Pronunciation

WS78

WS78

Chill moan!
Joined
May 23, 2004
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I am somewhat bewildered by the pronunciation of some words, mostly English.

For example:
- Greenwich, pronounced grinitch
- bass, which is pronounced like base
- Worcestershire, pronounced woostershur
- Leicester, pronounced lesster
- everything that starts with "kn", knife & knight
- everything with "le" or "stle", like paddle, castle, thistle & barnacle
- everything starting with "c", castle, cessna, caesarean, centaur, cavity etc.
- and most of all everything ending with "ham", Beckham, Sheringham, Wrexham & Birmingham
 
To quote my friend (who's first language is Spanish) "English is the Anna Nicole Smith of languages"

Nothing in English is logical :rolleyes: . Unfortunately people just have to deal with it because it isn't going to change any time. Despite odd pronunciations; at least we don't have accent marks :D

Sometimes the spelling is odd to distinguish the word from another. Sorry this is a bad example but it's the first that comes to mind:eye and I. Spelled differently to distinguish. Although that accounts for about only 2% of words in English, so really the only answer is that there isn't one.
 
Try asking for directions to Featherstonehaugh. That's pronounced "Fanshaw", by the way.

The madness in English is an amusement in itself - especially when dealing with tourists - and the inconvenience of the illogicality is generally offset by the versatility of the language. Mind you, English could use an extra pronoun or two, and people need to stop saying "an historic", because it's daft, correct as it may be.
 
Don't forget that English is a mixture of many languages having borrowed most of its words from others: German, French, Greek, Latin, Spanish, Turkish, Arabic, Malay, Norse, Danish, etc.

It stands to reason that words will be pronounced differently and that is most likely down to their language of origin.
 
the weird one is

thorough
rough
bough
through
though

same ending - 5 different pronounciations (hope i picked the right 5)
 
On the other hand, I love those typically English words.
daft
wanker
pucker
chuck, as in throwing (up)
tosser
guv'ner
friggin'
smeghead, which isn't a real word
utter, sounds brilliant in English
brilliant
bloke
bugger (of)
ponder, to think of/contemplate
swag, loot
and many more
 
I always mix up "thought" and "thaught"
 
Akka said:
(don't forget "tough" also)
Click to expand...
I think tough pronunciation is the same as rough, but as I'm not a native english speaker, I may be wrong. :hmm:
 
Ah yes, don't forget the differences in spelling in English and American

defence - defense
[edit] GWB related
 
zurichuk said:
same ending - 5 different pronounciations (hope i picked the right 5)
Click to expand...
That's about right. Rhyming with furrow, cuff, cow, true and go, respectively.

Laughter and slaughter are good, too - one letter changes the "arph" to an "ort".


Akka said:
(don't forget "tough" also)
Click to expand...

He did say rough, which tough rhymes with.


WS78 said:
On the other hand, I love those typically English words.
Click to expand...

It's by far the best language for swearing in. Doesn't work anywhere near so well in, say, French. Meurrhghd. Nope, sorry.
 
Three: "Kew", as in Gardens.

The real unnecessity is the letter Q, which is easily replaced by the undignified KW. It doesn't even have a sound without a U, unless you're Arabic, in which case it's still a K. But then, you know that. X is the same - being KS, but X is a dynamic letter of mystery, and everyone likes X.
 
WS78 said:
Ah yes, don't forget the differences in spelling in English and American

potatoe - potato (same with tomatoe)
Click to expand...

I thought it was only a very special, well -known American who spells une pomme de terre with an -e. :cool:
 
Whoops, I'll retract that immediatly.
Left my brain in my pants.
 
I believe we can get along without C, but many cool english word use that.
 
If "queue" is filled of silent letters, it's because it's comes from the French.

Most silent letters in English comes from French... that's why French people aren't troubled that much about english word spellings. Look at words like chateau or bureaucracy. For instance, in French, to say "a lot" we write "beaucoup" which is spelled "bocoo".

English spelling is hard because of the many different language it comes from as it's been already said. However, I still consider French spelling as a lot more a challenge than English spelling.
 
Words of French origin, including names, are the things I find most problematic in English. Basically because I usually know how they would be pronounced in French but can be quite sure it isn't the same in English, which doesn't make it much easier. Same with things from other romanic languages, particularly Spanish.
 
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