# Pronunciations that make your skin crawl **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 25, 2007, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430 "2007-03-25T16:16:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![IGJoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/igjoe/32/5420_2.png) [@IGJoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IGJoe)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/61 "2007-03-26T01:48:11Z")
[QUOTE=zelie zelerton] PS: I have never heard the guy say it but he appears to be using the British pron. for Wednesday. Cept we are more ‘Wednzday’ without drawing out that middle bit too much. [/QUOTE] Yes, and actually it sounds fine to me to hear someone with a natural British accent say it that way. Just, y’see, Lloyd isn’t British. When _he_ says it, it just sounds pretentious. ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/62 "2007-03-26T04:01:20Z")
[QUOTE=fachverwirrt] No, it’s not. First, “in” in French is a nasalized [E], not [o]. Second, the “ie” ending would be pronounced \*, not [e]. **Usram** ’s pronunciation is pretty close, although the middle syllable ought to be more or less dropped. [/QUOTE] As a francophone, I agree with you. ---
**Author:** ![Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/c4cdca/32.png) [@Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quiddity_Glomfuster)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/63 "2007-03-26T04:14:39Z")
[QUOTE=severus] As a francophone, I agree with you. [/QUOTE] Bah. Maybe it’s been too long since I’ve shopped in Montreal. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/64 "2007-03-26T08:24:01Z")
[QUOTE=Colophon] I agree. My mother insists on pronouncing “suit” as “sYOOt”, and so on. There really is no call for that intrusive Y sound. [/QUOTE] My parents do that as well. And “tYuna” for tuna. If we’re getting into archaic stuff, my grandmother pronounced “margarine” with a hard G, and “tissue” with an S sound not an SH. And my grandfather pronounced “golf” as “goff”. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/65 "2007-03-26T09:51:53Z")
The Received Pronunciation version of “Jaguar” in same car company’s ads. Especially since the company is American. The schwa inserted at random into two-syllable words to make them three-syllable words. “Real-a-tor” was mentioned, and “ath-a-letic” and “arth-a-ritic” are other irritating ones. > [@Usram](#): > > pruh-MEER rather than PREM-ee-air > > IZ-ril or IZ-reel rather than IZ-rayel Sounds like an American/British distinction to me. Do people say those both ways over there, too? > [@Zeldar](#): > > Kew-beck for instance. Tack-oh for another. Rye-oh Grand for yet another. I’ve never heard any of these. Do people actually use those pronunciations in TN? > [@Zeldar](#): > > I’ve even heard it as Nick-a-rag-you-er with that little Boston touch at the end. It really bugged me the other day when I saw a soccer game between Newcastle United and (I believe) Southampton and the (British) commentator kept calling Australian forward Mark Viduka “Viduker”. I was familiar with the player but it took me a while to figure out what he was saying. > [@Zeldar](#): > > as compared with Chee-lay That’s the authentic pronunciation, though. > [@elfkin477](#): > > most people from Maine and nearby say “Bane-gore” so it should be said that way when speaking of that specific town, no? How on earth do you expect people from the other 49 states to get “Bane-gore” out of “Banger”? You Northeasterners are weird, with your Worcesters and your Bangers. We ought to just give you all back to the British empire. 😉 > [@Usram](#): > > But there’s no excuse for “lon-zheray” (lingerie). That’s how I’ve always heard it. How are you supposed to pronounce it? > [@Zeldar](#): > > If anybody calls the Alabama city “MO-beel” or “Mo-buhl” I know they have nothing to say of interest to me. It’s “Mo-BEEL” if you want to know. The San Diego Padres have a minor league team there, so the more hardcore baseball fans here talk about the city every once on a while, and it’s always “MO-beel”. May be a regional thing, but I’d never heard of the stress on the second syllable before now. BTW, what’s up with the overpronounced H in “wh-” words? And the “H” that gets thrown in before “Ramon”? > [@jjimm](#): > > And my grandfather pronounced “golf” as “goff”. That one sounds like an American talking quickly, to me. A lot of my basketball teammates in high school dropped "L"s and "R"s whenever they got the chance (from “hole”, “forward”, etc.) ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/66 "2007-03-26T10:05:53Z")
SPEE-Sheez JEZH-oo-it PAR-me-zhahn ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/67 "2007-03-26T10:16:48Z")
[QUOTE=fetus] > [@Usram](#): > > pruh-MEER rather than PREM-ee-air > > IZ-ril or IZ-reel rather than IZ-rayel Sounds like an American/British distinction to me. [/QUOTE] Yes, it probably is. I hear “pruh-meer” most in American-voiced film trailers and the like. It could be a question of America and Britain having different second languages - you’re more familiar with Spanish, which is why you wince at Brits saying Nick-a-rag-you-uh, whereas we’re more _au fait_ with French. I’ve never heard a Brit pronounce “premiere” pruh-MEER. Although come to think of it, that first vowel might be closer to the French than the British PREM-ee-air. The American attempt at the second syllable is all wrong though. Maybe the US version is an Anglicisation and, as such, excusable. “Israel” is always pronounced IZ-rail here (occasionally IZ-ray-el if you want to sound biblical). [ETA] Re “lingerie”, see posts above. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/68 "2007-03-26T12:10:57Z")
[QUOTE=fetus] That one sounds like an American talking quickly, to me. A lot of my basketball teammates in high school dropped "L"s and "R"s whenever they got the chance (from “hole”, “forward”, etc.) [/QUOTE] He was Scots northern Irish via 50 years in the British Navy (IOW very posh English). The explanation would make sense if he had pronounced “wolf” as “woof” though, but he didn’t. I think it’s a genuine archaic pronunciation of the game. I recall a conversation with his sister, my great aunt, who kept on saying “goff”. I said “surely you mean ‘golf’” and she replied “I think most goffers would disagree with you.” No answer to that! ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/69 "2007-03-26T15:35:09Z")
