Wheel of Fortune THIS | Page 2 | Golden Skate

Wheel of Fortune THIS

Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Here's an interesting discussion of "ing" versus "in." According to this scholar, the historically correct pronumnciation is "in." "Ing" later came into vogue under the influence of spelling.

In the early part of the Twentieth Century the British upper crust dropped the g as a class affectation, while hoi polloi said "ing." (American actors trying to fake a British upper class accent still do this. ::) )

http://www.languagehat.com/archives/003514.php

Coyote Chris said:
•You are not eligible to appear on Wheel of Fortune if you have appeared on another game show, dating-relationship show or reality show in the last year or three game shows, dating-relationship shows or reality shows in the last ten years.

The former governor of Michigan, Jennifer Granholm, got her start in show business by appearing on the Dating Game. She parlayed the experience into a political career. :)
 

CoyoteChris

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 4, 2004
I am going to watch (record it) tonight.....see who advertises on it....
I wonder how many folk on this forum can pronounce the following phrase correctly?
"Seven orangutans a' swinging"
:)
Thanks, Mathman...interesting...
Chris who likes the spelling of Lewis and Clark
Here's an interesting discussion of "ing" versus "in." According to this scholar, the historically correct pronumnciation is "in." "Ing" later came into vogue under the influence of spelling.

In the early part of the Twentieth Century the British upper crust dropped the g as a class affectation, while hoi polloi said "ing." (American actors trying to fake a British upper class accent still do this. ::) )

http://www.languagehat.com/archives/003514.php



The former governor of Michigan, Jennifer Granholm, got her start in show business by appearing on the Dating Game. She parlayed the experience into a political career. :)
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
I've heard "orangutan" pronounced with a g at the end. Never say it that way myself; don't know whether I'm right or wrong. I do know that "orangutan" means "old man" in some Indonesian language, for the obvious reason that this ape looks so close to human.

Very interesting about the final /g/, Math. I remember in the earliest Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, Dorothy Sayers reproduced Wimsey's speech by dropping the letter g at the end of the verb. (Whose Body? is an example.) She used less "bright young thing" dialect in the later, deeper books.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
^ Very cool! I just looked up "orangutan" and learned the following. (Of course you did, Mathman. :) ) It seems that Americans could not resist the temptation of pronouncing this exotic word so that the second part rhymes with the first. This became so prevalent that writers of dictionaries were first forced to list both pronunciations, then later to list "orangutang" as an alternate spelling.

People from Long Island say "Long Gisland." Wait, I don't mean that they pronounce the s, just that they put an extra G at the beginning of Island. :)

[Edited to add] By the way Chris, how do you pronounce Coyote? Here are four different ways, including the interesting British variation where the first syllable is pronounce "Coy" (of all things! :) ) instead of Ki.

http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=coyote&submit=Submit
 
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Joined
Aug 16, 2009
The Brits also say jag-you-ar, not jag-war the way we Americans do. No kidding! I guess they feel entitled, since they have the car if not the animal. They also say Don Joo-an rather than the more authentic Don Hwan for Don Juan. I know this because that's how the BBC announcer used to talk about the Richard Strauss tone poem of that name. You know; the companion piece to "Don Quixx-oat," the British pronunciation for Don Quixote. (Well, the French say Don Kee-shott, but then I think they spell it differently.)

In the north of England, they also pronounce the g in long. In fact, there's a joke phrase "King Arthur rode around Long Island singing a song," and a friend of mine from Lancashire says it the same way a Long Islander would.

So, Math, does this mean I am pronouncing orangutan the preferred way? It does seem parallel to other Indonesian words like rambutan (a fruit) and Kalimantan (their name for the island we call Borneo). so I made that assumption.

I love this thread!
 
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dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
While we are doing the mysteries of pronounciation, let me tell you of our local little mystery.

The city across the river from my town, Groton, CT, is called New London, and the founders that named it New London, named the small tidal river next to it the Thames River. It was named in 1646.

In England, the Thames River next to the original city of London is pronounced without the "h" Temz.

Our river is pronounced Thames, to rhyme with James.

