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Why do we pronounce 'film' wrong?

Hammer89

I was in Philadelphia a couple of years ago when a South American lady, with Spanish as her native tongue, blew my mind and embarrassed me over the pronounciation of an English word. About four of us, including two English blokes, were sat around a table in our hostel shooting the sh*t when she took exception to a word I used. For whatever reason, I'd used the word 'film' and all hell broke loose.

I pronounced it with an imaginery U in between the last two letters, making it 'filum', and I still do pronounce it this way. She found it hilarious and was having none of it. "No, I don't think so, Nicole," I said. "Sorry but you're wrong here. Go back to Lima and bring your pisco with you." She called in the two huns for backup and they agreed with her immediately. "Yeah, it's definitely 'film'."

It's worth mentioning that the two lads were straight, and that Nicole was flirting with them for most of the night. Had I looked under the table I probably would've seen her playing footsie with both of their knobs through their jeans. They would've agreed with anything she said, so we can't count on their testimony, but they're right, aren't they?

This was quite a long time ago, but I remembered it tonight when watching a YouTube video of 'How Americans react to Father Ted' or something and they also highlighted Bishop Brennan and Ted Crilly's pronounciation of 'filum'.

There's absolutely no reason to lash a U in there, so why do we? Or is it just me, Len and Ted?

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topper75

server down wrote: »

A lot of Dubliners think we can pronounce things better than the country. Most of this city crucifies the language.

The language as handed down from God to Moses on stone tablets?:D

There never was a standard English. Never.

You had an Old English Saxon thing and some Danish floating around. This situation was replaced outright in the court with Norman French. Then you had a complete bastard that never once stood still. And maybe never will.

There is no orthodoxy. Every part of the world that has adopted English as a spoken tongue does it their way and is entitled to. Ireland is no different.

If someone wants to make a fillum about millons of youngflas looking to play senor hurling - good luck to them.

sbsquarepants

Beanntraigheach wrote: »

/ˈfɪləm/ (with epenthetic vowel) is the correct pronunciation, favoured by persons of culture and erudition.

/fɪlm/ is a barbarity! The preserve of ill-bred, uncouth wretches. Their slovenly speech is to be disdained rather than emulated.

Yea, what he said. (I think:D)

The most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes on was a Mexican, studying English in Paris of all places. I met her on Paddys day in an Irish bar, she tapped me on the shoulder and said in perfect BBC English
"Pardon me, are you Irish?"
"I am" Slightly slurred
"Well firstly, I feel I must apologise in advance for the lamentable state of my spoken English, I'm merely a student of the language you see........"

It was like being in a Pathe News reel but with an impossibly beautiful Mexican woman. That was about 15 years ago and I can still picture her, I think she must have been an angel or something, humans just don't come in that level of gorgeousness.

Anyway I digress, it's fil-em as far as i'm concerned. Fil-um is culchie, fil-m is ponsy. Fil-em is where it's at. :cool:

[Deleted User]

sbsquarepants wrote: »

Yea, what he said. (I think:D)

The most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes on was a Mexican, studying English in Paris of all places. I met her on Paddys day in an Irish bar, she tapped me on the shoulder and said in perfect BBC English
"Pardon me, are you Irish?"
"I am" Slightly slurred
"Well firstly, I feel I must apologise in advance for the lamentable state of my spoken English, I'm merely a student of the language you see........"

It was like being in a Pathe News reel but with an impossibly beautiful Mexican woman. That was about 15 years ago and I can still picture her, I think she must have been an angel or something, humans just don't come in that level of gorgeousness.

Anyway I digress, it's fil-em as far as i'm concerned. Fil-um is culchie, fil-m is ponsy. Fil-em is where it's at. :cool:

I think I speak for everyone here when I ask 'but did ya raddle her?'

sbsquarepants

Zillah wrote: »

".

Also, I have had Americans take exception to using the word "film" for a movie at all. Film is what you load into a camera, apparently, not how one refers to a motion picture.

