I’m picking “Colonel” needs to be respelled to match how it’s pronounced.

Try to pick a word no one else has picked. What word are you respelling?

  • @MajorHavoc
    link
    771 year ago

    In this thread, a lot of folks who would use their one wish to make the language better.

    But I would change “their” to be spelled “the’re” and pronounced “all’y’all’s”.

    I hope I do grow up to be more like the rest of you, and make better choices, in the future.

  • GeekFTW
    link
    fedilink
    611 year ago

    Nesscary

    …Neccisary

    …Neseccary

    Fuck it, it’s now “Nesisary”

    • @fubo
      link
      181 year ago

      “Needed”

    • Pietson
      link
      fedilink
      71 year ago

      English is a second language to me, and at this point it’s probably the only commonly used word I consistently mess up. It usually ends up something like ‘nessecairy’

    • @Astroturfed
      link
      61 year ago

      Can never remember how to spell this absolute fuckery of a word. I concur.

      • Ataraxia
        link
        fedilink
        11 year ago

        That’s so weird. I’m dyslexic and all but this word is very much common sense for me. Maybe because I’m a polyglot and in Italian it’s necessario?

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        11 year ago

        English is my second language, but I’ve always remembered it by “one cardigan, two socks” necessary

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        2
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        spelt how it’s pronounced though

        I’m not sure you meant this as a joke but it is funny.

        Learning yet another irregular pronunciation because some N-hundred years ago their majesty Shithead von Cunt wanted to sound fancy and everyone just played along is not funny.

        cries, not knowing how to properly pronounce most English words

    • Ataraxia
      link
      fedilink
      21 year ago

      Necessary? I would have never thought of any of those weird spellings. It’s spelled like it’s said lol.

  • guyrocket
    link
    fedilink
    301 year ago

    English orthography is awful. Hard “c” AND soft “c”? Are you crazy? How about that “k” that is already the hard c sound? It should be “kat” and “kar”. And it only goes downhill from there (or their?!?).

    We should clean it up someday. But we’ll probably end up with LOL-WTF-speak.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      81 year ago

      Some of the low hanging fruit would just be to pick one pronunciation of “oo” and stick with it:

      • book
      • blood
      • floor
      • brooch
      • boot

      The problem is that English has far more vowel sounds than vowels. And that’s without even having certain sounds that are common in other languages like “ü”.

      • guyrocket
        link
        fedilink
        101 year ago

        Linguistics would teach that it is the orthography that is flawed. The English language has many vowel sounds, more than most languages. But as you demonstrate, the orthography “lumps” many of them together. Which, again, is why I think English orthography is awful.

        There’s a great article at Wikipedia, scroll down to the “Vowels” section: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_phonology

        There’s a link the the article above to this page, which I don’t suggest viewing on your phone. It has a great effort to document vowels across dialects of English, scroll down again to the huge table: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet_chart_for_English_dialects

        Be careful, the linguistics “rabbit hole” is deep (but fascinating)!

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          21 year ago

          Thanks, I really like the IPA and I wish it were something that was taught in high school. It would be great if people were competent at reading it and could maybe use it to explain how something sounds. It’s hard enough that English has such flawed orthography. Then you add the fact that there are dozens of English dialects and it only makes things more complicated.

          Do you know about Dr. Geoff Lindsey’s YouTube channel?

          https://www.youtube.com/@DrGeoffLindsey

    • room_raccoon
      link
      fedilink
      51 year ago

      It’s not all bad. The varied spellings of English help with visual pattern recognition and increased reading speed.

    • Carighan Maconar
      link
      31 year ago

      That must have already happened and we got the Geordie accent from it!

    • @snowydayB
      link
      English
      61 year ago

      Please wait in the queue with four unpronounced letters

    • @marmarama
      link
      4
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      British English voices those letters in most accents. I think the two silent letters is just a North American thing.

      Similar to herb.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        21 year ago

        Not saying you’re wrong at all, it’s not exactly a common word to hear said out loud. But I’ve never heard anyone do this and the very idea of it blows my mind.

        (NE England, here)

        • @marmarama
          link
          2
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          The last syllable is usually pretty subtle, like the br- in bread, but very quietly voiced. I’d say I hear it maybe 75% of the time I hear the word. Currently in Yorkshire, via SW England, London and NW England. The syllable is a lot less subtle in a West Yorks accent!

