Pronunciation watch

[mangerton]

I remember this from many years ago, apparently written by Baden-Powell himself:

Man, matron, maiden
Please call it Baden.
Further for Powell,
Rhyme it with Noel.

[mercia]

I guess Noel can be pronounced two ways

[Pabmusic]

I guess Noel can be pronounced two ways

Three, probably - noEL, NOel, or Nole.

[jean]

It always surprises me how many broadcasters think they know better than J K Rowling how to pronounce her name.

[scottycelt]

Surely few beat the Scottish surname 'Smellie' for likely mispronunciation and embarrassment ...

Can you just imagine going for a job interview south of the border with a name like that?

'Good Morning, Mr, er, Smelleeeee ... now before we start, have we got your name right, sir?'

[mangerton]

'Good Morning, Mr, er, Smelleeeee ... now before we start, have we got your name right, sir?'

This reminds me of the young Glaswegian lady who went for a job interview on a very hot, humid day. As she went in, she commented on the weather, " 'Soafy Clammy!"

The interviewer replied, "Do sit down, Miss Clammy."

[mangerton]

Three, probably - noEL, NOel, or Nole.

Strictly speaking, should the first two not be spelled "Noël"?

[scottycelt]

This reminds me of the young Glaswegian lady who went for a job interview on a very hot, humid day. As she went in, she commented on the weather, " 'Soafy Clammy!"

The interviewer replied, "Do sit down, Miss Clammy."

[ahinton]

Surely few beat the Scottish surname 'Smellie' for likely mispronunciation and embarrassment ...

Can you just imagine going for a job interview south of the border with a name like that?

'Good Morning, Mr, er, Smelleeeee ... now before we start, have we got your name right, sir?'

I've only ever seen that surname spelt "Smillie" but I now see that it's not so uncommon after all. I never did figure out why "Smillie" was supposed to be pronounced "Smiley" and when encountering a lady whose surname is actually spelt "Smiley" she told me "we spell names properly here in the Isle of Man, unlike the Scots" (she didn't realise that I'm a Scot).

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I may have mentioned this before, but one pronunciation that gets my goat is COMpact Disc. A COMpact is an agreement, whereas something small and concise is comPACT. I blame the BBC absolutely for this, creating this error in 1983 when CDs were first released in the UK. in fact I think it was Edward Greenfield.

[french frank]

Different Powell families choose different pronunciations for the name.

I suspect it may have something to do with how far they are - or wd wish to be seen as being - from their Welsh roots - it being originally ap Howell...

Or even ap Hywel, where the y is a sound somewhere between the two (you can seem to hear it as either), which isn't present in English.

[Lateralthinking1]

I may have mentioned this before, but one pronunciation that gets my goat is COMpact Disc. A COMpact is an agreement, whereas something small and concise is comPACT. I blame the BBC absolutely for this, creating this error in 1983 when CDs were first released in the UK. in fact I think it was Edward Greenfield.

I thought this was a modern phenomenon but I heard a recording recently of a well know broadcaster in the 1960s saying "and that was the Rolling Stones" as if it was necessary to distinguish them from other kinds of stones.

The one that drives me crackers is in the other direction. Since when - and why - has "deck-ade" become "deh-cayed"? Radio 3 and Radio 4 are both guilty and it must stop, however much it might reflect the current economic position.

[amateur51]

Or even ap Hywel, where the y is a sound somewhere between the two (you can seem to hear it as either), which isn't present in English.

In Welsh, 'y' and 'w' are vowels and 'yw' is a diphthong

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The one that drives me crackers is in the other direction. Since when - and why - has "deck-ade" become "deh-cayed"? Radio 3 and Radio 4 are both guilty and it must stop

Oh, absolutely! - essential to distinguishing "decade" from "decayed".

however much it might reflect the current economic position.

[Pabmusic]

In Welsh, 'y' and 'w' are vowels and 'yw' is a diphthong

Yes, but what's not always realised is that y is a vowel in English, too. It's also a consonant - the word 'yesterday' has the consonantal form at the beginning and the vowel form at the end. There used to be others. 'U' and 'v' were once just different forms of the same ('u') - as in Latin - but eventually the consonantal form became the separate letter 'v' (and there was even a third form - double 'u' - which became a separate letter). That's why the alphabet has u, v and w all in a row. That was (largely) sorted out by the 17th Century.

The other one was 'i', which developed a consonantal form at the beginning of words - iustice would be pronounced justice - and a decorated 'i' might be used in that position (j). It wasn't entirely treated as a separate letter till Webster's and the OED did so in the mid-1800s.
Dr Johnson, for instance, included all J words among the I's.

That will never happen with Y because it's too well established, and we've never had a different form of the letter anyway.