Can’t you just type a word into merriam webster and get an audio pronouciation?
Typing requires thumbs; something only primates have.
…another thing that (some) primates have is an island where rich people go to molest children.
Some of these primates are greedy and/or terrible primates, and they don’t want you to look up any connection between a primate named Trump and a primate named Epstein (spoiler alert, those primates rape underaged primates and brag about it to each other).
Mate… This post is about a funny meme about word pronunciation. There is no need to bring us politics here (or any other nation politics for that matter). There are other places you can go to to talk about it.
Folks like you are gonna tell me that I’m doing too much, meanwhile others say we aren’t doing enough.
My secret is; I know what to do and when.
Edit: checks notes, amemds notes: microblogs on Lemmy are probably apologetic fascists, or I am very drunk.
Double edit: Lady butterfly!? We were just talking about pulling hair together! I feel betrayed in a small box.
I’m just doing my part. Sorry luv.
Or…
Chitin.
(kai-tin)
The New York Public Library has Dial 917-ASK-NYPL (917-275-6975) to connect with librarians via phone Monday through Saturday from 10 AM to 6 PM. Available in English and español.
In fact I would wager almost any library would work for this. Librarians are by and large the most helpful and I judgmental people I have ever met. Every single interaction I’ve ever had with them has been positive.
But isn’t the whole point of that to avoid the “oh sweetie…”?
More to avoid the “oh sweetie” from people you know and care about.
Though I wonder how much you could trust the pronunciation if they outsourced the call center to an English-speaking third-world country like Alabama.
I speak spanish and one of the first cultural shocks I had was when I as a kid saw an episode of some sitcom (can’t remember) and there where talks of a “spelling bee” a contest to see who could spell correctly, that was so alien to at the time because in spanish there are just a few words that are tricky, because they have some silent H or a P at the beginning but then I started to learn english and it all made sense.
“English: if you can spell our words we’ll literally give you a fucking trophy and a scholarship”
We have bees, and we also have really long, ancient words that no one uses or remembers like pulchritudinous, which means physical beauty or Myrmecophilous which is fond of ants.
In finnish it’s the same and I’ve even had the same experience! We write almost completely phonetically so something like “spelling bee” is an insane thought. English writing system is basically abstract at this point and you just need to learn to pronounce each individual word lmao
The “c” in Pacific Ocean is pronounced 3 different ways.
Great - now I have another fun fact to annoy my colleagues with.
Pasifis Osun
Pakifik Okun
Pashifish Oshun
Just the fact that we can have a whole contest around the idea, and that there’s still room for words contestants haven’t seen before, illustrates just how insane English is.
English isn’t really a language. It’s at least three languages in a trench coat.
it’s wild to think that we embed miniature copies of Greek and Latin into English, for doing science and medicine. not just words, I mean a functional grammar fully stocked with roots and morphemes. we just make words like “holographic,” “isotope” and “synesthesia” (Greek), “accelerometer”, “prefabricated” and “refrigerator” (Latin), or hybrids (“television”, “microscope.”)
English is such a wonderful mutt of a language.
Fuck hybrids that mix greek and latin…
The worst offender: Decathlon, Greek sports in a Greek event (Olympics) and they use DECA! /s
Greetings from a Norwegian. (Some words of Norse origin, mostly those of pre Norman origin)
That’s what happens when you mash several languages together. A lot of English terms have a Latin-derived and Germanic-derived word meaning the same thing.
French spelling is a total shitshow too. what’s their excuse? Spanish and Italian turned out normal.
It’s called a dictionary, and they’ve been doing it for literally years at this point.
You can live your life to the fullest even if you don’t know phonetic alphabet
You don’t need to. The Free Dictionary has buttons on every word that speak the word in either US or UK English
Cool, my book doesn’t have that though!
Better call the hotline then!
Can you, though? Can you really?
A is for Alpha
B is for Balthazor
C is for Cappa
D is for Daphne
E is for Ether
F is for Alfalfa
The pronunciation guide of a dictionary is pretty fuckin esoteric at this point.
I was educated in the 80s and they still didn’t teach us how to pronounce words using the dictionary.
Same with the 80s. My Gramma who was a school teacher in 1933 taught me out of a 100 yr old dictionary. In all the times I’ve moved, I’ve managed to hold onto that huge, leather-bound book.
Wholesome :)
I rejected those lessons after they dropped this on my desk:
Still won’t help if your locality uses a different pronunciation.
*literally hundreds of years
The American Phonetic Dic-tionary of the English Language, edited by Dan S. Smalley, Cincinnati, 1855, has a unique interest. The oldest English dictionary to be printed in a “phonetic” alphabet
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/00335634209380758?needAccess=true
oh man, asking a kid in this era to look something up in the dictionary is quite the challenge.
