Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with pronunciation

Help figure out this modifier of the word "mentality", which may be phonetically similar to "sinded".

Roach — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 13:27:15 -0800

Help figure out this modifier of the word "mentality", which may be phonetically similar to "sinded". Yesterday, I received this email from a friend of mine who occasionally calls on me for these sorts of things. I'm stumped! After rolling around with it using a couple of possible pronunciations, I've still got nothin'. Any love?

Okay John, I can always count on you for these things...I am trying to figure out the spelling of the following word "sinded" as in sinded mentality. It is not a word I am familiar with and I can't find it on Websters site no matter how I spell it. Any ideas?

How does J. D. Salinger pronounce Zooey?

davebug — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 14:51:34 -0800

Has J.D. Salinger ever written or spoken how to pronounce the name "Zooey" in Franny and Zooey? Are there any recordings of him pronouncing it? Separately, did he create that name or is there precedence for it (whether as a nickname for Zachary or on its own, spelled the same way)? Note, I'm not interested in pronunciation of the more common Zoe or Zoey, or of anyone, famous or otherwise, named Zooey post-Franny & Zooey (regardless of how they pronounce their name).

I'm also not interested in discussions of how it might be pronounced compared to how other similar words or names are pronounced. I'm looking for a primary source, presumably directly from Salinger.

How do I pronounce these names?

alby — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 11:23:07 -0800

I've just got a hold of my class lists for next year and there are a few names that I'm not sure how to pronounce. First Names:
Oluwaseun
Sudeshi
Adeline
Mbongeni
Katarzyna

Surnames:
Dobrowolski
Adeniran
Siriweera
Rohr
Mhlanga
Mirauta

Name pronunciation help! (Bengali and Albanian)

Lotto — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:58:03 -0800

Name pronunciation help! (Bengali and Albanian) How should I (British English speaker) pronounce the following names?

Bengali:
Farbas
Moinul
Mohizur
Fayzul
Fahmida
Asrun

Albanian:
Arbesa
Elvisa

I assume that most of these are pronounced pretty much how you'd expect but it would be really helpful if someone could give me some pointers on where accents should be, any unexpected letter sounds etc.

Thankyou!

How do you pronounce "Gebeta"?

hdh — Sat, 23 May 2009 09:12:43 -0800

I'm a storyteller learning a story about a game that uses a Gebeta board. The game is similar to Mancala. I need to know how to pronounce the word "Gebeta", so I can be true to the story and its origins. Any ideas?

Please don't say it rhymes with "penis"

AngerBoy — Fri, 22 May 2009 08:45:13 -0800

How do you pronounce the last name of Emmanuel Levinas? The Wikipedia entry indicates that the accent is on the middle syllable, but it specifies that that's the "French pronunciation," so I'm not sure if we Yanks ought to pronounce it differently.

I've heard it said:
"LEH-vee-noss"
"leh-vee-NOSS"
"leh-VINE-us"
and, then, just this week, I heard someone pronounce it
"leh-VEEN-us"
And I really hope that's not it. I just don't want the guy's name to rhyme with "penis".

Anyone know for sure?

What is the correct pronunciation of Dyedushka Vodyanoy?

Izner Myletze — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:46:24 -0800

What is the correct pronunciation of the mythological character Dyedushka Vodyanoy?

Words that have a "zyu" sound in American English pronunciation?

kosmonaut — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 20:54:50 -0800

Are there any words that have a "zyu" sound in American English pronunciation? In general, there is a difference between British and American English pronunciation of certain words, like "dune", "resume", "suit", where British speakers have a "y" sound between the consonant and the "u", and Americans do not (we say them like "doon", "rezoom", and "soot").

(In both versions of English, this added "y" can occur with certain consonants, e.g. "cute", "fume".)

I noticed that American English has the word "disuse", which has s+y+u consecutively (which is somewhat rare for us). What I am wondering is if there is any word that has z+y+u consecutively in American pronunciation? I am pretty sure it would have to similarly be in the middle of a multisyllabic word, if it does exist.

So, can anybody come up with a word with a z+y+u sound in it?

The 'W' is Silent

awfurby — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 20:04:38 -0800

The 'w' in 'Keswick' is silent. So is the 'w' in 'Southwark'. And the 'h' in 'Pakenham'. Is there a name for this and is there a rule to apply it? Thanks to our colonial heritage there are many place names in Australia (and no doubt many other parts of the world) where names like 'Keswick' are pronounced 'Kezzick', yet more often than not I find I am bumping into people who aren't familiar with this pronunciation. For example, 'Crezzick' in Victoria is often now pronounced "CresWick". Similarly 'Fennick' Street in Hong Kong is usually pronounced 'FenWick' Street.

Anyway, whilst feeling slightly sad about the (seeming) decline of this pronunciation style(?), I was just wondering how you would actually say to someone "no, that word is an x word, the w/h is silent". Anyone know?

Really, really ridiculously goodlooking

Mocata — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 05:16:55 -0800

A questioning concerning Derek Zoolander's pronunciation of the term "good looking"... I've always been amused by the way Zoolander says "goodlooking" (as if it's one word and with a comically heavy stress on "good"). But recently I swear I've heard other people in US media say the phrase with a stress on "good" (rather than with a light stress on "looking" or with an equal stress on both words), in seemingly non-Zoolander-quoting contexts. (I am English.)

Have I been hearing a joke that isn't there for all these years? Do American-English speakers, or a sizeable proportion thereof, say "goodlooking"?

