Favorite Quotes (2 Viewers)

[Mark_]

Back on topic....

"Everyone wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant" - Cary Grant.

 

[CJ_London]

I find place name pronunciation interesting- there is a town in England called Ashby-de-la- Zouch, pronounced ‘zoosh’ a few miles away from there is a village called Zouch, pronounced ‘zotch’

I was in my thirties when my pronunciation of Arkansas was corrected from ‘ar Kansas’ to ‘ark in saw’. Hope I got that right

 

[DickyP]

Not to mention that here in Norfolk we have a village spelled Happisburgh, but pronounced as if spelled Haisborough, like like the nearby Haisborough Sands is spelled!

We also have a part of Norwich spelled Costessy, but pronounced locally as Cossy, This caused mirth locally last year when a crime occurred and was reported of the BBC New as happening in COST-ESSY as it is spelled. Within 24 hours, obviously following complaints, they almost got the pronunciation right.

 

[KitaYama]

I sometimes think people in countries where English is the native language have too much free time to write letters they don’t even pronounce.

I’ll never understand why you should write a letter and then just skip it when speaking.
Letters were invented to make words and using them for communication, not to be ignored.
The first time our teacher told us that the S in island is not pronounced, we were like: “Haaa???? You're kidding me.”

Knight.
Through.
Queueing.
Wednesday.

Here's another one:
The psychologist listened to the knight’s subtle answer while they stood in a long queue.

Now count how many letters you didn’t pronounce.

 

[NauticalGent]

H

Not to mention that here in Norfolk...

Here in Virginia, the residents of the Tidewater area (where Norfolk is), the locals pronounce it "nor-Fick". We sailors had a few more burlesque ways of pronouncing it...

 

[DickyP]

....
Queueing.
..

A common pub quiz question - what is the only 5 letter word in English with 4 silent letters? Queue.

Then you could try the eccentric names: Mainwaring - pronounced Mannering, and Featherstonehaugh pronounced Fanshaw! Plus place names such as Wymondham pronounced Wind -am.

 

[RonPaii]

Manitowoc, a city in Manitowoc county, Wisconsin

MAN-it-ə-wok

 

[DickyP]

You can go on forever in England with this. One more post and I'll stop. Leicester pronounced Lester, and Derby pronounced Darby.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Then in south Louisiana, we have Yscloskey, a village (of sorts) where the first S is silent - why-closs-key. We also have Nachitoches, pronounced Nak-a-tish (trailing ES totally silent) not too far from Nacadoches, where you DO pronounce the trailing ES, as Nak-a-do-ches.

Part of our problem is that a lot of our place names were taken from the names used by the native Americans of the Choctaw nation, but the Choctaw language is not a written language, so the French explorers had to transliterate spoken Choctaw to written French. Which leads us to such strange names as Tchopitoulas (meaning "people who live by the water"). Or Bogue Chitto - black squirrel creek.

I was always amused by the UK place called Cholmondeley - pronounced chum-lee, or so I've been told. My ancestry research tells me that I have at least some ancestors from Worchestershire, which we pronounce woost-er-sheer.

I guess it could be worse.