Oooops! I said that??? What's your biggest foreign language Faux Pas?

[HappyMdRSailor]

Originally Posted by skipmac

Sounds like there might be a job opportunity here; offer language and translation services to new immigrants to the south from other parts of the US.

You got that right!

It ain't the y'all(s) and the fixin'(s) etc... That's easy... It's the extra vowels and dropped consonants... and obviously pronunciations...

I had no idea I was saying and spelling my name incorrectly all these years... Instead of Ed, it's two syllables and either 3 or 4 letters and a hyphen depending on how ya want to spell it.... aayed or a-ed...

And things like ... There's a town named Cairo close by... yes, just like the biggun' in Eee-gypped... If you don't pronounce it like the corn syrup, nobody has any idea what your talking about....
KAY-ROW

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by HappyMdRSailor

It ain't the y'all(s) and the fixin'(s) etc... That's easy... It's the extra vowels and dropped consonants... and obviously pronunciations...

Not only extra letters but how they are pronounced which can vary dramatically from place to place. I think many "furriners" don't realize that there is not a southern accent but many different versions. I can sometimes pinpoint not only the state but a specific part of a state a southerner came from.

Originally Posted by HappyMdRSailor

And things like ... There's a town named Cairo close by... yes, just like the biggun' in Eee-gypped... If you don't pronounce it like the corn syrup, nobody has any idea what your talking about....
KAY-ROW

Pronunciation of town names in the south can be baffling.

Small town in GA named Buena Vista, pronounced BIEW-na (biew rimes with view) Vista (with a short "I" like fist or mist).

Or another one in south GA named like the town in NY, Albany but pronounced all-BINY (accent on the second syllable).

Or the towns in NC and SC. Both spelled Beufort but one pronounced BIEW-fort the other BOW-fort.

Originally Posted by HappyMdRSailor

You got that right!

It ain't the y'all(s) and the fixin'(s) etc... That's easy... It's the extra vowels and dropped consonants... and obviously pronunciations...

I had no idea I was saying and spelling my name incorrectly all these years... Instead of Ed, it's two syllables and either 3 or 4 letters and a hyphen depending on how ya want to spell it.... aayed or a-ed...

And things like ... There's a town named Cairo close by... yes, just like the biggun' in Eee-gypped... If you don't pronounce it like the corn syrup, nobody has any idea what your talking about....
KAY-ROW

[Rhapsody-NS27]

Originally Posted by skipmac

Pronunciation of town names in the south can be baffling.

I've seen the same. I was at a volunteer fire dept named Lafayette that stressed the end la-fa-YETTE. I've heard of someone going to a town down south Lafayette calling it like the first one, but a local firmly saying "It's la-FAY-ette!"

[Steadman Uhlich]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

I have a handy little book...'Latin American Spanish in 15 minutes'..... what it doesn't say is '... a day for the rest of your life.'

However.... at anchor somewhere in the south... one crew with decent spanish.... we invited a couple of hairy-arsed centolla fishermen over for tea and scones.

Having done 'greetings' in my book I was all set to greet them with a handshake and 'encandada' but noticed before it was my turn that it was 'Mucho Gustos' all round so I went with that.


Asked my crew later what was what... she cracked up.... seems 'encantada' is 'enchanted'... in the feminine...



A close call.... me being a good looking young fellow and all.

good one!

[zeehag]

hou-ston street in ny is not pronounced hewston.
my mexican friends are always corrrcting me and having a laugh at my expense. especially when i come up with something that makes their eyes blow out.. then i know it is palabaras malas..... yep they let me know i goofed in nice ways... and splain the difference. learning spanish is easy.

[Calif.Ted]

Visiting relatives in Wisconsin they asked where we crossed "the border", Eau Claire says I pronouncing it like Pepe LePew would. They looked puzzled before breaking out laughing saying "OH, You mean Oak Lair". They had difficulty understanding me, said I drawled and "talked like a cowboy". Ya Think, Hey?

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by zeehag

hou-ston street in ny is not pronounced hewston.
my mexican friends are always corrrcting me and having a laugh at my expense. especially when i come up with something that makes their eyes blow out.. then i know it is palabaras malas..... yep they let me know i goofed in nice ways... and splain the difference. learning spanish is easy.

