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Author: Steve Litt
Date:  
To: dng
Subject: Re: [DNG] [OT] British vs American language
Antony Stone said on Fri, 30 Jul 2021 23:14:36 +0200

>On Friday 30 July 2021 at 22:50:22, Antony Stone wrote:
>
>> On Friday 30 July 2021 at 22:30:34, Rowland Penny via Dng wrote:
>> > On Fri, 2021-07-30 at 22:18 +0200, Antony Stone wrote:
>> > > On Friday 30 July 2021 at 22:04:28, Hendrik Boom wrote:
>> > > > On Fri, Jul 30, 2021 at 07:13:43PM +0100, Rowland Penny wrote:
>> > > >
>> > > > > We also have a habit of having letters in words that we do
>> > > > > not pronounce, 'pterosaur' for instance :-)
>> > > >
>> > > > But it's *fun* pronouncing both the p and the t.
>> > >
>> > > Who in their right mind would pronounce the 't' in that :) ?
>> >
>> > Just about everyone in England, it is the 'p' that you do not
>> > pronounce. Unless you are actually referring to the 'that' on the
>> > end of your sentence, in which case 'ha' :-D
>>
>> I suspect I under-emphasised the smiley in my sentence :(
>>
>> > > German pronounces all the letters in a word, in as consistent a
>> > > way as possible.
>> >
>> > They would.
>>
>> At least it's easy to learn how to say German words, and how to know
>> which word a German has just said.
>>
>> > > French pronounces as few of the letters in a word as it can get
>> > > away with.
>> >
>> > Terrible language, we stole the best parts of their language.
>>
>> Yes, mostly from the original Latin...
>>
>> > > English pronounces most, but not all, of the letters in a word,
>> > > in as many different ways as possible.
>> >
>> > How about the name 'Cholmondeley ' which is pronounced 'Chumley'
>>
>> Agreed.
>>
>> St. John = Sinjun
>> Featherstonehaugh = Fanshaw
>> Gloucester = Gloster
>> Worcester = Wooster
>
>Oops, I forgot:
>
>Southwark = Suthark
>Mousehole = Mousal
>Southwell = Suthell
>Leicester = Lester
>Cockburn = Coburn
>Magdelen (college) = Mawdlin
>etc...
>
>I also caused some confusion when asking for directions to
>"Schenectady" in New York State, USA, some years ago.
>
>Antony.


I'm originally from Chicago in Illinois state, USA. On a job hunting
safari in Los Angeles, CA, USA, I asked a receptionist over the phone
whether their company was near sepul-vay-da street, with the accent on
"vay". She laughed for 5 minutes.

It's supposed to be pronounced se-pul-vuh-duh with the accent on "pul".

It's spelled "Sepulveda".

SteveT

Steve Litt
Spring 2021 featured book: Troubleshooting Techniques of the Successful
Technologist http://www.troubleshooters.com/techniques