Jaysus, I've just realised something blindingly obvious which has evaded my understanding all these years.

Motion - move, motion picture - movie. :eek::eek:

Now I know how Archimedes felt - I need to sit down and digest this for a bit:D

_Dara_

dresden8 wrote: »

It's because you're a bogger. Do you say millons or millions?

I have never any Irish person pronounce it 'millons'.

sbsquarepants

riffmongous wrote: »

I think I speak for everyone here when I ask 'but did ya raddle her?'

Unfortunately it was not to be.

Turns out our lovely Mexican angel had a thing for Irishmen, I did ask my girlfriend if we could bring her back to our hotel with us, but the answer was far from the enthusiastic yes I was hoping for.

Bitch, I'd have said yes if she asked me!:D

Still stings 15 years later.

Greentopia

suicide_circus wrote: »

Filum is up there with chimley, package a crips, wather and turty tree and a turd.

Or if you're from the Deise- Waaather, as in Waaatherford. I do it myself

evil_seed

Blame Colm

kenmc

Why did it take you a couple of years to ask boards about it? Has it really been troubling you for that long that you've only now had the courage to speak out about it?

server down

topper75 wrote: »

The language as handed down from God to Moses on stone tablets?:D

There never was a standard English. Never.

You had an Old English Saxon thing and some Danish floating around. This situation was replaced outright in the court with Norman French. Then you had a complete bastard that never once stood still. And maybe never will.

There is no orthodoxy. Every part of the world that has adopted English as a spoken tongue does it their way and is entitled to. Ireland is no different.

If someone wants to make a fillum about millons of youngflas looking to play senor hurling - good luck to them.

Bit of a rant considering I was just defending the country cousins.

GBX

Another word constantly butchered is "fabaliss"

shaunr68

suicide_circus wrote: »

Filum is up there with chimley, package a crips, wather and turty tree and a turd.

Similar mispronunciations over in the UK too, I worked with someone in Sheffield who would say "firty free and a fird". She was an intelligent person but it wound me up that she didn't make more of an effort not to sound like a half-wit.

benjamin d

sbsquarepants wrote: »

Yea, what he said. (I think:D)

The most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes on was a Mexican, studying English in Paris of all places. I met her on Paddys day in an Irish bar, she tapped me on the shoulder and said in perfect BBC English
"Pardon me, are you Irish?"
"I am" Slightly slurred
"Well firstly, I feel I must apologise in advance for the lamentable state of my spoken English, I'm merely a student of the language you see........"

It was like being in a Pathe News reel but with an impossibly beautiful Mexican woman. That was about 15 years ago and I can still picture her, I think she must have been an angel or something, humans just don't come in that level of gorgeousness.

Anyway I digress, it's fil-em as far as i'm concerned. Fil-um is culchie, fil-m is ponsy. Fil-em is where it's at. :cool:

That reminds me of hearing stories of American Jews who go to Israel and get laughed out of it by bus drivers and shopkeepers because they try to communicate in biblical Hebrew that sounds equivalent to Shakespeare landing into Spar.

Ubbquittious

There's no harem in saying filum

Gyalist

Hammer89 wrote: »

I was in Philadelphia a couple of years ago when a South American lady, with Spanish as her native tongue, blew my mind and embarrassed me over the pronounciation of an English word.

This was quite a long time ago, but I remembered it tonight when watching a YouTube video of 'How Americans react to Father Ted' or something and they also highlighted Bishop Brennan and Ted Crilly's pronounciation of 'filum'.

It's pronunciation.

There's absolutely no reason to lash a U in there

Indeed.

check_six

sbsquarepants wrote: »

Anyway I digress, it's fil-em as far as i'm concerned. Fil-um is culchie, fil-m is ponsy. Fil-em is where it's at. :cool:

I think I say fil-im, which is close enough to your version. Anyone else clinging to the fil-im/fil-em raft?

