Speak for yourself - some of us pronounce it [ˈɣʌudaː] and that initial sound is not “gh”
The one that drives me crazy the most is nucUlar (nuclear).
Though i work in the nuclear industry so i probably hear it more often than normal. Most bizarre is when i hear very smart people that have worked most of their adult life in the nuclear industry say nucular. Like nails on a chalkboard to me. Everytime time it makes me think of the Simpsons gag about this mispronunciation.
Thank you. I will keep that in mind for further language related threads. To hijack back to the subject of IPA, whenever I look at the Wiki page to try to figure a sound out it kind of throws me (stupid, I know). I think I’ll learn better paying attention to the way others here who know it use it.
That’s a good one, but your statement that everyone else callis ig “ghow-duh” is not true. In Polish, it’s something like “goh-dah” ( /ˈɡɔw da/ or possible /gɔʊ da/ to be more descriptive–as if it were written as gołda in Polish.) Czech has a similar pronunciation with the “hard g” and different vowel in the first syllable. According to the pronunciation samples by folks around the world (though in this one, they’re all European), the Germans, Swedes, Portuguese, and Finns also seem to pronounce the “g” as a “hard g” and disregard the “ow” diphthong. None of them pronounce it as the Dutch samples on that page. None of them hit the correct initial consonant (though they almost all have that phoneme in their language) and none use the “ow” /aʊ/ diphthong in the first syllable.
So it’s not just an American thing.
But, yeah, if I used that pronunciation at the cheese counter, unless I’m at a particularly specialist cheese store, I’d be met with puzzled looks if I said “how-duh.”
Another food item this happens with – although this one is particularly niche – is nduja, a type of spreadable spicy salami from Calabria. It’s become a bit of a trend food a few years ago, and I never now how to pronounce to anyone so I know I’m understood. AFAIK, it’s pronounced as “en-DOO-yah” with a “swallowed e”/first syllable. IPA it’s /(ə)nˈduːjə/. You can hear two native pronunciations here. I was at an Italian deli the other day and wanted to order a half pound of the stuff to take home. So I tell the Italian-American person behind the deli counter that I want the “n-DOO-yah or however you say it.” He’s like “oh, that’s NOODGE-uh” /nu: dʒə/. That pronunciation inverts the order of the “n” and “u” in the word. The guys who actually make it here in Franklin Park call it “n-doo-zhuh” /(e)n du: ʒə/. (I’m going to guess that’s perhaps a dialect pronunciation, as it otherwise sounds like the Italian samples above.)
So I just go with whatever will make me best understood. I don’t particularly worry about what the original or “correct” pronunciation is. I go with “what pronunciation is the person I’m talking with most likely, with littlest effort, be able to understand?” And I do this with English words when speaking in foreign languages as well. “Chicago” becomes “chee-cah-go” /tʃi ka gɔ/ in Polish, for instance. English words gets Slavicized when I speak Polish; Polish words become Anglicized when I speak English.
I am: I never objected to the pronunciation, just the sporting habit of making nouns from adjectives derived from nouns.
And Johanna is right about IPA: very easy to check sounds & cut & paste symbols from wikipedia, but old habits die hard.
Maybe, but I’m not going to paste something that looks like gibberish to me, nor am I going to fake the professional jargon of a profession I have no training in.
Hear, hear.
Surprised that this thread has gotten to three pages without anyone bringing up two of my linguistic peeves: “man-ayze” for mayonnaise (may-on-ayze), “car-mel” for caramel (car-ah-mel), and “chok-lat” for chocolate (chok-oh-lat).
I’m from Minnesota and most of us say sherbert. It wasn’t until I was in my 30’s that I was told it was sherbet. I never even noticed how it was spelled on the containers. I still have a very hard time saying sherbet. It doesn’t seem right to me.
In another thread, I mentioned how I hate when people say jag-wire instead of jay-gwar.
Almost everybody on the Food Network has a hard time with Worcestershire sauce.
Woo-ster-shur. Is that the current British pronunciation?
More like “chock-lit” to me, but, guilty as charged! Same with the two-syllable pronunciation of “caramel.” I actually used to say it with three syllables, as that’s how I always read it as a kid, but switched to the two-syllable pronunciation when I realized they were the same thing (as that was the dialect pronunciation.) There are times, though, when I use the three-syllable pronunciation, though, like describing the oozy stuff in a candy bar. I’m guessing that’s because that’s what they call it on commercials. But “caramel corn” is always “carmel corn” (“care-uh-mel corn” just sounds all sorts of weird and wrong to me) and “caramelization” is “carmelization.” But describe a Snickers bar and it’s “creamy care-uh-mel layer” and that sounds perfectly fine to me. Heck, if “colonel” can lose a syllable and switch a consonant, “carmel” for “caramel” is fine with me.
That’s close enough for government business. You can find samples here if you want to be more accurate. The first syllable is perhaps a bit closer to an American “uh” sound instead of an “oo” sound (/wʌs/ instead of /wʊs/) and the rest of the vowels are schwas and the “r” may or may not be pronounced depending on whether you have a rhothic vs non-rhotic accent.
I wonder if that’s less pronouncing a French “j” than an attempt to pronounce an Italian “gia” , which would be different than the English pronunciation of those letters. ( in English that would be two syllables, in Italian , I’m pretty sure it’s just one as the “ia” is a diphthong)
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And at least one of the chefs says “horsh radish.”
When I was ten and taking a painting class for the first time, I had never seen the name before, and pronounced it with hard ‘g’ sounds. Needless to say, I got laughed out of class and can still feel the embarrassment today. Seems I was closer to the true pronunciation than everyone who laughed at me.
I thought of another one…Eye-talian. UGH! Are you Eyetalian? No, I’m Italian. Would you like Eyetalian dressing? Nope, I’ll have Italian dressing.
The one that actually bothers me is “often.” You don’t soff-ten the butter, do you? The t is silent! This is a nasty, hypercorrect spelling pronunciation!
Of course, it’s also a historically correct pronunciation—the -t- is in the spelling for a reason. And I myself say “fore-head” instead of “forrid” which is the same issue. So: hypocrisy. Sue me.
Clapboard - pronounced “clabbered,” which is milk that has curdled.
All I have to say about this thread is my favorite inside joke meme, “sounds like prescriptivism but ok”
Anyway, linguistic prescriptivist snobs: get out, realize language changes over time, and that’s normal.
I’m with you on this.
One that gets me in trouble: 'Forte' is correctly pronounced 'fort,' which is how I say it, unless referring to the musical term meaning strong or loud, in which case it is pronounced, 'fortay.'
I get "corrected" on this a lot. I recognize the battle is already lost, but I just can't help it. Drilled into me by 2 parents who were English majors/newspaper reporters.For what it’s worth, I have heard people here in S. GA pronounce soften as soft-en.