Saturday's Question Of The Day

Norachan

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Good morning.

I was having a debate yesterday about the correct way to pronounce scone. Do you say it to rhyme with gone or cone?

I say scone like gone, scone like cone sounds very posh to me.

We then started talking about pronunciations that really get on your nerves. For me it's hearing the word aLOOMinum, rather than aluMINium. I don't know why, but hearing aluminium pronounced with the stress in the wrong place is like hearing fingernails down a chalkboard.

How about you? What mispronounciations get on your nerves?
 

AbbysMom

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I definitely say it like cone. I think in my area of the country we do have a lot of odd pronunciations that would make others crazy.
 

Willowy

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Rhymes with cone. I didn't know there was another way to say scone, lol. Perhaps with a British accent it sounds different.

In the US, aluminum is spelled without the second i, it has to be pronounced a-LOOM-in-um, that's not incorrect. It the UK it's spelled aluminium so it should be said with the extra syllable.

For me it's nuclear pronounced nu-cu-ler. The spelling can't be any more obvious: nu-clear, 2 syllables! I don't know where the 3 syllable pronunciation got started but ugh. And besides, with that spelling if you wanted 3 syllables it should be nu-clee-er; there's no second u. Some dictionaries have bowed to popular demand and have nu-cu-ler as an alternate pronunciation. But no, please noooooo!!!!

Around here there are a lot of mispronounced place names. Of course names are pronounced however the owner wants so I can't say it's incorrect, but some of them grate on my ears. Pierre SD is pronounced Pier, not Pee-air. Beatrice NE is pronounced Be-AT-trice instead of BEE-uh-trice. Papillion NE is pronounced (and misspelled) Pa-pill-ee-on instead of Pap-ee-yon like it should be. Hayti SD is pronounced Hay-tie (equal emphasis) so you don't think it's Haiti ;).
 

neely

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I definitely say it like cone. I think in my area of the country we do have a lot of odd pronunciations that would make others crazy.
Ditto, I also say scone, as in rhymes with cone, never really heard a different pronunciation. But I absolutely love eating scones anyway you say them. :biggrin:

Regarding specific areas having different pronunciations probably the one that irritates me the most is Chicago, my home town. We say, Chi-caw-go, Not Chi-cog-o. :wink:
 
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DreamerRose

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I say scone rhymes with cone. Never heard it pronounced any other way. And alu-MIN-ium is a British thing; it's never pronounced that way in America.

Some place names in the States are pronounced in different ways by the state. Here in Illinois, Versailles is Ver-sales. Concord in North Carolina is Con-cord, not like Con-cerd in Massachusetts.

Grammar errors bother me more than pronunciation - like "lay down" instead of "lie down" and "snuck" instead of "sneaked." Chrome just told me "snuck" isn't a word. Yay!
 

denice

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Rhymes with cone, that's the only way I have heard it pronounced in the U.S. They are a fairly new thing here, at least in many parts of the U.S.
 

Kieka

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Another vote for cones in the US.

I went to speech therapy as a kid so I tend to pronounce things more phonetically. Apparently buttons and pillow are two that other people find amusing. My ex used to find reasons to get me to say them. Which doesn't bother me; I honestly don't hear I say them differently. I know with some words I draw them out longer and people sre usually suprised I am native Californian because my accent is slightly different (although I talk just as fast).

Good news with phonetically enouncing words is I usually say things right even if I haven't heard them before, at least in English, from seeing them. I also have an easier time spelling but it does make me come across a little more posh at times. Bad news is it makes it a challenege to pronounce things in other languages *if* I see the spelling. My brain reads it in English even though it isn't. If I don't see the spelling I can usually duplicate it verbally.
 

jennifurr

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I really don't like when "aunt" is pronounced "ont", "calm" is pronounced "colm", and "sorry" is pronounced "soary"
 

sivyaleah

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Another vote for rhymes with cone.
I love scones with jam and clotted cream. It's just hard to find a good scone for some reason.
 

jcat

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To me, "scone" rhymes with "cone". I taught English as a Second Language for over three decades, and one thing I learned was that there can be a big difference in pronouncing certain words, often depending on whether it's British, American, Canadian or Aussie English. The faculty was a pretty mixed bag, and most of us got into the habit of giving several variations of words like "aunt", "out", "leisure", "schedule", etc.. I'd tell the kids, "I pronounce it this way, but Mr./Ms.... would say ...". That always got a few laughs.
 
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Norachan

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I guess scone/cone must be the standard way of saying it in the US. It sounds very posh to me.

I wonder what the other Brits think? @mservant Columbine Columbine ?

As I'm from the South West of England I'm a master of the glottal stop. I have my scones with bu'er rather than butter. I'm sure that must sound very strange to some.