I was challenged by an American in a furniture shop recently. "Y'all can't be Irish. You're pronouncing 'three' with a 'h'!" We'd been doing some measurements on a table ("Thirty three cm wide", etc.) and the American fella nearby had been confused by our variety of pronunciations. He's going to be a lot more confused the more he travels around Ireland with the way accents change dramatically in short distances.

brickland

The sound filum is or vilum is very common as gaeilge. ...An bhfuilimid ag dul abhaile? etc

Another much like the missing h in 3 or 30 which will probably never be corrected as long as Irish is taught in schools.

backspin.

I put an i in. Filim.

topper75

server down wrote: »

Bit of a rant considering I was just defending the country cousins.

Sorry - don't want to be ranting at you or anyone. Just wanted to make a general point on the back of your 'the language', reading it as THE language. The Dubs' and country cousins' efforts are all valid, as valid as anyone else in the globe.

Reading back on what I wrote anyway, it probably isn't entirely true to say there is no orthodoxy. An accepted grammar was probably settled on in Victorian times. However there is massive diversity in England itself before we even get on to our Hiberno-English. Lowland Scots is as pure a form of English as any, in that it was brought by Germanic tribes over a millennium ago. In fact it retains many Germanic and Scandinavian features lost to other English dialects.

Hammer89

kenmc wrote: »

Why did it take you a couple of years to ask boards about it? Has it really been troubling you for that long that you've only now had the courage to speak out about it?

The answer lies in the OP my friend.

server down

topper75 wrote: »

Sorry - don't want to be ranting at you or anyone. Just wanted to make a general point on the back of your 'the language', reading it as THE language. The Dubs' and country cousins' efforts are all valid, as valid as anyone else in the globe.

Reading back on what I wrote anyway, it probably isn't entirely true to say there is no orthodoxy. An accepted grammar was probably settled on in Victorian times. However there is massive diversity in England itself before we even get on to our Hiberno-English. Lowland Scots is as pure a form of English as any, in that it was brought by Germanic tribes over a millennium ago. In fact it retains many Germanic and Scandinavian features lost to other English dialects.

If we are to continue the discussion, I think its reasonable to say that there is a written standard of communication in English per country. Verbal, not so much, although I am sure proper pronunciation matters in certain cases.

server down

brickland wrote: »

The sound filum is or vilum is very common as gaeilge. ...An bhfuilimid ag dul abhaile? etc

Another much like the missing h in 3 or 30 which will probably never be corrected as long as Irish is taught in schools.

People pick up the accent from peers. It may be that originally this came from Irish but it's now picked up from friends etc.

entropi

sbsquarepants wrote: »

Jaysus, I've just realised something blindingly obvious which has evaded my understanding all these years.

Motion - move, motion picture - movie. :eek::eek:

Now I know how Archimedes felt - I need to sit down and digest this for a bit:D

One of my grandmothers told me many, many moons ago that movies were often called that way due to them being silent (with possible piano accompaniment), and when speech and sound were introduced to them, they were called talkies. Her words, not mine, but I've always thought of it that way!

RhubarbCrumble

My English brother-in-law calls it a 'firm'. He's a d***head though. so no idea whether or not that's anything to do with it!.

professore

"Filum" is the pronunciation within the Pale. No one outside it says "filum". The same planter descendents who say "bewk" instead of "book". This is most definitely not an Irish thing either.

bigar

pickarooney wrote: »

'Film' in Dutch has a schwa before the M. OP, get some Hollanders to back you up next time and mess with their heads.

All Dutch speakers in Belgium would disagree. There is no schwa there and they laugh with what they consider the mispronunciation by the Dutch.

branie2

It's an Irish thing

Cee-Jay-Cee

I don’t put a ‘u’ in film. I put an ‘i’ and say filim because I’m a more sophisticated bogger than you are OP.

gerbilgranny

The Irish continuity announcer on Channel 4 - Barra Fitzgibbon, is @filum on Twitter.:D

(I think he's great, by the way).