2819: "Pronunciation"

[ratammer]

Title text: I pronounce the 'u' in 'pronunciation' like in 'putting' but the 'ou' in 'pronounce' like in 'wound'.

I pronounce "ghoti" as "I wish people would take it in the fun it's intended instead of treating it as an attempt at a legitimate construction and criticising it on that basis". It's a stretch, but I make it work.

[chridd]

Some of those letters are part of digraphs, so it doesn't make sense to say that they're pronounced a certain way. (Even if you prefer an analysis without digraphs, the "e" and "y" still aren't pronounced, and none of the example words as far as I know have possible pronunciations where the letter is silent.)

[ratammer]

none of the example words as far as I know have possible pronunciations where the letter is silent

"Buffet" does, unless you meant for the "e" and "y" specifically.

[chridd]

Yeah, I meant for the "e" and "y" (and the "u" and "a" also don't have possible silent pronunciations, not that that would help here).

[ratammer]

Only the T does, doesn't it?

[chridd]

"buffet", pronounced like "buffet"
"minute", pronounced like "mint"
"record", pronounced like "errcord"(?)
"use", pronounced like "you"
"moped", pronounced like "mope"
"bass", pronounced like "bss" (somewhere between a "psst" and a buzz)
"gyro", pronounced like "grow"

[ratammer]

I don't think I've ever heard any of those other than buffet.

[chridd]

Because I just made them up.

[ratammer]

That makes sense.

[Jonathan589]

In one of Leslie Charteris's Saint books from the 1930s, he spelled out BEPPO: 'B for Bdellium, E for Eiderdown, P for Psychology, P for Ptarmigan, O for a muse of fire that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention!'

[Jonathan589]

Some of those letters are part of digraphs, so it doesn't make sense to say that they're pronounced a certain way. (Even if you prefer an analysis without digraphs, the "e" and "y" still aren't pronounced, and none of the example words as far as I know have possible pronunciations where the letter is silent.)

Randall's clever as usual, this time with ambiguous pronunciations
Buffet - stand-up meal v/s thump (boofay v/s buffett)
Minute - tiny v/s 60 seconds
Record - verb v/s noun
Use - verb v/s noun
Moped - motorised bike v/s sulked
Bass - deep voice v/s fish
Gyro - the only one I don't get as I can only think of one way to say it

[ratammer]

Gyro - the only one I don't get as I can only think of one way to say it

In words like "gyroscope" it's pronounced "jai-roh". The Greek sandwich "gyro" is pronounced "year-roh".

[Freddino18]

Mayonnaise pronounced Mio-doo-no-chay