Heaven: 2021 Proof Americans and Brits speak a different language

14344464849131

Comments

  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    I wondered about the pronunciation.

    Bernadette was restricted on that basis, but with the breakdown in all those barriers names once indicative of one or the other are now in general use.
  • Niamh is unheard here. No one would know how to pronounce, it would be assumed to be ethnic something. And if said as neeve would always be misspelled. I learned about this name only a year or so ago, in my 7th decade of life.

    I'm also reminded of names like Jaxson, Jaxsyn, Jacks'n, all of which burden the bearer with spelling, though probably pronounced correctly from writing.

    Priscilla is denigrated as well because of the term prissy. Which means to be a polite but rigid and bossy person.

    Victoria being a city in Canada, I think this makes it less likely. Vicky isn't a liked name, I know one in her 60s.

    I've seen that Dido has emerged as a given name for girls. Because it also means grandfather in Ukrainian as spoken here (pronounced dee-dough, with almost equal stress on the syllables).

    They've recently instituted here that to get a name change you have to get a criminal records check. The number of people wanting to rename themselves had greatly increased and included some sex offenders.
  • Not sure if it has spread eastwards, but a common North American word is pronounced 'bullion' in the supermarkets, as in gold bars, when in fact you want 'bouillon', which is not recognized when you want vegetable or meat concentrates.

    And back to names, a local lawyer has a son and daughter named Will and Sue.
  • I hear people doing all sorts of odd attempts at French pronunciations. Croissant is another.

    CRUH-sawnt
    BULL-y'ohn

    But we say fillet as fill-it. Which usually means the verb. A piece of fish would be said usually instead of a fillet as a noun.

    I'm also reminded of "taco" which is commonly taw-co, but should be tack-o.
  • Tack o?????
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    Tack o?????

    That's the pronunciation here.
  • Oh.Dear.

    I don't think I could keep a straight face.
  • "Taco" is French???
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    Oh.Dear.

    I don't think I could keep a straight face.

    No-Prophet says that it's the right pronunciation. I have no idea about that, but it's the pronunciation everyone here uses. For the younger generation, taco rolls are a common source of nourishment on the way home from the pub.
  • AthrawesAthrawes Shipmate
    It’s actually tar-ko here, @Gee D .
  • Clutches head

    And on that note, I'm going to bed. Bay-ed.
  • We're closer to Mexico here, and pronounce "taco" with something more closely approximating Spanish vowel sounds.
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    Athrawes wrote: »
    It’s actually tar-ko here, @Gee D .

    My here is suburban Sydney - from memory you're further north, is that right?
  • rhubarbrhubarb Shipmate
    The most confusing male name for spelling is Jonathan, Jonathon, Jonothan, Jonothon, Johnathon, Johnothan, Johnathan, Johnothon. There may be more variations than these, but I have seen all the ones in my list. I know that spelling of children's names creates a nightmare for teachers.
  • AthrawesAthrawes Shipmate
    Gee D wrote: »
    Athrawes wrote: »
    It’s actually tar-ko here, @Gee D .

    My here is suburban Sydney - from memory you're further north, is that right?
    Yes, and west as well. How is it supposed to be pronounced? I’ve not heard it said in Spanish.

    @rhubarb, I’m a teacher, and now check the roll for correct spelling, and check with the children for preferred pronunciation. I had a student whose name was spelt Amelia, and pronounced Um-a-lia...
  • ... which neatly brings us to surnames such as Featherstonhaugh - fan-shore and Cholmondeley - chum-lee.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    Athrawes wrote: »
    Gee D wrote: »
    Athrawes wrote: »
    It’s actually tar-ko here, @Gee D .

    My here is suburban Sydney - from memory you're further north, is that right?
    Yes, and west as well. How is it supposed to be pronounced? I’ve not heard it said in Spanish.

    @rhubarb, I’m a teacher, and now check the roll for correct spelling, and check with the children for preferred pronunciation. I had a student whose name was spelt Amelia, and pronounced Um-a-lia...

    That would be the expected pronunciation in most European languages I'd think. English vowels, especially digraphs, dipthongs and long vowels, are weird, largely because of the Great Vowel Shift.
  • BroJamesBroJames Purgatory Host
    ... which neatly brings us to surnames such as Featherstonhaugh - fan-shore and Cholmondeley - chum-lee.
    And place names Brougham broom, Alnwick annick etc.
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    edited March 2020
    Athrawes wrote: »
    Gee D wrote: »
    Athrawes wrote: »
    It’s actually tar-ko here, @Gee D .

