I can't take it anymore. Part 2 (quote, difference, words)
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I have a neighbor who always uses a sentence with the pronunciation "yooston" or "yooman" if I say something with the word Houston or human, like she is trying to correct me. It's on my nerves.
That would drive me nuts, too. I used to know someone who said yooge for huge. Wonder where that comes from.
They also add r's to words that end with an a. Rebeccer instead of Rebecca. Really? What kind of whack-a-doodle phonics lesson are they serving up out there?
Not an east coast thing. I've lived on the east coast for all my 56 years so I will tell you that very few people speak like that. It's regional, but not the majority of the east coast by a long shot.
My mother-in-law from Maine put the R on the end of words but left out the R in the middle of the words.
My acquaintance who said yooge was raised in an old Irish neighborhood in Manhattan and had a heavy, stereotypical "Noo Yawk" accent of the type rarely heard anymore.
Not an east coast thing. I've lived on the east coast for all my 56 years so I will tell you that very few people speak like that. It's regional, but not the majority of the east coast by a long shot.
My mother-in-law from Maine put the R on the end of words but left out the R in the middle of the words.
My acquaintance who said yooge was raised in an old Irish neighborhood in Manhattan and had a heavy, stereotypical "Noo Yawk" accent of the type rarely heard anymore.
The Mainers I knew had a very heavy New England accent- like saying "Babbra" instead of "Barbara."
I've never heard anyone say "Yooston," etc.
But I don't think the stereotypical accent you mentioned has faded away, at least not within the boroughs and surrounding areas.
The most extreme I've heard: individuals who pronounce dog, coffee, etc., like "doo-wog, coowoffee,"
and one that always tripped me out was hearing "radiator" (type of heating unit) pronounced "raddy-atta."
It's a little off topic, but I knew a man named Judy. It took a few weeks for me to realize his name was Yuri, and the hispanics pronounced it Judy.
That sword cuts both ways.
In my last couple of years in education, I had a student from South America whose first name was German--which is pronounced (roughly) as Herr-mon (with a rolling of the "R" sound).
I knew how to pronounce his name correctly, but apparently I was the only staff member in the school who did so. One day, with much frustration, he asked me..."Mr. B______, why are you the ONLY person in this school who knows how to pronounce my name correctly? I ask you...Do I LOOK like I come from Germany?"
He was a really nice young man, and it was disturbing to see how upset he was about the cultural ignorance afoot among the faculty.
On another occasion, during a parent-teacher conference, the teacher referred to a parent's child as "George". The name of the boy in question was Jorge--which is pronounced (roughly) as Horr-hay. The parent looked aghast, and I then corrected the teacher's pronunciation. The teacher's response, was, "Why didn't he tell me that I was mispronouncing his name for the past 6 months?" I had to explain that this student was far too polite to correct her pronunciation.
Last edited by Retriever; 02-25-2015 at 01:42 PM..
...On another occasion, during a parent-teacher conference, the teacher referred to a parent's child as "George". The name of the boy in question was Jorge--which is pronounced (roughly) as Horr-hay. The parent looked aghast, and I then corrected the teacher's pronunciation. The teacher's response, was, "Why didn't he tell me that I was mispronouncing his name for the past 6 months?" I had to explain that this student was far too polite to correct her pronunciation...
With all the nationalities and bizarre names among students, teachers should get a pass when it comes to pronouncing names. If the student doesn't like how a teacher pronounces his/her name, I feel it's up to that student to bring it to the teacher's attention.
I had a friend, named Faber, who insisted that his name be pronounced Faybuh. You just can't tell how a name should be pronounced based on spelling or perceived ethnicity - and I certainly wouldn't blame it on "cultural ignorance."
You just can't tell how a name should be pronounced based on spelling or perceived ethnicity - and I certainly wouldn't blame it on "cultural ignorance."
You may feel that it is logical to pronounce the name of a South American-born Hispanic youth as if he is Teutonic, but I respectfully disagree.
After meeting him and hearing his heavy Spanish accent, if I had been unsure about how to pronounce his name correctly, I would certainly have asked him how his name should be pronounced, simply because pronouncing his name in the same way as the English name for a nation in Central Europe just...didn't seem right. However, none of the other faculty members apparently did that.
I did have to "mind my Ps and Qs" on a regular basis with another name, however. We had many foreign students, and the name Fatima was not uncommon among the female students. However, those from Portugal pronounced their name as FAT-e-ma, while the girls from the Middle East pronounced it FA-TEE-ma. On a number of occasions, I had to give thought to the student's place of origin before I wound up putting the emphasis on the wrong syllable.
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