They do seem to have a bee in their bonnets about "o," "u," and "ou" when in comes to spelling words like color or honor. Maybe they just have a surplus of vowels on the island and need to sprinkle them around a bit more freely than we do...

They do seem to have a bee in their bonnets about "o," "u," and "ou" when in comes to spelling words like color or honor. Maybe they just have a surplus of vowels on the island and need to sprinkle them around a bit more freely than we do...

I think webster and oxford were just upset with each other while they were standardizing spelling with their dictionaries

I think we need to bring back the "s" that looks like an "f" except without the crossbar.
Then add it to the end of words like "pronunciationf"

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Milton_paradise.jpg

Or to the middle of wordf like "Wilfhire".
(except without the crossbar)

I can't seem to get Tattoo out of my head this morning..."Boss, De Pot, De Pot!!!"

. By the way, an old friend from Alabama used to say he wasn't very good at spelling but he didn't have any trouble with his pronounciations! Just a redneck joke of course.
C. T.

And to throw another wrench into the redneck conversation....my dad used to call it Air-a-Depot

And to throw another wrench into the redneck conversation....my dad used to call it Air-a-Depot

That sounds sort of like the Italian pronunciation . . .
(like "frah-gee-lay" for fragile)

It's certainly much easier to say "Air Depot Road" 10 times real fast than it is to say "Toy Boat" 10 times real fast. Goooooooooo 9'ers!!!

Jim,
A quote I use often since my friendship with a Brit is "England and America are two countries divided by a common language". I thought for a long time it was from George Bernard Shaw, but apparently not. Oscar Wilde said "We really have everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language".
C. T.
They do seem to have a bee in their bonnets about "o," "u," and "ou" when in comes to spelling words like color or honor. Maybe they just have a surplus of vowels on the island and need to sprinkle them around a bit more freely than we do...

Zookeeper,
I talked to my London friend today and the way she says "pronunciation" sounds a lot like "pronounciations". That's her East London up bringing showing. I was wrong, they do say pronunciation. As well as aluminium, envisage, and many other funny things.
C. T.
I understand what you're saying except for one thing. There is no such word as "pronunciations" in the UK?

BBC: BBC Learning English | Pronunciation Tips (http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/progs/prog1.shtml)
British Library: Received Pronunciation (http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/case-studies/received-pronunciation/)
Oxford Dictionary: Pronunciation guide | Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com (http://oald8.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/pronunciation.html)

Not trying to be obstinate, just wondering what you meant?

Jim,
A quote I use often since my friendship with a Brit is "England and America are two countries divided by a common language". I thought for a long time it was from George Bernard Shaw, but apparently not. Oscar Wilde said "We really have everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language".
C. T.I first saw that line attributed to Churchill, but he was probably quoting someone else. He never did let fear of plagarism prevent him from using a good line when he came across one...

I'm sitting here smoking a Churchill (Baccarat, The Game, Dolce far Niente) and enjoying some CC neat, in a Bushmill's glass; and it just occurred to me that I invariably pronounce Home Depot (DEE-poh 100%) and vary my pronunciation of Air Depot (DEE-poh 72%, DEH-poh 28%). With a statistical error of 5% one way or the other.

There is a 10% chance that this could be a caution regarding smoking cigars and sipping Canadian whiskey at the same time.

On the other hand, it may be a reminder that even if I had a million dollars, I'd probably be enjoying the same little slices of life doing the same thing. =)

I thought of another pronunciation.

Deep Uh-Oh?

Waddya think?

Zookeeper,
I talked to my London friend today....
London, that's just south of Dibble, right?

I think it depends on rather or not you live in the orginal mile.

To-May-Toe or To-Mah-Toe; take your pick. Military usually pronounces it Depp-o and the rest of us say Deep-o...

That's funny you say that because I work on Tinker and do, in fact, say "dep-oh" when referring to work but Air Depot Blvd. has always been said "deep-oh".

Except Tecumseh is a proper name and Tay-cum-see is a mispronunciation of that

It depends which side of the river you On ...N or S :)

London, that's just south of Dibble, right?

Is that LAHN-dun or LUN-dahn? (DYE-bul or dib-BLAY?)

I didn't read through the entire thread, but did anyone mention that the common pronunciation of Boston's basketball team is incorrect? We may call them "SELL-ticks" over here, but over there it's "KELL-ticks."

You say "EE-thur," I say "AYE-thur..."

I didn't read through the entire thread, but did anyone mention that the common pronunciation of Boston's basketball team is incorrect? We may call them "SELL-ticks" over here, but over there it's "KELL-ticks."

The team is officially 'SEL-tick', both are accepted, in fact 'SEL-tick' has been used longer in english than 'KEL-tick'


The initial consonant of the English words Celt and Celtic can be realised either as /k/ or /s/ (that is, either hard or soft ⟨c⟩), both variants being recognised as "correct" in prescriptive usage by modern dictionaries.[17]

The English word originates in the 17th century, taken from the Celtæ of classical Latin. Until the mid 19th century, the sole pronunciation in English was /selt/ in keeping of the treatment of the letter ⟨c⟩ inherited by Middle English from Old French and Late Latin.

Beginning in the mid-19th century, Celtic revivalist and nationalist publications advocated imitating the pronunciation of classical Latin in the time of Julius Caesar, when Latin Celtæ was pronounced /keltai/.

An early example of this is a short article in a November 1857 issue of The Celt, a publication of the Irish Celtic Union.