;)
 

scraggles

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Sivyaleah, you're opening up the other cone gone scone debate of whether you spread the cream or the jam on first..!
 

rubysmama

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Scone rhymes with cone here too.

I had to learn "American" once when my job involved dealing with companies in Chicago. It took forever to learn to say "zee" instead of "zed" for the letter "z", otherwise people had no idea what I was saying.

And for some reason folks around here pronounce Chicago as "Chi-car-go", so I had to relearn that pronunciation too.

Others I've heard are route pronounced as "root", but maybe that's just a "Canadianism" like us saying "a-boot" for "about", which, oddly, I don't. :biggrin:

Also around here, folks pronounce kilometre as "kil-om-it-er", however the media always pronounces it as "kil-o-mee-ter".

Then there's spelling... for example, kilometre is coming up as misspelled, and wants an "er" at the end, not "re". Then, there's the Canadian/British inclusion of "u" in colour, honour, etc. And though few people write cheques anymore, Canadians never wrote "checks". :D
 

micknsnicks2mom

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no mispronunciations get on my nerves, but i find nuclear pronounced as nu-cu-lar humorous. it reminds me of...wasn't it former President George W. Bush that pronounced it as nu-cu-lar...?

here -- Nucular - Wikipedia it turns out that a handful of other US Presidents have pronounced it as nu-cu-lar.
 

AbbysMom

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And besides, with that spelling if you wanted 3 syllables it should be nu-clee-er;
I say nu-clee-er :lol:
Not Chi-cog-o
That's how I say it. :lol:
I really don't like when "aunt" is pronounced "ont"
That's how I say it. :lol:
Others I've heard are route pronounced as "root",
That's how I say it. :lol:


I went to college about 15 minutes from here and people made fun of my accent. :lol: My little corner of Massachusetts definitely has odd pronunciations. I was in Maine once when a waiter asked me where in the world I was from. :lol: On the same token I have been on vacation and have had people tell me exactly where I live based on my accent.
 

Freedom

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My Mum was born and raised in England, came to the States when she was in her 20's, met my Dad here. So I grew up with all sorts of spellings and pronounciations which were British, and had to be corrected lol.

I found this article: Survey reveals ‘correct’ way to pronounce scone regarding the "scone" issue. In general:
"The poll found that those living in the north of England and in Scotland overwhelmingly use the “gone” pronunciation, while those in the Midlands and London were significantly more likely to go with the “bone” option."

This made me laugh:
"According to a new YouGov poll, the majority of Britons – 51 per cent, to be precise – pronounce it to rhyme with “gone,” while just 42 per cent came down on the side of rhyming with "bone".

Three per cent of respondents said they didn’t know, while the remaining three per cent said they pronounced it in another way entirely.


Sadly they survey didn’t record what this mysterious other way of pronouncing scone might be." Emphasis added by me.

Spelling issues I had included: color / colour, parlor / parlour, harbor/ harbour, theater/theatre, caliber/ calibre, center / center, fiber / fiber, licence / license, well you get the idea. And Brits stick to the Latin derivative for words like foetal and aeon while in the States we spell it fetal and eon.

Pronunciations included: VItimin / vITimin, SKEDule / SHEDule (schedule), and others.

This link makes for a VERY INTERESTING read on this topic! American and British English spelling differences - Wikipedia

And, I have never heard "nuclear" pronounced as just TWO syllables! I say "nu-clee-ar" and hate "nucular" like our former President would say it.
 

Columbine

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I guess scone/cone must be the standard way of saying it in the US. It sounds very posh to me.

I wonder what the other Brits think? @mservant Columbine Columbine ?

As I'm from the South West of England I'm a master of the glottal stop. I have my scones with bu'er rather than butter. I'm sure that must sound very strange to some.

;)
Oddly enough, I use either pronunciation for scone :lol: I probably use the 'cone' version more though. Probably comes from growing up in London but spending my later teenage years and most of my adult life in Yorkshire!

Edit - just looked it up. According to the Oxford English Dictionary (the standard in the UK), both pronunciations are equally correct :p

LOADS of pronunciations/'misspellings' (i.e. American English - sorry everyone :paperbag:) drive me absolutely crazy - way too many to list :rolleyes: :lol: Certainly the spelling side of things likely comes in part from studying Latin for years, and being fascinated with language roots and how they evolve:nerd::read:
 
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cheeser

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I'm a Southern gal, and with my accent, I'm hardly in a position to pass judgment on the way other people pronounce certain words. :wink:

But I do get tickled when I hear someone pronounce 'coupon' as 'Q-pon,' instead of 'KOO-pon.' I can still hear my high school Senior English teacher scream, "There is no Q in coupon!" :lol:
 
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