• javasux@lemmy.worldEnglish
    591·
    3 months ago

    So many of those are not even English words lol

    Yeah of course people are gonna mispronounce surprise French and ancient Greek words

    • Zwiebel@feddit.orgEnglish
      45·
      3 months ago

      No no I’m pronouncing the french words correctly, it’s the Brits who are wrong

    • atro_city@fedia.io
      11·
      3 months ago

      What is “English” though? The English language is mish-mash or Norse, French, Latin, Greek, Danish, Spanish, and their old versions. It’s why it’s so difficult to get pronunciation right.

      Look at the etymology of the majority of English words and it’ll be “middle english from anglo-french” or “old english from ancient greek” or something.

      Some languages have diverged very little from their origins like Icelandic which allows reading 12th century texts without much difficulty, while others are barely distinguishable from their origins due to loans words, forced changes due to e.g royalty, invasion, and so on.

      I’m sure a linguist could dive way more into depth, but “not English words” is the equivalent of “not a true Scotsman”.

      • SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.world
        15·
        3 months ago

        “The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.” –James D. Nicoll

        • atro_city@fedia.io
          4·
          3 months ago

          Indeed. It does cement my point further of just what a jumble of languages English is.

      • Lvxferre@mander.xyz
        4·
        3 months ago

        I’m sure a linguist could dive way more into depth, but “not English words” is the equivalent of “not a true Scotsman”.

        Pretty much. Once speakers start using the word, and expecting others to understand it, it’s already part of the lexicon of that language. Specially if you see signs of phonetic adaptation, like /ø/ becoming /u:/ in a language with no /ø/ (see: “lieu”) - and yet it’s exactly why people complain about those words.

        And this sort of complain isn’t even new. Nor the backslash agianst it, as Catullus 84 shows for Latin and Greek.

  • elucubra@sopuli.xyz
    22·
    3 months ago

    “Apparently, George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was fond of pointing out the absurdities of English spelling by proving that “fish” could be spelled “ghoti”, That is, gh as in rough, o as in women and ti as in palatial”

  • Skull giver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl
    151·
    3 months ago

    English speakers can’t even decide how to pronounce words. With the complete disconnect between written English and spoken English, I don’t think it’s possible to mispronounce any word in the English language.

  • Squorlple@lemmy.worldEnglish
    12·
    3 months ago

    I still think about how my Cuban former coworker pronounced Popeye the Sailor as poh-pee-yay

    • teft@lemmy.world
      2·
      3 months ago

      One of Pablo Escobar’s lieutenants was nicknamed Popeye. When i first heard it pronounced in spanish I was so confused. To make it even funnier, here in Medellin y’s are pronounced like j’s so here his name is Poh-pay-jay.

  • teft@lemmy.world
    2·
    3 months ago

    Find a friend who is bilingual in the opposite languages as you. So for me a Spanish native that speaks English. Then you can correct each other’s fuck ups on pronunciation. That’s what me and my buddies do. It helps a lot for words you’ve only ever seen written.