Deep Thought

"A man would do nothing, if he waited until he could do it so well that no one would find fault with what he has done"
- Cardinal Newman

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Pronunciations or Pronounciations?

"Its not Mojito, it is pronounced as Mohito", says 10 years-elder-to-me cousin, who has done courses in Spanish and French.
I ask her "what?", as i order the same at KFC.
She clears her point again in her usual low-pitch voice.
"Even its not Virgin, its pronounced as Virkhin".
These are the Spanish words, I had known that very day with Mohito sounding more like Mohitto (with double 't').
But, with my keen interest in other languages, I ask her more.
"Its not Costa Coffee, it is pronounced as Costa Cafe (with an accent on 'e')", she says seeing the board as we continue walking.
Thanks for rectification.

"There's no such word called gymming yaar, its gymnasium", says a friend of mine.
I wonder how many times I have committed this mistake & even others have done so in front of me.

With two new things in the box a day, i think of moving ahead.

Here are a few i have come across. Gone are those days when people used to make "words" sound like "words".


  • COMMENT- It is not c-uh-mment. It is c-o-mment (with 'o' sounding like an 'o').
  • ACADEMIC- It is not a-c-ah-demic. It is a-ke-r-demic.
  • ACCURSED- It is not ae-ccursed. It is uh-kerst. 
  • ACQUAINTANCE- It is not aq-uin-tance. It is ak-win-tance. [I thank Akanksha for this]
  • WEDNESDAY- It is not wed-nes-day. It is we-ns-day.
  • PEPPERONI- It is not pep-roni. It is pep-puh-roh-ni.
And this one is the funniest :


  • ACCENT- It is not a-ssent or ae-ssent. It is ak-sent.
  • AVATAR- It is not a-va-tor, even though Englishmen pronounce it as so, doesn't mean it will lose its real pronunciation. It will still remain a-va-tar.
Also, nobody's veg/ non-veg.
Veg/ non-veg is subjected to food.
"I am veg" sounds very stupid.
"I am vegetarian is correct".
It is so common now that I do not even feel like prompting anyone, even saying the same myself.

Many times I am even stuck between right spelling provided by nations.

  • Colour (UK) or Color (US)?
  • Caesarean (UK) or Cesarean (US)?
  • Moustache (UK) or Mustache (US)?
Now what is right and wrong in the above, I shall let the nations converse over that.

Hoping for preferment in pronunciations. 

2 comments:

  1. Nice but i guess this isn't for everyone .. plus its all good facts.. its good Ur letting people know how to use these words... exactly.. nice going..!! :)

    ReplyDelete