My town, Groton, CT, is named after the town the founder John Winthrop Jr, of New London, was born in, Groton, England in Suffolk

Groton, CT is pronounced to rhyme with rotten.

There is also a Groton, MA, also named to honor the Winthrop family and a Groton, VT named after one of the other 2 Grotons.

People who live is one or another of the Groton's say the other is pronounced Grow-ton.

Now at least one web explanation of the Thames pronounciation is that people in 1646 pronounced it like the spelling. However, people in CT in 1646 didn't really spell in any regular way. My ancestors who lived here at the time, spent a significant amount of time worrying whether to spell their last name Miner or Minor. The explanation I was taught in Groton as a child was that some one of the early King George's couldn't pronounce Thames properly and pronounced it Temz, and therefore everyone else in England just followed along. Because our Thames' name predated King George, and no one here could hear King George speak, it stayed "Thames".

If it helps, the native accent here (which almost no one has any more) sounds a lot like people from Devonshire, England.
Whit Davis, seen here, has the authentic accent for the area:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyzUSzlFBZ0
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Local pronunciations of place names are cool. Michigan has a town named Lake Orion, pronounced OR-yun. It is Huron county, pronounced the same as urine. An little farther north is the Mackinac (mackinaw) bridge near Sault (Soo) Ste Marie. There is a street in Detroit named Goethe -- pronounced Go-eethie. :)
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
And a friend of mine comes from Lima, Ohio. It was clearly named after Lima, Peru, pronounced Lee-ma, but in Ohio it's Lie-ma, long i sound.

Doris, I think that sounds right about the Thames. The first Georges were from Hanover, Germany, and I think I read that George I didn't even bother to learn English at all. The /th/ sound really doesn't exist in German. A lot of American words and names kept the old pronunciations after British English moved on a separate path. One good example is the /er/ sound in clerk and derby. We pronounce them with the same vowel sound as bird. The Brits say "clark" and "darby." (And if you slide that pronunciation in your mind, you can almost hear how it drifted from /ir/ to /ar/--think of how an Irish person would say it, with a bit of a scoop to it.)

I didn't know about Lake Orion, Math. One wonders whether it got tangled with the pronunciation of "Huron" itself somewhere during its evolution. I think Americans tend to stress the first syllable in words. I am an example: as I read the Narnia books growing up, I pronounced the kingdom of Calormen as CAL-ormen. It just sounded right to me, and who did I ever talk to who read Narnia with the fervor I did? Recently I heard a CD of a wonderful radio production of The Horse and His Boy, one of the books in the series. The introduction was presented by Douglas Gresham, C.S. Lewis's stepson, and presumably he knew how Lewis envisioned the pronunciation. In this production, the narrator and all the characters pronounce the name ka-LOR-men, stress on the second syllable. I will probably continue to think of the name in my style, because I prefer the sound. Hey, I speak it with an accent.
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
Love them!

In fact, there was a flatlander named Jack McMullen who decided to use his money to buy himself the Republican nomination for the Vermont Senate seat.

He was defeated by his inability to pronounce the names of Vermont towns and the wicked good humor of Vt farmer Fred Tuttle.

Vermont debates are run by Vt public radio and the rules allow the candidates to ask questions of each other. When it came time for Fred to question McNullen, this is more or less what he asked him:

Fred:
Hokay, how would you pronounce B A R R E (spelling it out)?
McMullen:
Bar
Fred:
Nup. Barry. And now how would you pronounce C A L A I S?
Macmullen: Callay!
Fred:
Nup. Callus. And how would you pronounce C H A R L O T T E?
McNullen: SHARlet.
Fred:
Nup: sha LOT. Finally, how many teats are there on a cow?
McMullen: 6
Fred, Nup, 4. And you mean to tell me that when you can't even pronounce three of Vermont's largest towns, and don't even know how many teats there are on a cow, that you would presume to run for the job of Senator for Vermont?

Fred won the nomination..and then said that he would himself be voting for his good friend, the incumbent Democrat, Senator Pat Leahy.
 