In this book? why? why not just look it up online?
BECAUSE GODDAMNIT REASONS AND SHIT
The dictionary is now online and often includes an audio recording of the word or phrase of interest. Online is not always better than physical, but this is one of the cases where it is likely better. If you’re suggesting a less convenient method of doing something, it makes sense to request a reason. In this case I have to agree with the kids.
Knowing the international phonetic alphabet is still sometimes useful, when you have a word without an audio pronunciation or trying to transcribe a particular pronunciation
If you’re suggesting a less convenient method of doing something, it makes sense to request a reason. In this case I have to agree with the kids.
reasons and shit: Today’s generation - fortunately in many ways - hasn’t developed the skills needed to look something up. While you can mirror wikipedia and we generally always have access mostly - it’s still a valuable skill. ESPECIALLY now that AI is crufting up search results rapidly.
Now, if you’re visiting a dedicated dictionary site, well then you just have to deal with ads and cruft. None of that in Websters dead tree edition.
Do these always justify a trip to the bookshelf? Nah. But it is a useful thing to do a few times a month so they have experience seeking sources of information that aren’t digital.
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I had the misfortune of pronouncing rapping as raping in front of the class when I was 13
“My favorite rapper is Puff Daddy”
Like the post I saw once where a woman wrote she raped her little sister to help her sleep (with a picture of a baby wrapped in a blanket).
Chitin.
Ichor.
Ick urr
KY-tin
I pronounced Tagalog tag-uh-log for years until I met my Filipino wife. Tuh-gah-log.
Yeah, that’s my favorite girl scout cookie!
My buddy says “chasm” with a soft ch. We’ve tried to correct him. He doesn’t hear us. He also pronounces “tome” like “tomb”.
We play DnD together if anyone was wondering why these words would come up with any regularity.
PTSD flashback to my ESL little self always mispronouncing choir after they told me to join to practice my English.
Another funny story! An ex of mine was an exchange student in Germany (from Canada) when she was a high schooler, and she attended a children’s choir concert where they sang “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off”, and in the line “you say tomato, I say tomato”, they pronounced “tomato” the same way each time.
I’ve heard “chasm” pronounced as both “chaz-um” and “kaz-um”
The correct one is “kaz-um,” just like “chaos” isn’t “chay-oss.”
I total believe you’re not in a weird magic cult winks
Does he say “chaos” with a soft “ch” as well?
He also pronounces “tome” like “tomb”
My roommate in college did that. Drove me nuts, but the worst was that he rhymed “epitome” with “tome.”
Social studies teacher in high school dinged me 5 points for pronouncing epitome as epi-tome. Ended up with 95/100 but it’s the principle of the matter.
I don’t agree with that decision. Unless you had been specifically taught the proper pronunciation previously and still mispronounced it, the teacher should have just corrected you and moved on.
No, his chaos is thankfully chaos. It would be kind of fitting if it weren’t, though.
“kazum” is acceptable in my book. “Toom” is strange for a book though.
Just use the Free Dictionary
Press the little buttons on top:
Ahh, simplified and correct.
Then can we force SciFi audiobook narrators to use it?
Ray Porter, I love you to fucking death, but you kill me sometimes…
I loved The Expanse, and Jefferson Mays is amazing
But “jimbals” drove me crazy
For Ray Porter, his inability to pronounce “Archimedes” was bad enough they made him go back and re-record a book.
Oh god yes the jimbles on Mays, I had forgotten about that, every time he would say that my brain would go “the what?” It would suck me right out of immersion every damn time.
Having not read this (yet! It’s planned) what is the word and how is supposed to be pronounced?
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/gimbal
There’s audio for us and UK here.
Hard-g; “gimbals” see “gimbal lock”
Is this one of those gif - jiff type situations?
I don’t know what the etymology of “gimbal” is…
Looks like the precursor words all use soft-g, and wiktionary even says soft-g is an allowed pronunciation.
So, yes, I think.
Benefit of living in Australia is that every word is pronounced wrong so it doesn’t matter how you say it.
Can’t even pronounce our second largest city right lol. Melbourne became Melbin
Does that mean the game on PS4 is Bloodbin in Australia?
No because that would be logically consistent
Dearest creature in creation Studying English pronunciation, I will teach you in my verse Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse.
I will keep you, Susy, busy, Make your head with heat grow dizzy; Tear in eye, your dress you’ll tear; Queer, fair seer, hear my prayer.
Pray, console your loving poet, Make my coat look new, dear, sew it! Just compare heart, hear and heard, Dies and diet, lord and word.
Sword and sward, retain and Britain (Mind the latter how it’s written). Made has not the sound of bade, Say-said, pay-paid, laid but plaid.
