Pronunciation watch

[jayne lee wilson]

Interesting. I’ve always stressed the second syllable in controversy, and believed stressing the first a recent errant import from the US. Londoner born and bred fwiw.

US import maybe, but why "errant"? Who makes the rules, except the mouths and ears that use....?

Otherwise controversy will always be controversial for easily illustrated reasons...
I subjectively identify souvenir as US, but feel I stress 1st and 3rd syllables equally myself, or sometimes stronger/longer on 3rd....not to mention pitch...

So I said Tapiola for years, then learnt by imitation (Radio 3 presenters mainly) to say Tapiola..... this probably made me feel cleverer at the time...
What does this description of my usage actually mean?

[muzzer]

US import maybe, but why "errant"? Who makes the rules, except the mouths and ears that use....?

Otherwise controversy will always be controversial for easily illustrated reasons...
I subjectively identify souvenir as US, but feel I stress 1st and 3rd syllables equally myself, or sometimes stronger/longer on 3rd....not to mention pitch...

So I said Tapiola for years, then learnt by imitation (Radio 3 presenters mainly) to say Tapiola..... this probably made me feel cleverer at the time...
What does this description of my usage actually mean?

Sorry, I was being flippant. Stress on the first syllable

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Always controversy for my father (1908-2001), who insisted that everyone of his generation pronounced it thus, and that therefore it had to be be right. Accenting the first syllable does however make it difficult to avoid also accenting the third, or even put the main stress onto it - which, to my ears, sounds terrible: controVERsy?

[Bryn]

Has anyone else noticed that fewer reporters appear to be pronouncing Cymru as Cwmru of late?

[Serial_Apologist]

Has anyone else noticed that fewer reporters appear to be pronouncing Cymru as Cwmru of late?

No, but I laughed my head off this morning when the BBC1 lunchtime news reader said, in the most serious of tones, "And it's over now to the Plaid Cymru annual conference, where the leader of the party is speaking", to be followed by Adam Price shown speaking from the rostrum in Welsh... and then in turn by embarrassed silence from the London end... next item!

[cloughie]

Has anyone else noticed that fewer reporters appear to be pronouncing Cymru as Cwmru of late?

Do you mean they are getting it wrong or right? By ‘Cwmru’ do you mean ‘comeroo’ or ‘comeree’? And are you trying to say more are getting right than wrong or vice-versa?

[Bryn]

Do you mean they are getting it wrong or right? By ‘Cwmru’ do you mean ‘comeroo’ or ‘comeree’? And are you trying to say more are getting right than wrong or vice-versa?

I was using the spellings which if spoken as written, in Welsh, would give an English equivalent of "coom" with the vowel sound of RP "rook" followed by "re" as in "repeat", as against the nearer to Welsh pronunciation of the RP English of "Come" followed again by the "re" of "repeat".

[Serial_Apologist]

MILLY TERRY LEE

for "militarily" - on this morning's In Our Time - with the stress stress on TERRY.

I don't know: I was always taught to stress the first syllable, the same as when saying "military", and then running the third and fourth syllables together - "militrally" - to be the correct pronunciation?

[greenilex]

Correct for where?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

"miliTERily" is how I've always heard and (therefore) pronounced it. I don't think I've ever heard "militrally", and would probably think that someone had slurred "miltary" if I ever did - but Google Dictionary aural sample suggests that that is, indeed, the correct pronunciation.

[Bryn]

"miliTERily" is how I've always heard and (therefore) pronounced it. I don't think I've ever heard "militrally", and would probably think that someone had slurred "miltary" if I ever did - but Google Dictionary aural sample suggests that that is, indeed, the correct pronunciation.

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/pronunciation/english/militarily

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/pro...ish/militarily

Oh good! (I've been experimenting with the "slurred" version, and I just can't get it!)

[Serial_Apologist]

Oh good! (I've been experimenting with the "slurred" version, and I just can't get it!)

OK - strange though: one doesn't say MiliTERRY!

[Serial_Apologist]

Correct for where?

Well, I'd assumed anywhere...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

OK - strange though: one doesn't say MiliTERRY!

This one sort-of does - closer to that than "milat'ry", at any rate. (One doesn't say "necessARRY", but the emphasis alters when the "-ily" is added.)