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Scrufflet

Final Flight
Joined
Mar 1, 2010
What an unexpectedly enjoyable thread! I worked with people from many different countries at a college where I assisted new Canadians. Iranians, Jamaicans, Polish, Chileans, etc. What a time they would have had with Pat and Vanna! My husband, a Scot, works with Chinese, Korean, Afghanis, Somalis, etc. How would they fare?
Bringing in figure skaters to this discussion, many years ago, Canada had a pairs team, Michelle Menzies and Jean Michel Bombardier. I was fine with his name but hers I pronounced Men-zees, as did the tv commentators. My husband snorted disapproval and told me that it was an old Scottish name, pronounces Ming-iss! He then corrected every CBC announcer afterwards.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Here’s a good phrase for Wheel of Fortune: Do you all want Worcestershire sauce on your chitterlings?

Do y’all want wuss-t’-shr sauce on your chitlins?

(Better: Want wuss-t’-shr sauce on y’all chitlins?)

Olympia said:
And a friend of mine comes from Lima, Ohio. It was clearly named after Lima, Peru, pronounced Lee-ma, but in Ohio it's Lie-ma, long i sound.

That's where Glee takes place, right? :)

Here is what I know about Lie-ma Ohio. If you want to take the Amtrac from Washington DC to Detroit, you have two choices. Take the train from Washington to Chicago, then come back from Chicago to Detroit (adding about 600 miles to your trip).

Or -- get off at Lima, Ohio, and get home from there the best way you can.

If I'm not mistaken, Lima is not far from Russia, Ohio (pronounced Roo-sha) and Versailles, Ohio (pronounced Ver Sales). :)
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
And there's Peru, which I think is in Indiana--that's PEE-roo.

And anyone from outside of Lou-eez-i-ana would instantly be disqualified from a Wheel set in the state, which everyone from there knows is called Looz-i-ana. And its main city is N'Awlins. You know; the one at the mouth of that big river.
 

CoyoteChris

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 4, 2004
I personally enjoy the American three syllable prounounciation of coyote. I love them. They are all over my property eating mice...they sing to me...but I dont know what Pat would do with the word on WOF......or "Singin' in the Rain." I still wonder what WOF would do with Orangutan on the board and a player saying Orangutang. If there can be two acceptable prounounciaitons, the why did they steal 3800 bucks from that woman? I watched the show last night. There were three players and all had what I call neutral accents. Most of the advertisers were local ones. BTW, has anyone noticed that since the board went electronic many years ago, Vanna White doesnt really do anything?
^ Very cool! I just looked up "orangutan" and learned the following. (Of course you did, Mathman. :) ) It seems that Americans could not resist the temptation of pronouncing this exotic word so that the second part rhymes with the first. This became so prevalent that writers of dictionaries were first forced to list both pronunciations, then later to list "orangutang" as an alternate spelling.

People from Long Island say "Long Gisland." Wait, I don't mean that they pronounce the s, just that they put an extra G at the beginning of Island. :)

[Edited to add] By the way Chris, how do you pronounce Coyote? Here are four different ways, including the interesting British variation where the first syllable is pronounce "Coy" (of all things! :) ) instead of Ki.

http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=coyote&submit=Submit
 

CoyoteChris

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 4, 2004
Imagine the judges wacking a southerner for the way they would say "Four on the Floor". That would generate a bit of hatred. Vanna White would look good tared and feathered.
And there's Peru, which I think is in Indiana--that's PEE-roo.

And anyone from outside of Lou-eez-i-ana would instantly be disqualified from a Wheel set in the state, which everyone from there knows is called Looz-i-ana. And its main city is N'Awlins. You know; the one at the mouth of that big river.
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
Can a person from Boston even be on the show? They should get no credit if a clue of Things had the answer Car Parts

(Pronounced cah pots in Boston)

Everyone knows about the correct pronounciation of Loozianna (thank you Popeye's Chicken)

But you still hear people mispronounce Oregon and St. Louis.

Locals pronounce Oregon with 2 syllables (Orgen) and St. Louis is St. Lewis.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081222200124AAZmrcq

And yet this video is on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtAPSR6KNT4

And Newton, CT is pronounced New Town.
 
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