Commonly mispronounced words

[DanaC]

That's right, mur-i-als.

That word gets a lot of people. It's a little like a tongue twister, contained within a single word.

[milkfish]

I understand that one way for an American to tell an Australian from a New Zealander is to listen to how they pronounce "been." The Kiwi will rhyme it with "bin."

Of course, natives from those two countries have no trouble telling the accents apart.

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by milkfish

I understand that one way for an American to tell an Australian from a New Zealander is to listen to how they pronounce "been." The Kiwi will rhyme it with "bin."

Of course, natives from those two countries have no trouble telling the accents apart.

To people not familiar with the accents, been is indeed a good one, but any e sound should do it. Ten pens for example is tin pins to a Kiwi.

Once you know an Aussie or a Kiwi (or especially both) you'll be baffled by people who mix them up.

Back to been - London accents shorten been to bin as well. One of my father's Dad-jokes was to say, "Where you bin?" when throwing something away. He still does it occasionally when I'm home (like only giving me half a cup of tea, my age doesn't seem fixed in his head sometimes).

[monster]

I've been here 6 years and I can't tell the Americans from the Canadians round here (unless the Canucks rather helpfully add the "eh" at the end). I can spot a Texan or a Californian, but I've got no chance with a Michigandan and our nearest neighbors over the border. Apparently they can tell, though.

But that's OK, 'cause most of them can't tell if I'm Aussie or Brit.

[Trilby]

To any foreigner, English is exceedingly difficult. Even the angels speak it with an accent.
- Mark Twain

[Mixie]

To be honest, English isn't that difficult at all. Unlike, say, German. *flinches*

However, I must say that part of the difficulty is taken away by the large input we have. Music, television, loan words - there's a lot of English words and sentences we hear every day, so you slowly become accustomed to it.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

What truly marks the foreigner speaking English is the vowels. Somebody raised in a language that is mainly pure vowels needs either long experience and an acute ear, or else detailed instruction, to deal with English's diphthongal glides. English has few pure vowels; they are most often either iotized or they are mainly one vowel with a faint tail of another, e.g. the English long "O" finishes up with a tiny "U" at its end, and conversely trying to get English speakers to deliver a pure "O" sound European-style can be quite the struggle -- they don't necessarily hear that U tail-off because we think long O is one sound.

[Cloud]

1)

Originally Posted by Urbane Guerrilla

English has few pure vowels; they are most often either iotized or they are mainly one vowel with a faint tail of another, e.g. the English long "O" finishes up with a tiny "U" at its end . . .

(mutters) bone, phone, home. Huh. yeah.

Yo hablo espanol. Hmmm . . . cool.

2)Labret from Merriam-Webster:

Main Entry: la·bret
Pronunciation: 'lA-br&t
Function: noun
Etymology: Latin labrum
: an ornament worn in a perforation of the lip

[Jordan]

Heh, not so much a mispronounced word as a word that doesn't actually exist, "irregardless". Technically speaking it's a double negative and yet is still often held as a properly recognized word, irregardless of it's connotation.

[Cloud]

labret. It's LAY-brt, not la-BRAY.

[monster]

Originally Posted by Cloud

labret. It's LAY-brt, not la-BRAY.

But does it have a nice ass?

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by Cloud

labret. It's LAY-brt, not la-BRAY.

Really?! I had no idea. I've known a lot of pierced people, and never ever heard the correct pronunciation.

[DanaC]

I assumed that was just Lab-ret.

[monster]

Originally Posted by DanaC

I assumed that was just Lab-ret.

It would be to you and I, but they say things all peculiar

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Originally Posted by monster

It would be to you and I, but . . .

. . .but surely you intended to say "to you and me," the pronouns being the objects of the preposition. Prepositions such as to, from, between cause pronouns to take the objective case, not the subjective -- me, not I, them not they.

"Pooooor Professor Higgins...Night and day he slaves a-way, oh poooor Professor Higgins!"

In a word, pronouns decline in English (and most other languages, including Esperanto, which has about as many moving parts as an anvil). You wouldn't say to I, and you still wouldn't even with another pronoun in the works. The confusion seems to come from you remaining unchanged.