# I never would have guessed that's how you spell it **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 15, 2015, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-would-have-guessed-thats-how-you-spell-it/712754 "2015-02-15T22:30:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-would-have-guessed-thats-how-you-spell-it/712754/61 "2015-02-16T23:48:29Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > There’s nothing particularly mysterious or difficult about Celtic languages. Learning any language that is significantly different from your own requires being willing to discards assumptions about how languages work. Actually, Irish, particularly Old Irish is objectively more difficult than many other languages. It has a number of different features which are all rare in world languages, and has also undergone rapid and significant morphological changes. Modern Welsh and Modern Breton, on the other hand, are pretty comparable to other European languages. That said, I really appreciate what you said, because while **vontsira** obviously didn’t mean anything negative, the collective throwing up of hands and going “it’s just too hard” is exactly why English is continuing to make inroads and destroy the Celtic languages in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and Brittany. I do think people who aren’t living in a Celtic country can be excused for not wanting to put in the tremendous effort required. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2015, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-would-have-guessed-thats-how-you-spell-it/712754/62 "2015-02-17T15:14:42Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > . . . . It is also naïve, not naive. The non-accented is a fine variation, but it’s not the correct or only way to spell it. . . . Well, you’re half right. It’s not the only way, but they are both ‘correct.’ ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2015, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-would-have-guessed-thats-how-you-spell-it/712754/63 "2015-02-17T15:29:37Z")
> [@vontsira](#): > > I’m over-reacting as above, to what I feel as over-reacting by you, to what I said – not meant nastily by me, just indicating “for me, life’s too short – for you, do what you will”. And I’m trying to make you aware that there are people out there who hear this kind of joking all the time and even if you personally don’t mean it nastily in one particular instance, it might have a cumulative effect of alienating people. And also that ultimately “your culture is too complicated for me to understand” is not really a very funny sentiment. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2015, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-would-have-guessed-thats-how-you-spell-it/712754/64 "2015-02-17T15:30:03Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > You mean it’s NOT “horse dooverz”? :o “Horse ovaries,” as my mother was wont to snark. I can never seem to spell Misssisssipppiiiii or Massachchcuusssettts on the first pass, either, no matter how hard I try. (I’m a visual speller and have to see the mistake before I can fix it.) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2015, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-would-have-guessed-thats-how-you-spell-it/712754/65 "2015-02-17T15:38:06Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > “Horse ovaries,” as my mother was wont to snark. > > I can never seem to spell Misssisssipppiiiii or Massachchcuusssettts on the first pass, either, no matter how hard I try. (I’m a visual speller and have to see the mistake before I can fix it.) Mississippi is easy for me (just double all the consonants except the first), but the one that always trips me up is Cincinnati. I have to remind myself that it’s “Cin-cin-nati.” I usually want to either double both the “n” and “t” or just double the “t.” ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2015, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-would-have-guessed-thats-how-you-spell-it/712754/66 "2015-02-17T16:22:21Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Mississippi is easy for me (just double all the consonants except the first) I love listening to someone spelling it in Spanish —MA-E-SA-SA-E-SA-SA-E-P-P-E — It sounds much more complicated than in English. > [@](#): > > , but the one that always trips me up is Cincinnati. I have to remind myself that it’s “Cin-cin-nati.” I usually want to either double both the “n” and “t” or just double the “t.” I had a Paul McCartney concert CD whose booklet spelled it with two Ts. I couldn’t open that booklet after that. ---
**Author:** ![JcWoman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jcwoman/32/2889_2.png) [@JcWoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JcWoman)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2015, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-would-have-guessed-thats-how-you-spell-it/712754/67 "2015-02-17T16:46:22Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > There’s, of course, plenty of British place names and surnames that fit this, one of my favorites being “Fanshaw” spelled as “Fetherstonhaugh.” I’ve noticed that the British love to smash words together. Worcestershire is “worstersher”, Leicestershire is “lestersher”, etc. Of course, we American’s try to follow suit in more provincial ways. I used to live in a town with a street called Orangeburg and locals would shorten it to “o-burg”. And a good way to get smacked in the face by someone is to call San Francisco “frisco”. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2015, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-would-have-guessed-thats-how-you-spell-it/712754/68 "2015-02-17T16:55:05Z")
> [@](#): > > I had a Paul McCartney concert CD whose booklet spelled it with two Ts. I couldn’t open that booklet after that. There’s a Jimmy Buffett song that has a background announcer calling him to the stage as “Jimmy Boo-fey.” Maybe he’s the one who did the CD jacket. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2015, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-would-have-guessed-thats-how-you-spell-it/712754/69 "2015-02-17T17:01:09Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > I love listening to someone spelling it in Spanish —MA-E-SA-SA-E-SA-SA-E-P-P-E — It sounds much more complicated than in English. 😕 Must be a comingling of dialectal variation and of trying to transliterate. It’s _eme - i - ese - otra ese - i - ese - otra ese - i - pe - otra pe - i_ (with different variations to deal with the repetition), or _misisipi, como suena pero con cuatro eses y dos pes_ (misisipi exactly as it sounds but with four s and two p). How is one supposed to pronounce a P by itself, with no vowels? