Pedants' Paradise, Spelling and Grammar Notes and Queries Options

[chocolatedog]

Reminds me of the old joke about a little girl who had to write a short story using the word "frugal". She looked it up in the dictionary and saw that it meant "saving, or the essence of saving" (or some such kind of phrase). So her short story read as follows:
A girl was walking along a river bank when suddenly she fell in. As she was struggling in the water, a handsome prince rode by on his horse. "Frugal me! Frugal me!", she screamed. So he frugalled her and they lived happily ever after.........

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)
Last week one of our local Grammer schools had an open night. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

Oh dear! I'm shocked that a grammar school can't even spell itself correctly........ (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif)

Many years ago I recall a problem when the product 'Vick' was going to be launched in Germany, they had to call it 'Wick', otherwise it would sound like a naughty word.

And I understand that the Rolls Royce Silver Cloud was originally going to be marketed as the Silver Mist.

Unfortunately in Germany, mist (or misst? / mi?t possibly? - someone may like to correct this if I'm wrong) means something else and they had to rethink the name.

(wonder if that will come out on a forum post!)

(ed, no, it didn't)

yup. Mist is dung.
I can't say "brawn" for Braun - it just feels wrong to do so.

Menzies/Mingies - actually there are some families who do pronounce it Men-zees - in the neck of the woods in which I work, I have to ask which pronunciation people want. There is also the name Lamont, which people persistently pronounced La-mont, where locally it'd be pronounced Lamment, with the stress on the first syllable.
More Scottish ones - Cockburn....co-burn, and Milngavie.... moo-guy. On the other hand, Scots also pronounce "wh" with a blowing noise, so that where and wear sound different from each other.

At the moment I have fun and games with our many immigrant patients' names - I found a website which will generate for me a pronunciation for anything Polish I care to throw at it, but we also have many Africans: sometimes I find myself rehearsing a name three or four times before attempting to produce it in the waiting room: one time I got the very surprised reply, "hey, that was rather good, do it again".....but couldn't (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif).

About pronunciations ........ We once heard Dolgellau pronounced on the radio precisely as written, rather than how it's pronounced by the welsh, and my grandma was very confused when she was asked once by a frenchman about a place called "soo-tum-tun". Turns out he was asking about Southampton........ (IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif)

[linda.ff]

About pronunciations ........ We once heard Dolgellau pronounced on the radio precisely as written, rather than how it's pronounced by the welsh, and my grandma was very confused when she was asked once by a frenchman about a place called "soo-tum-tun". Turns out he was asking about Southampton........ (IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif)

There have been Americans heard looking for Loogabarooga, which although it sounds like somewhere in Australia, is actually Loughborough

[Tenor Viol]

About pronunciations ........ We once heard Dolgellau pronounced on the radio precisely as written, rather than how it's pronounced by the welsh, and my grandma was very confused when she was asked once by a frenchman about a place called "soo-tum-tun". Turns out he was asking about Southampton........ (IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif)

There have been Americans heard looking for Loogabarooga, which although it sounds like somewhere in Australia, is actually Loughborough

There are lots of those! National BBC stations always have difficulties with local pronunciations. Liverpool has two - Childwall and Aigburth - which are pronounced Chilled-wall and Egg-berth.

The Loughborough one is quite well known.

Although I don't speak Welsh, I do try to pronounce place names with Welsh pronunciation as best as a non-speaker can - the basic rules aren't that hard (the principle ones being to handle "ll" "d" "dd" "f" and "ff").

I had to give a talk to a local group in North Wales up towards Bangor a few years ago - they were pleased that I at least tried pronoouncing the local place names and that I was somewhere near - or at least as near as a non-speaker can approximate. One should at least try.

[Maizie]

When I was on the train to Oxford last weekend, I was sat next to some Americans who were getting ready to change trains at Slow (Slough)

But it's no surprise when you look at the different ways of pronouncing "ough"
thorough
through
though
thought
tough
bough
...

[linda.ff]

There are lots of those! National BBC stations always have difficulties with local pronunciations. Liverpool has two - Childwall and Aigburth - which are pronounced Chilled-wall and Egg-berth.

O have a daughter living in Aigburth. It's an awful name. Described by Ma Boswell in Bread as being a place so posh that they use knives and forks to pick their noses. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Please don't look up the definition of Aigburth in The Meaning of Liff http://folk.uio.no/alied/TMoL.html

I mean, please don't (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif)

[Arundodonuts]

Although I don't speak Welsh, I do try to pronounce place names with Welsh pronunciation as best as a non-speaker can - the basic rules aren't that hard (the principle ones being to handle "ll" "d" "dd" "f" and "ff").

Doesn't help with the "au" in Dolgellau.

Then there are delights such as crag and mountain names - e.g. "Clogwyn Du'r Arddu" and "Pen Llithrig y Wrach".

