Forte in French is pronounced "fort", more or less. In Italian, on the other hand....

:)

I agree 'for-tay' is a french fetish thing (not that there's anything inherently wrong with that).

Although anglicization, imo, can sometimes go too far... I had an English teacher who insisted that the typical "Don Juan" pronunciation was the bastardized work of the devil and that we had to choose between:

"Doh(n) Wah(n)" en Espanol

or

"DON JU-an" which just always hurt my ears something fierce. :)

A lot of you are saying the French words properly in the first place. I'm always itching to put in my two cents, but I don't want to seem like a pain in the arse with the French thing. Although I have to say that niche is pronounced neesh. When I first heard "nitch" I thought what the hell are they talking about?" But I also understand that to be understood in English it must conform to a new pronounciation.

flaCKsid???? as in a flaCKsid penis?

that's the #2 pronunciation according to my dictionary, and i have never, EVER heard anyone say that. hrm.

'It's 'flaCKsid''

I'll be damned-- never knew that.


[Naturally, since I don't have much need of that word... <ducks>]

sorry to bust your chops on this one but both are acceptable and
'flas•id' is listed first in several cases.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

flaccid

SYLLABICATION: flac·cid
PRONUNCIATION: flas'•id, flak•sid
ADJECTIVE: 1. Lacking firmness, resilience, or muscle tone. See synonyms at limp. 2. Lacking vigor or energy: flaccid management.
ETYMOLOGY: Latin flaccidus, from flaccus, flabby.

dictionary.reference.com/search
www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary

Worcester pronounced "Wooster", Gloucester pronounced "Glosstah", similar.

Damn provincial English (and New Englanders)! Can't even pronounce their own place names!

:P

I can see that as a contraction not unlike "comf-ter-ble". I might look at "Absaroke" and pronounce it "Ahb-sah-roe-kee" (or "-kay"). If I were to say it fast, and do that for weeks, or years, I'm sure it would sound like "Ahb-sore-kee". It reminds me of Knob Knee, Indiana. Oh, did I say "Knob Knee"? I meant "New Albany". I guess it's pronounced more like "Gnaw-b Knee".

I don't see why you should be… after all, it's not the Grammar Freaks tribe, is it? :)

I don't know what the IPA is, but I agree with their take on Don vs. Dawn. :)

Though, I would say that in "dawn," the "w" comes through *very* softly in the transition from the "a" mouth shaps to the "n" mouth shape. But, maybe I'm altering my pronounciation because I'm thinking about it.

The Italian folks I know say "brooSKETah".

OK, I can see cab-uh-net (or nuht), just not cab-i-net.

Ay (like hay, without the "h")-rabs bugs me.

Also: when I was stationed at Ft Gordon, GA, and raising hell in the clubs on the strip, some irate folk with axes to grind would call me and my kind nig-gruhs. which for some reason, always reminded me of okra, which reminded me of Oprah.

Anyway, was that supposed to be halfway between "nigger" and "negro"?

Thank you, Christine. :)

"Bruschetta" is only "broo-shetta" at the Olive Garden.

Interesting. I pronounce Mary and marry the same, but pronounce merry differently.

Yeah, it is regional as to how it's commonly pronounced, but if you want to get 'correct' and all, they are three different vowels. In an earlier post I mentioned IPA. That's the International Phonetic Alphabet.

None of the flaming queens I know are that shy. It's usually more of an issue to get a word in edgewise than to draw them out.

Valentine's day pronounced St-Valentimes day, are we even supposed to mention the St. ? never mind the "m" in there as well.

My own mispronounciation: in England when I was a teen, I called it the river Thames, the way it is written, only to be told it's pronounced Tems.

Along the lines of aks for ask, I've heard a matrass for a matress, and flims instead of films

You know, I've lived in the Los Feliz/Silverlake/Echo Park area my entire life. I have found that the only people who pronounce it correctly (with spanish pronunciation - Lose FehLEES) are people who are not from there. I went to high school at Marshall High in the middle of Los Feliz, and EVERYONE called it Loss Feeliz.

Sarah, that's really funny! If I heard the song, I'm sure I'd have to just let creative license take precedence. :)

Bryn as "brin" is roughly correct, but "w" in Welsh is pronounced as a long "oo" sound, so "mawr" is roughly mah-oor.