One problem I have with Spanish is that it's very different country to country. Example, from Mexico, to Central to South America and Spain the word for banana could be:

banana
guineo
platano (where the green cooking plantain then becomes platano verde)

One country a local slang expression "le provoque un tinto" roughly translates as "can I talk you into a cup of coffee" but elsewhere could mean "does red wine provoke you".

I was diving in Mexico and called my weight belt cinta instead of cinturon. That got a laugh as cinta meant ribbon. Guess the idea of a ribbon around my wet suit was amusing.

[jongleur]

Different southern accents:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4-n7Sfzt-M

[Sea Dreaming]

Originally Posted by skipmac

Small town in GA named Buena Vista, pronounced BIEW-na (biew rimes with view) Vista (with a short "I" like fist or mist).
.

Agh! Its not just the south with this problem. Colorado too suffers!

We too have a Buena Vista . And again, just like in GA, long time residents pronounce it "Bew-na Vista"!

Worse yet, the fair city of Pueblo is pronounced "Pee-ab-lo"

It grates on my brain!

[sailorchic34]

Originally Posted by skipmac

Small town in GA named Buena Vista, pronounced BIEW-na (biew rimes with view) Vista (with a short "I" like fist or mist).

Or another one in south GA named like the town in NY, Albany but pronounced all-BINY (accent on the second syllable).

Or the towns in NC and SC. Both spelled Beufort but one pronounced BIEW-fort the other BOW-fort.

Lordy, how else would you say Biewfort or All-Beny. I was born in All-Beny after all. Ya'll are mak'n me home sick.

[belizesailor]

Years ago, while asking an attractive young waitress for change in Spanish, I mispronounced "dolar" (dollar) as "dolor" (pain). She cocked her head, raised an eyebrow, and said "Qué tipo de dolor es lo que quieres? " (what kind of pain do you want?).

I just laughed and didnt answer that question, but I think if I had it would have cost me more than a dollar!

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by sailorchic34

Lordy, how else would you say Biewfort or All-Beny. I was born in All-Beny after all. Ya'll are mak'n me home sick.

Nobody from Albany says All-Benny. I and my wife were born here and still live here, it's not All-Benny, It's Albany, just like that town in New York that it was named after

I do not know where that started, but seemingly a lot of people not from here think it's All-Benny, it's one of my pet peeves.

[dannc]

Originally Posted by HappyMdRSailor

...

And things like ... There's a town named Cairo close by... yes, just like the biggun' in Eee-gypped... If you don't pronounce it like the corn syrup, nobody has any idea what your talking about....
KAY-ROW

Trying to stay out of this conversation but that last one got me laugh'n.

How does one pronounce Clorox?

........


ClOOOOOOOOox.

Some of the wife's relatives say ClOOOOOOOOox and I have been having fun with it for years. But the joke is know on me because it is hard for me to say Clorox and I end up saying ClOOOOOOOOox. :bi ggrin:

They stretch out some other vowels as well that I have fun with.

I have lived all over the South and it really is interesting how many different accents there are down her. NC seems to have more than other states though. The Outer Banks has the disappearing accent that is supposed to be close to Shakesperian English. Then there are accents in eastern NC, central, foot hills and in the mountains.

I have a pretty good ear for picking up accents and I work with many people who speak English as a second language. There have only been two people I struggled to understand what they were saying in English. One was a guy from Liverpool England and the other guy was from the Piedmont of NC.

Later,
Dan

[dannc]

Originally Posted by Rhapsody-NS27

I've seen the same. I was at a volunteer fire dept named Lafayette that stressed the end la-fa-YETTE. I've heard of someone going to a town down south Lafayette calling it like the first one, but a local firmly saying "It's la-FAY-ette!"

I do not know if this is true or not, but a native Floridan who lived in Miami all of his life and before the town turned into a city, said that the proper way to say Miami is Miamah not Miamee.

I have heard people pronounce Kissimmee Florida as Kissammee where the a is ah instead of em.

Then there is Louisville KY. A native says Lou'ville instead of LouEville.



later,
Dan

[sailorchic34]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Nobody from Albany says All-Benny. I and my wife were born here and still live here, it's not All-Benny, It's Albany, just like that town in New York that it was named after

I do not know where that started, but seemingly a lot of people not from here think it's All-Benny, it's one of my pet peeves.

Sorry about that, but I was born there too and ah have always called it all-benny. Though OK, I did spend most of my time in sa-VAN-nah.