Cal - kye - late or Cal-kah-late? Ri-dic-ye-lous or Ri-dic-ah-los? For-ward or Foward?

Thread Starter

spinnaker

Joined Oct 29, 2009
7,830
OK English "grammar" experts, how are these words pronounced?

Ridiculous?
Calculate?

Basically any word with the u sound in the middle.

I hear so many people using the Ah sound for the u instead of the uh sound. Websters for certain specifies the uh sound and not the ah sound.

A friend that is constantly correcting everyone's grammar claims it is the ah sound but see also pronounces transient (tran-gent) and forward (fo-ward). I hear a lot of people using foward which is an acceptable pronunciation which I do not see how it should be. Also tran-gent is an acceptable pronunciation of transient which I have no idea how it could be.
 

MaxHeadRoom

Joined Jul 18, 2013
28,617
Probably depends on what part of the world you are, where I was born and raised (UK) the U was always pronounced as you say the letter itself, 'you'.
Transient was always trans ee-ent.
One other word I find that only appears to be universally mispronounced in N.A. is Risotto.
Max.
 

#12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,224
What Max said.
British people have a strange way of pronouncing the u, like Jag u ar...Al u min e um
More than one area in the U.S. takes out an R in the middle of the word and adds one to the end.
What I call been (bin) some people call bean.
The words that bother me are nucular, prolly, should of...
This reeks of laziness and ignorance.
 
Last edited:

djsfantasi

Joined Apr 11, 2010
9,156
Cal - cue - late
Reg - you - lah

In neither case, is the U sound emphasized.

I'm from Boston, so that may affect my pronunciation
 

Thread Starter

spinnaker

Joined Oct 29, 2009
7,830
What Max said.
British people have a strange way of pronouncing the u, like Jag u ar...Al u min e um
More than one area in the U.S. takes out an R in the middle of the word and add one to the end.
What I can been (bin) some people call bean.
The words that bother me are nucular, prolly, should of...
This reeks of laziness and ignorance.
Sorry should have specified, how do Americans pronounce them,

Yeah prolly drives me nuts too. You mostly see it written that way but some people speak it.

And nucular. Bush would use that but I honestly think it was on purpose to drive some people nuts.


Jaguar is a tough one because it is sort of hard to isolate the sounds.



Sort of like in Italian with gli (plural masculine the) and famiglia (family). I have no problem with the gli sound when saying famiglia but just can't get it right for gli. I have trouble with isolation of the sound in the longer word.
 

Thread Starter

spinnaker

Joined Oct 29, 2009
7,830
Cal - cue - late
Reg - you - lah

In neither case, is the U sound emphasized.

I'm from Boston, so that may affect my pronunciation
Well it is not a strong U. It is more of ya sound. I wrote ye above but that is what websters has except for a backward e. Not sure what that does to the e sound.
 

MaxHeadRoom

Joined Jul 18, 2013
28,617
There was a prediction made I believe in the 19th century where someone had reckoned that there would eventually be a language gap between the U.S. and G.B..
They had not reckoned on the invention of the Radio!
Max.
 

MaxHeadRoom

Joined Jul 18, 2013
28,617
We have US English & Canadian English as well as Australian, S African, and not forgetting the 2nd largest English speaking country in the world, India.
Max.
 

Alec_t

Joined Sep 17, 2013
14,280
British people have a strange way of pronouncing the u
Strange to Americans, maybe. The English invented the English language, so their pronunciation should be the model for others :). Mind you, if the rise of China as a world power continues we'll all be speaking Chinglish soon!
 

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
@spinnaker
Very few people from Pittsburgh should be correcting anyone's pronunciation. I was about to say nobody from Pittsburgh" but, then I realized I have not met everyone here.

For those of you not from here (or never stayed long enough to figure out you weren't talking to foreigners with a strange accent, you were talking to locals.

When I moved here, I couldn't figure out what the real estate agent was saying: it was a bad "collar" (1), or the house not being "too far from tahn" (2), or a particular house not taking too much work to "red up" (3) and apparently, a "tall" (4) is used when you "red up". Then he would refer to my family as "yinz" (5). By the way, the local football team is the "stillers". The local hockey team is exclusively referred to as the "Pens" because the locals just won't even attempt to say a long word like "Penguins".

Any guesses on the numbered words?
There is actually a book and website to teach newcomers how to speak Pittsburghese.
Scroll down...


























1) collar = color
2) tahn = town, short for "dahn tahn" (down town) a.k.a. The city of Pittsburgh.
3) red up = clean up. Apparently a shortened version of ready up ( or get ready).
4) tall = towel.
5) yinz = Pittsburghese for "y'all". Also used for You,
 

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
Strange to Americans, maybe. The English invented the English language, so their pronunciation should be the model for others :). Mind you, if the rise of China as a world power continues we'll all be speaking Chinglish soon!
The English may have invented the language, but the Americans perfected it.

An interesting question, why do all the Brit singers lose their accents as so in as they start singing? They all sound like Americans!
 

Thread Starter

spinnaker

Joined Oct 29, 2009
7,830
@spinnaker
Very few people from Pittsburgh should be correcting anyone's pronunciation. I was about to say nobody from Pittsburgh" but, then I realized I have not met everyone here.

For those of you not from here (or never stayed long enough to figure out you weren't talking to foreigners with a strange accent, you were talking to locals.

When I moved here, I couldn't figure out what the real estate agent was saying: it was a bad "collar" (1), or the house not being "too far from tahn" (2), or a particular house not taking too much work to "red up" (3) and apparently, a "tall" (4) is used when you "red up". Then he would refer to my family as "yinz" (5). By the way, the local football team is the "stillers". The local hockey team is exclusively referred to as the "Pens" because the locals just won't even attempt to say a long word like "Penguins".

Any guesses on the numbered words?
There is actually a book and website to teach newcomers how to speak Pittsburghese.
.



She is not from Pittsburgh but Chicago. She had the same problem as you when she moved here (may have old you this story). A friend invited her to a party and the friend told her, "I live in the 3rd brahn hause fron the corner". She had no idea brahn hause meant brown house. :)



And it is culler not collar for color. :)





















1) collar = color
2) tahn = town, short for "dahn tahn" (down town) a.k.a. The city of Pittsburgh.
3) red up = clean up. Apparently a shortened version of ready up ( or get ready).
4) tall = towel.
5) yinz = Pittsburghese for "y'all". Also used for You,[/QUOTE]
 

#12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,224
I was in Philly, once. I spoke to one person that said, "Broad street" so strangely that he had to say it 3 times for me to understand him. I didn't try to talk to anyone else in Philadelphia.
 

#12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,224
I was vising an old friend. It was New Years day and he wanted to sit in a bar all day. I walked outside and asked the first person I saw, what to do today.

The Mummers Day Parade!

How could anybody prefer to sit in a dark bar when a huge parade is within walking distance???
This has nothing to do with broads.
 
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