Stupid things that stupid people do but that you don't do because you're not stupid. - The Bear and Badger

Kow

Yes!

adkm

I dunno, it seems different to me. Stubbornly calling it 'Munich' because some fucker years ago couldn't learn it properly just seems daft. In first year, the guy next to me wrote in his jotter, "Ich heiße Stefan." I pointed out that he wasn't called Stefan, he was called Steven. But Stefan is the German for Steven, he replied. I explained that you don't translate your name. He punched me on the side of the head.

Calling it Italy seems as daft to me as if I went around saying, "Je suis André."

adkm

@Kow: Here's a video of some friends of mine doing a skit about spelling/pronunciation in Scotland. Folk have ripped the audio a few times and posted their own videos, and other folk then cribbed the script for emails / fb posts, so it's done the rounds for a while, but this is the original thing:

Kow

I'm reminded of Simon Mayo correcting Gael García Bernal's pronunciation of the Spanish name Pinochet. For some reason it's typically pronounced pinoshay, when there is absolutely no reason for this - it has no connection to French. I suspect somebody in the past pronounced it like that as they saw it has foreign and picked a foreign sounding pronunciation and it stuck. But saying 'well that's the English pronunciation' is idiotic. It's a mistake, plain and simple, albeit a widely made one. But try saying pinno chet in a conversation and you'll get called a wanker.

Also Che Guevara is chay, not shay.

Yossarian

Kow wrote:

Yes!

To be fair, I spent about a decade wondering how on earth to pronounce 'Siobhan' in order to prepare me for that moment.

Kow

It's Siobhán. ;p

adkm

There was a story on the radio a while back about a girl who introduced herself as 'WIV-on-ay'. When asked to pronounce it, she replied Y-V-O-N-N-E. Turns out her dad had read it in a book, neither he nor her mother had encountered the name Yvonne in real life, and came up with their own pronunciation.

That led to another listener with the surname 'Dunne' writing in, about booking a hotel room. All to aware that there is also the surname 'Dunn', they clarified the spelling when they booked over the phone. On arrival, the receptionist couldn't find the booking until the manager traced it under 'Dunnwithanny'. That led to jokes that hopefully Yvonne would find and marry a man called Dunne, so that she could be 'Wivvonay Dunnwithanny'.

Also makes me think of my cousin, christened Catlin (rather than Caitlin, or one of many other spellings). Even the minister was saying 'Catt-linn'.

RedDave2

In an effort to sound French when in France many years ago, my dad pronounced baguette as baq-wet. I have no idea where he got this from or why to this day he hasn't learnt the proper pronunciation. He is generally a smart man.

GooberTheHat

An conductor on a river bus in Venice had no idea what I was on about when I asked if it stopped at arsenal. Turns out its pronounced arse-en-arlay. Similarly my wife once got asked directions to the temees by some French tourists in London. She managed to work out they were looking for the river Thames.

superflyninja

Kow wrote:

Good luck getting directions to Cobh in Ireland. Or Duagh.

True Duagh is a tricky one.Depends on who you ask.... Its either doo-awh or dwaaah.

acemuzzy

My second worst ever "dumb foreigner" experience was in Venice. I was trying to get a bus to the airport, but it said 'fermata'. From my reasonable knowledge of French (fermer, to close - and 'ata' being a past tense thing in Italian), I knew this meant the bus stop wasn't running, so went ranting at the staff in the bus office about their "closed" service.

Anyway the bus turned up anyway, and took me to the airport. All the bus stops were also 'closed'.

So yeah, anyway, turns out 'fermata' is Italian for bus stop.

Yossarian

adkm wrote:

I dunno, it seems different to me. Stubbornly calling it 'Munich' because some fucker years ago couldn't learn it properly just seems daft. In first year, the guy next to me wrote in his jotter, "Ich heiße Stefan." I pointed out that he wasn't called Stefan, he was called Steven. But Stefan is the German for Steven, he replied. I explained that you don't translate your name. He punched me on the side of the head.

Calling it Italy seems as daft to me as if I went around saying, "Je suis André."

Except for the fact that introducing yourself to someone necessarily involves telling them how your name is pronounced so making a decision tell people to call you something different is a choice and an odd one. Making a reference to a place by using a name that the person that you are talking to may not be familiar with when there is a perfectly acceptable name that you can be sure they are familiar with is another choice, and an odd one.

