Are all the pronunciations correct or just accepted?
TO-MAY-TO or TO-MAH-TO PE-CAN or PE-CAHN Q-PON or COO-PON CARE-A-BEE-AN or CA-BIB-EE-AN APE-RI-COT or AP-RI-COT???? ************************************************************* 06-22-04, 11:22 AM maiku There is little to no danger, kittypal, regardless of how any of the words you cite are pronounced in any known (to me, at least) dialect of English, of confusing their denotata with anything else. Therefore, all pronunciations of these words are allowable and acceptable.
I had an aunt once who owned an ice cream store called the "Bo-Kay Ice Cream Parlor" and this name indicated the slightly low-prestige but unapologetic way we natives of the area tended to pronounce the word "bouquet." It was all one to us, as long as my aunt served good-tasting sundaes (which she did, may she rest in peace).
06-22-04, 12:14 PM juanruiz There's an old anecdote about a German performer who began the well-known Gershwin song:
06-22-04, 01:22 PM FredPuli The Caribbean is pronounced Caribb-yan by West Indians here. We, trying to be correct say 'Caribb-ee-yan' not Caribee-an but in practice most English people still say the latter. ( Old habits die hard.Even now , decades after independence, Kenya is pronounced Keen-ya by older people here, just as it was in the days of Empire, and not Ken-ya , the official pronunciation ).
As to the others, who cares? If it's of any interest to you we say pee-can here, coop-on and ape [as in 'great ape']-rikott.
06-22-04, 01:39 PM MommyTimesTwo I think it really varies by region. I know I've told the story of trying to order a cup of coffee in the Denny's up here in Fairbanks. The Alaskan waitress couldn't understand what "caw-fee" was lol But in New York, you'll get either "caw-fee" or "cah-fee", depending if the individual's family is from Downstate or Canada.
Another is pecan. I say "pee-cahn". Others say "pee-can". Same difference (to use my favorite oxymoron Smile )
I think correctness depends on where you are and to whom you are speaking.
Unless it comes to place names. When we first entered the Air Force, I got some strange looks for referring to Minot AFB as "Min-ou", which is how such a name would be pronounced in Northern NY (a good portion of the place names there are French). It is said "My-not".
FWIW, I (and most of the people I know in NY) say: toe-may-toe, pee-cahn, cou-pon, ca-ri-be-an, and ape-ri-cot. Smile
06-22-04, 02:13 PM juanruiz Yeah Mommy, and I bet you stand on line to order your soda.
06-22-04, 02:31 PM MommyTimesTwo Nope, "in". I think the ones that stand on line are ordering pop. Smile
Here's a New York-ism though--my grandfather didn't turn off the lights, he closed them.
06-22-04, 03:11 PM juanruiz That is the verb my in-laws use in Italian for to turn off---chiudi le luci.
06-22-04, 04:04 PM coldfuse Here we even pronounce the name of our own state "Nawth Ka-o-lye-nuh." And the "Ka" and "o" sort of run together. Easy as pie Big Grin
06-22-04, 05:48 PM kittypal A lot of the OLD people around here say EYE-TALIAN instead of ITALIAN....and THEE-AA-TER instead of THEATER!!! MY dad's family drived me nuts bt calling a moter-CYCLE a moter-SICLE (as in pop-sicle) Roll Eyes Smile
06-22-04, 06:23 PM juanruiz
quote:Originally posted by juanruiz: That is the verb my in-laws use in Italian for to turn off---chiudi le luci.
I should have added that there is a perfectly good Italian verb: spegnare
06-22-04, 10:51 PM sid1114 I used to like to sing "you say potato and I say pajamas..."
06-23-04, 10:56 AM Rakuchild "Drived you nuts," MTT? Smile
Now that's a new one to me...here, we'd say "drove me nuts."
"Pop" and "soda" are so regional...I thought it was odd when I moved to central Ohio to hear people ask for "pop" because in southwestern Ohio where I grew up, we asked for the specific beverage, Coke, Pepsi, 7Up or whatever.
06-23-04, 11:00 AM MommyTimesTwo I didn't say "drived me nuts". Confused
06-23-04, 11:17 AM coldfuse "Drived me nuts" is an expression reserved for Tony the Tiger and his offspring.
Virginians often pronounce buffet "boo-fay." Is this common elsewhere?
My father-in-law pronounces motorcycle like kitty's dad's family. He also pronounces hurricane "her'-uh-kun" which I've adopted Eek
06-23-04, 11:31 AM MommyTimesTwo My high school gym teacher would always instruct us to clear the field of "deb-riss" before we played. Razz
06-23-04, 11:36 AM juanruiz I once heard a woman interviewed about a flooded bridge comment about all the derbis around it.
06-23-04, 02:12 PM Rakuchild Oh! Sorry MTT, that was Kitty!
Around here we can tell who grew up in the country and moved to the city by how they pronounce "wash." If they do the "warsh," they grew up in a rural area.