Now I surely will not plague you With such words as vague and ague, But be careful how you speak, Say: gush, bush, steak, streak, break, bleak ,
Previous, precious, fuchsia, via Recipe, pipe, studding-sail, choir; Woven, oven, how and low, Script, receipt, shoe, poem, toe.
Say, expecting fraud and trickery: Daughter, laughter and Terpsichore, Branch, ranch, measles, topsails, aisles, Missiles, similes, reviles.
Wholly, holly, signal, signing, Same, examining, but mining, Scholar, vicar, and cigar, Solar, mica, war and far.
From “desire”: desirable-admirable from “admire”, Lumber, plumber, bier, but brier, Topsham, brougham, renown, but known, Knowledge, done, lone, gone, none, tone,
One, anemone, Balmoral, Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel. Gertrude, German, wind and wind, Beau, kind, kindred, queue, mankind,
Tortoise, turquoise, chamois-leather, Reading, Reading, heathen, heather. This phonetic labyrinth Gives moss, gross, brook, brooch, ninth, plinth.
Have you ever yet endeavoured To pronounce revered and severed, Demon, lemon, ghoul, foul, soul, Peter, petrol and patrol?
Billet does not end like ballet; Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet. Blood and flood are not like food, Nor is mould like should and would.
Banquet is not nearly parquet, Which exactly rhymes with khaki. Discount, viscount, load and broad, Toward, to forward, to reward,
Ricocheted and crocheting, croquet? Right! Your pronunciation’s OK. Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve, Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Is your r correct in higher? Keats asserts it rhymes Thalia. Hugh, but hug, and hood, but hoot, Buoyant, minute, but minute.
Say abscission with precision, Now: position and transition; Would it tally with my rhyme If I mentioned paradigm?
Twopence, threepence, tease are easy, But cease, crease, grease and greasy? Cornice, nice, valise, revise, Rabies, but lullabies.
Of such puzzling words as nauseous, Rhyming well with cautious, tortious, You’ll envelop lists, I hope, In a linen envelope.
Would you like some more? You’ll have it! Affidavit, David, davit. To abjure, to perjure. Sheik Does not sound like Czech but ache.
Liberty, library, heave and heaven, Rachel, loch, moustache, eleven. We say hallowed, but allowed, People, leopard, towed but vowed.
Mark the difference, moreover, Between mover, plover, Dover. Leeches, breeches, wise, precise, Chalice, but police and lice,
Camel, constable, unstable, Principle, disciple, label. Petal, penal, and canal, Wait, surmise, plait, promise, pal,
Suit, suite, ruin. Circuit, conduit Rhyme with “shirk it” and “beyond it”, But it is not hard to tell Why it’s pall, mall, but Pall Mall.
Muscle, muscular, gaol, iron, Timber, climber, bullion, lion, Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair, Senator, spectator, mayor,
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour Has the a of drachm and hammer. Pussy, hussy and possess, Desert, but desert, address.
Golf, wolf, countenance, lieutenants Hoist in lieu of flags left pennants. Courier, courtier, tomb, bomb, comb, Cow, but Cowper, some and home.
“Solder, soldier! Blood is thicker”, Quoth he, “than liqueur or liquor”, Making, it is sad but true, In bravado, much ado.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger, Neither does devour with clangour. Pilot, pivot, gaunt, but aunt, Font, front, wont, want, grand and grant.
Arsenic, specific, scenic, Relic, rhetoric, hygienic. Gooseberry, goose, and close, but close, Paradise, rise, rose, and dose.
Say inveigh, neigh, but inveigle, Make the latter rhyme with eagle. Mind! Meandering but mean, Valentine and magazine.
And I bet you, dear, a penny, You say mani-(fold) like many, Which is wrong. Say rapier, pier, Tier (one who ties), but tier.
Arch, archangel; pray, does erring Rhyme with herring or with stirring? Prison, bison, treasure trove, Treason, hover, cover, cove,
Perseverance, severance. Ribald Rhymes (but piebald doesn’t) with nibbled. Phaeton, paean, gnat, ghat, gnaw, Lien, psychic, shone, bone, pshaw.
Don’t be down, my own, but rough it, And distinguish buffet, buffet; Brood, stood, roof, rook, school, wool, boon, Worcester, Boleyn, to impugn.
Say in sounds correct and sterling Hearse, hear, hearken, year and yearling. Evil, devil, mezzotint, Mind the z! (A gentle hint.)
Now you need not pay attention To such sounds as I don’t mention, Sounds like pores, pause, pours and paws, Rhyming with the pronoun yours;
Nor are proper names included, Though I often heard, as you did, Funny rhymes to unicorn, Yes, you know them, Vaughan and Strachan.
