A lot of the pronunciation things come about by trying to make it easier and faster to get out of one's mouth (saying "Majoriebanks" could take for bloody ever!).
In the Household Cavalry in the British Army (the elite unit in which Prince Harry was an officer), there is a rank called Corporal of Horse. The soldiers in that regiment say it very fast which was easy for me to understand with a South African background - it was Corporal Wors....
As in Ben Affleck.
But George Bernard Shaw was well known in his day for his attempts at reforming English pronunciation and orthography.
www.digitalcomposition.org/essays-and-articles/george-bernard-shaw
On 2018-07-20 03:38:32 DancingBlueEyes said:
Morning Arz,
There are some interesting ones:
Cholmondeley (town in England, proncounced "chumley")
Leicester (city in England, pronounced "Lester")
St. John (English boy's name, pronounced "sinjin")
Marjoriebanks (English girl's name, pronounced "Marshbanks")
Cherwell (river in Oxford, pronounced "Charwell")
Belvoir (castle in England, pronounced "beever")
Althorp (as in Viscount - Princess Diana's brother, pronounced "Althrup")
Sir Alec Douglas-Home (former British Prime Minister, pronounced "Douglas-Hume")
Magdalen (college at Oxford University, pronounced "mawdlin")
Berkeley (famous London square, pronounced "Barkly")
Beaconsfield (English town, pronounced "Beckonsfield"
Mainwaring (English surname, pronounced "Mannering")
Bicester (English town, pronounced "Bicester")
Even the Americans have their anomalies. Houston is generally pronounced "hughston" but any New York taxi driver will know that you have not been to New York before if you pronounce that way - Houston Drive is a major freeway in Manhattan and New Yorkers pronounce it "house-ton"
The river THAMES is pronounced TEMZ
Is paling, stout and spikey.
Wont it make you lose your wits.
Writing groats and saying grits?
Its a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones,stowed, solace, gunwale.
Islington and Isle of Wight.
Housewife, verdict and indict
Finally which rhymes with enough?
Though, through, plough or dough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to just give up.;) Lol
On 2018-07-19 23:08:10 Arizona said:
Dear ESA members,
I am busy studying, and this might not be the platform to ask this... but here goes.
@ Ben Layden and any other users that have a passion for language, specifically English.
Please give me your thoughts on the following...
"Hints on pronunciation for foreigners"
George Bernard Shaw
I take it you already know
of tough and bough and cough and dough.
Others may stumble, but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, laugh and through.
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps.
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead-it's said like bed, not bead.
For goodness sake, don't call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat.
They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.
A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother,
And here is not a match for there,
Nor dear and fear for pear and bear.
And then there's dose and rose and lose
Just look them up--and goose and choose.
And cork and work and card and ward.
And font and front and word and sword.
And do and go, then thwart and cart.
Come, come I've hardly made a start.
A dreadful language? Man alive,
I'd mastered it when I was five!
Thanks
Arz
keep it up girl and all the best in your studies!!!! Don't give up studying ever
There are some interesting ones:
Even the Americans have their anomalies. Houston is generally pronounced "hughston" but any New York taxi driver will know that you have not been to New York before if you pronounce that way - Houston Drive is a major freeway in Manhattan and New Yorkers pronounce it "house-ton"
Arkansas always foxed me ! ArkansaW
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