Commonly misprounced words

[Monroe]

LOL!!!

I read a book by Pat Macintosh a little while back: Scottish English in medieval times....
Having a good background in German dialects actually helped once I got into it! :lol:

I just remember being a little kid and staring blankly at them. Who the hell are the chillurn and why are they cold? I think I'm a chillurn. What is an urn? Why am I a cold urn?

 

[Xue Sheng]

People say: "I could care less" (now think about what that actaully means based on the situtation the phrase is applied to)

When it is actually

I couldn't care less.

 

[JohnEdward]

It actually annoys most of us not just a few English teachers, the sound of over excited high pitched sports commentators coming out with the most inane drivel and Americanisms is enough to make a saint swear. I watched the Winter Olympics on Eurosport, a calm oasis in the desert of linguistic hell. Americanisms sound fine from Americans but ersatz ones not so much. It's the verbal equivalant of the white English kids walking around with their jeans around their knees shouting 'wassup' at each other, a very sad sight indeed.


Cornish....'I'll do it dreckly'.... it's like manyana but without the sense of urgency.
Also the habit of addressing everyone as 'my lover' or 'my ansome'

Clearly, reformer Americans like Noah Webster where unhappy with the Mother England and wanted their own identity, and part of that was to screw with the English language to piss off (a term that makes no sense either, but I love it.) ya'll in England. It has worked it seems. I can see how the English are irritated with the bastardization, and slang of the American language. Very much in the same way as you pointed out with our slang, i.e. Wasssup. The American language unlike the English language was greatly influenced by African slave code, and the evolution of that. The immigrant English, Scottish, Irish, themselves. As well as other immigrants especially 1800's to 1940's. American language and it's slang was influenced by criminal code as well. Even old Cockney Rhyming slang is still in use today as American common expressions and slang. Take for example, an old term I use to use and hear, 'pony up.' meaning as we use it to pay moneymeaning to pay up or make good on an obligation, comes from the word pone which is derived from the Latin ponere, to seize. Which a few years ago, pony came back into vogue as 'pwned' (poned), relating to being pwned- being defeated by another. That was popularized by the youth. Yes, I can see how it irritates the Brits. I see it like the youngest sibling annoying the older one. The whole affair is humorist, i.e. when I really thought of how 'metaling' was heard as meddling, tickles by dry sense of humor.

 

[Steve]

Clearly, reformer Americans like Noah Webster where unhappy with the Mother England and wanted their own identity, and part of that was to screw with the English language to piss off (a term that makes no sense either, but I love it.) ya'll in England. It has worked it seems. I can see how the English are irritated with the bastardization, and slang of the American language. Very much in the same way as you pointed out with our slang, i.e. Wasssup. The American language unlike the English language was greatly influenced by African slave code, and the evolution of that. The immigrant English, Scottish, Irish, themselves. As well as other immigrants especially 1800's to 1940's. American language and it's slang was influenced by criminal code as well. Even old Cockney Rhyming slang is still in use today as American common expressions and slang. Take for example, an old term I use to use and hear, 'pony up.' meaning as we use it to pay moneymeaning to pay up or make good on an obligation, comes from the word pone which is derived from the Latin ponere, to seize. Which a few years ago, pony came back into vogue as 'pwned' (poned), relating to being pwned- being defeated by another. That was popularized by the youth. Yes, I can see how it irritates the Brits. I see it like the youngest sibling annoying the older one. The whole affair is humorist, i.e. when I really thought of how 'metaling' was heard as meddling, tickles by dry sense of humor.

pwned actually came around not from the root "ponere" but from online vernacular. Hitting the P instead of the O is pretty common, particularly when you're excited!!!!111 It then worked its way into spoken language, much as LOL (pronounced Lole) and ROFL (pronounced rawfull).

So, if Brits are so uptight about Americanisms, you guys must be having an absolute fit with internet memes and webisms.

 

[Sukerkin]

LOL ... pwned

I actually thought that "pwned" was a filter evasion as "owned" just carried too much baggage on American servers.

 

[Monroe]

Meh, I'm not bothered by Americanisms. I'm a fan of "fixerupper." Much better than salvage. I've been concerned with translating. Valley Girls have spread across the North American continent and following a conversation with this accent I can wonder: What just happened to me?

 

[granfire]

Valley Girls have spread across the North American continent and following a conversation with this accent I can wonder: What just happened to me?

Like, total brain melt! Oh Em Ge.

 

[JohnEdward]

To the Brits, Ok, what is worse sounding to the ear Americanism or Australianism?

 

[Sukerkin]

Interesting question. Americanism's are a torment inflicted upon the sacred language of the English whilst Australianism's are augmentations and extrapolations upon said language to enhance it's expressive qualities for the ordinary wonders of life :bows:.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Interesting question. Americanism's are a torment inflicted upon the sacred language of the English whilst Australianism's are augmentations and extrapolations upon said language to enhance it's expressive qualities for the ordinary wonders of life :bows:.

So says the guy that calls an elevator a lift and the hood of a car a bonnet and don’t get me started on what you call Cigarettes and I won't even go into what you are referring to when you say fanny pack

Well now I'm off to play my Didgeridoo

 

[Steve]

Interesting question. Americanism's are a torment inflicted upon the sacred language of the English whilst Australianism's are augmentations and extrapolations upon said language to enhance it's expressive qualities for the ordinary wonders of life :bows:.

Now, that's just silly.

It will come as no surprise to most that the USA has influenced the English language in a positive way more in the last 200 or so years than England had in the previous 1000. What you call "Americanisms" is more correctly labeled skilled neologism. We're very good at it, and since Shakespeare, England has largely faded.

