Here “bus” is pronounced like “buzz” and I didn’t realise it was weird until I went down to Devon and it was a dead giveaway that I’m a Brummie lol
Charlottesville Virginia has a road spelled Rio but locals pronounce it with a long I (rhy-oh). Bonus points, the name originated from the road being route 10, marked with signs that said R10, which eventually became Rio.
NY state has a town named Chili that is pronounced—I kid you not—with two long I’s. “Chai-lai”
There’s also a town named Charlotte pronounced “shar-LOT”.
I feel like these are tests to detect out-of-towners.
It’s “Zed” not “Zee”
Fellow member of the zed crowd!! When someone says “zee” to mean zed it often sounds like they’re saying the letter c lol
Everyone knows the song goes “ex, why, zed. Now I know my ABCs, next time won’t you sing with med”
The song was written by an American so understandable that they’d do it with the wrong pronunciation.
wait that’s supposed to rhyme with the Z? It rhymes with the ‘me’ so it seems like it doesn’t need to rhyme with the Z
I said I know my ABCs, I didn’t say I know how to structure children’s songs. Next you’re going to expect me to be able to work AND be sober at the same time, SHEESH!
Crayon: crown
Caramel: CAR-mul
Pecan: peh-CAWN
So you pronounce crayon like a kings hat/ tooth repair?
Yes. It’s not very common and seems to occur where regional differences merge.
True, I’m just used to hearing either Cray-on or Cran (like cranberries)
Also I know I struggle with colors sometimes… But I don’t see green or yellow on that map, just red and blue… Is that just me haha
Houston the city and Houston the street.
Melbourne.
Now most will read that and go Mel bourn. But in Australia we say Mel Bin.
A really easy way to tell if someone isn’t an Aussie while there.
Old gen x Australian here, and pretty much everybody I know pronounces it Mel burn.
Boston accents are funny. When my mother says, “where are the cah-keys”. My dad and I always say, “your car keys or khakis?”
The single syllable words “four” and “hour” are actually the two syllable words “fohwer” and “ower”.
The words “anything” and “nothing” are pronounced “owt” and “nowt”.
The word “the” is not pronounced “t’”, it is simply replaced with an unvoiced glottal stop. The word “t’” is thus, actually, short for “to the”.
E.g.
Goin’ t’ shop. Wan’ owt?
means
I’m going to the shop. Do you want anything?
We also pronounce “bus” as “buzz”, too.
We also use “was” and “were” the wrong way round and say “pants” instead of “trousers”. The rest of the country seems unaware of that last one, and will accuse you of talking American.
I pronounce Kraken phonetically - “krayken” - but the world seems to prefer “cracken”.
As I live in the south I hear my “how are you all doing” morphing into “howya’lldoin” and there’s nothing I can do to stop it
Try switching to “how dost ye doeth?”
How do you pronounce oil?
I can never tell if my partner says gem or Jim. She had a moment the other day listening to her dad and looked at me and said holy shit this is what I sound like to you. She hadnt seen him in a bit
Elemen-tary or documen-tary
The tary pronounced like Terry. Apparently this is unusual outside of this region.
So … how else would you say it ?
El a men tree
Doc you men tree
I also hear “el a men her ee” a lot.
I’ve noticed some people say “document-tree” now that I think about it.
Where I live it’s more like as you described but not quite “terrrry” but “Tuh-ree” ?
i doubt many people actually say it like the er in Terry. Deemphsized syllables like that tend to get the schwa.
Boston area doesn’t use “r”.
The famous: “Can’t pahk(park) your cah(car) in Havid(Harvard) Yad(yard)”.
Sorry for the IG link
Ha, yeah … can’t hear it.
MA has a bunch of weird ones. Worcester is pronounced Wooster. Haverhill is Haiveral. Gloucester is Glawster. Quincy is Quinzee.
It’s more Wusstah than Wooster in my experience.
I recently saw a video where a woman pronounced “drawer” as “draw”.
Was it 3x3Custom Tamar?
Carpentry guru Norm Abrams always says “draw” too. “Let’s see how the draws fit…”
In Australia they just straight-up spell it that way
What part? I have never heard an Australian pronounce it like that. Not even the bigans. Mostly people from Victoria but also plenty from NSW, SA, or WA.
In Canberra I worked with a few people who confused me with their talk of draws.
Do the British and Irish dialect quiz. It’s really interesting to find out what words you use and how you pronounce them pinpoint where you grew up and where your family is from. I’ve got a mixture of London, Midlands and Devon and it’s bang on!
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/02/15/upshot/british-irish-dialect-quiz.html
Paywall
I was able to do it without any sign in
Bavarians pronounce Chemie, China, Chlor, and others with CH starting, with a K! KEMIE, KINA, KLOR!
Bavarians there is so much go hate about you!
I was looking up Bavarian dialect terms and found “fesch” (attractive/stylish).
Vindication for Gretchen Wieners! “Das ist so fesch!”
We recently moved to a new area and there is a nearby town called Monticello. The locals all pronounce it mon-tee-sell-oh and will correct you if you say mon-teh-chel-oh. Doesn’t quite fit the question cause I think the locals are insane for that 😅