    My here is suburban Sydney - from memory you're further north, is that right?
    Yes, and west as well. How is it supposed to be pronounced? I’ve not heard it said in Spanish.

    @rhubarb, I’m a teacher, and now check the roll for correct spelling, and check with the children for preferred pronunciation. I had a student whose name was spelt Amelia, and pronounced Um-a-lia...

    I pronounce it tack-o, so obviously that's the correct way. No idea how it's pronounced by a Spaniard or someone speaking one of the traditional Mexican languages.

    As to Amelia, I'd pronounce the A as an indeterminate e, hitch the m and the l to the a, and make the ia more like a ya so it becomes e-meal-ya. But if that's how the girl pronounces it, that's how I'd address her.
  • Enoch wrote: »
    Incidentally, since she ruled after US independence are Victoria (short form Vicky) used as names much or even known south of the 49th Parallel?
    Yes. I know quite a few Victorias, of all ages, a few of whom go by Vicky.

    Gee D wrote: »
    I pronounce it tack-o, so obviously that's the correct way. No idea how it's pronounced by a Spaniard or someone speaking one of the traditional Mexican languages.
    Tah-co, which is how it’s pronounced in the US.

  • TAH-co is how it is pronounced here in Arizona, just north of Mexico, and also how I've heard it pronounced in various parts of Mexico.
  • I was going with the Jalisco, Mexico pronunciation of taco. Family lived near Guadalajara for 30 years. It was tack-o.

    Is there a tendency to make A into ah in some areas? The first A in pajamas is a short one for us, turning into paw for some.

    I heard "regulatory" said reg-you-LATE-erry by a newscaster. It's REG-g'you-luh-tory here.
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    edited March 2020
    Pigwidgeon wrote: »
    TAH-co is how it is pronounced here in Arizona, just north of Mexico, and also how I've heard it pronounced in various parts of Mexico.
    Yes, I didn’t indicate the stressed syllable when I wrote tah-co, but what you said is how it’s pronounced here (North Carolina) as well: TAH-co.

  • Except taco mother (Tacoma) which is pronounced with the accent on the second syllable.
  • Is the TAH in TAH-co actually pronounced with the /h/ sound?
  • EnochEnoch Shipmate
    What I'd regard as usual in the UK:-

    Taco - not really part of the local diet here but I think usually pronounced tack-o, to rhyme with Macko.

    Pajamas - Pǝjahmǝs, stress on middle syllable here, sometimes colloquially P.J.s or jim-jams.

    Croissant - difficult to display this one. Something like cwassoƞ.

    Bouillon - bweeyoƞ round here.

    Regulatory - Four syllables Reg-ya-lǝ-tri.

    Yoghurt (not under discussion this time) - Yǒgǝt, not yoe-gǝt, which I think is what it's called in Australia.

    Jonathan - is the usual spelling here.

    Thank you @Nick Tamen on Victoria.
  • Is there a tendency to make A into ah in some areas? The first A in pajamas is a short one for us, turning into paw for some.

    In the UK the item is spelled Pyjamas and pronounced pidge-amas.

  • finelinefineline Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    I'd say it's also tah-co in the UK, but with a non-rhotic accent, that is exactly the same as tar-co.
  • finelinefineline Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    edited March 2020
    The first vowel of pyjamas is a schwa, same as the first vowel of banana - that's how I've always heard it in the south of England, and also how the OED depicts it, for both UK and US pronunciation.

    But pajamas is the American spelling, so that is not usual in the UK.
  • fineline wrote: »
    I'd say it's also tah-co in the UK, but with a non-rhotic accent, that is exactly the same as tar-co.

    Yes, that was my query, as I couldn't work out what tah indicated. But the /h/ indicates the /a:/ vowel, I think, as in tar, not /æ/ as in clap.
  • BroJamesBroJames Purgatory Host
    And I would have said the U.K. pronunciation I am familiar with puts the stress in the first syllable and rhymes it with tack or pack.
  • We're quite rhotic here. But accents being what they are, my daughter when teaching in London was asked all the time "are you Irish Miss?"

    Do you say the "h" on the word herb or herbal? Definitely said here, and noticeable when it's left off.
  • Is there a tendency to make A into ah in some areas? The first A in pajamas is a short one for us, turning into paw for some.

    In the UK the item is spelled Pyjamas and pronounced pidge-amas.

    The first "a" in pajamas here is a schwa.
  • Is the TAH in TAH-co actually pronounced with the /h/ sound?

