Most annoying mispronunciation

grahamor · 10-09-2013 09:19AM

pronouncing the h in Thai so it sounds like Thigh

Renegade Mechanic · 10-09-2013 09:24AM

Had to resist strangling someone who was talking about "Eyeraq" and "Eyeran"... It's Iraq and Iran you numpty and if you even think "Eyesrael"....

Hoop66 · 10-09-2013 09:39AM

A launderette in London once lost a bag of my clothes. The woman kept saying "if it doesn't turn up, we'll reimburst you". It really got on my nerves after a while.

They did find the clothes in the end, so there was no reimburstment...

Vojera · 10-09-2013 10:41AM

Hoop66 wrote: »

A launderette in London once lost a bag of my clothes. The woman kept saying "if it doesn't turn up, we'll reimburst you". It really got on my nerves after a while.

Say that sentence in a skangery Dublin accent and it sounds like a threat!

etchyed · 10-09-2013 03:33PM

LordSutch wrote: »

Never ever heard the 'R' pronounced in either a British accent or a Gibraltarian accent!

Here's one of many examples > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lji7k8eTeCM&feature=player_detailpage

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhotic_and_non-rhotic_accents

For anyone from Ireland, Scotland, the Westcountry, most of English-speaking North America or indeed anywhere else where English is spoken with a rhotic accent, pronouncing Gibraltar without the r at the end would sound bizarre.

There is a certain cohort of Irish people with that nice Anglo-Irish accent (David Norris or old-school RTÉ newsreaders like Ken Hammond come to mind) who can get away with this sort of thing, but if you're going around with an otherwise Irish accent, dropping the r in select words like Gibraltar, you must sound like a complete wally.

LordSutch wrote: »

Chapel-izzard (Chapelizod)
Gibraltarrr (Gibralta)
just a few Hibernoisms . . .

And it doesn't make any sense to have included Chapelizod and Gibraltar in the same list. Chapelizod is the correct spelling - it shouldn't be pronounced with an r by anyone - rhotic or non-rhotic. The pronunciation of Gibraltar depends entirely on where you're from.

I agree with you re Thailand though. The way most Irish people pronounce it is wrong. I would guess that it's some variant of hypercorrection - Irish people not wishing to fall into the turty-tree-and-a-turd trap overcompensate and pronounce everything beginning with th as a th. You can sometimes hear Thomas pronounced this way too.

This post is way too long to have wasted on AH, but how and ever...

10-09-2013 04:01PM

grahamor wrote: »

Modren when the word is clearly 'modern'

Same with 'pattren' - pattern.

'Fillum' drives me mental.

force eleven · 10-09-2013 04:06PM

Grievous is not Griev-ee-us.

Violent is not Voy-a-lent

And tremendous is not 'tremendious'.

oldyouth · 10-09-2013 04:13PM

Candie wrote: »

Same with 'pattren' - pattern.

Just beat me to that one, along with

Mill-In = Million
Com-i-tee = Committee
Vee-hickle = Vehicle
Hurted = Hurt
Lacens = Laces

Penny Dreadful · 10-09-2013 04:19PM

oldyouth wrote: »

Just beat me to that one, along with

Mill-In = Million
Com-i-tee = Committee
Vee-hickle = Vehicle
Hurted = Hurt
Lacens = Laces

Medicine - med cen

Its MedIcine
Incinerated- incarcerated ----although thats more someone using it in the wrong way: "my meat was os incarcerated I couldn't eat it". Really you mean incinerated.

Amirani · 10-09-2013 04:26PM

Suave. When people say 'swave' instead of 'swav'.

buck65 · 10-09-2013 04:47PM

Lackadaisy.

garancafan · 10-09-2013 05:58PM

nuke-ular
nuptuals
heinious
grieveious
horrendious
haitch

Ghost Buster · 10-09-2013 06:42PM

Star Trak/Track............ Arrrgh!!!!!!!!!!!:mad:

LordSutch · 10-09-2013 07:07PM

Raic wrote: »

That's because their accent is non-rhotic. E.g. They would pronounce "player" somewhat like "playuh", that does not make the Irish pronunciation wrong! If your accent is rhotic, but you don't pronounce the r at the end of Gibraltar then that's a bit odd, to be honest.

I doubt the BBC would agree with "playuh" :cool:

The BBC, ITN, and SKY News pronunciation departments would exclusively say Gibralta, as would I with a south Dublin accent.

Raic · 10-09-2013 07:17PM

LordSutch wrote: »

Many thanks, I will inform the BBC, ITN, and SKY News pronunciation departments, plus the population of Gibraltar.

You don't seem to be getting the whole rhoticity idea. For example, Irish people pronounce the r in Carlow, but English people (mostly) would just use a long a sound with no r. This does not make their pronunciation wrong, it's just their way of pronouncing the "ar". It's the exact same thing in Gibraltar. Like I said, read the IPA and you'll see that this is true.

Edit:
By your logic Irish people also shouldn't pronounce the r at the end of "Manchester", for example.

LordSutch · 10-09-2013 07:22PM

Raic wrote: »

You don't seem to be getting the whole rhoticity idea. For example, Irish people pronounce the r in Carlow, but English people (mostly) would just use a long a sound with no r. This does not make their pronunciation wrong, it's just their way of pronouncing the "ar". It's the exact same thing in Gibraltar. Like I said, read the IPA and you'll see that this is true.

