Pronunciation guide

[Ted Max]

It's the Stone of Skoon, Simon.

And a scone is always, always, skon.

[david_carnell]

If you mean Scone Palace in Scotland where the Stone of Destiny used to lay, I think that's pronounced Scoon (rhymes with toon) - just to confuse matters further!

[Brendan]

lofty Wrote:

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> My boss says 'chimley' rather than

> 'chimney'....lol

So do I and I have no intention of changing my pronunciation.

[Narnia]

david_carnell Wrote:

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> Oh god Mockney, that site (and ones that it links

> to) are going to keep me distracted for ages. Sad,

> I know, but I love this stuff.

>

> As for my own embaressment I have a habit of

> calling an umbrella an um-ber-rella and saying

> Mon-dee, Tues-dee etc rather than Mon-day,

> Tues-day etc

Interesting word 'Umbrella'! The Spanish call it a Paraqua (possibly not spelt correctly) which translated means 'for water'. Umbrella..............what's that all about?

[david_carnell]

Wikipedia tells us:

The word "umbrella" has evolved from the Latin "umbella" (and "umbel" is a flat-topped rounded flower) or "umbra," meaning "shaded."

Now you know

[DaveR]

Umbra = latin for shade, -ella = diminutive i.e. little (portable) shade

[Narnia]

Thanks for that............not English then!

[Brendan]

Where have you all gone? Your scones are done.

[SimonM]

Not goon anywhere...our scuns are down?

[TillieTrotter]

Here's a new one I've found recently from watching a bit of day time television. Auction = Ochtion whereas I've always said Awktion as in awkward.

[LuvPeckham]

SimonM Wrote:

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> > Cream goes on before jam though! (it replaces the

> butter)

WHAT - I agree with the Cream before Jam, but replacing the butter... oh what a bad thing to do in this healthy world... we need as much fatty deposits as possible on our Scones - because dear old Jamie is trying to remove it from Skools and everywhere.... (full clotted cream too none of this wimpy whipped shite !!)

Strange one now

Film - my dear old mother (bless her Jordie roots) still says fiLem

[bignumber5]

david_carnell Wrote:

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> Scones is or course(!) :-S rhyming with cones.

> Takes the s off of scones and you have cones -

> therefore s-cones.

Indeed - in a Terry Pratchett book there is a "scone of stone", implying that he thinks they're supposed to rhyme (and he's a literary genius)

Here's one that i have trouble with that probably doesn't affect too many people on a daily basis, but cervical: the region of the first 7 vertebrae of the neck (sur-VI-cal, hard "vi"), or of the cervix (survi-cal). Years in the medical biz and I often still go for the wrong one, provoking a mixture of oh-dear-sneers and red-faced-giggles...

[celineblondon]

I can't never say "squirrel" properly...

I lived in Shrewsbury for a while (a little town in the West midlands.....you probably never heard of it....But Darwin was born there!!!)

There has always been this fight about calling it ShrEewwsbury or ShrOwsbury.

Working class say its shrewsbury, the posh ones call it ShrOwsbury.

They even a facebook group called: "Its pronounced SHREWSBURY not SHROWSBURY!"

I am not British and not so class conscious so I think that a bit odd

I like Shrewsbury better though :)

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

To sort out the London salt of the earth types ask them to pronounce Millwall and jewellery.

[Keef]

TillieTrotter Wrote:

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> Here's a new one I've found recently from watching

> a bit of day time television. Auction = Ochtion

> whereas I've always said Awktion as in awkward.

You and every other normal person in the world!

[Keef]

Actually, having just said it out loud, I think I say ORK (as in monster from Lord of the rings) TION. Which I think is still more like your version than this weird Och nonsense!

[Moos]

ORK-shn

MONdee TYOOSdee (etc)

Sconn

I still say cmPACT not COMpact but that's probably ridiculously anachronistic.

Am not going to tell you how I pronounce ***t.

[wee quinnie]

celineblondon Wrote:

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> I can't never say "squirrel" properly...

>

> I lived in Shrewsbury for a while (a little town

> in the West midlands.....you probably never heard

> of it....But Darwin was born there!!!)

> There has always been this fight about calling it

> ShrEewwsbury or ShrOwsbury.

> Working class say its shrewsbury, the posh ones

> call it ShrOwsbury.

>

> They even a facebook group called: "Its pronounced

> SHREWSBURY not SHROWSBURY!"

>

> I am not British and not so class conscious so I

> think that a bit odd

>

> I like Shrewsbury better though :)

I lived there as well, and if anyone ever dared call it Shrowsbury, they were slapped down immediately. My understanding was that it was only the public school that was pronounced "Shrowsbury".

[SimonM]

I think you have to blame the Beeb for this one - the guy who read the football results always referred to "Shrowsbury Town"...

[SimonM]

>>WHAT - I agree with the Cream before Jam, but replacing the butter... oh what a bad thing to do in this healthy world... we need as much fatty deposits as possible on our Scones <<

But.....cream and butter (and I do agree it has to be clotted cream :))) are essentially the same thing.... I remember somone once telling me that the absolute horriblest dish he had every encountered was a three-egg omelette....with 3 fried eggs laid lovingly along it...

[mlteenie]

I have adopted London ways re: cant and fack/facknell.

Half of the problems are caused by people not knowing the difference between UK and US pronunciations eg. sKedule and sHedule. The punchline to the Dave Allen joke was 'Well, that's a load of bullskit' (it was to do with bus schedules.....). Using the k sound is US.

And don't get me started on rising cadences (or whatever they are called technically).

Y 'know? Everything ends in a question? Really winds me up? I am glad I was working in an office recently and the guy at the next desk kept ending every sentence that way? I had to work hard not to leap across the partition and strangle him?

I pity the young.

[Keef]

Moos Wrote:

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> ORK-shn

That's exactly it!

> MONdee TYOOSdee (etc)

Surely MUndee?

[LuvPeckham]

Oh Oh Oh

Here's one that sorts the Americans out from the rest of the world

"Aluminium"

I think that most Americans pronounce it as "aluminum"

go on America Fawcet out correctly !!!

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

And 'Caribbean' grates when pronounced by a yank. And 'oregano'! And herb!!

[citizenED]

And when Ford bought Jaguar Cars how I winced, then chuckled, when the yank executive pronounce Jag-gwuar.

Bill Bryson's book "Mother Tongue" all about the English Language, has a brilliant section about the difference between English and US pronunciation.

Question. How does Menzies = Ming and St. John = sin-jun