I actually say “zoh-ology” – but I’m a Yank – does that skew the data?
I was born in North London. “Nuffink wrong wiv that.”
I got an English education. “Jag-you-are”, “gwa-va” and “Al-you-min-e-um”. “The alphabet goes from A to Zed.”
I listen to pop music. “Zee-Zee Top have beards.”
I have travelled English pavements wearing pants under my trousers and US sidewalks wearing ?? under my pants.
As for “Do y’all really say “Jag-you-ar,” or do you pronouce it “Jag-whar,” like normal folks?”;
Do you really say “World” (Series) for an internal championship, or do you say “World” (Cup) to mean a world-wide competition, like normal folks?
I swear I’ve heard commercials where the word is stretched into four syllables - “Jag-OO-whuy-err”. Am I imagining this?
Not so much the accent, but I’ve noticed that there’s a correlation between the left-leaning politics of an American English speaker and native pronunciation of Spanish words. Odds are the person you hear saying “Nee-KAH-lah-goo-wah” didn’t vote for Dubya, unless they’re using the pronunciation in a context mocking liberals. The overpronunciation of foreign words seems limited to words of Spanish origin; it’s “Man-AHH-goo-wah” and “Swee-ah-dad WAH-dez” but not “Behr-LEEN” or “Pahr-EE”.
In British pronunciation, are there any foreign langages where words based in that language tend to be overpronounced while words in other languages aren’t?
This is confusing – I learned that the original word in Guarani was jagwa, meaning “dog” (search me).
But dictionary.com indicates that we’re both right. 
Maybe there’s some dialectal variation within Guarani itself <shrug>.
Well, it would be alright if you played a mean goo-ee-tah. 
Underpants.
This has troubled me since I was a small child with no political bent whatsoever. I asked my dad about it–specifically the World Series and the NBA World Championship (never heard about World Cup soccer…uh, or, the other football… :rolleyes: ) Ever the wise man, Dad simply answered–because the USA has the best basketball and baseball teams in the world. I was six. It was gospel.
It would be a little difficult to explain the concept “mere puffery” to a six-year-old, but it’s well understood in consumer protection law.
If anyone is really wondering why Major League Baseball’s championship is called the “World Series,” the answer is that a private commercial entity decided to give one of its products a name that in its view would attract the attention of potential customers. Period. That’s it. Sports is just commerce.
And acsenray wins the thread! Yay! You actually made a post which consisted entirely of the word “underpants,” and it was on-topic, informational and succinct. My hat is off to you.
Thenk yew.
Yes, I completely appreciated the answer.
It meant I had got to the bottom of the situation (so to speak).
A lot of us can’t even make that sound without a lot of practice. I’ve tried since I started taking French in seventh grade (age 12), and I still can’t do it consistently well.
I’ve also seen the word “knickers” used instead of “pants” by Brits. Are those two words for the same thing, or are they different kinds of underpants?
IME knickers tends to be used more or less exclusively for female underpants. I have heard it used to describe men’s briefs, but rarely.
Because he lives in a non-rhotic country, you silly goose. If you fly to Ireland you could try to thump him, but I warn you - he’s a big Glaswegian fella and is nails.
Though this might also apply to you…
I too have occassionally heard ‘knickers’ for men’s underwear, but only slightly jokingly, and (perhaps irrelevantly) only as far as I can remember from Yorkshiremen.
And it makes a great expletive.
Maybe not so much so on this side of the pond…unless your elocution is perfect.
Has there not been a Baseball Classic event recently, won by Japan?
Did the professional US players take part?
What about my name?