Nothing wrong with using IPA as long as you also specify it in other ways.
The current accepted (American?) pronunciation: /ˈlɪ.nəks/ LINN-nucks
The original “official” American pronunciation: /ˈlaɪ.nəks/ LYE-nucks
The original pronunciation: /'li.nəks/ LEE-nucks
Honestly, I hear the first pronunciation from everyone. I think people just settled on a single pronunciation that worked for everyone, rather than basing it on the pronunciation of the name Linus.
It typically precedes another word/phrase but it doesn’t have to be a place. I know of parishes/schools named “Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal” , “ of Wisdom” , “of the Assumption” ,etc.
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Anyways, my contribution: dour. Everyone I know says it to rhyme with sour that I’ve ever heard, but I’ve been told repeatedly that the correct pronunciation is like the word doer (as in, someone who does something.)
I will also continue to say sherbert, because people don’t understand me if I say sherbet.
Something that I remember from college lectures - possibly the only thing - concerns the unit of energy, the Joule.
Everyone I know pronounces it in what you might call “the French manner” - something approximating to zhool.*
The lecturer made the reasonable point that this was a strange thing to do to the name of James Prescott Joule of Salford (Manchester, England). Furthermore (our lecturer insisted) he would have pronounced his name Jowl; as, indeed, the name of the family brewery, still in existence, is pronounced (he said).
https://www.joulesbrewery.co.uk/our-story
I’m not from Manchester, so I can’t tell you if the pronunciation (re the brewery) is accurate. Any Mancs in?
Now, regarding Henry George Kilogram…
j
Ah, a north-easterner thing then, I’ve not lived or even visited that part of the country. Regarding the chaise, I know what chaise longue is and where comes from.
This ain’t France, french rules of pronunciation and syntax don’t apply. Going by your peeve, should we be speaking latin, French, German, old english, high, middle or low english, Dutch, spanish, Portuguese, Mexican, any number of native American languages, or Basque? Thai? Japanese? Chinese, vietnamese, laotian? Modern English is a polyglot language. Demanding that words adopted from other languages maintain the pronunciation and meaning from the parent language is futile at best and makes you look out of touch and snotty (or worse) at worst.
The word “Diphthong,” which, ironically, refers to pronunciation, is usually pronounced “Dip-thong,” which is simply wrong. It’s “diff-thong.” (Look at how it’s spelled.)
“Diphtheria” is usually mispronounced the same way.
I would, but I have learned that no matter how much it bothers me, it’s not going to change, so I just let it go unless it comes up in a thread like this.
And Mr. Dibble, “Scots” in Modern English refers to the people of Scotland. The people of the tribe Scotti are usually referred to as the Scotti.
But “Celt(ic)” is one of those things that is contentious no matter how you slice it.
I know what it means in French. In English, it’s gibberish. Which is why I prefer that it be acknowledged (and pronounced) as a French term.
I care.
What’s up with people saying TOO-meric for the trendy spice TUR-meric? Do they not see the “R”?
What’s messy about it? Or do you just speak from ignorance? It’s only incomprehensible to those who refuse to take the brief time it takes to learn it.
Do those people not understand you if you say “anyway”?
Also with phenolphthalein.
Then there’s lutein, touted as an eye-health supplement. It’s properly pronounced loo-tee-in. Does anyone else remember protein being pronounced as pro-tee-in? It was in the days of my youth, in old black and white health class movies!
Now, on to the oo words, such as zoology, oogenesis, ootheca, spermatozoon, and so on- the Os are pronounced separately!!! (spermatozoon, so on rhymes!)
I’ve experimented and when I say “surebit,” with my peers, they’re like “what the fuck are you talking about?” for the most part. The ones who don’t take a beat or two to figure it out, so why would I do that to them, if my dialect prefers “sure-burt”? Similarly, I know it’s broosketta, but, unless I’m at some fancy pants Italian restaurant, I say brooshetta, because that’s what the majority of people say. It’s not about right or wrong, for me. It’s about being most immediately understood with a given audience.
Bolding mine. Because he lived and worked in France? Don’t know if that’s the answer, but it’s my WAG. Didn’t he do most of his notable work while in Arles?
One that bugs me more than it probably should is “bona fides”, with the second word pronounced as one syllable. English “bona” is usually reasonably close to the original Latin, but “fides” is “FEE-days”.
And I don’t think I’ve ever heard “Joule” pronounced in the French way-- It always gets an English J (dzh).
My high school biology teacher, back in the early 80s, pronounced protein like that. I also had a college chemistry professor who pronounced “iodine” as I-o-deen. When someone asked him about it, he pointed out that -een is how you pronounce chlorine, bromine, and fluorine, so why should iodine be different?
In my head it’s always been akin to “pool” or “cool.”
Wow, I’m a stickler for good grammar, but MAN have I been pronouncing a lot of words wrong! Dipthong, too-meric, the Joole, Linnucks, mischee-vee-us … I’m so sorry! Though if I pronounce them correctly, no one will understand… or they’ll think I’m a snob.
Okay, as of this moment I am going to stop saying “sherbet” or “sherburt”… I’ll order ice cream instead.
I think I can avoid most of these words… I don’t need to refer to anyone’s “bona fides”, I’ll just mention their credentials. I won’t ask my wife where the “too-meric” or the “tuR-meric” is, I’ll go root around the spice cabinet on my own.
Want me to talk about the Celtics or Notre Dame? Nope, don’t have to.
It’s certainly not the case that the “correct” English pronunciation (to the extent that that’s even a concept that means anything) is the pronunciation of the word in the language from which it made its way to English.
Some googling suggests that a modest majority of American English speakers prefer “kyoo” to “koo”. That’s good evidence for a “both are correct” position, as far as I’m concerned.
The only incorrect pronunciations are those that don’t lead to your meaning being understood. If that means they don’t match the dictionaries, that means the dictionaries are wrong (outdated).