Sorry guys, “aluminum” came first:
Brits: “Year” should rhyme with “fear”. It is not pronounced “yuh”. Please stop it at once.
And “Z” has to be pronounced “zee”, or else the song won’t rhyme.
Yeah, but who cares.
Dr Seuss’ The Cat In The Hat Came Back appears to be written so that it can be made to rhyme with either zee or zed, but altering the delivery and rhythm a bit.
I know I’ve used this one before but still;
[Eddie Izzard] You say ‘erbs’, and we say ‘herbs’, because there’s a fucking ‘H’ in it! [/Eddie Izzard]
So “zebra” rhymes with “Debra”. Kind of makes sense, I’ve never met a girl named Dee-bra. If I did I would probably think she was of Indian heritage.
I’ve never been to Ih-tal-ee but I have eaten in some nice Eye-tal-yan restaurants. I’ve always pronounced modern Babylon as Ear-rock, but that other persian place is Eye-Ran.
I suppose if we can have our “Fridge” then you can have your “Vedge”, but please stop calling it a “Telly”. I understand the “Tube” is something y’all ride on but could you call it a Tee-Vee? Telly sounds a bit sissified to me.
And that Groundskeeper Willy place may be Eh-din-bur-a, but the town a few miles south of me is definately Eh-din-burg (cause the methheads down there told me it was, repeatedly).
Heh… heh heh… you said spackle. Always a funny word.
OK people, let’s do some negotiating about US and UK languages before a war breaks out.
We (in the US) will pronounce the H in herb, if you guys will pronounce your T’s. You’re not Bri’ish, you’re British. And something small isn’t li’le, it’s little.
Oh, and thinking about H’s, it’s hello, not 'ello.
There’s more we can negotiate, but I’ll have to do it later.
Reminds me of an old joke / urban legend / story of somebody my dad knew (these are interchangeable):
In a classroom somewhere in Britain:
TEACHER: “And what did you do on the weekend, Johnny?”
JOHNNY: “I walked through a field and found an old Bo’le.”
TEACHER: “No, Johnny. You pronounce it bottle.”
JOHNNY: “I walked through a field and found an old b…o…t…t…l…e”.
TEACHER: “That’s be’ah.”
Where do you think they get that extra ‘h’ in herb (or, for that matter, haych)? They just borrow it from their greetings.
This one really grates.
Someone’s been talking to a Brit with an Estuary English accent I think 
EE is my original accent but it’s totally bled off into received pronunciation with years spent abroad. In fact my colleagues in Brazil laugh because they say my pronunciation of “little” is much more heavily pronounced than their US colleagues.
I’ve never heard it pronounced ‘yuh’. In English English Year does rhyme with fear.
Althought not specifically mentioned here, have any Americans come across Brits who say “ta” for “thank you”? It drives one of my Danish friends nuts for some reason, he can cope with “cheers” but not “ta”.
Berwick to the north of me
Alnwick to the south.
Here I am stuck in Bamburgh with you.
So so sorry Mr Rafferty
It’s “Ed-in-bourogh”, like the five boroughs of New York.
Only the Scots could come up with the stealth “O”, it’s so silent that it’s invisible.
…or maybe they imported the O’s to America so we could make doughnuts.
After 12 years in the UK I now say “ta” too. No, not “tattoo”, but “ta too”. Too.
And I know lots of Brits who say “yuh” - it seems to be a public school thing.
[quote=“Nobody, post:66, topic:467182”]
Well, around here (central and eastern PA) they’re actually “Briddish” and it’s actually “liddle”. Do they actually pronounce those as /t/'s where you are?
In 'Artford, 'Eresford and 'Ampshire, 'urricanes 'ardly hever 'appen!
Route pronounced as Rowt
Carr IBB ean as in the sea
Hairam as in the Sultans private supply of female recreation.
I’ve never heard it in real life, but it occasionally pops up in movies and plays, and confused the hell out of me at first. It’s even in Peter Schaeffer’s play Amadeus, where it’s REALLY jarring, since Costanza, who uses it, is Austtrian. (I don’t recall if it’s in the substantially rewritten film script)
I think it’s a very small minority that pronounces it “yuh”. Unless making fun of the aristocracy.
Glottal stops creep into some words for most English speakers, words like fortnight sound silly if you pronounce the first ‘t’ properly.
Most speakers will substitute the ‘t’ in British with a d sound, few will pronounce it ‘properly’ as it just sounds too posh. I don’t know anyone that says Bri’ish or li’le unless affecting a mockney accent.
Aside…But I am British, and made a very clear effort to pronounce it properly and say “I’m British” when people asked where I was from whilst visiting you guys. After repeating a few times, and saying “From Great Britain…the UK?” to no response, I usually just resorted to “I’m English”.
Why do the British hate America? I think if they cannot learn to speak English then they should go back to England or somewhere.