          Did you learn French at GCSE level? Possibly there’s a relationship between that and pronouncing the re like that in French-derived words. Cadre is another example. If it is related to learning French, then it’s probably on the decline as French teaching is on the decline and foreign languages are no longer compulsory at GCSE.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            21 year ago

            Clearly I need to work this word into more conversations with people and listen closely! That said I only just found out recently that most of the country pronounces the middle weekday as “Wensday” so contrary to stereotypes I think we might be the ones talking properly up here 😉

            (schools around me were generally an even split between French and German for GCSE, dunno how that affects your theory, also I had no idea languages were going away from school and this makes me sad to learn)

    • Io Sapsai 🌱
      link
      fedilink
      11 year ago

      Wait how is that pronounced? I’ve always read it as Mah-Ca-Burr. It’s one of these words I learned through text exposure rather than English classes…

    • @wild
      link
      71 year ago

      Kumfirtubble

    • @fubo
      link
      221 year ago

      “Arkansas” and “Kansas” are both from the Osage language, but the former passed through French on its way to English.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        61 year ago

        i’m from somewhere in europe and always wondered why you guys would pronounce those two so different!

        • @fubo
          link
          51 year ago

          America has a lot of place names that come from Native American / First Nations languages; but they also come via different European languages.

          And some of those names are actually words that refer to a different Native group. “Arkansas” and “Kansas” are from the Osage word for the Quapaw people. The name of the Snake River between Oregon and Idaho is a translation of the name that Plains people used to refer to the Shoshone: they were the “snake people” and that wasn’t a compliment.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        31 year ago

        I’ve heard that, but “Ar Kan Saw” is nothing like how a French person would pronounce “Arkansas”

      • Carlos Solís
        link
        fedilink
        English
        11 year ago

        In Spanish they do rhyme and their endings are pronounced the exact same, as in Kansas. I was greatly puzzled when I discovered that the French managed to mangle the name Arkansas that badly back in the day

      • @kender242
        link
        English
        11 year ago

        2010 Arkansas Code Title 1 - General Provisions Chapter 4 - State Symbols, Motto, Etc § 1-4-105 - Pronunciation of state name.

        Be it therefore resolved by both houses of the General Assembly, that the only true pronunciation of the name of the state, in the opinion of this body, is that received by the French from the native Indians and committed to writing in the French word representing the sound. It should be pronounced in three (3) syllables, with the final “s” silent, the “a” in each syllable with the Italian sound, and the accent on the first and last syllables. The pronunciation with the accent on the second syllable with the sound of “a” in “man” and the sounding of the terminal “s” is an innovation to be discouraged.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      11 year ago

      Brit here, I only realised a couple of years ago that the Arkansaw I heard mentioned in American TV and movies was actually the Arkansas I could see on maps. I think it was something said on Reddit, probably a thread similar to this, that was the revelation. And when I tell other Brits they’re invariably similarly clueless, and quite gobsmacked. I’m not sure if anyone I’ve mentioned it too has said “oh yeah I knew that”.

  • @Rob
    link
    241 year ago

    Since Queue has already been posted: Quay. Now spelled Kee.

      • @khannie
        link
        English
        8
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        How do you pronounce it? I had some American tourists ask me for directions to the “kway” before. Only time I’ve ever heard a different pronunciation.

          • @khannie
            link
            English
            81 year ago

            I can’t say really. Where I live (Ireland) it’s definitely pronounced “kee” but where you live “kway” might be correct. Fascinating stuff!

              • ℕ𝕖𝕞𝕠
                link
                fedilink
                51 year ago

                It’s pronounced “kaye” in a Pogues song, but songs aren’t a good indication of pronunciation…poetic license reigns.

                Hell, “reigns” is another candidate word.

          • @WhoRoger
            link
            English
            31 year ago

            In my dictionary spelling is [ki:] so like “kee”

          • @Pipoca
            link
            11 year ago

            Quay is one of those words like bowline or boatswain that’s commonly mispronounced because people see it in writing without hearing it said. Bowline “properly” rhymes with pin, and boatswain sounds like bosun.

            A similar thing happened to solder in Britain, where it originally had a silent l as a nod to its Latin etymology, but some people started pronouncing it.

  • @KrapKake
    link
    231 year ago

    I just wish we spelled things in a more German-‘esk’ fashion. They use K more appropriately. Examples such as “panik” and “akkordeon” for accordion. I find their spelling to be more straightforward and sensical.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    211 year ago

    Thou shalt spell the word “Pheonix” P-H-E-O-N-I-X, not P-H-O-E-N-I-X, regardless of what the Oxford English Dictionary tells you.