the english can't pronounce "ing"

Dozen Wicked Words · 18-11-2011 04:29PM

Potato starts with a P not a B, that is all.

summerskin · 18-11-2011 04:31PM

keano_afc wrote: »

They seem to have trouble pronouncing anything that is remotely Irish, even if they try say it phonetically. Galway becomes Ghoul-way, Donegal is alway Donagh-gall and Cahill becomes Cay-hill. Thats all I can think of off the top of my head but watching something like Sky News/Sports if there's a story from Ireland can be so cringeworthy.

i agree. when they talk about Keith Fahy it becomes "Fawhee".

it's the same on irish sports shows when they mispronounce Birming-HAM (it's Birmingum) and SunderLAND (it's Sunderluhnd)

The King of Moo · 18-11-2011 04:33PM

keano_afc wrote: »

They seem to have trouble pronouncing anything that is remotely Irish, even if they try say it phonetically. Galway becomes Ghoul-way, Donegal is alway Donagh-gall and Cahill becomes Cay-hill. Thats all I can think of off the top of my head but watching something like Sky News/Sports if there's a story from Ireland can be so cringeworthy.

That's true, but I think that can be attributed to accent differences. Having a vowel followed by a "h" or "h" sound like in "Cahill," "Doherty" or "Gallagher" is not something you find so often in English names, so lots of English people struggle a bit with them.

I think it works both ways as well: I heard an RTÉ reporter mispronounce "Southwark," pronouncing it phonetically, and I'm pretty sure I heard another mispronounce "Berkshire" recently.
And lots of us would struggle with names like "Worcestershire" and "St.John," and I think most people round the world not only mispronounce Evelyn Waugh's first name, but get his gender wrong too!

kumate_champ07 · 18-11-2011 04:36PM

African Americans seem to always pronounce ask as axe, at least on tv and in movies, I dont see many of them in Ireland

Fratton Fred · 18-11-2011 04:39PM

summerskin wrote: »

i agree. when they talk about Keith Fahy it becomes "Fawhee".

it's the same on irish sports shows when they mispronounce Birming-HAM (it's Birmingum) and SunderLAND (it's Sunderluhnd)

Irish reporters also say Ports-Mouth instead of its correct pronunciation which is Portsmuff.

Dotrel · 18-11-2011 04:40PM

kumate_champ07 wrote: »

African Americans seem to always pronounce ask as axe, at least on tv and in movies, I dont see many of them in Ireland

and they get defensive if you axe them why.

cynder · 18-11-2011 04:41PM

fryup wrote: »

The english are always taking the mickey out of us for not being able to pronounce our TH's ...but have you ever noticed they can't pronounce "ing" at the end of words it becomes "ink"

something > someth'ink nothing > noth'ink looking > look'ink

Yet the irish dont pronounce the ing the irsh say in like nothin, lookin, somethin.

I grew up in the uk and we all said ing it was drummed into us. when i moved back to ireland at age 8 the school kids kept telling me that i was saying ing and that it wasnt right..

Fratton Fred · 18-11-2011 04:43PM

The King of Moo wrote: »

That's true, but I think that can be attributed to accent differences. Having a vowel followed by a "h" or "h" sound like in "Cahill," "Doherty" or "Gallagher" is not something you find so often in English names, so lots of English people struggle a bit with them.

I think it works both ways as well: I heard an RTÉ reporter mispronounce "Southwark," pronouncing it phonetically, and I'm pretty sure I heard another mispronounce "Berkshire" recently.
And lots of us would struggle with names like "Worcestershire" and "St.John," and I think most people round the world not only mispronounce Evelyn Waugh's first name, but get his gender wrong too!

In England we tend to use the American pronunciation. Like Ma-Ho-Nee instead of Marney for Mahoney or Dokerty instead of Doherty.

Latchy · 18-11-2011 04:43PM

ejmaztec wrote: »

Woss is wubbish.

The BBC and it's licence paying tv viewers /radio listeners thought so to .

chasm · 18-11-2011 04:46PM

fryup wrote: »

The english are always taking the mickey out of us for not being able to pronounce our TH's ...but have you ever noticed they can't pronounce "ing" at the end of words it becomes "ink"

something > someth'ink nothing > noth'ink looking > look'ink

The pronunciation of "ing" as "ink" is common around London and parts of the surrounding counties, but not overly common elsewhere, so i wouldn't say it's an english thing tbh, not even sure it could be classed as a dialect either. Pronouncing "Th" as "F" is more common in England.

However the pronunciation of "Th" as "T" (as in Thirty= turty, three= tree) is common all over Ireland, i have heard teachers pronounce it like that, and reporters on the news! To make matters worse because people pronounce it like that they go on to spell/write it like that too - boards is full of "treads" and donedeal is full of "threadmills" in the gym equipment catergory!

Latchy · 18-11-2011 04:47PM

In England they will also say Kav-an-nah instead of Kavanagh and Moran will not have the syllable dragged out but just as one sound ' Moran'.

The King of Moo · 18-11-2011 04:48PM

Fratton Fred wrote: »

In England we tend to use the American pronunciation. Like Ma-Ho-Nee instead of Marney for Mahoney or Dokerty instead of Doherty.

Yeah, I've noticed that, those pronunciations seem to lend themselves better to English accents.

The same way we say "Pyoo-zho" instead of "Peh-zho" for "Peugeot" as it's more natural to say the former with an Irish accent.

And with regards to the thread title and opening post, I hope the OP is aware he's leaving himself open to all sorts of "Irish people can't use capital letters" accusations

.

ejmaztec · 18-11-2011 04:49PM

Fratton Fred wrote: »

In England we tend to use the American pronunciation. Like Ma-Ho-Nee instead of Marney for Mahoney or Dokerty instead of Doherty.