The one that always used to bug me was when Johnny Carson pronounced it “POO-berty.” I don’t know if he was just being funny, but it annoyed the heck out of me. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/70 "2007-03-26T15:51:00Z")
LIE-berry for library. That first r must be invisible to some. EYE-tal-yun for Italian. People who say this are not from EYE-taly. Electorial College. Nuff said. is-RYE-el for Israel in The First Noel. boogers pronounced like boo-gers. I have no idea how to type how it should be said. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/71 "2007-03-26T20:36:33Z")
CHOCK-lut instead of CHALK-let candy bars Las Vegas Nee VAH dah instead of Nuh Vaa Duh San-TEE instead of San-ta Claus EYE-talian regarding things from Italy. FLAHR uh duh instead of FLOOR i duh where kids go for spring break. ---
**Author:** ![Polerius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d78d45/32.png) [@Polerius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polerius)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/72 "2007-03-26T21:31:22Z")
[QUOTE=Zeldar] Even if a dictionary accepts a pronunciation as okay, there are some that strike me as precious, snooty, faux-intellectual or just annoying. … Any that bug you like this? [/QUOTE] [An 'istoric](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=413692) ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/73 "2007-03-26T23:07:47Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] 1. Irish people who pronounce ‘column’ as ‘koll-yume’. Like nails down a blackboard. 2. The British non-rhotic intrusive r: ‘drawing’ pronounced ‘dro-ring’ and ‘America-r-is a big country’. Like a clown dancing on my granny’s grave. [/QUOTE] So you’d go bats watching the _New Yankee Workshop_ and hearing Norm Abram describing how there’s a measured drahwr-ring available for sale and there’ll be more information on that at the end of the program. And even more bats when he’s building something like a dresser and how he’s cutting the dovetails to make the drahwrs. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/74 "2007-03-27T00:36:14Z")
[QUOTE=Dr. Rieux] JEZH-oo-it [/QUOTE] Really? Having gone to a…well, one of _those_ high schools, I heard it both ways just about equally. I suppose I’m more of a JE-zoo-it guy myself. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/75 "2007-03-27T00:43:31Z")
[QUOTE=BobLibDem] LIE-berry for library. That first r must be invisible to some. [/QUOTE] Holy Hypatia, yes. I’ve known educated people who say “lib’arian”. Every time I want to inform them that I’m not a descendant of former slaves who were returned to Africa, thank you very much (not that there’s anything wrong with that). I used to work in a lib’ary where the admin assistant said "lib’ary everytime she answered the phone or otherwise had to say the word. You’d be amazed how many _@#_($ed times you have to say “lib’ary” when you work in a _@#_(U(8&\*@ing lib’ary. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/76 "2007-03-27T01:00:51Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > LIE-berry for library. That first r must be invisible to some. Don’t forget the people who drop the “S” in “specific”. > [@DMark](#): > > CHOCK-lut instead of CHALK-let candy bars Those two sound exactly the same to most Californians, myself included. It’s hard to imagine how you’re supposed to pronounce them differently. As a linguistics major currently studying phonetics I think I can approximate it, but I’m sure it’d still sound exactly the same to me. ---
**Author:** ![Aholibah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Aholibah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aholibah)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/77 "2007-03-27T01:15:27Z")
I know this is a regional thing, and there’s really no reason why it should get up my nose the way it does, but I cannot stand to hear the word pronounced 'IN-shernce" rather than “in-SHORE-unce.” Several of the announcers on the local NPR station use the former pronunciation and it causes me to gnash my teeth every time. ---
**Author:** ![Neptunian\_Slug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce7236/32.png) [@Neptunian\_Slug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neptunian_Slug)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/78 "2007-03-27T01:53:12Z")
[QUOTE=Aholibah] I know this is a regional thing, and there’s really no reason why it should get up my nose the way it does, but I cannot stand to hear the word pronounced 'IN-shernce" rather than “in-SHORE-unce.” Several of the announcers on the local NPR station use the former pronunciation and it causes me to gnash my teeth every time. [/QUOTE] I hear that a lot as well. Yuck. The one that bugs me the most is DEE-troit as opposed to De-TROIT. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/79 "2007-03-27T02:01:47Z")
[QUOTE=fetus] How on earth do you expect people from the other 49 states to get “Bane-gore” out of “Banger”? You Northeasterners are weird, with your Worcesters and your Bangers. We ought to just give you all back to the British empire. 😉 [/QUOTE] Noooo… “Banger” is the annoying pronunciation, and Bangor the proper spelling of the town’s name. ---
**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:** [March 27, 2007, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/80 "2007-03-27T02:06:11Z")
[QUOTE=fetus] Don’t forget the people who drop the “S” in “specific”. Those two sound exactly the same to most Californians, myself included. It’s hard to imagine how you’re supposed to pronounce them differently. As a linguistics major currently studying phonetics I think I can approximate it, but I’m sure it’d still sound exactly the same to me. [/QUOTE] I believe the difference is the first vowel, i.e. “ah” vs “aw”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430.md?page=5)