06-23-04, 02:19 PM MommyTimesTwo It's the opposite in New York--if you are from the city, you say "warsh" and "yutes" in stead of youths lol
Upstaters say "waaash" lol
06-23-04, 04:48 PM Ewood27 Correct or Accepted?? Fred, let's have none of this modern rubbish.
Kenya is "keen-ya" and the sea is the Carib-EAN. Furthermore, Zimbabwe is pronounced Rhodesia and Sri Lanka is pronounced Ceylon.
06-23-04, 05:10 PM FredPuli And Crippen was pronounced 'guilty'.
06-23-04, 09:58 PM CincyOnTheRoad Around Cincinnati:
# it's "pop", not "soda" # tho I don't do it, many refer to green bell peppers as "mangoes" # striped bass are called striped bass, not "rockfish", like they call them here # many people pronounce the town as "Sin-suh-nat-uh" (and in the process bother me) # "Warsh" their clothes, then flatten them with an "arn" # eat goetta 06-23-04, 10:43 PM MommyTimesTwo I say eye-ron and eye-talian. I don't think anyone else does. I'm just weird.
06-23-04, 11:32 PM juanruiz M x 2, Do you pronounce the g in hanger?
06-23-04, 11:35 PM MommyTimesTwo No. I say "han-er".
I do say "Lon Giland" though. Smile
06-24-04, 12:03 AM juanruiz Then where in upstate are you from? (And please don't say Yonkers).
(but my dad is from Brooklyn. I have a hybrid accent)
06-24-04, 10:09 AM MommyTimesTwo I should mention that we generally say "Northern" as opposed to Upstate (though I do use both) because too many people think Upstate is White Plains! Eek
Where we're from, White Plains is still the City!
06-24-04, 10:14 AM juanruiz Well, I lived both in Bklyn and really upstate. For many, Yonkers was the latter.
06-24-04, 10:25 AM MommyTimesTwo Where is "really upstate"?
06-24-04, 10:30 AM juanruiz Andover.
06-24-04, 10:51 AM MommyTimesTwo I've never heard of Andover NY. I looked it up, it's quite a bit south of where I'm from. I'm not familiar at all with anything south of Albany; we tended to go north to VT for stuff rather than going south.
06-24-04, 12:11 PM Rakuchild
quote:Originally posted by CincyOnTheRoad: Around Cincinnati:
+ it's "pop", not "soda" + tho I don't do it, many refer to green bell peppers as "mangoes" + striped bass are called striped bass, not "rockfish", like they call them here + many people pronounce the town as "Sin-suh-nat-uh" (and in the process bother me) + "Warsh" their clothes, then flatten them with an "arn" + eat goetta
Cincy- I grew up in the Cincinnati (sin-sin-natty) area and didn't know mangoes were fruit and not peppers until I was 20 and moved to central Ohio and tried to find them in the veggies section.
How could anyone say Sin-suh-nat-uh? Did they never watch "old, batty Hattie from Cincinnati" on channel 19?
06-24-04, 12:53 PM MommyTimesTwo Here's another one--it took me a while after meeting people from Baltimore to figure out what "Jew wanna com wit?" meant. Wink
06-24-04, 02:12 PM kittypal Is it "you want to come with"???
06-24-04, 02:48 PM MommyTimesTwo Yes, and you figured that out a lot faster than I did lol I was like "whaa????"
06-25-04, 01:30 AM DvdGStwrt TO-MAY-TO or TO-MAH-TO
Actually its pronounced "Beef Steak", somes times "Cherry", sometimes "Ketchup" or "Catsup"
PE-CAN or PE-CAHN
Pronounced = Nuts
Q-PON or COO-PON
Prounounced: "Not accepted here" sometimes "Expired"
CARE-A-BEE-AN or CA-BIB-EE-AN
Prounced - "American Vacation Place"
APE-RI-COT or AP-RI-COT????
Prounounced "Fruit"
06-26-04, 10:17 AM juanruiz "I've never heard of Andover NY. I looked it up, it's quite a bit south of where I'm from. I'm not familiar at all with anything south of Albany; we tended to go north to VT for stuff rather than going south."
It's way west, 80 miles south of Rochester.
06-26-04, 12:20 PM MommyTimesTwo South-West Wink My uncle used to live in Cairo which I believe is near Rochester, isn't it?
06-26-04, 01:44 PM AMoore Correct or Accepted??
quote:Originally posted by DvdGStwrt: - snip -
APE-RI-COT or AP-RI-COT????
Prounounced "Fruit"
When we had 80,000 acres of them around here, we just called them "cots." Now that we've paved over all the orchards, when I see them in the grocery store and feel them for ripeness, I say "rock".
Alan Moore
06-26-04, 04:09 PM kittypal LOL @ David and A Moore...yes, that does solve a lot of problems doesn't it?
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