Without us, you wouldn't know what to call the nausea and headache you guys experience daily. It's called a hangover.
Without us, you wouldn't be commuters, eat hamburgers or stay overnight in a hotel. We totally rock.

Being somewhat serious, I think it's really interesting that in a country where the language is used with such color and in so many, varied dialects, you get so uptight about Americanisms. It tickles my funny bone.

 

[JohnEdward]

Y'all are just still mad we revolted from the Mother tongue. :lol:

I have to agree with Steve. It affectionately tickles my bastardized funny bone.

 

[girlbug2]

People pronouncing "wash" as "worsh" is something that's bothered me since childhood. Is it a regional accent? I'm from the West. To me it sounds as if the "r" is being strongly emphasized, more so than it should merely from the effects of an accent.

Also maybe somebody can explain about the pronunication of the supposedly silent "h" in When, Where, and What. Now and then I hear people say "what" and it seems as if they are carefully emphasizing the "h" sound. Is there a diction school that teaches this or is this an affectation on the part of the speaker? I'd really like to know.

 

[Xue Sheng]

One that REALLY bugs me is In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida it was SUPPOSE to be In the Garden of Eden :uhyeah:

Doug Ingle was either drunk when he sang it or drunk when he wrote it wrote it... it all depends on which version of the story you want to believe

 

[granfire]

One that REALLY bugs me is In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida it was SUPPOSE to be In the Garden of Eden :uhyeah:

Doug Ingle was either drunk when he sang it or drunk when he wrote it wrote it... it all depends on which version of the story you want to believe

booze and pot...the wonders of poetry! ^_^

 

[Tez3]

pwned actually came around not from the root "ponere" but from online vernacular. Hitting the P instead of the O is pretty common, particularly when you're excited!!!!111 It then worked its way into spoken language, much as LOL (pronounced Lole) and ROFL (pronounced rawfull).

So, if Brits are so uptight about Americanisms, you guys must be having an absolute fit with internet memes and webisms.

It's not just about the actual words it's about British youths apeing American gang culture that is the most worrying, the language they use is part and parcel of that. All young people like their own slang to annoy and confuse the adults but so much of what is coming over in rap and films is violent, sexist and unpleasant, the follow through actions of stabbings etc is also worrying.
Sports commentators here using Americanisms just makes them sound fatous, inane and stupid. Americanisms are uniquely American and should stay that way! It only irritates when an Americanism comes out of an English accented mouth!

 

[JohnEdward]

It's not just about the actual words it's about British youths apeing American gang culture that is the most worrying, the language they use is part and parcel of that. All young people like their own slang to annoy and confuse the adults but so much of what is coming over in rap and films is violent, sexist and unpleasant, the follow through actions of stabbings etc is also worrying.
Sports commentators here using Americanisms just makes them sound fatous, inane and stupid. Americanisms are uniquely American and should stay that way! It only irritates when an Americanism comes out of an English accented mouth!

I personally find it amusing that some Brits, and understandable so, when hearing Americanism twinges the ear. But I say, y'all will eventually get use to it when our Americanism cult sports campaign takes over the BBC, and makes them a bunch of worshiping mind-less drones doing our linguist color commentary bidding. Future BBC commentator "Bra, it looks like America will be metaling once again in the swimming relay on this last 25 meter lap."

Seriously, I feel gang slang, and allot of related ghetto slang (not referring to Jewish people, and if I where Jewish I would find the word ghetto offensive) offensive, because of the criminal gang code woven into colloquialisms that have crept their way into the common language absent of any true understanding of their meaning and purpose. Adopted just because for the sake of being vogue. It is similar to the reason for the Cockney Rhyming Slang (CRS) to hide criminal activity. Though the criminals who use CRS are far less vicious and violent than what we see here today in this country, and England as I can tell has not popularized criminal culture close to the extent as we here in America have, i.e. gansta rap, glamorizing gansta culture.

 

[Steve]

I personally find it amusing that some Brits, and understandable so, when hearing Americanism twinges the ear. But I say, y'all will eventually get use to it when our Americanism cult sports campaign takes over the BBC, and makes them a bunch of worshiping mind-less drones doing our linguist color commentary bidding. Future BBC commentator "Bra, it looks like America will be metaling once again in the swimming relay on this last 25 meter lap."

Seriously, I feel gang slang, and allot of related ghetto slang (not referring to Jewish people, and if I where Jewish I would find the word ghetto offensive) offensive, because of the criminal gang code woven into colloquialisms that have crept their way into the common language absent of any true understanding of their meaning and purpose. Adopted just because for the sake of being vogue. It is similar to the reason for the Cockney Rhyming Slang (CRS) to hide criminal activity. Though the criminals who use CRS are far less vicious and violent than what we see here today in this country, and England as I can tell has not popularized criminal culture close to the extent as we here in America have, i.e. gansta rap, glamorizing gansta culture.

Isn't the chav culture exactly this? I don't know, but from what Tez has posted, it seems that England is in many ways mirroring what's going on over here.

 

[Monroe]

Isn't the chav culture exactly this? I don't know, but from what Tez has posted, it seems that England is in many ways mirroring what's going on over here.

That's essentially it. Chav's are trying to be "gangsta." I would say it's being equally glorified in the UK.

 

[punisher73]

Since this is a thread about words, can I ask what "misprounced" means? As in the title of this thread, "Commonly misprounced words."

I would say that it was my witty attempt to get the thread going, but it was just a typo on my part and not double checking my work like I try to.