Someone take this woman away from me (Real Life Rant)

[Traska]

... has anyone in the US actually looked at the word Aluminium ???

Sure. The I is silent. What, you didn't know there were silent letters? =D

[NightGod]

Reminds me of a drill in Basic...could never pronounce a hard 'T'...and he taught us how to use our gas masks...after we got them on in the required 15 seconds, we were then required to "tighten the cheek scrap".

After a few times of us looking at him like he was insane, he made us say the word for him

[Kirstin Thornhill]

Mezzanine: (MEZ uh neen) A floor that extends partially over another lower floor, with an unwalled area that faces that lower floor.

The letter "L" does not appear anywhere in that word. Yet at work, I hear the word "Mezzaline" almost constantly.

I discovered why. One of the original employees there had a speech impediment. She was the one selected to do a lot of the training...

[Nhin Impious]

... has anyone in the US actually looked at the word Aluminium?

Yes, it's the British spelling (and pronunciation: al- u- MIN- ee-um) of the metal.

The American spelling is ALUMINUM and it's pronounced a-LOO- min- um.

Has anyone in the UK ever realized that people in the US both spell AND pronounce things differently?

Nhinx (neencks) Aphsion (AFF-see-on)
not Nhinix Aphision (NIN-icks aff-EE-see-on)

[Lilosh]

Originally posted by Nhin Impious
Nhinx (neencks) Aphsion (AFF-see-on)
not Nhinix Aphision (NIN-icks aff-EE-see-on)

i always assumed it was Aph-Sion.

Pronounced Like Half-Psionic.


-Lilosh

[bearcaller]

Just look at some of the other examples.

Thru is acceptable in the U.S.

England only has T H R O U G H.

And thats just trying to cheat at scrabble. Guess the reference

[Silound]

When I was in high school, the chem teacher had one hella time pronouncing anything correctly.

Physics = fijiks
subtract = substract
answer = an-swerd

All time favorite one was this sub we had one day who lost the lower half of his arm in Vietnam, so all he has is a stub. Teacher opens the door and says "Oh are you the stubstitute?" He was pissed

Sil

[Liwsa]

Wife has a problem with crocodile(croc-o-dile)

Croc-co-drile

[Eumerin]

Had an English teacher once who, as an example of the weirdness of the English language, asked us to pronounce/define "photi".

I doubt you'll ever find a word spelled like that, although it can be pronounced the same as another common English word.

[Lilosh]

Originally posted by Eumerin
Had an English teacher once who, as an example of the weirdness of the English language, asked us to pronounce/define "photi".

I doubt you'll ever find a word spelled like that, although it can be pronounced the same as another common English word.

Potty?


-Lilosh

[Martzana]

You awful people forced me to stop lurking.

And that's just trying to cheat at Scrabble.

Eddie Izzard. Funniest man on the planet.

And does photi = fish?

I know that ph is f in a number of words.

Ti = sh in 'ignition' and words like that.

I'm just guessing on the 'o.'

Do I win a prize?

If it makes you feel any better, I work with professional writers who cannot spell correctly, write a structurally sound paragraph, or speak a full sentence without a grammatical error.

It's all relative.

~~ Martzana Stormcora
50th Shamaness of the Elder Dragons
Brell

Where are we going and why am I in this handbasket?

[Eumerin]

It is indeed 'fish'.

The 'o' needs to sound the same way it does in 'women', which afaik, is the only time the letter 'o' actually sounds that way.

[Traska]

I've seen it done one better.

Ghoti

Rough
Women
Statiion

Ever since then, the English language have both entranced and disgusted me. =)

Edit: Doesn't the "o" also sound that way in words like "lemon" and "melon"? I know I've never pronounced lemon with a long O (leh-moan) or a traditional short O (leh-mahn)

[Eumerin]

Lemon and melon sound more like 'un' - at least they way I pronounce them - although I think there is some degree of variation depending on accents. You'd have to get a dictionary to figure out the right way to pronounce it.

Pronouncing 'gh' as an 'f' sound requires the 'ou' in front of it, so actually, 'ghoti' doesn't work.


Though you could always use the word oughotiuhl.

[Traska]

Pronouncing 'gh' as an 'f' sound requires the 'ou' in front of it, so actually, 'ghoti' doesn't work.

You pronounce Fish "uhfish"?

Because in "rough" (pronounced ruf), the r is, of course the R sound, the ou is the U sound, and the gh is the F sound. Unless the r all by itself is the RU sound... which would be weird.

As for the "un" sound on melon and lemon... that's just freaky. I've never heard lemon pronounced any way but "leh-min".