BTW Bryn Mawr simply means "big hill" or "high hill"; literally "hill big/high", since Welsh puts the modifiers after the main word. <G>

When people tell me about their heighth, I want to ask them what their weighth is.

Sometimes I call them "grockeries" as a joke.

ha! that sounds like a new scrabble entry:

groucheries -- an obnoxious and/or unhappy person waiting in line to pay for something (often groceries) and making his unhappiness known to one and to all.

Mo-nee-kah, yes I'll call you that if that's your preference, + I can manage the accent. I was hoping you would put in your 2 cents to my thread, I always crack up when I read your contributions. Anyhoo, the toadly thing reminds me of a friend who actually called potatos: podados. We never let her live it down. Incidentally I don't know how to write potato an "e" at the end or not, feel free to laugh at me and correct me.

"you have to be careful of your audience or you can find yourself trying to dig yourself out of a hole and only getting deeper"
- I love this kind of stuff, when I share it with friends, cos it's so humbling. That same time I said the So-krates thing, I'm pretty sure I talked about Jung, exactly like it's spelled, in came the correction...Yung, from the same guy. Fortunately I was not attracted, so had nothing to prove. I have no idea what came over me that night, perhaps it was a subliminal way of turning someone off that I knew I might have to "fend" off in the near future should I seem too appealing.

Heehee...it was probably a little of both! In my mind, either way, if that was all they could come up with, they were still losers, LOL! ;)

Wow, this is cool, I never realized other people were annoyed that we had to come up with our own names for things and places which had perfectly good names already...

not to mention, our names are often just as idiosyncratic and hard to pronounce as the originals...

United States of American?

I think that's part of the problem - the official name is "United States of America", and "America" is the only word that really lends itself to such things.

BTW, if you really want to annoy Canadians, refer to them as "American"....

Gyros...
Say it every one....
Gyros
Yeeh- ros... roll those tounges a little.... there we go!!!!
Not Jai rows, Guy rows, Guy roats(?)Jay rose,
OR Gee rose....
Also, I am Italiain from Chicago.
We say Broo CHET ta, but with a little passion in the CHET.
We have a habbit of talking lazy dego for fun , or to people who haven't been to Chicago before, for sport.
That "Chicago union guy" slang will catch people off guard in a Mafia kinda way.
( e.g. Hows bout I get won too tree a yous guys to help me grow a driveway over an ol friend a mine, yeah? Then dinner! )
We all think it is funny.
By the way it is
Dey - GO,
Not Dee go,
day gow,
or dey gou,
Wop means With Out Papers.
Also may I add, please do not refer to my city as Chi -Town.
The only people who do this are from the suburbs of Chicago or further.
If some one says they are from Chi- town ( they pronounce it shy town) they are from the suburbs or southen Illinois and they are using Chicago as some crutch for their ego.
Musicians from else where generally do this too, real ghetto trash do as well...but usually only in graffiti.
We Chicago natives do not appreciate this at all.
It pisses us off.
We think it is retarded.
When I am out and I meet a guy who says he's from Chi town, I know instantly he is lying and I begin to make fun of him.
Usually I will begin with" Oh, Really!!!! WOW!!!HOW COOL"
Nobody, born and raised here, would ever, ever, ever say they were from Chi-town EVER.
How bout this, My name is really Carelyn... not Carolyn not Carol Anne or CarLeen or Caroline, it is CARELYN.
CARE like Care, Lyn like Lin.
I have taken to spelling it CareLyn to help people out.
Try growing up with that ... I wind up saying just call me Care...or Carrie.... because it shatters my nerves to be called any of the above mentioned.
Waiting for people to say it correctly is fruitless.
Hope there are no baby freaks out there, because to this day I am the only one on google with this name. Type Os excluded.
If I find one baby picture with CareLyn under it, i will be forced to send e-mail to that address often, labeling said parties parents as copycats ....My name is unique for specific reasons pertaining to MY family..... you have been warned!!!!!

I think "axt" is their version of past tense. Oh no, I'm starting to understand them. God help me...

As a baker, I think it them both as quite different products. Croissant, being a flaky French pastry layered with butter and the other being a yeast roll, just shaped in a crescent. Either way, both are bread products shaped like a moon in its waxing or waning period.

realAtor. ick.

that is just a ginormous pain.

Technically, Shocka, it's Nash-Vegas