# Pronunciations I have learned... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 19, 2007, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-i-have-learned/426995 "2007-11-19T03:03:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Northern\_Thalia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ba8739/32.png) [@Northern\_Thalia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Thalia)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2007, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-i-have-learned/426995/41 "2007-11-20T19:46:11Z")
You can often find my grandmother “warshing” dishes at the “zink” ---
**Author:** ![E.Thorp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@E.Thorp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E.Thorp)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2007, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-i-have-learned/426995/42 "2007-11-20T20:55:13Z")
I’ve been told my pronunciations of ‘umbrella’ and ‘Thanksgiving’ (stress on the first syllable instead of the second) are quite unusual. I got them from my mother (from western PA) but maybe she’s just unusual too. My wife and I have a private pronunciation joke/tic: ‘foilage’ for ‘foliage’. I just know I’m going to slip up and say it wrong in some important public forum. ---
**Author:** ![Ms.Pumpkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a87d85/32.png) [@Ms.Pumpkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms.Pumpkin)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2007, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-i-have-learned/426995/43 "2007-11-20T23:03:47Z")
[QUOTE=Leaffan] A friend of mine has a funny story from buying shoes in Buffalo a few years back. The clerk asked him if he wanted the “backs?” The backs? Yes, the backs. Right there. There! The backs! Do you want the backs? In front of you! Right there! THE BACKS! . . . . . . . Ohhhhhh, the box! :smack: [/QUOTE] Reminds me of the time a customer kept asking me if we “do kappies”. I must’ve made her repeat herself about 3 times before _another customer_ translated that she was asking about photocopying. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2007, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-i-have-learned/426995/44 "2007-11-20T23:16:01Z")
[QUOTE=Leaffan] A friend of mine has a funny story from buying shoes in Buffalo a few years back. The clerk asked him if he wanted the “backs?” The backs? Yes, the backs. Right there. There! The backs! Do you want the backs? In front of you! Right there! THE BACKS! . . . . . . . Ohhhhhh, the box! :smack: [/QUOTE] One summer at Boy Scout camp, I had a Scottish counselor with a very thick brogue. When I went to do my swimming test, he asked me if I had my “tool”. “My what?” “Your tool.” “Huh?” “Your tool,” he said, and mimed drying himself off. I finally got it. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2007, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-i-have-learned/426995/45 "2007-11-21T00:08:58Z")
I just came into this thread to take care of bidness. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2007, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-i-have-learned/426995/46 "2007-11-21T00:19:05Z")
Oh and the [killdeer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killdeer) was always a “killdee” in my neck of Appalachia. I’ve never known why the ‘r’ gets dropped. (My north Georgia parents always used “chester drawers,” too.) ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2007, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-i-have-learned/426995/47 "2007-11-21T00:53:07Z")
[QUOTE=spoke-] I just came into this thread to take care of bidness. [/QUOTE] That’s a good’n. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2007, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-i-have-learned/426995/48 "2007-11-21T01:59:52Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] That’s a good’n. [/QUOTE] Well, I heared it once(t) or twice(t) growin’ up. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Purl_McKnittington)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2007, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-i-have-learned/426995/49 "2007-11-21T08:51:44Z")
[QUOTE=Joey P] In Wisconsin “Drinking fountain” is pronounced “Bubbler” [/QUOTE] That’s only you weirdoes in Milwaukee and northern Wisconsin. Residents here in the southwest say drinking or water fountain like civilized people. It’s “pop”, too, not “soda.” ---
**Author:** ![thirdwarning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecccb3/32.png) [@thirdwarning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdwarning)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2007, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-i-have-learned/426995/50 "2007-11-21T09:06:33Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] Hmm… **thirdwarning** , forty miles north or south? (Or west?) Maybe it’s an Irishism kept active on the south side and suburbs by the South Side Irish. I grew up in the south suburbs, and it was/is ubiquitous. [/QUOTE] Straight south. Farther than suburbs, though. Out in the boonies, so maybe it doesn’t go that far. I don’t know where this young man grew up, but I know he’s a city boy. The one I really noticed when I started getting acquainted with them city people (or south side people, maybe) was that they said “go by” when they meant “go to”. As in, “I went by Joe’s yesterday.” I always pictured them waving as they passed the house. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2007, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-i-have-learned/426995/51 "2007-11-21T14:27:37Z")
[QUOTE=wolfman] It was sadly recently that I learned a movie about someone was a “Bio-pic” rather than a “Bi-op-ic” [/QUOTE] I have an otherwise very clever former co-worker who refers to one of the big online travel sites by it’s Irish name. You know, _Travel O’City_. And, no, she ain’t kidding. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2007, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-i-have-learned/426995/52 "2007-11-21T16:14:05Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > Pronunciations I have learned… You mean _“learnt,”_ of course. The other day, I got stopped by the **POlice**. They wanted to make sure I have **INsurance**. ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2007, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-i-have-learned/426995/53 "2007-11-21T23:40:15Z")
[QUOTE=fachverwirrt] I will however, never stop chuckling at the pronunciation of Japan, MO. [/QUOTE] Nor will I over the pronunciations of: Miami, OK (my-am-uh) Orion, IL (or-ee-un) Milan, IL (my-lin) ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2007, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-i-have-learned/426995/54 "2007-11-21T23:45:29Z")
Jimmy Carter used to say, in addition to noo-kyoo-ler, Eye-rack. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2007, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-i-have-learned/426995/55 "2007-11-21T23:46:52Z")
[QUOTE=interface2x] Nor will I over the pronunciations of: Miami, OK (my-am-uh) Orion, IL (or-ee-un) Milan, IL (my-lin) [/QUOTE] There’s a “my-lin” in New Hampshire, too. Just north of “BER-lin”. Isn’t Cairo, IL pronounced “cay-ro”? ---
**Author:** ![Secret\_Volcano\_Lair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Secret\_Volcano\_Lair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Secret_Volcano_Lair)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2007, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-i-have-learned/426995/56 "2007-11-22T01:43:40Z")
I want to slap the shit out of my girlfriend’s mom every time I hear her say “brefix” instead of “breakfast”. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2007, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-i-have-learned/426995/57 "2007-11-22T02:10:57Z")
In Philadelphia it’s “brekfixt.” ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2007, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-i-have-learned/426995/58 "2007-11-22T17:10:18Z")
Are the things you cut out of the paper to save a quarter on cat food coopons or quepons? ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2007, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-i-have-learned/426995/59 "2007-11-23T01:14:05Z")
[QUOTE=picunurse] Are the things you cut out of the paper to save a quarter on cat food coopons or quepons? [/QUOTE] [Ron White] COO-pns [/Ron White] ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2007, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-i-have-learned/426995/60 "2007-11-23T01:23:42Z")
And **Nava** would probably have a fit if she heard how Torontonians pronounce Roncesvalles, which is a major street in west-central Toronto (in an area noted for a high Polish population), as well as being a [Navarrese battlefield](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roncesvalles): “RON-suss-VAILZ”. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-i-have-learned/426995.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-i-have-learned/426995.md?page=4)