No, my maiden, coy and comely, I don’t want to speak of Cholmondeley. No. Yet Froude compared with proud Is no better than McLeod.
But mind trivial and vial, Tripod, menial, denial, Troll and trolley, realm and ream, Schedule, mischief, schism, and scheme.
Argil, gill, Argyll, gill. Surely May be made to rhyme with Raleigh, But you’re not supposed to say Piquet rhymes with sobriquet.
Had this invalid invalid Worthless documents? How pallid, How uncouth he, couchant, looked, When for Portsmouth I had booked!
Zeus, Thebes, Thales, Aphrodite, Paramour, enamoured, flighty, Episodes, antipodes, Acquiesce, and obsequies.
Please don’t monkey with the geyser, Don’t peel 'taters with my razor, Rather say in accents pure: Nature, stature and mature.
Pious, impious, limb, climb, glumly, Worsted, worsted, crumbly, dumbly, Conquer, conquest, vase, phase, fan, Wan, sedan and artisan.
The th will surely trouble you More than r, ch or w. Say then these phonetic gems: Thomas, thyme, Theresa, Thames.
Thompson, Chatham, Waltham, Streatham, There are more but I forget 'em- Wait! I’ve got it: Anthony, Lighten your anxiety.
The archaic word albeit Does not rhyme with eight-you see it; With and forthwith, one has voice, One has not, you make your choice.
Shoes, goes, does *. Now first say: finger; Then say: singer, ginger, linger. Real, zeal, mauve, gauze and gauge, Marriage, foliage, mirage, age,
Hero, heron, query, very, Parry, tarry fury, bury, Dost, lost, post, and doth, cloth, loth, Job, Job, blossom, bosom, oath.
Faugh, oppugnant, keen oppugners, Bowing, bowing, banjo-tuners Holm you know, but noes, canoes, Puisne, truism, use, to use?
Though the difference seems little, We say actual, but victual, Seat, sweat, chaste, caste, Leigh, eight, height, Put, nut, granite, and unite.
Reefer does not rhyme with deafer, Feoffer does, and zephyr, heifer. Dull, bull, Geoffrey, George, ate, late, Hint, pint, senate, but sedate.
Gaelic, Arabic, pacific, Science, conscience, scientific; Tour, but our, dour, succour, four, Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Say manoeuvre, yacht and vomit, Next omit, which differs from it Bona fide, alibi Gyrate, dowry and awry.
Sea, idea, guinea, area, Psalm, Maria, but malaria. Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean, Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian, Dandelion with battalion, Rally with ally; yea, ye, Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, key, quay!
Say aver, but ever, fever, Neither, leisure, skein, receiver. Never guess-it is not safe, We say calves, valves, half, but Ralf.
Starry, granary, canary, Crevice, but device, and eyrie, Face, but preface, then grimace, Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Bass, large, target, gin, give, verging, Ought, oust, joust, and scour, but scourging; Ear, but earn; and ere and tear Do not rhyme with here but heir.
Mind the o of off and often Which may be pronounced as orphan, With the sound of saw and sauce; Also soft, lost, cloth and cross.
Pudding, puddle, putting. Putting? Yes: at golf it rhymes with shutting. Respite, spite, consent, resent. Liable, but Parliament.
Seven is right, but so is even, Hyphen, roughen, nephew, Stephen, Monkey, donkey, clerk and jerk, Asp, grasp, wasp, demesne, cork, work.
A of valour, vapid vapour, S of news (compare newspaper), G of gibbet, gibbon, gist, I of antichrist and grist,
Differ like diverse and divers, Rivers, strivers, shivers, fivers. Once, but nonce, toll, doll, but roll, Polish, Polish, poll and poll.
Pronunciation-think of Psyche!- Is a paling, stout and spiky. Won’t it make you lose your wits Writing groats and saying “grits”?
It’s a dark abyss or tunnel Strewn with stones like rowlock, gunwale, Islington, and Isle of Wight, Housewife, verdict and indict.
Don’t you think so, reader, rather, Saying lather, bather, father? Finally, which rhymes with enough, Though, through, bough, cough, hough, sough, tough??
Hiccough has the sound of sup… My advice is: GIVE IT UP!
I’ve looked it up a bunch of times and I still don’t know if potable is “POTE-ah-bull” or “POT-ah-bull”
Potent Potables – from (SNL’s) Celebrity Jeopardy.
The first one, as it comes from the Latin “potare,” “to drink.” Sure, we could use “drinkable” instead, but too many people would understand how to say it and what it meant.
what about pote-ah-bull
That is what I was going for with my first option, I am just bad at phonics
I say it the first way. I’ll fight anyone who says otherwise.
it’s /ˈpoːdəbl/ in American English anyway.
