>>Americans usually pronounce their English in a way which resembles English English almost perfectly, with some subtle differences. Here's a brief list.
last refreshed 07/27/2017 10:58:34 AM
word | pronounced as | comment |
---|---|---|
-gn- (in Italian names) | -gn- | never like "ny" in "new" - that would sound too Italian. I wish I knew how do they pronounce "gnocchi" :) |
911 | nine one one | the telephone number of emergency services, never pronounced as "nine-eleven", because one lady tried to find number eleven on her phone and thus lost precious time |
amphitheater | ample-theatre | also ampy-theatre |
bologna | baloney | the sausage |
chianti | chi-antie | never "kyanti", that would sound too Italian |
city | siddy, siddeh | almost everywhere, can't remember hearing a tee there |
clothes | close | |
colonel | kernel | OK, this is a British thing, from Spanish 'coronello'. Over time, they switched the spelling to Italian/French and pronunciation to Spanish (sort of). |
corpus delicti | core-puss deh-lec-tee | |
E. coli | ee-coal-eye | |
electricity | illektrisiti, illektrisutty | in all versions of 3-5-0-0 in "Hair" it's -sutty |
et cetera | eksetra | |
Eustachian | ewe-station | |
february | febewary | |
feudalism | foodalism | |
Fredericksburg | frejburg | |
harassment | harasmnt | so nobody would hear "her ass" in it |
Helene | huh-leen, heh-leen | |
karaoke | carry-okie | |
knesseth | kenneseth | English language makes one forget how to pronounce kn, gn, pn or ps in the beginning of the word, while being perfectly capable of saying them anywhere else. |
library | lie-berry | |
mobile | mowbl, moe-bile | Dylan sings "stuck inside a moebeel". Go figure. |
motorcycle | mowtisykle | so nobody would guess it has a motor? |
Newfoundland | nooflan | |
Nobel | nowbl | |
nuclear | nucular | made popular by Homer Simpson, then GWB. |
nucleus | noo-kew-luss | ok... not everyone says so, but many do. |
personality | person-ul-uh-tee | |
product | prodak | |
status quo | staytus cow | |
staunton | stanton | |
temperature | temp-a-chur | |
tracheotomy | tricky-otomy |