Pronunciations you had to unlearn
- Rounin Ryuuji
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Re: Pronunciations you had to unlearn
(French) au, aux: tended to read these as [au] (interference from Spanish, which I had studied before)
Detritus: I still mentally read it as ['dɛtɹɪtʊs] half the time, despite being aware it ought to be something more like [dɪ'tɹaitʊs].
Doubt: While I already knew the word [daut], as a child, orthographic "doubt" was read [duːbt] the first few times I saw it.
Lyra: [lɪɹə] (probably analogical with "lyric, lyrical", to which it is etymologically related, despite "lyre" and "liar" being homophones to me, probably coupled with hyperforeignism) > [laiɹə]
Hermione: [hərmioun] > [hərmaiouni] (What child growing up when I did wouldn't have this one?)
Mallard: ['mæɫɪd] > ['mæɫəɹd] (my paternal grandmother is non-rhotic, and she rhymes this word with "salad"; I also assumed the word was spelled mallid or mallad).
Minerva: [mɪnɛɹvə] > [mɪnɜɹvə] (hyperforeignism)
Rowling: [rauliŋ] > [rouliŋ]
Detritus: I still mentally read it as ['dɛtɹɪtʊs] half the time, despite being aware it ought to be something more like [dɪ'tɹaitʊs].
Doubt: While I already knew the word [daut], as a child, orthographic "doubt" was read [duːbt] the first few times I saw it.
Lyra: [lɪɹə] (probably analogical with "lyric, lyrical", to which it is etymologically related, despite "lyre" and "liar" being homophones to me, probably coupled with hyperforeignism) > [laiɹə]
Hermione: [hərmioun] > [hərmaiouni] (What child growing up when I did wouldn't have this one?)
Mallard: ['mæɫɪd] > ['mæɫəɹd] (my paternal grandmother is non-rhotic, and she rhymes this word with "salad"; I also assumed the word was spelled mallid or mallad).
Minerva: [mɪnɛɹvə] > [mɪnɜɹvə] (hyperforeignism)
Rowling: [rauliŋ] > [rouliŋ]
Re: Pronunciations you had to unlearn
thanks, i didnt know detritus either.
- Rounin Ryuuji
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Re: Pronunciations you had to unlearn
It's so unintuitive, in my mind.
- KathTheDragon
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Re: Pronunciations you had to unlearn
Me, as it happens, because I watched the first Harry Potter movie before reading the book and seeing how the name was spelt.Rounin Ryuuji wrote: ↑Wed Jan 27, 2021 9:15 pmHermione: [hərmioun] > [hərmaiouni] (What child growing up when I did wouldn't have this one?)
- Rounin Ryuuji
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Re: Pronunciations you had to unlearn
I have an idea I may be a bit older than you, then.KathTheDragon wrote: ↑Thu Jan 28, 2021 3:20 amMe, as it happens, because I watched the first Harry Potter movie before reading the book and seeing how the name was spelt.Rounin Ryuuji wrote: ↑Wed Jan 27, 2021 9:15 pmHermione: [hərmioun] > [hərmaiouni] (What child growing up when I did wouldn't have this one?)
Re: Pronunciations you had to unlearn
Hermione was also the name of Mr. Lodge's wife in Archie comics ... it was one of those names I just sort of blushed over and would have given an indistinct pronunciation if I'd been talking with a fellow fan and needed to say the name out loud. "her-MY-un", perhaps, again not using IPA because it was just an approximation.
Re: Pronunciations you had to unlearn
I had /hər'mi:ohni:/, part of my general tendency to...underanglicise? pronunciations of Latinate words, particularly when I was younger. (I'm also of the age where I first encountred her in Shakespeare rather than Rowling, though I'm not sure that makes much difference.)
- Rounin Ryuuji
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Re: Pronunciations you had to unlearn
If I understand right, that isn't that far off how it would be pronounced in modern Greek.
Re: Pronunciations you had to unlearn
Yeah, I guess the chief difference would be in the first syllable. Also the /oh/ would tend to centralise if I were using the name frequently.Rounin Ryuuji wrote: ↑Thu Jan 28, 2021 9:58 amIf I understand right, that isn't that far off how it would be pronounced in modern Greek.
Looking over the dramatis personae for The Winter's Tale, I see that Hermione is "Queen of Sicily". That definitely would have influenced my pronunciation, prompting me to approximate a modern Italian pronunciation.
Re: Pronunciations you had to unlearn
I had the same exact same pronunciation myself.Linguoboy wrote: ↑Thu Jan 28, 2021 9:39 am I had /hər'mi:ohni:/, part of my general tendency to...underanglicise? pronunciations of Latinate words, particularly when I was younger. (I'm also of the age where I first encountred her in Shakespeare rather than Rowling, though I'm not sure that makes much difference.)
Yaaludinuya siima d'at yiseka wohadetafa gaare.
Ennadinut'a gaare d'ate eetatadi siiman.
T'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa.
Ennadinut'a gaare d'ate eetatadi siiman.
T'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa.
Re: Pronunciations you had to unlearn
I only knew the name "Hermione" from David Bowie's song "Letter to Hermione", in which he doesn't even one pronounce the name, so I always assumed (and so did my Bowie-fan friends) it was "Her-me-own". Didn't learn the right pronunciation until Harry Potter came along.