"Of all the nations that have hitherto lived on the face of the earth, the English have the worst mode of pronouncing learned languages. This is admitted by the whole human race [...] This poor meagre sordid language resembles nothing so much as the hissing of serpents or geese. [...] The distinction which English writers are too stupid to notice, but which the Irish Grammarians are perpetually talking of, the distinction between broad and narrow vowels—governs the English language. [...] If we follow the unwritten law of the English we shall pronounce (Celt) Selt but Cæsar would pronounce it, Kaylt. Thus the reader may take which pronunciation he pleases. He may follow the rule of the Latin or the rule of the English language, and in either case be right."[18]
A guide to English pronunciation for Welsh speakers published in 1861 gives the alternative pronunciations "sel´tik, kel´tik" for the adjective Celtic.[19]

The pronunciation with /s/ remained standard throughout the 19th to early 20th century, but the variant with /k/ seems to have gained ground during the later 20th century, especially among "students of Celtic culture".[20] On the other hand, the /s/ pronunciation remains the most recognised form when it occurs in the names of sports teams, most notably Celtic Football Club and the Boston Celtics basketball team.

Snowman,
I had to copy/paste your comment about celtic to my friend in London, who was convinced that it had always been keltic. She's a retired head teacher (principal, used to be "headmistress/master"), so I didn't question her. She was surprised, and wanted me to ask the group how to pronounce a place located on the island of Anglesey in Wales. I have been there, in fact, I have a picture of me under the sign with the village name. The village name is "Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysilio gogogoch".
C. T.

The village name is "Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysilio gogogoch".
The prononunciation is either "HOME" or "That town where Billy lives."

Dubya61,
I'm not sure the natives could pronounce it. I like your choices. By the way, notice the space before "ogogogoch"? That's because something in this reply system won't let me type a word that long. I edited it three times and it still forces the space.
C. T.

Locals have called it "Depp-O" since the 60's...you can tell a non-local by this mistake in local pronunciation...

Snowman,
I had to copy/paste your comment about celtic to my friend in London, who was convinced that it had always been keltic. She's a retired head teacher (principal, used to be "headmistress/master"), so I didn't question her. She was surprised, and wanted me to ask the group how to pronounce a place located on the island of Anglesey in Wales. I have been there, in fact, I have a picture of me under the sign with the village name. The village name is "Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysilio gogogoch".
C. T.

My thoughts on hazarding a guess if I had no other context would be, a word that concatenated might be of German origin and what happened to all the vowels around eight letters in "pwllgw"

Snowman,
You have to understand that Welsh was not a written language till the 20th century. Great Britain required them to produce a written language and they didn't follow any of the "rules" as far as vowels. The letters "dd" are pronounced as an "f".
C. T.
My thoughts on hazarding a guess if I had no other context would be, a word that concatenated might be of German origin and what happened to all the vowels around eight letters in "pwllgw"

So far nobody has suggested the pronunciation:

Er De-put.

Growing up in Choctaw and with Midwest City as "our" shopping area we used Air Depp O quite often, and we knew it as a Boulevard and not a Road.

Well, the proper pronunciation is "DeePo" according to my Garmin GPS! She must be right since she is always so precise on all other street pronunciations. And of course if you use a GPS, you have probably heard her/him mangle quite a few street names.
C. T.

How come your Garmin refuses to recognize that it is a "Boulevard" rather than simply a "Road" . . . ? =)

RM,
You question the Garmin "godess"? A pox on you (not so) kind sir.
C. T.
How come your Garmin refuses to recognize that it is a "Boulevard" rather than simply a "Road" . . . ? =)

RM,
You question the Garmin "godess"? A pox on you (not so) kind sir.
C. T.

Dude. When you throw down a gauntlet like that you better be ready to deal with Gaia.
(or some lesser Neanderthalian/Scandiavian/Viking/SemiCelticDruidian Deities . . . and, if that ain't enough . . .
be prepared to deal with St. Patrick.
(insert The Big Voice Guy:
"He drove the snakes out of Ireland . . .
and He's lookin' fer sumpin' t' do." =)

So far nobody has suggested the pronunciation:

Er De-put.

Mebbe . . . "Derp Dee Poe"? =)

Deep-o.

How does Garmin pronounce Alex? The locals call it ELick.

Tritone,
The only way I know to find out is to find a road named "Alex" and set my Garmin to take me there. Entering a town name won't cause her (Garmin) to say the name.
C. T.
How does Garmin pronounce Alex? The locals call it ELick.

Thanks for the response. That would be hard to do; the roads around Alex have CS numbers and CR numbers. One east-west road has a local nickname "Alex Road" but I don't think that's an oficial name. On the rare occasion you hear Alex mentioned on the news the newsreaders not from around here pronounce it AL-ecks, the newsreaders who are more familiar with it pronounce it AL-eck, but the locals very decidedly call it EL-ick.

That goes along with CARnegie in Caddo county; back east they'd call it carNEGie. Of course, as mentioned above it's HObart in Oklahoma and hoBART in Indiana and Tasmania.

And don"t forget the big one, Miami, Miama in Oklahoma.
C. T.
Thanks for the response. That would be hard to do; the roads around Alex have CS numbers and CR numbers. One east-west road has a local nickname "Alex Road" but I don't think that's an oficial name. On the rare occasion you hear Alex mentioned on the news the newsreaders not from around here pronounce it AL-ecks, the newsreaders who are more familiar with it pronounce it AL-eck, but the locals very decidedly call it EL-ick.

That goes along with CARnegie in Caddo county; back east they'd call it carNEGie. Of course, as mentioned above it's HObart in Oklahoma and hoBART in Indiana and Tasmania.

How about Durant? LOL!

I pronounce it "der-rant" and it's also the pronunciation I hear the most down here, but the "doo-rant" pronunciation isn't uncommon. The original French spelling was DuRant, "doo-rahn."