RamSteelwood

"oi, how do i get to cob?"
"what?"
"cob! c-o-b-h"
"oh, you mean cosdfbsjkeb (to be sure). it's over there"
"cheers mick"
"fuck you"

that's how it goes.

[oops, i missed an extra page of happenings]

[Deleted User]

superflyninja wrote:

Kow wrote:

Good luck getting directions to Cobh in Ireland. Or Duagh.

True Duagh is a tricky one.Depends on who you ask.... Its either doo-awh or dwaaah.

Get a Fucking satnav.

adkm

Yossarian wrote:

Making a reference to a place by using a name that the person that you are talking to may not be familiar with when there is a perfectly acceptable name that you can be sure they are familiar with is another choice, and an odd one.

You keep on arguing on the basis either that I actually do this, or that in my hypothetical scenario, I'd be the only one doing it. No, my argument is that we should all do it, all of the time, in which case these confusing situations you describe would be non-existent. Nobody would be confused by Österreich, because the word 'Austria' wouldn't exist.

The current situation seems even more daft when you consider, in recent years, how often we've changed the word we use to describe certain places, because it was politically incorrect, or we acknowledged that our name was a mangling of the correct name. We do it for some places, but refuse to for others. It's inconsistent.

Unlikely

It's a dumb argument.

monkey

Kow wrote:

I'm reminded of Simon Mayo correcting Gael García Bernal's pronunciation of the Spanish name Pinochet. For some reason it's typically pronounced pinoshay, when there is absolutely no reason for this - it has no connection to French. I suspect somebody in the past pronounced it like that as they saw it has foreign and picked a foreign sounding pronunciation and it stuck. But saying 'well that's the English pronunciation' is idiotic. It's a mistake, plain and simple, albeit a widely made one. But try saying pinno chet in a conversation and you'll get called a wanker.

Also Che Guevara is chay, not shay.

I thought shay was the Argentinian way of pronouncing it and it came from that.

Edit:- Ignore. Am wrong.

monkey

adkm wrote:

Yossarian wrote:

Making a reference to a place by using a name that the person that you are talking to may not be familiar with when there is a perfectly acceptable name that you can be sure they are familiar with is another choice, and an odd one.

You keep on arguing on the basis either that I actually do this, or that in my hypothetical scenario, I'd be the only one doing it. No, my argument is that we should all do it, all of the time, in which case these confusing situations you describe would be non-existent. Nobody would be confused by Österreich, because the word 'Austria' wouldn't exist.

The current situation seems even more daft when you consider, in recent years, how often we've changed the word we use to describe certain places, because it was politically incorrect, or we acknowledged that our name was a mangling of the correct name. We do it for some places, but refuse to for others. It's inconsistent.

Yeah it's almost as if language is built upon shared and evolving conventions rather than a fixed set of rules like maths.

monkey

Am I supposed to be adopting the accent of the place I'm referring to? Or am I supposed to be saying 'Bar-the-lona' in my middle class English accent? Neither is an improvement on modifying place names to fit the language. Paris is Paris because it's easier 99 times out of 100, Bordeaux is Bor-doh because adapting that construction of letters to English pronunciation is inconceivable.

acemuzzy

~~EVERYBODY SHOULD LEARN ALL LANGUAGES~~

WE SHOULD JUST HAVE ONE LANGUAGE

Diluted Dante

Out of interest Andy, how do you pronounce the letter J?

GooberTheHat

I'm betting j-eye.

adkm

Depends on the circumstances. If you mean when I'm just saying the letter, it's 'jay'. Within words, though, it depends, obviously.

People who pronounce it to rhyme with 'eye' are an abomination, and will be amongst the first against the wall when the time comes.

Here's where Dante no doubt steps in and explains why I'm saying it wrongly.

Kow

I've never heard anyone say j to rhyme with eye. Who does that?

poprock

All of Scotland.

Unlikely

Not all of Scotland.

Yossarian

True, all of Scotland except adkm.

monkey

That's the most rjdjculous thjng J've ever heard.

Yossarian

Jaye.

monkey

Hhhaye.

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