JAL
JAL
Re: Pronunciations you had to unlearn
I also just recently learned that the French name of French Guiana, Guyane, is pronounced [ɡɥijan]. Seems obvious in retrospect but I was so heavily influenced by the <u> being silent in English that it never even occurred to me to sound it in French.
- Rounin Ryuuji
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Re: Pronunciations you had to unlearn
That is, I think, also an unusual pronunciation in French (the given name Guy is simply /gi/); I also didn't know this pronunciation, either, and would've expected it to be orthographically Guïane or Guÿane.
Last edited by Rounin Ryuuji on Fri Jan 29, 2021 5:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Pronunciations you had to unlearn
I too assumed a pronunciation of [gijan] myself.
Yaaludinuya siima d'at yiseka wohadetafa gaare.
Ennadinut'a gaare d'ate eetatadi siiman.
T'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa.
Ennadinut'a gaare d'ate eetatadi siiman.
T'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa.
- quinterbeck
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Re: Pronunciations you had to unlearn
It just occurred to me that /ˈkadusejəs/ is probably not the correct way to pronounce caduceus in English... Turns out it's /kəˈdjuːʃəs/ or /kəˈdjuːsiəs/. With my British accent, that's [kəˈdʒuːʃəs] which to me feels like a mouthful of potatoes!
(EDIT: correct spelling is caduceus, doh)
(EDIT: correct spelling is caduceus, doh)
Last edited by quinterbeck on Tue Feb 02, 2021 2:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Pronunciations you had to unlearn
In the yod-dropping USA, most people would have /kəˈduːsiəs/. (/si/ does commonly coalesce to [ʃ] in this position, but I think in this case the sounds would be kept distinct because it's an unusual term and might not be understood otherwise.)quinterbeck wrote: ↑Tue Feb 02, 2021 11:47 am It just occurred to me that /ˈkadusejəs/ is probably not the correct way to pronounce caduseus in English... Turns out it's /kəˈdjuːʃəs/ or /kəˈdjuːsiəs/. With my British accent, that's [kəˈdʒuːʃəs] which to me feels like a mouthful of potatoes!
Re: Pronunciations you had to unlearn
I would pronounce it /kəˈdusiəs/ or /kəˈduʃəs/, and I would expect most Americans to do the same.Linguoboy wrote: ↑Tue Feb 02, 2021 12:30 pmIn the yod-dropping USA, most people would have /kəˈduːsiəs/. (/si/ does commonly coalesce to [ʃ] in this position, but I think in this case the sounds would be kept distinct because it's an unusual term and might not be understood otherwise.)quinterbeck wrote: ↑Tue Feb 02, 2021 11:47 am It just occurred to me that /ˈkadusejəs/ is probably not the correct way to pronounce caduseus in English... Turns out it's /kəˈdjuːʃəs/ or /kəˈdjuːsiəs/. With my British accent, that's [kəˈdʒuːʃəs] which to me feels like a mouthful of potatoes!
Yaaludinuya siima d'at yiseka wohadetafa gaare.
Ennadinut'a gaare d'ate eetatadi siiman.
T'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa.
Ennadinut'a gaare d'ate eetatadi siiman.
T'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa t'awraa.
- Rounin Ryuuji
- Posts: 2994
- Joined: Wed Dec 23, 2020 6:47 pm
Re: Pronunciations you had to unlearn
I tend to produce hypercorrect /kə'djusiʊs/.Travis B. wrote: ↑Tue Feb 02, 2021 1:16 pmI would pronounce it /kəˈdusiəs/ or /kəˈduʃəs/, and I would expect most Americans to do the same.Linguoboy wrote: ↑Tue Feb 02, 2021 12:30 pmIn the yod-dropping USA, most people would have /kəˈduːsiəs/. (/si/ does commonly coalesce to [ʃ] in this position, but I think in this case the sounds would be kept distinct because it's an unusual term and might not be understood otherwise.)quinterbeck wrote: ↑Tue Feb 02, 2021 11:47 am It just occurred to me that /ˈkadusejəs/ is probably not the correct way to pronounce caduseus in English... Turns out it's /kəˈdjuːʃəs/ or /kəˈdjuːsiəs/. With my British accent, that's [kəˈdʒuːʃəs] which to me feels like a mouthful of potatoes!
(Edit: I'm also used to seeing it spelled caduceus and hadn't seen the caduseus spelling before.)
- quinterbeck
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Re: Pronunciations you had to unlearn
Oh that's my bad, I misspelled it. I also know it only as caduceus.Rounin Ryuuji wrote: ↑Tue Feb 02, 2021 2:09 pm (Edit: I'm also used to seeing it spelled caduceus and hadn't seen the caduseus spelling before.)
Re: Pronunciations you had to unlearn
Here's an interesting one from past me that I suddenly recently remembered. Around age 4-5, I used to think the word "jaguar" was /d͡ʒægwaɪɹ/, and I would misspell it as "jagwire."
Why? Because my mother has /aɪ/-monophthongization and I don't, so when I heard her say the word and heard the /a/-like vowel before the r there, I mapped it onto my /aɪ/. Jagwire, rhymes with fire.
Why? Because my mother has /aɪ/-monophthongization and I don't, so when I heard her say the word and heard the /a/-like vowel before the r there, I mapped it onto my /aɪ/. Jagwire, rhymes with fire.
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