    No it's just meant to indicate it's the same sound as in ah or father, rather than a short a as in bad.
  • DooneDoone Shipmate
    W
    We're quite rhotic here. But accents being what they are, my daughter when teaching in London was asked all the time "are you Irish Miss?"

    Do you say the "h" on the word herb or herbal? Definitely said here, and noticeable when it's left off.

    Definitely left on by most people here (Somerset, England).
  • mousethief wrote: »
    Is the TAH in TAH-co actually pronounced with the /h/ sound?

    No it's just meant to indicate it's the same sound as in ah or father, rather than a short a as in bad.

    Yes, ta, I eventually worked that out. I've been struggling with the International Phonetic Alphabet, and I think that the long vowel is shown as/a:/.
  • Do you say the "h" on the word herb or herbal? Definitely said here, and noticeable when it's left off.

    Up ere, they tend ter keep i' on - but back ome, they leave i' owrf.

    (that ' is a glo'awl stop, and not having access to the IPA I'll have to leave you to work out the awfuwl dipthongs on all the vowels. As my French teacher once noted, 'despite a reasonable grasp of grammar, M_in_M has no pretensions as a speaker of the language'. It's hard when you're from Essex. )
  • Do you say the "h" on the word herb or herbal? Definitely said here, and noticeable when it's left off.
    The "h" is not pronounced here (American South).

  • Nick Tamen wrote: »
    Do you say the "h" on the word herb or herbal? Definitely said here, and noticeable when it's left off.
    The "h" is not pronounced here (American South).

    Nor PNW. Although the more rustic among us do make Warshington rhotic.
  • No dropped aitches in my neck of the woods: definitely Herb with a pronounced H.
  • EnochEnoch Shipmate
    I agree with @TheOrganist and @Doone. I think even people here who drop quite a lot of their 'h's would pronounce it on 'herb' and 'herbal'. Dropping it sounds uncouth, somebody trying to sound Cockney when they're not.

    I agree with those that have said that pyjamas is normally with a 'y', by the way, but it had been spelt with an 'a' in previous posts. However spelt, though, in the UK the vowel is a schwa, ǝ.

  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    edited March 2020
    Enoch wrote: »
    I agree with @TheOrganist and @Doone. I think even people here who drop quite a lot of their 'h's would pronounce it on 'herb' and 'herbal'. Dropping it sounds uncouth, somebody trying to sound Cockney when they're not.
    I could be remembering this totally wrong, but I think I recall learning in a podcast on the history of English that the original pronunciation of the words “herb” and “herbal” was without the “h” sound, inasmuch as both words are derived from French, and that it was sometime after British and American English had “separated” that people in Britain began to pronounce the “h.”

    This suggests I’m remembering correctly (assuming it’s correct, of course).

  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    Back to taco. Wiki has this at the start of the article:

    (US: /ˈtɑːkoʊ/, UK: /ˈtækoʊ/, Spanish: [ˈtako])
  • I was gobsmacked because "tack-o" is precisely how we kids would pronounce it in order to irritate the hell out of my Mexican stepfather. Either that or tay-ko.
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    Perhaps he did not read Wiki......
  • No, I sort of think he got his pronunciation from his father... (Michoacan). And then, there's the whole time-travel thing (he's 70).
  • Enoch wrote: »
    Pajamas - Pǝjahmǝs, stress on middle syllable here, sometimes colloquially P.J.s or jim-jams.
    In these parts, quite a few people can be found who pronounce that word PǝJAMǝs, where the accented syllable sounds like a fruit food that might be spread on toast.

  • I've never heard "jim-jams" -- it's "P.J.s" or "Jammies."
  • Nick Tamen wrote: »
    Enoch wrote: »
    Pajamas - Pǝjahmǝs, stress on middle syllable here, sometimes colloquially P.J.s or jim-jams.
    In these parts, quite a few people can be found who pronounce that word PǝJAMǝs, where the accented syllable sounds like a fruit food that might be spread on toast.

    Once again my regionalect matches yours at this data point.
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Up until recently I would have pronounced pyjamas 'nightdress' since I disliked them, particularly the buttoned jacket bit. But I've found it impossible (in the UK) to find cotton nighties that are full length. However I now discover pyjamas have morphed from the suiting model of my childhood into these comfy, stretchy T-shirt/joggers things which actually go down to the ankles.

    I haven't though discovered the nightwear I encountered in The States in the '60s - the all in one with feet. Do they still exist?
Sign In or Register to comment.