Kiev, Kyev, Kif. WTF?

Matteo said:
Yes! Although when I lived in Newport, I had a colleague who always refered to Maesglas as "Mays-gluss" - and he was local from Henllys (or "Ent-liss" as he called it) :rolleyes:.

But it reminds me that several years ago I met up with with a group of friends, and others I'd not before, of varying nationalities one of whom was a young Spanish woman. We got talking about various things and got into the topic of music and the following exchange took place:

Her: Oh I really like Oodoss.
Me: Oodoss? Never heard of them.
Her: Eh? You've never heard of Oodoss? Joder! They're so famous! How is it you have never heard of Oodoss?
Me: Sorry.
Her: You know...Oodoss, Oodoss!
Me: [penny finally dropping] Oh, you mean...
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And just near Newport, Gwent is Bryn Mawr, pronounced differently from the US University of the same spelling
 
Pyan said:
And as I once heard a tourist say: "How far is it to Car-lizzle?"
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Let's not get started on the Scottish name Dalziel. You've either heard how it's actually pronounced or you haven't. (If you haven't the 'alzi' is silent. :))
 
I’ve always believed that we should pronounce a name or a place that is in accordance with the wishes of those most directly involved..eg…pronounce the city the way the residents of that city wish it to be pronounced. It’s also why I pronounce Ralph Fiennes as Rayf (which is, apparently, the welsh pronounciation).
 
When I moved to my current address here in the north of Lewis, I heard the name of the place pronounced several different ways, by various locals. Furthermore, it’s written as one word everywhere except on the sign by the bus stop, where it’s three words
 
Astro Pen said:
I love accents and the various name permutations of people and cities.:cool:

Whenever I speak to friends from Belfast they pronounce London as "Lunton" with a soft T.
I'm sure @Jo Zebedee can enlighten me on this.

Here in Wales we call it Llundain. This contains the double L sound which The English seem unable to master. Leading my English friends who moved here to talk of non existent places like "Clanethly" when they mean Llanelli.

I also remember a museum guide in the Dordogne proudly showing us a "Sonjay" treadle sewing machine. A perfectly rational French pronunciation of Singer.
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I can handle the Welsh 'll' as it is pretty much the Zulu 'hl' as in Umhlanga. But good luck trying to pronounce Zulu place names with one of the clicks: 'Ixopo' is not pronounced 'iks-opo', and the Xhosa tribe is not 'kosa' or 'ex-hosa'. There is no way of phonetically spelling the clicks.
 
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This gets really complicated in the US. There's a town in Missouri called New Madrid, which gives its name to the very important New Madrid Fault Line. The accepted local pronunciation is 'ma-drid, emphasis on the first syllable. Not muh-'drid. Neither of which bear any resemblance of course to mah-'threeth as the Spaniards say.
New Madrid, Missouri is also 42 miles from Kay-row, Illinois.
 
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Matteo said:
Yes! Although when I lived in Newport, I had a colleague who always refered to Maesglas as "Mays-gluss" - and he was local from Henllys (or "Ent-liss" as he called it) :rolleyes:.

But it reminds me that several years ago I met up with with a group of friends, and others I'd not before, of varying nationalities one of whom was a young Spanish woman. We got talking about various things and got into the topic of music and the following exchange took place:

Her: Oh I really like Oodoss.
Me: Oodoss? Never heard of them.
Her: Eh? You've never heard of Oodoss? Joder! They're so famous! How is it you have never heard of Oodoss?
Me: Sorry.
Her: You know...Oodoss, Oodoss!
Me: [penny finally dropping] Oh, you mean...
Click to expand...
Was she referring to Bono's band?
 
Valtharius said:
This gets really complicated in the US. There's a town in Missouri called New Madrid, which gives its name to the very important New Madrid Fault Line. The accepted local pronunciation is 'ma-drid, emphasis on the second syllable. Not muh-'drid. Neither of which bear any resemblance of course to mah-'threeth as the Spaniards say.
New Madrid, Missouri is also 42 miles from Kay-row, Illinois.
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I always think of the Icelandic ð whenever I think of Castilian Spanish… haha. Speaking of which, today I’m going to Los Robertos (a popular fast food chain in Arizona/NM) to pick up some tacos and a burrito. I’ll be sure to say “Muchath Grathiath! Buenoth Diath!”
 
worldofmutes said:
I always think of the Icelandic ð whenever I think of Castilian Spanish… haha. Speaking of which, today I’m going to Los Robertos (a popular fast food chain in Arizona/NM) to pick up some tacos and a burrito. I’ll be sure to say “Muchath Grathiath! Buenoth Diath!”
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Would not be accurate except in very specific parts of Andalucía.
 
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HareBrain said:
She's not speaking English. What might "doss" mean?
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"Hooters, Hooters." They are looking for the excellent restaurant chain. Probably to enjoy some "chowder".
 
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Astro Pen said:
I love accents and the various name permutations of people and cities.:cool:

Whenever I speak to friends from Belfast they pronounce London as "Lunton" with a soft T.
I'm sure @Jo Zebedee can enlighten me on this.

Here in Wales we call it Llundain. This contains the double L sound which The English seem unable to master. Leading my English friends who moved here to talk of non existent places like "Clanethly" when they mean Llanelli.

I also remember a museum guide in the Dordogne proudly showing us a "Sonjay" treadle sewing machine. A perfectly rational French pronunciation of Singer.
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My nearest approximation to saying it in the Belfast accent - i‘ve a bit of a posh accent and I’m also from about 15 miles from the city so a bit more rural but it’s kind of like this.
we have sone mad place names here - Magherafelt is Mach-er-a-felt where as Maghera is Ma-ha-ra. And Let’s not start on Augher and Clougher (gh is pronounced in a gutteral way)
 

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Espain? I thought it was España.

And why can't we just leave our anglicized pronunciations comfortably, as we've been accustomed to them, for decades?

I suspect a plague of pretentiousness flooding our newscasters. You know, the kind of folks who think that over-pronouncing foreign words, makes them sound more sophisticated.

A nice idea, to try to sound more cosmopolitan (and incluuusive) in world-view; but they do tend to try too hard. It becomes so self-consciously forced that the effect comes off as hopelessly affected.

My mother is a classic case. She actually is rather a cosmopolitan globe trotter. She lived and worked on Loondohn for some years, then in Meheeeco Ceetee for some more years. She traveled the world and finally decided to buy land and live in Chee-layee, for fifteen years.

She actually does speak Spanish pretty well; but when she ventures to pronounce "Nicaragua" it sounds like a cat hacking up a hair-ball.

I'm thinking, "Give it a rest Ma. We all know where you've been. Somehow, I think that when a native Nicaraguan pronounces the name of their country, it rolls off the tongue a little more smoothly than that."
 
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