Pronunciations you had to unlearn

[Vijay]

Isn't there a Norfolk somewhere that's pronounced Norfork?

As one of the dumplings, my natural inclination would be to pronounce the latter as /ˈnɔːfək/ as well. However, I never went so far as to pronounce <Southfork> /ˈsɐfək/.

How about Suffolk?

[Richard W]

/ˈsɐfək/. Etymologically it's 'south folk', whence the remark about Southfork.

[Vijay]

I used to think hamburger in French was pronounced [ɑ̃byʁʒe].

[Travis B.]

I used to think hamburger in French was pronounced [ɑ̃byʁʒe].

For some reason that seems like a reasonable assumption to me.

[Ryusenshi]

The normal pronunciation is the pseudo-English [ɑ̃mbœʁgœʁ]. Except for the burger joint Big Fernand: this chain offers hamburgés instead of hamburgers, and changing two letters is enough to change the whole pronunciation to [ɑ̃byʁʒe].

[Pabappa]

for many years i thought slavish(ly) was pronounced with the vowel of Slav, since i saw the word in the sentence

...Bulgaria acquired the reputation of being the most slavishly loyal to Moscow of all the East European Communist countries,...

and though I wouldnt have told you straight-up that it derives from Slav, that's the connection I made, not thinking about "slave".

[Rounin Ryuuji]

If I'm remembering right, "slave" does come form a Mediaeval Latin word meaning "Slav".

[KathTheDragon]

I've always pronounced "slavish" as /slavɪʃ/ without making a connection with either "Slav" or "slave".

[Titus Flavius]

If I'm remembering right, "slave" does come form a Mediæval Latin word meaning "Slav".

It's a very controversial case, some claim that slave and slav are cognates, although the Mediæval Latin dictionary I use has only servus - slave and sclav(in)us - Slav.

[zyxw59]

I think prior to looking it up in response to this thread, I pronounced it /slævɪʃ/, to rhyme with "lavish".

[jal]

I think prior to looking it up in response to this thread, I pronounced it /slævɪʃ/, to rhyme with "lavish".

I think that's the spelling pronunciation I also had.


JAL

[Linguoboy]

I think prior to looking it up in response to this thread, I pronounced it /slævɪʃ/, to rhyme with "lavish".

I've always said it that way and I'm not changing now.

[Pabappa]

I know Ive brought this up several times before, but .... here is apparently not a place I've done it, so ...

sundry. Probably Im not alone on this, though on the other hand, most people probably don't have the same setup that I did. I had never consciously encountered this word before either in speech or in writing, until I saw it in the Canterbury Tales in a sentence that read

(So Nature pricks them on to ramp and rage)-
Then do folk long to go on pilgrimage,
And palmers to go seeking out strange strands,
To distant shrines well known in sundry lands.

So I pictured a throng of Englishmen headed on their way to Jerusalem, a place with a hot, dry climate. Without even a second thought I assumed it meant "sun-dried" like tomatoes, raisins, etc .... and even after hearing the Middle English pronunciation I still didnt give it a second thought, because the Middle English pronunciation for almost all of the other words in the story was different too.

I dont remember how I realized my mistake. I do know I saw a sign in a store that said "Sundries" and that may have prompted me to look in the dictionary to see what it meant. But I dont remember that if so.

ration, rational
Likewise, I dont remember any specific event in which I said these words out loud with the wrong pronunciation and was corrected, but Im pretty sure that at least for ration I encountered it in print first and assumed it would rhyme with all of the other -ation words I knew. rational is more commonly used in speech, however, so I dont think I extended the mistake to that word.

[Vijay]

I think the first time I saw the word sundry was in Learn Tamil in 30 Days, where at first, I thought it said Sunday.

I used to think hamburger in French was pronounced [ɑ̃byʁʒe].

For some reason that seems like a reasonable assumption to me.

Well, in French, am is often pronounced [ɑ̃], bur is often pronounced [byʁ], and ger is often pronounced [ʒe], so...

[jal]

Ghoul. TIL that rhymes with "fool"*. Always assumed it rhymed with "goal" or "towel".

*On Twitter somebody posted a tumblr post in which someone told that they, after having sex in a graveyard, walked around naked on said graveyard. This person had a very white skin, got seen by some passerby in a car, and thus caused a ghost sighting story. Someone else said the story needed to be rewritten so it could be put to the Fresh Prince of Bell Air theme. It being Twitter someone else did that and posted it a few hours later, rhyming "ghoul" with "fool".


JAL

[Estav]

ration, rational
Likewise, I dont remember any specific event in which I said these words out loud with the wrong pronunciation and was corrected, but Im pretty sure that at least for ration I encountered it in print first and assumed it would rhyme with all of the other -ation words I knew. rational is more commonly used in speech, however, so I dont think I extended the mistake to that word.

Ration(s) is pronounced with either TRAP or FACE (but “rational” only with TRAP).

[KathTheDragon]

ration, rational
Likewise, I dont remember any specific event in which I said these words out loud with the wrong pronunciation and was corrected, but Im pretty sure that at least for ration I encountered it in print first and assumed it would rhyme with all of the other -ation words I knew. rational is more commonly used in speech, however, so I dont think I extended the mistake to that word.

Ration(s) is pronounced with either TRAP or FACE

Who says "ration" with FACE?

[Vijay]

ration, rational
Likewise, I dont remember any specific event in which I said these words out loud with the wrong pronunciation and was corrected, but Im pretty sure that at least for ration I encountered it in print first and assumed it would rhyme with all of the other -ation words I knew. rational is more commonly used in speech, however, so I dont think I extended the mistake to that word.

Ration(s) is pronounced with either TRAP or FACE

Who says "ration" with FACE?

Me.

[Linguoboy]

Ghoul. TIL that rhymes with "fool"*. Always assumed it rhymed with "goal" or "towel".

Growing up, I had a bunch of these from learning to play fantasy role-playing games--even though I remember looking up most of the words because I was curious about their etymologies. I guess I just didn't play close attention to the pronunciations because I had to relearn wyvern, chimaera, behemoth, nuckalavee, and others.

[Ares Land]

TIL the final s in Arkansas is silent.