Important notice from the GRAMMAR POLICE. Plz read. This means you.
rufio:
Heh - there is a street in Tucson called Goethe street, which the automated bus message ("Next Stop: Goethe street") apparently pronounces go-ee-thee street, though I've never actually taken the bus down there, so I wouldn't know first-hand.
Lorelei:
Quote from: DrNerd on 2009 July 13, 19:48:00
I wouldn't say that "labratory" is a mispronounciation. It's just the AMERICAN pronounciation. In Texas, "Houston" is pronounced "HYEW-st'n." In New York City, "Houston" is pronounced "HOWS-tun." One of those pronounciations isn't "right" and the other "wrong." They're both "right." It's just context-dependent.
ATL has a number of these "traps" for the unwary, notably "Ponce de Leon" street. Say a form approximating "pawhnz del ee OHN" and you're wrong. It's "pahnce DEE LEE on". "LaVista" is not "luh VIST-uh" it is "LAH VEE-stur."
Add to that the conflict between the educated and uneducated in ATL, and you get natives saying something wrong due to ignorance or accent, and other natives eye-rolling. It's not "SMEAR-neh" it is "SMUR-nah." It's not "Kenner-SAW" it's "KEN-eh-saw." And, "MAY-retta" is REALLY wrong, it is "MAHR-ee-et-uh." You can tell, after hearing a paragraph spoken out loud, approximately where in the area the speaker lives, their annual income, their degree of interest in pro sports and beer, likelihood of the speaker having unfortunate hair, and take a good stab at guessing their actual neck color. The "dropped -LY suffix" is yet another excellent indicator. You can also tell a lot from whether the speaker clearly enunciates "you all" and "all of you"--it is rare to see anyone in ATL who hasn't given up and adopted some form of "y'all"--or if the speaker chooses to use "yawl" and "allyawl." Other tell-tale words that are more "mountain folk" than true Southern, but have been adopted widely, sometimes knowingly, sometimes not: "critter," "Bubba," "varmint" and "idjit" for creature, brother, vermin and idiot.
New Orleans has a number of these verbal traps for the non-native, and not all are due to French language pronunciations slipping in, but I'll let a Louisiana native discuss that.
You can also become a laughingstock in England if you don't figure out there are language traps like "Cholmondeley," "Leicester" and "St. John" which sound roughly like "Chumley," "Lester" and "S'n j'n." Again, will let a Brit discuss that. I'm sure s/he'd have a lot of cringe-worthy errors to report.
The winner has to be Bexar County in Texas. It's not "BECKS ar". It's "bear." IIRC, the X comes from an old cattle brand design. At any rate, it's silent. If you don't live there or happen to know, you get outed as being "not from around these parts" instantly.
CheritaChen:
Quote from: rufio on 2009 July 13, 20:35:41
Heh - there is a street in Tucson called Goethe street, which the automated bus message ("Next Stop: Goethe street") apparently pronounces go-ee-thee street, though I've never actually taken the bus down there, so I wouldn't know first-hand.
Is it supposed to be named for Johann Wolfgang von Goethe? Or is it for some Arizonan whose family has never set foot in Germany? I mean, like I said above, I hate to just presume someone is being an idiot, you know? Also, if it's a synthesized voice, it may not have been programmed to handle non-American words or pronunciations, and if the machine's operator simply input the proper spelling, it's definitely funny but not the little computer-voice's fault. If that's the case, someone should have entered the street name phonetically. Again, though, that would presume that they actually cared about the pronunciation to begin with.
rufio:
Well, I'm not actually interested in poo-pooing anyone's pronunciation, computerized or not. I just thought it was funny.
CheritaChen:
Quote from: Lorelei on 2009 July 13, 20:56:26
You can tell, after hearing a paragraph spoken out loud, approximately where in the area the speaker lives, their annual income, their degree of interest in pro sports and beer, likelihood of the speaker having unfortunate hair, and take a good stab at guessing their actual neck color. The "dropped -LY suffix" is yet another excellent indicator. You can also tell a lot from whether the speaker clearly enunciates "you all" and "all of you"--it is rare to see anyone in ATL who hasn't given up and adopted some form of "y'all"--or if the speaker chooses to use "yawl" and "allyawl." Other tell-tale words that are more "mountain folk" than true Southern, but have been adopted widely, sometimes knowingly, sometimes not: "critter," "Bubba," "varmint" and "idjit" for creature, brother, vermin and idiot.
Having just visited good friends in an Atlanta suburb last month, I can testify to just about all of the above. My best friend was originally from Connecticut but lived in South Florida for a number of years before he went to college in Atlanta, where he met his wife. While they're both college graduates and smart people, she, as a native of a more quaint rural neighborhood, says "y'all" and "critter" regularly. He still sounds like a Yankee.
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New Orleans has a number of these verbal traps for the non-native, and not all are due to French language pronunciations slipping in, but I'll let a Louisiana native discuss that.
Beginning with the name of the city itself. It's not "New Or-leenz" or "New Or-lee-anz," it's "N'Ohlinz." At least that was my experience in my brief visits there. But they're forgiven because the place is (or at least, was :() so damn cool.
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You can also become a laughingstock in England if you don't figure out there are language traps like "Cholmondeley," "Leicester" and "St. John" which sound roughly like "Chumley," "Lester" and "S'n j'n." Again, will let a Brit discuss that. I'm sure s/he'd have a lot of cringe-worthy errors to report.
Unfortunately we have inherited some of that, thanks to New England. Worcester, Massachusetts has to be the fault of the colonists. "Woo-ster"? Really? Come on.
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