RMweb Premium Andy Kirkham Posted May 31, 2023 RMweb Premium Share Posted May 31, 2023 Is there a word you've discovered you've been mispronouncing all your life? Mine is "Chalybeate". Not that I ever said it out loud, but when I read in Boyd's history of the Talyllyn that there was a chalybeate spring at Dolgoch, I naturally spoke it in my head as "chally-beet". Only a couple of months ago I discovered the correct pronunciation is "kal-ee-bee-ut" What prompted me to post this is that yesterday I was in Aberystwyth and came upon a thoroughfare (near the station) named Chalybeate Street, and I wondered how the locals normally say it. 2 1 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold melmoth Posted May 31, 2023 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 31, 2023 Once upon a time, in a distant century, I lived in a flat on Chalybeate Street in Aber. That has no bearing on the difficulties I've had with 'arboretum' over the years, but it was a nice reminder of the place. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
didcot Posted May 31, 2023 Share Posted May 31, 2023 Probably been mispronouncing all the Welsh places we have been visiting this week. We were also in Aberystwyth yesterday, but didn't see much of the town outside the Vale of Rheidol railway. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
25kV Posted May 31, 2023 Share Posted May 31, 2023 For more years than I'd like to admit, "fa-kaid" was my mental pronunciation of "façade"... Sigh. Though my better half bettered me by mispronouncing pronunciation as "pronounciation" for just as long. 🫢 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Johnster Posted May 31, 2023 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 31, 2023 44 minutes ago, 25kV said: Though my better half bettered me by mispronouncing pronunciation as "pronounciation" for just as long. 🫢 You mean 'mispronuncing', don't you? (I am not wearing my serious hat). 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozexpatriate Posted May 31, 2023 Share Posted May 31, 2023 (edited) 1 hour ago, 25kV said: For more years than I'd like to admit, "fa-kaid" was my mental pronunciation of "façade"... My mum (who was a voracious reader when young) was mortified as a girl to learn that she had been pronouncing "cafe" like safe, rather than café. There were no cafés around her growing up. Edited May 31, 2023 by Ozexpatriate 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Hroth Posted May 31, 2023 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 31, 2023 Its all crab-bucket, not knowing how to pronounce words "correctly" keeps you in your place... "Old Chumly made a forks pass..." Hey ho! 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpendle Posted May 31, 2023 Share Posted May 31, 2023 Apparently after 23 years living in the US I still can't pronounce my christian name correctly. What's your name? John Joe? No John. Joan? No John. J O H N John Ohhh, you mean John ^%^%#^%(&@%(*&%^@(&$%^%*&%^!!!!!!!! Regards, Joe Joan John P 1 11 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium SteveyDee68 Posted May 31, 2023 RMweb Premium Share Posted May 31, 2023 My sister for many years as a child said that we parked our car in the par cark … she occasionally slips up even now (at nearly 50 years old!) My ex-brother in law couldn’t pronounce “hospital”, instead saying “hospikal” … I embarrassed myself at my friend’s wedding (in Oxford) by pronouncing halcyon as “ha-lee-kon” to all his posh Oxford University chums when referring to our school days as “halcyon days” … After 8 years doing supply work, few names can catch me out except the Irish/Celtic names … Eoghan being the most recent! However, the most recent word I learnt I had been saying wrong was Hermione out of the Harry Potter books - despite hearing it aloud in the films! It was only when talking to a 9 year old girl reading the book that I was corrected, being told that the name isn’t pronounced “Her-me-o-ni” but “Her-my-o-knee”!! 🤭🙄😆 1 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BachelorBoy Posted June 1, 2023 Share Posted June 1, 2023 5 hours ago, Andy Kirkham said: Is there a word you've discovered you've been mispronouncing all your life? Mine is "Chalybeate". Not that I ever said it out loud, but when I read in Boyd's history of the Talyllyn that there was a chalybeate spring at Dolgoch, I naturally spoke it in my head as "chally-beet". Only a couple of months ago I discovered the correct pronunciation is "kal-ee-bee-ut" What prompted me to post this is that yesterday I was in Aberystwyth and came upon a thoroughfare (near the station) named Chalybeate Street, and I wondered how the locals normally say it. Ooops. Apparently I have been mispronouncing it too all my life. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BachelorBoy Posted June 1, 2023 Share Posted June 1, 2023 I try to avoid saying Walschaerts. Just in case. 2 5 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southernman46 Posted June 1, 2023 Share Posted June 1, 2023 "Yes" when I really meant "No" ................................. 🙄 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SRman Posted June 1, 2023 Share Posted June 1, 2023 3 hours ago, Hroth said: Its all crab-bucket, not knowing how to pronounce words "correctly" keeps you in your place... "Old Chumly made a forks pass..." Hey ho! That reminds me: there is a park (for real) in Brisbane called Faux Park. 😅 I have had my share of mispronounced words, mostly from reading them and not hearing them. I still catch myself saying HY-per-bowl, rather than hy-PER-bollee. The one that really caught me out though, was chiaroscuro. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