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2015, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-would-have-guessed-thats-how-you-spell-it/712754/70 "2015-02-17T17:05:50Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > 😕 > > Must be a comingling of dialectal variation and of trying to transliterate. It’s _eme - i - ese - ese - i - ese - ese - i - pe - pe - i_ , or _eme - i - dos eses - i - otra vez dos eses - otra i más - dos pes - y otra i_, or _misisipi con cuatro eses y dos pes_. > > How is one supposed to pronounce a P by itself, with no vowels? 😕 (sigh) You’re going to make me explain a joke, aren’t you? If you’re an English speaker who doesn’t know how the alphabet sounds in Spanish, then it sounds like the way I wrote it out. The Spanish pronunciation of \*M[/i} — _eme_ — sounds in English like “M-A.” The Spanish pronunciation of “_I_” sounds like the English pronunciation of _E_. _P_ sounds reasonably similar in Spanish and English, so I left it the same. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2015, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-would-have-guessed-thats-how-you-spell-it/712754/71 "2015-02-17T17:09:04Z")
OK, so it’s indeed a bad attempt at transliteration, by someone who is hard of hearing. What do I win? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2015, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-would-have-guessed-thats-how-you-spell-it/712754/72 "2015-02-17T17:15:53Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > OK, so it’s indeed a bad attempt at transliteration, by someone who is hard of hearing. What do I win? Blue ribbon in the International Bad Sport Finals. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2015, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-would-have-guessed-thats-how-you-spell-it/712754/73 "2015-02-17T17:24:10Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > “Shee-vawn” is lovely to hear (that HAS to be from “Yvonne” or vice versa) No, it’s not. Siobhan is a feminine form of Sean (as is Sinead, via a different route), which is the Gaelic form of John. Yvonne is a feminine form of Yves, which comes from a word meaning ‘yew’. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2015, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-would-have-guessed-thats-how-you-spell-it/712754/74 "2015-02-17T17:26:40Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Blue ribbon in the International Bad Sport Finals. _takes her ribbon and carefully pins it to the Love Me Corkboard_ ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2015, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-would-have-guessed-thats-how-you-spell-it/712754/75 "2015-02-17T18:53:34Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > Well, you’re half right. It’s not the only way, but they are both ‘correct.’ Which is what I said. Just because English does not normally use accents does not mean that all words don’t use them. > [@pulykamell](#): > > Mississippi is easy for me (just double all the consonants except the first), but the one that always trips me up is Cincinnati. I have to remind myself that it’s “Cin-cin-nati.” I usually want to either double both the “n” and “t” or just double the “t.” Mississippi was drilled into out heads in grade school. I will have to try to remember your method for [del]Cinncinati[/del] [del]Cincinnatti[/del] Cincinnati. > [@JcWoman](#): > > And a good way to get smacked in the face by someone is to call San Francisco “frisco”. Don’t forget [fined $25](http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emperor_Norton) (which was more money back then). ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2015, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-would-have-guessed-thats-how-you-spell-it/712754/76 "2015-02-17T18:56:13Z")
Well, if we are going with place names, Absaroka Mountains are spelled kinda funny, and no one hearing the name “Puyallup” for the first time would guess it was spelt that way. ---
**Author:** ![jayrey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/47e85d/32.png) [@jayrey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayrey)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2015, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-would-have-guessed-thats-how-you-spell-it/712754/77 "2015-02-17T19:26:00Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > No, it’s not. Siobhan is a feminine form of Sean (as is Sinead, via a different route), which is the Gaelic form of John. Yvonne is a feminine form of Yves, which comes from a word meaning ‘yew’. Oh dear, now I need someone to pronounce Sinead for me. My stepson was named Sean, so that one’s easy for me. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2015, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-would-have-guessed-thats-how-you-spell-it/712754/78 "2015-02-17T19:42:49Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > And I’m trying to make you aware that there are people out there who hear this kind of joking all the time and even if you personally don’t mean it nastily in one particular instance, it might have a cumulative effect of alienating people. > > And also that ultimately “your culture is too complicated for me to understand” is not really a very funny sentiment. OK – I’m a lump of shit, and I duly abase myself – albeit I consider myself (English) a lover of my Celtic fellow-inhabitants of the British island group – notwithstanding what seems to me the strangeness of their languages (which I greatly hope may long survive as birth-speeches). I’m not religious – but Lent is coming up. I hereby punish myself by renouncing participation on the SDMB (which I greatly enjoy) from now until Easter Sunday, April 5th. After that – hopefully, a clean slate? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2015, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-would-have-guessed-thats-how-you-spell-it/712754/79 "2015-02-17T19:45:12Z")
> [@jayrey](#): > > Oh dear, now I need someone to pronounce Sinead for me. /ʃɪnʲeːdʲ/ — in English, it sounds like “shinaid” ---
**Author:** ![beatlejuice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a8b319/32.png) [@beatlejuice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beatlejuice)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2015, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-would-have-guessed-thats-how-you-spell-it/712754/80 "2015-02-17T20:17:08Z")
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