I’m picking “Colonel” needs to be respelled to match how it’s pronounced.
Try to pick a word no one else has picked. What word are you respelling?
In this thread, a lot of folks who would use their one wish to make the language better.
But I would change “their” to be spelled “the’re” and pronounced “all’y’all’s”.
I hope I do grow up to be more like the rest of you, and make better choices, in the future.
People like you being in charge is how English got to this position in the first place!
Your rite, and I regret my choices.
Arkinsaw
“Arkansas” and “Kansas” are both from the Osage language, but the former passed through French on its way to English.
i’m from somewhere in europe and always wondered why you guys would pronounce those two so different!
America has a lot of place names that come from Native American / First Nations languages; but they also come via different European languages.
And some of those names are actually words that refer to a different Native group. “Arkansas” and “Kansas” are from the Osage word for the Quapaw people. The name of the Snake River between Oregon and Idaho is a translation of the name that Plains people used to refer to the Shoshone: they were the “snake people” and that wasn’t a compliment.
I’ve heard that, but “Ar Kan Saw” is nothing like how a French person would pronounce “Arkansas”
I just say Arc-Kansas
It’s the pirate Kansas.
2010 Arkansas Code Title 1 - General Provisions Chapter 4 - State Symbols, Motto, Etc § 1-4-105 - Pronunciation of state name.
Be it therefore resolved by both houses of the General Assembly, that the only true pronunciation of the name of the state, in the opinion of this body, is that received by the French from the native Indians and committed to writing in the French word representing the sound. It should be pronounced in three (3) syllables, with the final “s” silent, the “a” in each syllable with the Italian sound, and the accent on the first and last syllables. The pronunciation with the accent on the second syllable with the sound of “a” in “man” and the sounding of the terminal “s” is an innovation to be discouraged.
Brit here, I only realised a couple of years ago that the Arkansaw I heard mentioned in American TV and movies was actually the Arkansas I could see on maps. I think it was something said on Reddit, probably a thread similar to this, that was the revelation. And when I tell other Brits they’re invariably similarly clueless, and quite gobsmacked. I’m not sure if anyone I’ve mentioned it too has said “oh yeah I knew that”.
Comfterble
Kumfirtubble
But saying “com-fidi-ble” is so much more fun
Since Queue has already been posted: Quay. Now spelled Kee.
You and I pronounce ‘quay’ very differently.
How do you pronounce it? I had some American tourists ask me for directions to the “kway” before. Only time I’ve ever heard a different pronunciation.
I just wish we spelled things in a more German-‘esk’ fashion. They use K more appropriately. Examples such as “panik” and “akkordeon” for accordion. I find their spelling to be more straightforward and sensical.
Panik is a whole mood.
Thou shalt spell the word “Pheonix” P-H-E-O-N-I-X, not P-H-O-E-N-I-X, regardless of what the Oxford English Dictionary tells you.
feenicks
Fenix, like the dude from StarCraft?
Dan Le Sac - sweet reference.
Oasis, just a band
The Beach Boys? Just a band.
Nirvana?
Removed by mod
Worcestershire
Got any wash yer sister sauce?
I pronounce it wor-chst-sher sauce. As does my friends who aren’t from London but from other parts of the UK
My London boi says Woust-er sauce.
How do you get Wor-chest-er-sher to become Woust-er? How?
I understand Wor-chst-sher you just remove some vowels in the middle.
But Wouster? You just removed the whole fucking word?? Why???
Idk about woust-er sauce, pretty sure that’s just dropping a syllable.
But the rest of it is because the syllables are supposed to be worce-ster-shire.
I pronounce it wor-chest-ter-shire with shire being where Frodo lives.
Brits do stuff like that. For example, the city Gloucester is pronounced “Gloss-ter”
Wustersherr
Ressepee
I like this one because I instantly knew what word it was despite it having a brand new spelling. Almost like letters should have meanings.
English isn’t my native language. I thought for years (and I’m talking of 10+) it would be pronounced “ree-sipe”.
Re-ci-pe… yeah that’s just how yoy read it.
I think the main issue with this is that pronunciation changes over time, in addition to varying by area. So if we keep changing the spelling, written works will became unreadable faster.
But I would suggest that any band names that use umlauts/foreign letters should be pronounced accordingly.
Yeees I love twenty one pilots personally, but when they started using “ø” I really wanted it to be pronounced as part of the name so they could hear how ridiculous it sounds
Aisle should become something like ile.
Oh boy, a word wouldn’t be enough.
I would make English as consistent as Spanish is regarding phonetical consistency, or even more.
Oh, you have never seen this word ever before and you don’t know how to pronounce it? No worries, these universal rules will allow you just get it right, because letters always sound the same!
“Spanish regarding phonetical consistency”
Checking in from Oaxaca
I dunno, Oaxaca seems pretty straightforward. oa is pronounced kinda like “ua”, I guess, but midword x is usually a “hh” sound anyway so that’s the only slightly weird thing.
I mean knowing romance languages makes spelling in English easy. Also knowing something about Greek and Latin. Understanding the root of a word etc makes it a lot easier.
The only one they changed is the double l. ll to sounds like a y. But in some circles they consider that a seperate letter to the Spanish alphabet. Overall it is fairly consistent.
Even better, Spanish words are typically broken into two (or is it to or too) letter syllables.
English is pretty good (generally) at doing the same thing.
Y’all are just bringing up words that English stole from other languages.
You can use phonetics to figure out how to pronounce most words in English.
We just really wish when we stole them we changed the spelling to match the pronunciation if we wanted the pronunciation to stay the same of where we stole it from.
The amount of words that are not “stolen” from other languages is neglible…
Cat from German Katze, from Latin catta
Car(t) from German Karren
Kitchen grom German Küche
Bike/Bicycle from French bicycle
Leaf from German Laub
Beef, mutton, pigeon from French boeuf, mouton, pigeon
Cow, sheep, dove from German Kuh, Schaf, Taube
Computer from Latin computare
Sun and moon from German Sonne and Mond
Lunatic from Latina luna
Death from German Tod
Snug from Norse snøggr
Funny from Swedish fånig
Breeze from Spanish brisa
Ranch from Spanish rancha
Brave from Italian bravo
Arcade from Italian arcata
Dildo from Italian diletto
…
Jraphics
All those words that are pronounce the same but have completely different meanings. Particularly the common words.
To two too
No know
Their there
By buy bye
Then there there ones spelt the same but two different meanings and silent letters to even be better.
Go right, you’re right.
Didn’t know how messed up English spelling/pronunciation is till I started to learn Spanish and nearly every word is pronounced exactly as spelled.
By buy bye
N’SYNC intensifies
Not knot naught
are pronounce[sic] the same
They’re pronounced differently. I think I see the problem in your education.
till
This is a cash-drawer. Did you mean " 'til " ?
Highpurrbolley.
I pronounced it hyper-bowl in my head for a loooong time until I had to say it out loud one time and got laughed at.
As someone who read a lot as a child I still find myself saying hyperbowl. I’d certainly heard the correct pronunciation but it wasn’t until very late that I made the connection to the word I’d learned by reading.
I was it my 30s before I found how to say it properly. It really doesn’t help that hyperbolic is spoken properly. Hy-per-bol-ic. Damn you written words.
Same!
Aphrodite, Hyperbole… Greek Eta sounds like ee.
The fact that hyperbolic is pronounced like that makes it so much fucking worse
