The Pronunciation Thread

I pronounce my last name Kuz-luv'-itch unless it hockey season then it is Koz-lo'-vitch.  Spelled Kozlowicz so in Polish it would be?

Koh-z,or si,or ch, three z sounds in polish, l,or v, -its

Kohz-wov'-its?   

What about other popular names and places in the news, or not that I get wrong?

I mean seriously I can't even figure out how to pronounce my own name!

The pronunciation of my name bears almost no resemblance to it's spelling. I assume that means great-grampa maintained the pronunciation after he came over here from the Sudentenland 100+ years ago.

Maybe call up some Kozlowicz's in Poland and get it straight from the source?

I live in the PNW and there are a plethora of location names that boggle newcomers to the area. Puyallup, Sequim, Skamokawa, Steilacoom, Suquamish... lots of S words in Native tongue I'm realizing...

Hell, I could write a book on the many different ways people pronounce my first name ... in college whenever I would see the teacher stall for a bit, I could tell my name was about to get butchered. 

Joaquin 

In reply to Slippery :

Yes, my whole life!  First name.........That's me.

Forget foreign languages and names, the English language has such crazy different pronunciations for the same word, or the same pronunciation for different words it's mind boggling  And that's before we start on the difference between English and American English.  For all I love to joke about Kansas vs. Arkansas, my all time favorite is Lieutenant, which in case you are unaware is actually correctly pronounced Leftenant in real English.

I work with a Krzwos, pronounces it Shivaz.   West to school with a Pryzbycz, = Shibish.

What about simple ones like Adele?  Apparently everyone gets it wrong.

Come to PA.

North Versailles = North "ver-SALES."
Dubois = "DO-boys"
Muench St = "Minnick" St
Forster St = "Foster" St
Cavalry Rd = "Calvary" Rd
West Lebanon = "Wess Lev'n"
Primanti's Restaurant = "Permanny's"
House = "Hass" in western PA, "Hice" in central PA, and "Hoce" in Philly.
For many folks, Water = "warter" in western PA and "wooder" in Philly.
 

Well Ian in English is pronounced 'E-an', but a lot of people here in the USA pronounces it as I-an.

Graham, which is Gray-ham or Grey-hem is often pronounced Gram here.

Craig.  In the UK it's Cray-g, where America it's often Creg

Cecil in English is Cess-il, but in American it is for some unfathomable reason Sess-sill or See-sil.

I could go on and on, but two more that are not names.  I've been here more than half my life and will die on the hill for HERB (name or aromatic plant).  It has an H on the beginning, I will never lower myself to Erb.  Finally Solder has an L in the middle and is not Sodder.

Oh, oh, just remembered more.

When the English pronounce Notre Dame they use the French pronunciation of Not-ra Dam where American say Note-a Daym.  Milan the place name, there's a Milan in Michigan pronounced My-Lan.  

I love this E36 M3!

akylekoz said:

I pronounce my last name Kuz-luv'-itch unless it hockey season then it is Koz-lo'-vitch.  Spelled Kozlowicz so in Polish it would be?

Koh-z,or si,or ch, three z sounds in polish, l,or v, -its

Kohz-wov'-its?   

What about other popular names and places in the news, or not that I get wrong?

I mean seriously I can't even figure out how to pronounce my own name!

You know better than I (it's your dang name) but the little I know of Polish - from my grandmother-in-law - I would have pronounced it Koz-LOW-itz with a little puff on the W making it sound half way between W and V.

But I'm German.  My last name is Mittong which is a misspelling of Mittank, which is probably a mutation of "with thanks" or "thankful."

My first name is a pain for me? But my last name is a pain that I share with the whole family. It has umlauts ... that opens a whole new can of worms. Trying to explain to my kids' teacher that they are not drawing "smiley faces" on their last name ... or how she can substitute the umlauts with a letter "e" after the vowel always brings the weird looks. 

Had a history teacher in Jr high, Mr. Enke. I don't remember the correct pronunciation, because one day he asked another student to do something and the kid goes "Enke, Mr Enke." But said it to sound like the principle in south park. 

Anyway. That kid got suspended. 

Wooster, OH - WUH-stir

Worcestershire, MA - WOO-stir

Insanity, I tell ya.

Brett Favre pronounces his last name like Farve, and now that I look it up I have confirmed that he is indeed mangling the pronunciation of his own last name:

https://www.reddit.com/r/etymology/comments/rhea1u/why_is_brett_favre_pronounced_farve/

Tchoupitoulas  - a street in New Orleans next to the Mississippi.  Its what the local indigenous tribe called "Place by the river where the Choupique live"

A Choupique is a fish.   Outside Louisiana they are called bowfin or grinnel.

Tchoupitoulas is pronounced "Chop-a-tu-las".   

Choupique is pronounced "Shoe-Pick"

Both are basically French renditions of the local indian's pronunciations.

Your name aint Joe Duarte, it's Dirt, that's what your daddy named you, Dirt.

I actually pronounce my board name "S. LeFain". It's a made up name using my middle name first initial (S) and an old family name (LeFain). I've never gotten a good answer as to why our 200+ years North Carolina mountains family history picked up a French name, but it makes for a good unique identifier.

Here's a few:

Cholmondeley - pronounced chum-lee 

Milngavie - pronounced mul-guy

Beaulieu  - pronounced bew-lee

All are towns/villages in the UK

The pronunciation that really irks me is how people say my surname, McLellan.  For some strange reason people swap the last two 'L's with 'n's.  

And if you want a difficult place name, the village my mum grew up in is called Tighnabruaich.  I'll let you guys try to figure out how to say it.

slefain said:

I actually pronounce my board name "S. LeFain". It's a made up name using my middle name first initial (S) and an old family name (LeFain). I've never gotten a good answer as to why our 200+ years North Carolina mountains family history picked up a French name, but it makes for a good unique identifier.

Possibly from the diasporas when the English kicked the Acadians out from Acadia and changed the name to Nova Scotia.  They ended up in South Carolina and South Louisiana (the Cajuns).

Pronunciation? I cant get people around me to just use actual words.

Fun Fact, Kyle: IRREGARDLESS is not a word. And if I see another email that says "for all intensive purposes..." my head is going to fall clean off 

Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) said:

Well Ian in English is pronounced 'E-an', but a lot of people here in the USA pronounces it as I-an.

Another Ian here -- I've also encountered people who want to pronounced it "ayn".  When I first moved to the US in Maryland hardly anyone pronounce it properly.  When I moved to California in the late 80s things got a lot better, and these days I rarely encounter anyone who has trouble.

My last name is just hopeless. :)

Agreed on "herb".

Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) said:

When the English pronounce Notre Dame they use the French pronunciation of Not-ra Dam where American say Note-a Daym.

I usually hear Americans use the French pronunciation when talking about the cathedral and the other one when talking about the university and their football team.