Now – Liv Tyler – I’ve been thinking, is her name pronounced ‘live’, or ‘fifty-four’?
I hate it when you think you know how to pronounce something but then you find out everyone else is doing it the other way. Like misled. When I used to read books as a young boy I always thought it was pronounced ‘my-zuld’. Misled was just something I never saw written anywhere. You could, in many ways (but probably just the one way), say that misled myself.
I continually fight with people over the pronunciation of Shrewsbury (rhymes with throwsbury), and I have never known how I’m supposed to say automaton in polite company, so I refrain. Even if the jury is out on how you might say a particular thing, even if it’s the most natural word in the world people are still going to judge you for it. Dropping your Ts, exhaling on your haitches (that’s a Coventry thing), trying to eradicate the whole world of all the effin Gs...
3 hours ago
Finding words in books, learning how to use them and them pronouncing them wrongly loudly in public is a skill of mine. Like when I told my dad that I loved it when books had "el-ip-oh-gees" — epilogues. How I got elipogee from epilogue, I don't know.
ReplyDeleteMoving to Coventry from Wales, you get a lot of people arguing with you over how you say words. I say words like bear and care oddly according to you Coventry lot. I used to get people standing in a circle around me saying "It's not bear it's BEAR! Bear!" whilst I tried in vain to copy them. Sigh.
I think automaton sounds a lot like "...oh, tomato."
ReplyDeleteI thought for ages that hyberbole was pronounced like a US sporting extravaganza.
But then again I say skedjoole.
Oh, tomato sounds like a great name for a hip new band. I say skedjoole too, Cliff - I can never remember which way round it's supposed to be, I have always relied on the scene from 3 Men and a Little Lady where they are driving down the motorway in a Mini to guide me.
ReplyDeleteAmy - if you please, I do not talk like a Coventry person. Many Welsh people do talk funny though.