[Little Elf]

When I was on the train to Oxford last weekend, I was sat next to some Americans who were getting ready to change trains at Slow (Slough)

But it's no surprise when you look at the different ways of pronouncing "ough"
thorough
through
though
thought
tough
bough
...

When I was at university in Nottingham there was a perennial joke on local radio that there were 81 pronunciations of the word "Loughborough". My favourite was the made up one Loogy Boroogy (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

They also went through some other words with two different "ough" sounds in but switched them around. My favourite of those was the american word "snowplow". I still call it a s-now-ploh

edit: I see my first point has already been mentioned. sorry about that.

[Tenor Viol]

There are lots of those! National BBC stations always have difficulties with local pronunciations. Liverpool has two - Childwall and Aigburth - which are pronounced Chilled-wall and Egg-berth.

O have a daughter living in Aigburth. It's an awful name. Described by Ma Boswell in Bread as being a place so posh that they use knives and forks to pick their noses. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Please don't look up the definition of Aigburth in The Meaning of Liff http://folk.uio.no/alied/TMoL.html

I mean, please don't (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif)

Aigburth: means "hill where oak trees grow from a mixture of Old Norse and Anglo-Saxon.

[Maizie]

Madejski. Madejski. Madejski. A surname, and the name of a stadium.

Yet again this morning I heard a sports presenter talk about Mr "Ma-jess-key". I suppose with Reading gonig back up to the Premier League I should get used to hearing it.

But it is ma-day-ski (as near as I can manage). Or just go for it completely phonetically and say mad-edge-ski if you must. But ma-jess-ski is definitely wrong - you haven't even bothered to read the letters in the correct order, if you're putting the E after the J!

(I say this with the authority of someone whose husband has worked regularly at the Madejski Stadium [and I think at least once met the man himself - though I'm pretty sure they didn't have a "how do you pronounce your surname?" conversation (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif))

[andante_in_c]

Madejski. Madejski. Madejski. A surname, and the name of a stadium.

Yet again this morning I heard a sports presenter talk about Mr "Ma-jess-key". I suppose with Reading gonig back up to the Premier League I should get used to hearing it.

But it is ma-day-ski (as near as I can manage). Or just go for it completely phonetically and say mad-edge-ski if you must. But ma-jess-ski is definitely wrong - you haven't even bothered to read the letters in the correct order, if you're putting the E after the J!

(I say this with the authority of someone whose husband has worked regularly at the Madejski Stadium [and I think at least once met the man himself - though I'm pretty sure they didn't have a "how do you pronounce your surname?" conversation (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif))

Off topic - although I agree! - we were recently shopping in Reading and saw a bus with Madejski as the destination. I remarked to Signor Dante-in-c that it must be the height of fame to have your name as a bus destination. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

[Arundodonuts]

Madejski. Madejski. Madejski. A surname, and the name of a stadium.

Yet again this morning I heard a sports presenter talk about Mr "Ma-jess-key". I suppose with Reading gonig back up to the Premier League I should get used to hearing it.

I think part of the training is mispronunciation. David Vine used to wind me up on Ski Sunday.

[maggiemay]

Quote from our local paper (online version)

About ?500,000 worth of damage was caused to the block and the Guinness Trust lost around ?40,000 worth of rent because the seven flats were inhabitable.

erm ............. ok then.

[JamesK]

My friend a fews ago pronounced "picturesque" as "picture-skew" in his german class.

I can't ever spell original correctly without looking it up.

[jm-hamilton]

My friend a fews ago pronounced "picturesque" as "picture-skew" in his german class.

I can't ever spell original correctly without looking it up.

For years I always thought "misled" was pronounced "mizzled", and I used to pronounce "cotoneaster" (the plant) as "cotton easter", much to my mother-in-law's amusement.

[Swell Box]

About pronunciations ........ We once heard Dolgellau pronounced on the radio precisely as written, rather than how it's pronounced by the welsh, and my grandma was very confused when she was asked once by a frenchman about a place called "soo-tum-tun". Turns out he was asking about Southampton........ (IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif)

There have been Americans heard looking for Loogabarooga, which although it sounds like somewhere in Australia, is actually Loughborough

There are lots of those! National BBC stations always have difficulties with local pronunciations. Liverpool has two - Childwall and Aigburth - which are pronounced Chilled-wall and Egg-berth.

We have quite a few place names up here in the north-east which are not pronounced in quite the way that a southerner such as I would expect!

However, I was told a wonderful story by the Sub Postmaster at our local Post Office, concerning a rather well-to-do lady who runs a small mail order business. Apparently she had sent a parcel to an address near to Croydon in Surrey, and had written the address down exactly as it had been pronounced by the caller. She was quite put out when the parcel was retuned undelivered, with a note saying that there was no such address as Fort Neath in the Croydon postal district. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

SB