toby_tl10 Posted June 1, 2023 Share Posted June 1, 2023 Is there a consensus of how "Maunsell" is pronounced? 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozexpatriate Posted June 1, 2023 Share Posted June 1, 2023 (edited) I understand a lot of people are tripped up by "Dapol" (day-pol) for Dave and Pol (Pauline) - not Dapple. Similarly "Rapido". It is not Rapid-oh, but Ra-peed-oh. Edited June 1, 2023 by Ozexpatriate 3 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted June 1, 2023 Share Posted June 1, 2023 (edited) 2 hours ago, toby_tl10 said: Is there a consensus of how "Maunsell" is pronounced? Yes. Chalybeate? I’ve always known it as something like “chaawly-beet”, which is how it’s pronounced in Tunbridge Wells, where the wells are chalybeate springs, despite the Latin derivation and what Wikipedia says alongside pictures of The Wells, so it sounds to me as the Aberystwyth pronunciation might be a Welsh spin on the word, as opposed to a southern English spin. Some words seem to change pronunciation over time. Forehead has morphed from ‘forrid’ to ‘fore-head’ in my lifetime, and my father used to remark that waistcoat had morphed from ‘wesskit’ to ‘waist-coat’ during his. I still pronounce courier as ‘curry-er’, which according to my OH is some ancient yokel way of saying it, and my children thought I was saying ‘compass-deep’, and couldn’t understand what I was on about, when I was definitely saying ‘compost heap’. The railway word that I got badly wrong as a kid was ‘Flatiron’, as in those lumpy-looking MR locos. I read about them in a history of the MR, and was sure they were called Flatty-Rons, and couldn’t work out what on earth that meant until the penny (or flatiron) dropped years later. Of course, we nearly all pronounce 0 and 00, the model railway gauges, incorrectly, given that they are figures, not letters. The French and Germans stick with the figure for 0, but I think the French pronounce H0 as a sort of suppressed sneeze. Edited June 1, 2023 by Nearholmer 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Joseph_Pestell Posted June 1, 2023 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 1, 2023 In the context of this forum, clerestory is a good contender. 2 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SRman Posted June 1, 2023 Share Posted June 1, 2023 4 hours ago, toby_tl10 said: Is there a consensus of how "Maunsell" is pronounced? I always pronounce it as Morn-sell, but it really is supposed to be Man-sell. However everyone knows who we mean when we say Mornsell, and it avoids confusion with Mansell (as in the wooden wheels). 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Lurker Posted June 1, 2023 Share Posted June 1, 2023 12 hours ago, 25kV said: Though my better half bettered me by mispronouncing pronunciation as "pronounciation" for just as long. 🫢 Mrs Lurker pulled me up for that - when I was criticising someone else's pronunciation. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
St. Simon Posted June 1, 2023 Share Posted June 1, 2023 Hi, My GCSE English teacher always used to pronounce 'Hyperbole' as 'Hyper-Bowl' rather than 'Hy-per-bo-le', always used to annoy me! Simon 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steamport Southport Posted June 1, 2023 Share Posted June 1, 2023 6 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said: I understand a lot of people are tripped up by "Dapol" (day-pol) for Dave and Pol (Pauline) - not Dapple. Similarly "Rapido". It is not Rapid-oh, but Ra-peed-oh. Those growing up in the UK in the 1980s would probably get the Rapido one right as there was a TV programme called Rapido with Antoine de Caunes. 4 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
St. Simon Posted June 1, 2023 Share Posted June 1, 2023 Hi, Just thought of another one, a great railway technical mispronunciation was from a Video125 Drivers Eye view video that had the pronunciation of 'Balise' as 'Bail-le-ses' rather than 'Ba-li-ze' Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talltim Posted June 1, 2023 Share Posted June 1, 2023 32 minutes ago, St. Simon said: Hi, My GCSE English teacher always used to pronounce 'Hyperbole' as 'Hyper-Bowl' rather than 'Hy-per-bo-le', always used to annoy me! Simon Thats the next level up from the superb owl 1 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peterem Posted June 1, 2023 Share Posted June 1, 2023 "In the context of this forum, clerestory is a good contender." Shall we take a vote? "Awry" was my main error. It was many years before I realised it should be pronounced "a-wry", not "or-rey". I also couldn't say "thistle" without 2 "th" s when I was younger, but I'm better now.... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted June 1, 2023 Share Posted June 1, 2023 Welsh words, possibly all of them. 2 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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