when someone had to tell me how to pronounce Berwick. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2008, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/44 "2008-10-10T02:45:52Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > So would you say “the police is going to arrest him”? > > Or would you say, “the police are going to arrest him”? More than one policeman is going to do the arresting; the police are a collective. One police officer, a bunch of police. You don’t say “A police came into my store today…” ---
**Author:** ![Pyper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pyper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyper)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2008, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/45 "2008-10-10T03:01:22Z")
As a returning volley, all you English people need to stop abbreviating “vegetables” as “vedge.” Stop, just stop it right now. ---
**Author:** ![Brynda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Brynda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynda)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2008, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/46 "2008-10-10T03:25:24Z")
See, the -burgh ending on Edinburgh throws us off. We want to pronounce it like Pittsburg or like the German Brandenburg. Edinburgh is familiar enough to me that I know how to pronounce it, but I kept getting another city that ends in -burgh (can’t remember which one) wrong until my British MIL said “like Edinburgh.” Besides, you have to admit that “burg” makes more sense as a pronunciation than “bur-ra.” ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2008, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/47 "2008-10-10T03:34:56Z")
Having dealt with Edinburgh, how about tackling Gothenburg? ---
**Author:** ![pretend\_my\_name\_is\_witty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9e5f3/32.png) [@pretend\_my\_name\_is\_witty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pretend_my_name_is_witty)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2008, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/48 "2008-10-10T07:31:34Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > The justification for the “eye” pronuciation of Iraq and Iran is that there is a single consonant there, so it should be pronounced like Ireland. Yeah, but there’s no ‘e’ after that consonant in Iraq or Iran. _Ire_ is pronounced eye-r because of the ‘e’ at the end. Or so I was led to believe in school. Iraq and Iran should be pronounced like the I at the start of Italy. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2008, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/49 "2008-10-10T07:58:20Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > OK…so what’s the reason for using “zed” sometimes but not other times? Not trying to be snarky - just curious. ‘ZZ Top’ is the name of a band, so we pronounce it in the way they choose to. It’s nothing to do with the pronunciation of the 26th letter of the alphabet. ---
**Author:** ![Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bites_when_provoked/32/18073_2.png) [@Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bites_When_Provoked)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2008, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/50 "2008-10-10T08:21:10Z")
> [@Ice\_Wolf](#): > > Herb. The silent “h” in American English doesn’t bug me, but it still sounds most odd. Agreed! Y’know, Americans criticise Aussies (and NZers!) for dropping letters, but at least we know that there’s an H in front of herb. We’d only say 'erb if we were playing sillybuggers. 😉 Oh, but one thing that does bug me? Aluminium. None of those letters are supposed to be dropped, but somehow they drop an entire _syllable_\* and end up with ‘illuminum’. I am embarassed to admit that until my early 20s(!) I actually assumed that America had some kind of high-tech housing construction material called Illuminum. :eek: - This will make it harder for them to create aluminium-thremed haikus. Poor devils. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2008, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/51 "2008-10-10T08:39:51Z")
> [@Oregon\_sunshine](#): > > Um… okay… so how do you pronounce Edinburgh?? 😕😕😕 > Isn’t it pronounced like it’s spelled??? Edinbrugh. Sort’a comes out as IinBRA, using Spanish phonics… ---
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2008, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/52 "2008-10-10T08:41:56Z")
Bites - We drop the second ‘i’ when writing it, too. “Aluminum” Spelling it “Aluminium” would be just silly! Anyone can hear that there’s only one ‘i’! ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2008, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/53 "2008-10-10T09:20:42Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Ed’-in-bu-rah Most people pronounce it “Edinbuh”, IME. If there’s a hint of the “gh” sound, it’s only very slight. ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2008, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/54 "2008-10-10T09:24:10Z")