Edit:
By your logic Irish people also shouldn't pronounce the r at the end of "Manchester", for example.

I do get what you're saying (and thaks for that), but if I take your argument to its natural conclusion, then 'anything goes' including THIGH-land.

Reekwind · 10-09-2013 07:24PM

Drogheda. Foreigners always say 'Drow-he-da' instead of 'dump'

Seriously though, very few of the words in this thread really annoy me. Most are either accent issues (which are particularly noticeable living in England) or so common place as to becoming accepted anyway. So why get upset?

OPENROAD · 10-09-2013 07:32PM

Over here in the States :

Tomato :mad:
Iran
Iraq

dxhound2005 · 10-09-2013 07:39PM

Penny Dreadful wrote: »

Medicine - med cen
Its MedIcine
Incinerated- incarcerated ----although thats more someone using it in the wrong way: "my meat was os incarcerated I couldn't eat it". Really you mean incinerated.

I think you'll find that both of those pronunciations of medicine are accepted as standard.

http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=medicine&submit=Submit

And your incarcerated/incinerated is not a mispronunciation, it is a malapropism.

Raic · 10-09-2013 08:25PM

dxhound2005 wrote: »

I think you'll find that both of those pronunciations of medicine are accepted as standard.

http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=medicine&submit=Submit

And your incarcerated/incinerated is not a mispronunciation, it is a malapropism.

Not only that, but the 2 syllable pronunciation of "medicine" is more traditional and associated with the upper classes in Britain.

Edit:

LordSutch wrote: »

I doubt the BBC would agree with "playuh" :cool:

The BBC, ITN, and SKY News pronunciation departments would exclusively say Gibralta, as would I with a south Dublin accent.

It was an approximation of the pronunciation; the "uh" was to represent a schwa. That considered, it's pretty much how it would be pronounced in BBC/RP English.

LordSutch wrote: »

I do get what you're saying (and thaks for that), but if I take your argument to its natural conclusion, then 'anything goes' including THIGH-land.

There is a difference between something which is regarded as an error due to hypercorrection, such a Thighland, and simple differences which are down to accent. Thigh/Thai isn't an just a pronunciation difference which is due to accent (except in so far as it is a hypercorrection), whereas rhoticity is just down to accent variations (and the further back in time you go the more of England would have be rhotic).

pickarooney · 10-09-2013 08:38PM

'iorn' or 'eye-euhn' for iron

Raic · 10-09-2013 09:43PM

pickarooney wrote: »

'iorn' or 'eye-euhn' for iron

It should be pronounced the first way (the second in non-rhotic accents). "Eye-ruhn" would be an example of a spelling pronunciation. Feel free to check the OED etc.

cantdecide · 10-09-2013 09:49PM

Committee/ comet-tee

Badly Drunk Boy · 10-09-2013 09:56PM

OPENROAD wrote: »

Over here in the States :

Tomato :mad:
Iran
Iraq

Mos-COW

10-09-2013 10:14PM

Router is pronounced "Rooter" not "Rautor" unless it's referring to a tool for shaping wood!
But in the US a "Rooter" is a randy pig making bacon!

bop1977 · 10-09-2013 10:50PM

The States with their dropping of the word "the" in numbers. ie 2001 becomes two thousand one. Fcuking yanks.

Peregrinus · 11-09-2013 01:45AM

garancafan wrote: »

haitch

"Haitch" is standard in Hiberno-English for the name of the letter 'h'. You can no more criticise an Irish person for saying "haitch" instead of "aitch" than you can criticise him for saying "zed" instead of "zee" for 'z', or "or" instead of "are" for 'r'.

Peregrinus · 11-09-2013 01:52AM

cantdecide wrote: »

Committee/ comet-tee

"CommittEE", with the stress on the last syllable, is the older pronunciation, and follows the general rule that the "-ee" suffix is stressed - mortgagee, escapee, assignee, referee, grantee. "ComMITtee" is a later development.

According to the OED, both proncunciations are still current. Where you commit something to an individual, that person is a committEE, but if you commit something to a group of people, collectively they are a comMITtee. But in some dialects of English, the older pronunciation survives for both individuals and collectives.

So, it may be an old-fashioned pronunciation, but it's not a mispronunciation.

Peregrinus · 11-09-2013 01:56AM

bop1977 wrote: »

The States with their dropping of the word "the" in numbers. ie 2001 becomes two thousand one. Fcuking yanks.

Annoys me too, I admit, but it shouldn't. US speakers are consistent. If you can say "twenty-one" instead of "twenty and one" then why can't you say "two hundred one" instead of "two hundred and one"?

ardle1 · 11-09-2013 02:22AM

CaraMay wrote: »

Just heard a woman say fabolous aghhhh it's not 'fabolous' it's fabulous!! People who say disSipline instead of discipline are very annoying.

Most annoying mispronunciation
Most: MO-IST.
Annoying: AN-EYE-ING.
Mispronunciation: MISS-PRO-NOUNCE-E-ACIAN.

Most annoying mispronunciation

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