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Pedants' corner

Pronunciation

(67 Posts)
RosiesMaw Sun 05-May-24 11:07:18

Why do some people refer to Turmeric as “tuemeric” ?
Burn, turn, spurn, murmur…… confusedconfused

Bumface Sat 01-Jun-24 14:13:37

mikaru

My nails on the blackboard word is 'vulnerable'. You know - from the Latin vulnus - a wound. Why has it become general to pronounce it 'vunerable'? Looking at you BBC.
And it's choritho. And turmeric.
Grade One pedant with many decades of nit-picking experience here...

My particular bugbears are contfident, sangwidges and somethink. However I do love a regional accent. We used to have a postman who rang the door once and told me he had some male ardour for me.

Clawdy Sat 01-Jun-24 14:01:39

From Manchester, and I still say "lurry" not "lorry". Some things you just can't change!

Bellanonna Sat 01-Jun-24 13:51:15

Thinking about my above comment the “ee” sound would differ too. I think my “ee” sound would be more of a ?diphthong, if that’s the right word. Anyway not a pure “e” sound.

Bellanonna Sat 01-Jun-24 13:49:06

Baggs, I can just hear Dervla Murphy pronouncing “wheels” there

Wheniwasyourage Sat 01-Jun-24 12:01:29

Glad to hear that Pedants' Corner is getting it right then, Baggs! grin

Baggs Sat 01-Jun-24 06:54:51

Also this morning I started reading Dervla Murphy’s book, Wheels within wheels, in which her father is described as “firm in his convictions to the edge of intolerance”, which reminded me of Gransnet’s Pedants’ Corner smile

Baggs Sat 01-Jun-24 06:51:23

Lovely article in today’s Times by Rose Wild on the beauty of avoiding pompous pedantry.

“I do know the rules and sometimes, to avoid sounding like a textbook, I think I should bend them a bit.”

dustyangel Fri 31-May-24 23:03:30

Actually, I’ve been pondering this while we ‘made’ the bed. The bed having been turned back this morning has been airing all day, it’s very hot and all we have to is pull the sheet up if we want to. I actually pronounce chorizo as shorirzo with a very very soft sound, the same way the ladies on the deli counter pronounce it.

dustyangel Fri 31-May-24 22:16:00

Chorizo in Portuguese is….. Chorizo wink

Baggs Fri 31-May-24 19:59:03

There are quite a few words in English that contain a silent l. Sounding l on the palette is very close to n. I expect that's why it sounds like vunerable sometimes.

Vulnus is easy to say though. I reckon because the second syllable is as 'solid' as the first whereas in vulnerable the second syllable is squashed.

Chorizo is chorizo in English (and a good deal of Spanish) just as, for example Paris is Paris in English rather than how French speakers say it.

mikaru Thu 30-May-24 21:44:36

My nails on the blackboard word is 'vulnerable'. You know - from the Latin vulnus - a wound. Why has it become general to pronounce it 'vunerable'? Looking at you BBC.
And it's choritho. And turmeric.
Grade One pedant with many decades of nit-picking experience here...

NotSpaghetti Thu 30-May-24 21:22:53

tooson I think.
We have friends near there- it will forever be Tooson to me...
Hyundai, however, is a different thing!

MaizieD Thu 30-May-24 21:03:54

We've just bought a new (secondhand) car. It's a Hyundai Tucson.

I know very well that there is a US town, Tucson in Arizona, which is pronounced tooson. Brits seem to call the Hyundai a 'tuckson"

I'm a bit confused as to what to call it 🤔

(Perhaps I should ask Hyundai)

NotSpaghetti Thu 30-May-24 20:55:53

We were given a kefir "plant" in the 1970s by someone who called it keffirh I think everyone is calling it ke- fir now.

NotSpaghetti Thu 30-May-24 20:52:40

My parents said turmyrhhic so I do. I've never looked it up.

CanadianGran Thu 30-May-24 18:25:50

I think items that are new to us are pronounced as we first hear of them, or read of them.

Turmeric is a spice that was not commonly used or available growing up, so if we first heard about it on a cooking show, we would pronounce it the way the host would have. If we had just read about it in a recipe, we would most likely sound it out phonetically and use that version. I'm not bothered by mispronunciations for the most part, most likely because I am guilty of saying it incorrectly!

I have heard tu-mr-ic, tu-*mare*-ic, and tur-mr-ic

soothed Thu 30-May-24 18:19:32

Primrose53

What about Quinoa?

My friend insists it’s pronounced Kenya but I think it’s keenwah.

I have always said keen - oh - uh for as long as I remember.

Wheniwasyourage Thu 30-May-24 18:14:23

I think it would be chorizo, not choritho in South America and possibly in Southern Spain, Freya5, so it's nice to think that we are not the only ones who can be totally confused!

Freya5 Thu 30-May-24 17:17:54

How about chorizo, according to a Spanish friend it's pronounced "choritho".

Bellanonna Thu 30-May-24 16:54:58

Urms, the g would not be sounded in Italian, so we’re just going along with the original pronunciation.

Bellanonna Thu 30-May-24 16:51:45

MissAdventure

I think it's all a load of ballocks.

😅

MissAdventure Thu 30-May-24 16:08:09

I think it's all a load of ballocks.

Baggs Thu 30-May-24 16:05:28

Oh! I agree, whenimyourage. I just don’t buy them 😂.

Mollygo Thu 30-May-24 15:17:20

Wheniwasyourage

Don't care. I still think scallops sounds correct and scollops sounds silly, so there!

I like scallops, not scollops and my blind has scalloped, not scolloped edges.
Whatever you learn, or prefer to use is the correct pronunciation. After all,
does anyone say shollow instead of shallow?
Or collow instead of callow or eat marsh mollows?
I must admit though that my hippopotamus was wollowing in mud not wallowing.

Urmstongran Thu 30-May-24 15:10:44

hollysteers

I flinch when people pronounce the g in tagliatelle!

Oops! That’s me!
How would/could you say it without the ‘g’? I can’t make sense of it.
🤔