Pronunciation watch

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

EA's mistake did prompt some musings about what imitations of mortality might be or look like - the tactics used by prey animals to avoid being a predator's next meal perhaps?

Uh?

Come on Alpie. Time to own up …

What did I say!

Elizabeth Alker (as mentioned in #1895) not ...


Makes me all the gladder that I didn't go for "Still Making-Progress" as my nom-de-web!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Elizabeth Alker (as mentioned in #1895) not ...


Makes me all the gladder that I didn't go for "Still Making-Progress" as my nom-de-web!

Doh. And there I was, thinking those East Anglia number-plates were there for my benefit.

[LMcD]

On today's edition of Pick Of The Week on Radio 4, the normally reliable Liz Barclay referred repeatedly to French composer Claude Duhboosay.

[Pabmusic]

Mischeevious, Wesminister, Seckertary. Don't really mind but why?

Mischeevious because the correct form gets confused with devious. Wesminster because the combination 'stm-' is slightly awkward and rather lisping. Seckertary I suspect because of a long history of inverting 're' sounds - as witness 'thrid' becoming 'third'.

[french frank]

Seckertary I suspect because of a long history of inverting 're' sounds - as witness 'thrid' becoming 'third'.

Not sure about that one as it’s clearly cognate with tertius. I think the ‘r’ is just omitted in secketary.

[Serial_Apologist]

On today's edition of Pick Of The Week on Radio 4, the normally reliable Liz Barclay referred repeatedly to French composer Claude Duhboosay.

Liz BERKlee, surely??

[Serial_Apologist]

Mischeevious because the correct form gets confused with devious. Wesminster because the combination 'stm-' is slightly awkward and rather lisping. Seckertary I suspect because of a long history of inverting 're' sounds - as witness 'thrid' becoming 'third'.

But only in Private Eye inferences to Grauniad misspellings, surely?

[gurnemanz]

Mischeevious because the correct form gets confused with devious. Wesminster because the combination 'stm-' is slightly awkward and rather lisping. Seckertary I suspect because of a long history of inverting 're' sounds - as witness 'thrid' becoming 'third'.

.. with the distinction that mischeevious is just an error but Wesminister is a standard reduction in informal spoken English where the middle consonant of three is often quite naturally elided: as with postman, Christmas, adjustment, last minute, chestnut, waistcoat etc.

With historical shifts like thrid to third you can often find preshifted forms that have survived either fossilised in dialect (Yorkshire: riding from thriddding) or in another language (modern German: das dritte Reich.)

[oddoneout]

At the council offices today I encountered 'fambly' for family, which presumably is from the same stable as 'chimbley'?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Febyooary is worthy of George Dubya Bush.

[Dave2002]

Not sure if I'm right here, but watching tennis recently. Many eastern European ladies (e.g. Russian etc.) have names ending in - ova. This seems often to be pronounced by commentators as "over" with the accent on the first part. Is this correct? Shouldn't it really be more of a throw away - "uva". I would like to know.

[french frank]

Not sure if I'm right here, but watching tennis recently. Many eastern European ladies (e.g. Russian etc.) have names ending in - ova. This seems often to be pronounced by commentators as "over" with the accent on the first part. Is this correct? Shouldn't it really be more of a throw away - "uva". I would like to know.

Good question. I don't know either though I do seem to recall hearing that Martina NavratilOVa should correctly have been NavraTIlova.

[Dave2002]

Good question. I don't know either though I do seem to recall hearing that Martina NavratilOVa should correctly have been NavraTIlova.

That's more or less how I thought it should be - with the accent shifted to earlier in the name. A few from yesterday: Ekaterina Makarova, Dominika Cibulková (not sure if the accent on the final a gives a clue - but that's Slovakian, not necessarily the same as Russian ....)

[subcontrabass]

Good question. I don't know either though I do seem to recall hearing that Martina NavratilOVa should correctly have been NavraTIlova.

The accents should be where they are indicated when the name is spelled correctly: Navrátilová

[Bryn]

The accents should be where they are indicated when the name is spelled correctly: Navrátilová

Then there's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqZp0w_Hr7M or https://forvo.com/word/martina_navr%C3%A1tilov%C3%A1/