One of my kids came home from school a bit confused because one of her teachers was talking about Westminister instead of Westminster. To this day, that teacher won't be told that she's wrong.

Doc Ruby · 18-11-2011 04:53PM

ejmaztec wrote: »

That would be "the other day" in England.

Or "de uvva doi".

GavRedKing · 18-11-2011 04:57PM

No English I've ever heard of comes from Merseyside.

Latchy · 18-11-2011 05:03PM

gavredking wrote: »

No English I've ever heard of comes from Merseyside.

I'm pretty sure they understood you fine to when you where last over there .

ejmaztec · 18-11-2011 05:05PM

Doc Ruby wrote: »

Or "de uvva doi".

No, that would be Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins.

Latchy · 18-11-2011 05:06PM

ejmaztec wrote: »

No, that would be Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins.

The worst American doing an English accent ...'Evah '

amortentia · 18-11-2011 05:07PM

I'm English and moved here when I was around 10 (now 18) and still have my accent. I think a lot of people in general don't realise how difficult it is to physically pronounce certain letters in words when you grew up not pronouncing them! Like I have to strain to pronounce an "R" or sometimes "L" at the end of a syllable such as in words like "circle", or "four". Plus I sound like an idiot if I try, so I don't. Actually "L"'s are easier to say, but for the longest time I just couldn't. So sometimes (usually country people) don't understand what I'm saying/think I have a speech impediment until they realise that I actually have an English accent?!

I think it works both ways as well: I heard an RTÉ reporter mispronounce "Southwark," pronouncing it phonetically, and I'm pretty sure I heard another mispronounce "Berkshire" recently.
And lots of us would struggle with names like "Worcestershire" and "St.John," and I think most people round the world not only mispronounce Evelyn Waugh's first name, but get his gender wrong too!

And its the "TEMZ" not the "Thhhhayyms". Rarely comes up in conversation but I've heard it multiple times over the years :P

ejmaztec · 18-11-2011 05:10PM

In before Brummytom tells us about the slices of mate his mother puts on his sanwidgis.

Doc Ruby · 18-11-2011 05:15PM

ejmaztec wrote: »

No, that would be Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins.

Great, I can't wait to tell my nephew in London that he does a great Dick Van Dyke impression.

ejmaztec · 18-11-2011 05:22PM

Doc Ruby wrote: »

Great, I can't wait to tell my nephew in London that he does a great Dick Van Dyke impression.

He'll probably tell you that you wrote it down wrong, Dick.:P

shannon_tek · 18-11-2011 05:36PM

You got it all worng. since when do the english mock the irish.

But in saying that. none of my family can say TH or ing.
Only i the one from england in Ireland. and yes the Irish do pronounce their TH's
like those who pronounce louth = loud / loud = louth

Metallica_ · 18-11-2011 05:38PM

Well as a Londoner i do have the habit of dropping the 'g' off the end of alot of words or add in an 'f' but living in Galway alot of my friends and family out here do too, just slightly differently. They just dont have the brilliant London accent to pull it off

Dont really get the point of this thread as we could be here all day pointing out how others pronounce words but I love my accent mate, innit!!

18-11-2011 05:40PM

You there, slag. Get in the automobile.

bronte · 18-11-2011 05:52PM

I said South-waark instead of suth-uck for a good while

Wibbs · 18-11-2011 06:41PM

amortentia wrote: »

I'm English and moved here when I was around 10 (now 18) and still have my accent. I think a lot of people in general don't realise how difficult it is to physically pronounce certain letters in words when you grew up not pronouncing them!

Yea apparently there's a brain change that occurs before a certain point when you're a kid and novel sounds are much harder to pick up after that time. You see it more strongly in other languages. So German folks don't have nearly as strong a "W" sound so when they speak English it can come out as a "V" sound. Instant (crap) German accent ripoff, swap out the W's for V's. "Ve haf vays of making you talk" etc. The Spanish can have problems with I/E sounds in english. So shít sounds like sheet and they can find it difficult to discern the diff between words such as "peace" "piss" "peas" or "ship" and "sheep". It all sounds the same to their ears. English is a right bastard for such sounds mind you.

I remember reading somewhere that of the main European languages English was one of the hardest languages for a non native speaker to sound native, no matter how fluent. I dunno how true that is, but I know a Belgian guy who is scarily multilingual in 4 or 5 languages(I'm barely lingual). His written English looks native. If he posted here I'd bet the farm people would be hard pressed to spot he wasn't a local. In the flesh mind you, he sounds like Inspector Clouseau with a hint of Dublin.

However an Italian guy I know says the same guys Italian sounds native and he could be easily mistaken for an Italian on the phone. It would take a long convo to spot him. I knew a woman who lived in Spain who was regularly mistaken for a local on the phone. Her gorgeous long red hair, milky skin and freckles screwed the whole thing in the flesh though, so we can rule her out as an Irish secret agent in Madrid.

fryup · 18-11-2011 06:54PM

summerskin wrote: »

i agree. when they talk about Keith Fahy it becomes "Fawhee".

and Paul McGrath...

we say Ma'gra, they say Ma'grathh

ROFLcopter · 18-11-2011 06:55PM

fryup wrote: »

The english are always taking the mickey out of us for not being able to pronounce our TH's ...but have you ever noticed they can't pronounce "ing" at the end of words it becomes "ink"

something > someth'ink nothing > noth'ink looking > look'ink

Or "Sommat"

franc 91 · 13-01-2012 12:46PM

Bhuel, will youse all have pity on some of us non-Irish (such as me) who are trying to get our tongues round the way you pronounce the end of ort and ceathair - now there's a challenge the Irish win at, every time.

the english can't pronounce "ing"

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