How do you pronounce 'κινειν'?

amery — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 19:34:26 -0800

Greek speakers needed! How do you pronounce 'κινειν' in both modern and ancient Greek? Bonus points: recordings of either version or explanations of why this question is based on bad assumptions. Thanks!

Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connait pas.

disillusioned — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 21:46:04 -0800

How do you pronounce "Le coeur a ses raisons, que la raison ne connaît point?" I don't know French at all and thus have no idea how to pronounce this. And even if I got the IPA pronunciation of each word, I think I'd kill myself.

Care to spell it out phonetically, or record your awesome French for me?

Merci.

How is the name Pritha pronounced?

peep — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:40:47 -0800

How is the name Pritha pronounced? Long "i" sound? soft th or hard t? Are there variations or does it have a standard pronunciation?

Need a Czech mate

Jody Tresidder — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:12:44 -0800

I don't know any Czech speakers but I'm pretty sure I'm making a hash of saying this guy's surname out loud. I'm reading about the Bohemia-born anthropologist Ales Hrdlicka (1869-1943).
Can anyone kindly supply the phonetic pronunciation of his last name?

A boost at the polls from jōō'lə-rē?

dkg — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 21:48:15 -0800

I'm looking for historical examples of shibboleths used in electoral politics. Got any examples? We've beaten to death the nōō'klē-ər/nōō'kyə-lər distinction here (and elsewhere!) -- and most folks seem to accept the idea that there are social implications/connations about the choice of variant used (though there is disagreement about whether adoption of one pronunciation or the other is a calculated political tactic by any given candidate).

I'm curious about other historical instances where a particular word's pronunciation played the role of a shibboleth, particularly in electoral politics. Bonus points for non-English and non-USA examples!

Need name for English-pronunciation website for Japanese learners

Dragonness — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 09:49:34 -0800

Help! Need name for English-pronunciation website for Japanese learners. The tool is based on speech recognition. The intention is to eventually make it work on mobile devices and also extend it to Korean and Chinese users.

This is for a startup that is based out of Boston and currently attempting to get funding. (I know.)

any broth in brothel?

cogneuro — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 13:37:41 -0800

Is there any native speaker of English reading this for whom "broth" is pronounced the same in the words broth and brothel ? No joke. They aren't the same in my dialect, but maybe in yours?

JapaneseFilter: How is 'fureai' pronounced?

coizero — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 19:14:26 -0800

How is fureai pronounced?

How to pronounce Stephenson

spasm — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 03:14:38 -0800

How does author Neal Stephenson pronounce his last name? I've always assumed it's like "Steven-son", but recently somebody who might know claimed it's like "Stephan-son."
Anybody know for sure?

"Walter de Gruyter": Dutch or Deutch?

ormondsacker — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 20:11:54 -0800

What's the excruciatingly correct pronunciation of Berlin-based academic publisher Walter de Gruyter? [w] or [v]? What about their subsidiary, Mouton de Gruyter? Bonus points for IPA.

Words which change their meaning depending on how you say them.

booksprite — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 23:14:03 -0800

I'm looking for words which can have different meanings, depending on how they are pronounced. I was talking with a german-speaking colleague recently about the word suspect, which can be a verb or a noun (or even an adjective) depending on how you say it (at least where I come from).

Rebel is another example.

What is this phenomenon called and do you know of any other examples?

How do you pronounce 'read'?

gman — Thu, 29 May 2008 17:37:06 -0800

How do you pronounce the word 'read' when used in the following context? -- 'John is dry (read: boring).' /rɛd/ or /rid/ Thanks!

say my name, bitch!

violetk — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:33:23 -0800

pronunciationfilter: how do i mitigate the awkwardness of correcting someone who is pronouncing my name wrong after a significant amount of time has already passed? so i've been dating this guy for about a month and a half. the first several times i heard him say my name, he put the accent on the wrong syllable (it's an unusual name but not hard to pronounce). usually when i first meet someone and they haven't heard my name or ask how to pronounce it, i will say, "it rhymes with —" and it's no problem. i thought i had this conversation with him when we first met, but then i heard him mispronounce it a few times thereafter. i thought i could correct this without outright pointing out to him that he was mispronouncing it by saying my name when leaving him voicemails or when he'd hear me telling others how to say it when asked (he even pointed out how one hostess at a restaurant was having such problems even after i repeated it to her several times). i haven't heard him say my name very often (we both answer our phone calls with, "hey…!") and thought he'd gotten it but yesterday he said my name again, and again, he pronounced it wrong.

what do i do here?! am i going to have to awkwardly point out to him that he's been saying my name wrong all this time, and particularly considering how much time we've spent together? or is there some other way i can do this with much less awkwardness?

correct pronunciation of "Pogge"

verisimilitude — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 01:31:14 -0800

How do I pronounce POGGE? ...as in Thomas Winfried Menko Pogge.

I've heard various versions. Which is correct?

My feet are fit

GoingToShopping — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 06:23:05 -0800

What are some totally awesome free online ESL resources that focus specifically on how to produce the correct sounds in English words for people whose native languages don't contain them? I'm an ESL teacher in Japan, and every once in a while I get a student who, due to no particular dearth of intelligence on their part, just can't for the life of them form the proper i sound, as seen in words such as: him, it, medicine, live, fit, etc.
They can recognize the sound, just not reproduce it, and generally the suggestions I give them that help others are ultimately futile. At one point I had stumbled across a website with an interactive interface that showed animated mouth and throat diagrams for all the myriad sounds in our wonderful language, but I'm completely unable to figure out where that page escaped to. All the resources I can find are simply databases of words that a user can click on to listen to, which is utterly useless when one's native language doesn't have the sound in the first place.