A question on pronounciations

[hyphenate]

How come Kansas is pronounced "can-sus," but Arkansas is pronounced "ark-can-saw?" I pronounced it "ar-can-sus" when I was a kid until I learned I'd been wrong for a while.

No wonder foreigners are often at a loss with our language.

Some more:

rough="ruff"
through="throo"
bough="bow" with an "ow" sound
though=tho
trough="troff"

[billyskank]

1. It was years before I learned that Arkansas and "Arkansore" are the same place.

Meanwhile this side of the Pond, hearing Americans try to pronounce "Loughborough" is priceless.

[Oeditpus Rex]

3. What about 'Leicester'?

:shrug:

[billyskank]

4. That gets a few people confused as well.

Or any of the places whose names end in -cester, there are a few. Leicester, Bicester, Worcester.

[Oeditpus Rex]

7. *One slice of strawberry tart without so much rat in it later*

"Hello, mum. Hello, dad."

"'Ello, son."

"There's a dead bishop on the landing."

"Where did that come from?"

"What do you mean?"

"What's its diocese?"

"Well, it looked a bit Bath and Wellsish to me."

"I'll go and have a look."

"I don't know 'oo keeps bringin' 'em in 'ere."

"Well, it's not me."

"I've put three out by the bin and the dustmen won't touch 'em."

"Leicester."

"'Ow d'you know?"

"Tattooed on the back of 'is neck."

[Zuiderelle]

9. Worcestershire sauce is a good one.

ˈwʊstəʃər

[hyphenate]

12. Totally

Listening to people mangle some of them is fun, though. Gloucester is one of my favorites, since it's a tourist town: "Glow" (with the "ow" sound) + "chester" and then you try to make sense of it for them, and it goes right over their head.

[pink-o]

22. When I lived in London in the 70s

My Brit friends took great delight in mocking my Yankee accent and mispronuciations of their crazily-spelled words! Heavens--I come from across the bay from Berkeley, California, not BARKley! And it's a to-may-to, not a to-mah-to in my foggy little village.

But when in Rome (or the West End) do what the Romans do. So now that I'm back here, and listen to Brits mangle Puerto Vallarta, or any word of Spanish origin, I just love to correct them. (But I think it's mostly cuz I'm jealous of all the Brits and Euros taking such cheap holidays here--not so much for us over there!!!)

[hyphenate]

11. I was laughing last night

listening to some courtv (tru) forensic file episode or similaw calling a town out west "Waterton" and I thought of Watertown, Mass. I was laughing because I was making a bad joke in my head that when the settlers and gold prospectors went out there, they couldn't remember there was a "w" in the word, and that's why all the towns got named with the "ton" instead of the "town" proper name.

Yeah, stupid, I know, but it seemed funny at the time.

Being a native of New England, I know it must drive some people batty with the mix of British and Native American names around here.

[hyphenate]

10. low-boro"?

Yeah, all those damned -ough words are a sheer nightmare.

[billyskank]

15. Luff-bro.

With a short 'o' sound as in 'brother'.

[Parche]

2. Ask Su ZON Malveaux CNN

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Sue zan Sue Zan Sue Zan

[TZ]

8. Hey now...

Don't be taking my name in vain...But yeah she has a wonky pronounciation to her name.

[flvegan]

5. Worcester (MA) = "woostah"

[hyphenate]

13. Only if you're from heah

Massachusetts aliens can't get away with it--it sounds more like the town of "Wooster" when some people try to say it.

It's more of a wu--with a short "u" pronunciation, though. I say wu-ster. But I'm from Boston. ;)

[Critters2]

20. No, closer to "Wistah". I was corrected this way by a Worcester

native when I lived in Boston. We were driving together to "Glawstah".

[Xipe Totec]

21. Quincy (MA) = "Queen-zee"

[Oeditpus Rex]

6. In Arkansas, the name is pronounced true to its roots

The name Arkansas derives from the same root as the name for the State of Kansas. The Kansas tribe of American Indians are closely associated with the Sioux tribes. The word is a French pronunciation of a Quapaw (a related "Kaw" tribe) word meaning "land of downriver people" or "people of the south wind". The pronunciation of Arkansas (ar-kan-saw) was made official by an act of the state legislature in 1881 after a dispute between the two U.S. Senators from Arkansas. One wanted to pronounce the word ar-kan-sas and the other wanted ar-kan-saw.<2>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkansas



I'm told that in Kansas, the Arkansas River is pronounced "ar-KAN-sas." :shrug:

[elehhhhna]

14. How do you say "Pennsyltucky"?

[SoxFan]

16. Haverhill

It's a city in Mass, right on the NH border and a few miles from where I grew up. Some years ago, there was an ad for Gold Bond foot powder that featuerd a testimonial from someone in "Hav-er-hill" with a short a. It's pronounced HAVE-uhrull. The local press had fun with that one.

[LeftyFingerPop]

17. Here's how we say those words in upstate NY:

rough="woof"
through="true"
bough="boo"
though="toe"
trough=we don't say this word

[Gidney N Cloyd]

18. Norfolk.

"That's N-O-R-F-O-L-K. 'Nuffuck.'"

[Richardo]

19. This is why fish can be spelled 'g-h-o-t-i'

GH as in 'rough'
O as in 'women'
TI as in 'nation' :D