Two People Pronounce Something the same EXACT Way: but they have different accents so one is wrong

[Acsenray]

@Elemenopy

There was, I believe, an SNL skit about this a while back, about the office workers going for “enchiladas” and “chiles rellenos” with exaggerated Spanish accents.

My name is Antonio Mendoza … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGjty394oyw

[BigT]

@Jimmy_Chitwood

Yeah, the difference, to me, between Mary and merry is easily as stark as the difference between lunch and launch. I actually have no idea which of the three vowel sounds (Mary/merry/marry) people without the accent use to represent all three of those sounds, because when I try to replicate it, I’m choosing between one of three distinct ways of saying it, whereas I think people without the accent have some fourth way of doing it that is sort of in the middle.

I have the merger in my accent, and I’m pretty sure it’s “Mary.” Because I can, if I want to, say merry and marry differently than I normally would, using the vowels in bet and bat, respectively, but I cannot say “Mary” in any other way (a vowel similar to, but not quite the same as, that in bait. The difference is that it has no diphthong.)

Plus, frankly, I’ve always just thought I was saying a “long a” vowel in any of these situations. And the “long a” corresponds with Mary.

[septimus]

@Arcite

I think I can sort of understand not being able to make those three different sounds yourself, since we know you really have to learn how to make a particular sound in childhood to make it well. What I don’t get is how someone cannot even hear the difference, even when demonstrated by someone pronouncing the three different words in a deliberately exaggerated manner …

This is opposite to what I’ve read … and to my experience. Some new sounds (e.g. NG at beginning of words) I can hear but had to practice to pronounce. But other new sounds (unaspirated T, unaspirated P) I could learn to pronounce but still often need to inquire, 30 years later, to be sure which consonant I’ve just heard. Tones are easy to pronounce but I usually ignore them (inadvertantly) when listening.

[Alessan]

Anyway, back to the OP:

My name’s Josh. People call me that both in English and in Hebrew. However, in English, it’s pronounced the usual way (“Jaash”), which in Hebrew, I insist on it being pronounced “Joshe” (it’s sort of between “Pause” and “Gush”. Hebrew vowels are different). If an Israeli calls me “Jaash”, I assume they’re making fun of American accents.

[JKellyMap]

@Alessan

Anyway, back to the OP:

My name’s Josh. People call me that both in English and in Hebrew. However, in English, it’s pronounced the usual way (“Jaash”), which in Hebrew, I insist on it being pronounced “Joshe” (it’s sort of between “Pause” and “Gush”. Hebrew vowels are different). If an Israeli calls me “Jaash”, I assume they’re making fun of American accents.

Similarly, Spanish speakers are better off pronouncing my name (John) by imagining a Spanish word chan – the only difference is the voicing of the initial consonant – rather than struggling with the misleading letters “j” and “o,” which imply very different sounds in Spanish than their English equivalents.