**Morbo** - That’s how to say Edinburgh with an American accent. It’s somewhere between Edin-burra and Edin-bruh. Those people seem to be saying Ed-in-bur-ah. Still, I suppose it’s better than Edinburg. Personally, I don’t like the American pronunciation of “route” and “router” as “rowt” and “rowter”. It’s just grating. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2008, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/55 "2008-10-10T09:29:24Z")
That’s not just an American thing. It makes Australians snigger when we talk about “rooters”, for reasons that I will leave as an exercise for the reader. I would cast another vote for “erb” as the most jarring American pronunciation. And “premiere”, pronounced “pruhMEER” - I know, I know, it’s an English word now so doesn’t have to be pronounced the French way, but it still makes me wince. ---
**Author:** ![Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bites_when_provoked/32/18073_2.png) [@Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bites_When_Provoked)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2008, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/56 "2008-10-10T11:27:48Z")
> [@Oni no Maggie](#): > > Bites - > > We drop the second ‘i’ when writing it, too. > > “Aluminum” > > Spelling it “Aluminium” would be just silly! Anyone can hear that there’s only one ‘i’! Hah! Now that’s just not acceptable. At least officially make it _illuminum_. And make it sparkle. And light up from within. 😃 Give me back my childhood, where I really thought you guys lived in houses like that. So many sitcoms mentioned ‘illuminum’ siding! I knew what ‘siding’ was - even though I’ve never heard that word used here, either; weird how I got the context of the one just fine, and messed up the other so badly. I assumed you were living in pretty, glowing houses. Later, I reluctantly upgraded the mental image of ‘illuminum’ to probably be some lightweight, high-strength thing that very likely didn’t light up from within. But was probably still **pretty**. _darned_. _ **shiny** _. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2008, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/57 "2008-10-10T12:08:57Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > On a related note, do you call ZZ Top “Zed Zed Top”? Only to purposely annoy. On the subject of zed vs zee - it’s worth mentioning that in the UK, zebra and Zebedee are pronounced with a short e as in zed, not zeebra or zeebedee - so it’s not as if we’re entirely inconsistent. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2008, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/58 "2008-10-10T12:12:48Z")
I’ve got one - that I’ve mentioned before. Spackle. Always sounds like a preschooler word to my ear, not matter how often I encounter it. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2008, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/59 "2008-10-10T12:19:21Z")
**Sunspace** writes: > [@](#): > > What is the chequered history of ‘diaper’? I always wondered whether it fit with such words as ‘diathermy’ and ‘diagram’. I do not have an etymological dictionary, and rather wish I did. Ah, but you do have the all-powerful (although sometimes incorrect) internet. If you go to the Wiki page on diapers, you find: > [@](#): > > [edit] Etymology > “Another bear the ewer, the third a diaper” > —One of the earliest known uses of the word in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew.[1] > The word diaper originally referred to the type of cloth rather than its use ; “diaper” was the term for a pattern of small repeated geometric shapes, and later came to describe a white cotton or linen fabric with this pattern[2]. The first cloth diapers consisted of a special type of soft tissue sheet, cut into geometric shapes. This type of pattern was called diapering and eventually gave its name to the cloth used to make diapers and then to the diaper itself. This usage stuck in the United States and Canada, but in Britain the word “nappy” took its place. Most sources believe nappy is a diminutive form of the word napkin[3]. > **[Diaper](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaper)** > > A diaper (/ˈdaɪpər/, North American English) or a nappy (British English, Australian English, Hiberno-English) is a type of underwear that allows the wearer to urinate or defecate without using a toilet, by absorbing or containing waste products to prevent soiling of outer clothing or the external environment. When diapers become wet or soiled, they require changing, generally by a second person such as a parent or caregiver. Failure to change a diaper on a sufficiently regular basis can result... Hence the “checkered history of diaper”. Sorry. I _hate_ it when people don’t get my etymological jokes. ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2008, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182/60 "2008-10-10T12:19:47Z")
another vote for herb, sounds like a hiccup to me. does ‘nuclear’ count? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-pronunciation-that-bugs-the-bejeezus-out-of-me/467182.md?page=4)