Yosemite ! how do you pronounce it ?

[DougStocks]

I assume you mean buffet as in food. Or perhaps you mean buffet - to hit something with great force repeatedly, as in wind, rain, etc.

I believe Americans pronounce buffet (food), buff-ay with the emphasis on the last syllable.
English people pronounce it boofay with no emphasis on either syllable, but with the oo slightly shortened.
The French pronounce it boofay with no emphasis on either syllable.
In Holland it is pronounced ber-fet, with the emphasis on fet.

Seeing that buffet is a French word, it would seem that the way it is pronounced in England is closer to the original.

Yes, sorry, as in food. However in my limited (17 years) experience of living in England, the Brits that I knew all pronounced it buff-IT. Perhaps it varies by region? I lived in Reading.

 

[teedee208]

Yes, sorry, as in food. However in my limited (17 years) experience of living in England, the Brits that I knew all pronounced it buff-IT. Perhaps it varies by region? I lived in Reading.

The pronunciation of buffet in England doesn't vary from region to region and in my 75 years on this earth I have only heard the word pronounced buffit on a few occasions and this is usually (and I know this is going to sound awful and I do not mean to sound snobbish or superior here) only by less well-educated people, or more likely by someone pronouncing it that way as a joke.

English people have been known to have a sense of humour (or should that be humor?).

 

[DougStocks]

The pronunciation of buffet in England doesn't vary from region to region and in my 75 years on this earth I have only heard the word pronounced buffit on a few occasions and this is usually (and I know this is going to sound awful and I do not mean to sound snobbish or superior here) only by less well-educated people, or more likely by someone pronouncing it that way as a joke.

English people have been known to have a sense of humour (or should that be humor?).

Interesting. A few people I knew were uneducated, but since I was a visiting professor at Reading (U of), most of my colleagues and friends would fit in the well educated category. I also find it difficult to believe that they were all trying to 'wind me up.' But then, you sly old Brits do seem to enjoy winding us colonials up! ;-) I'll be back for a visit in October, perhaps I'll remember to ask some o me mates to pronounce it for me.

 

[teedee208]

Interesting. A few people I knew were uneducated, but since I was a visiting professor at Reading (U of), most of my colleagues and friends would fit in the well educated category. I also find it difficult to believe that they were all trying to 'wind me up.' But then, you sly old Brits do seem to enjoy winding us colonials up! ;-) I'll be back for a visit in October, perhaps I'll remember to ask some o me mates to pronounce it for me.

I hope you enjoy your visit.

 

[DougStocks]

I hope you enjoy your visit.

Oh, I know I will. When I first moved there, I met with another Yank whom I knew that had a position at Oxford. He told me that I would find the standard of living much lower (than that to which I was accustomed), but that the quality of life would be much greater. Indeed he was correct. It was a quality of life that I had experienced only once before (when I was in grad school); thus the majority of my friends live in England, so it is always a delight to return for a holiday.

Many thanks for the good wishes.

 

[pitbull60077]

A friend of mine calls Illinois ILLNOISE !!

personally I call it Illis***....since i live there i guess I'm entitled to call it that

 

[toMACsh]

So this is the pronunciation thread, eh?

On the original word in question, I've seen several creative spellings of it on the forum.

But since we've gone off topic, one of my most frequent cringe moments (and I hope I didn't mention this already) is hearing people (mostly on TV) pronounce Las Vegas as Los Vegas. (The forum doesn't seem to like Las or Los, as both get the red dashed underline.) I haven't kept stats, but my impression is that it's pronounced incorrectly far more often than correctly. I even have an old LP of a live concert in which the artist, talking to the audience between songs, says "Los Vegas".

 

[chscag]

A bit of Spanish grammar: Vegas (meadows or plains) is feminine and so it must be used with Las (the feminine plural for "the"). Los would be incorrect. ;P

 

[toMACsh]

So, angels are masculine?

 

[chscag]

So, angels are masculine?

Of course. Didn't you attend Sunday School? ;P

 

[lclev]

Really?? It can be debated if all are men or some are women or even genderless but appearing as they wish.

Zechariah 5:9-11 (NIV)
9 Then I looked up—and there before me were two women, with the wind in their wings! They had wings like those of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between heaven and earth.
10 “Where are they taking the basket?” I asked the angel who was speaking to me.
11 He replied, “To the country of Babylonia[a] to build a house for it. When the house is ready, the basket will be set there in its place.”


Lisa

 

[Alwyn]

The word "raise" can have opposite meanings, did you know? You can raise the window upwards, but you "raise" the building into a mass of rubble. You wonder how these words ever came to be.

I think you 'raze' a building.

Yours pedant.

 

[toMACsh]

I think you 'raze' a building.

Yours pedant.

I thought someone already caught that. Then there's me... I did post about Las Vegas twice in this thread.

 

[Yodrak]

I think you 'raze' a building.

Yours pedant.

Well, one can raise a building - barns for example - but doing so isn't tearing them down.

 

[ManoaHi]

I've noticed that about 99% of news people on TV have trouble saying the name of a major US city correctly. It's in Nevada, and they say what happens there stays there. But it's not called "Los Vegas"!

I've noticed that 99.9% of people mispronounce my home town of "Honolulu" it comes out as Hanalulu. It is a Hawaiian proper noun. Vowels have one an only one sound without exception and every letter is pronounced. Actually there are a number of languages that have vowels with one sound. Hawaiian, most Romance languages except French, Japanese come to mind. Hawaiian and Japanese words are almost unintelligible when us Westerners attempt them. In Hawaiian and Japanese: "a" pronounced like the "a" in "par" or "bar"; "e" pronounced like "eh"?; "i" pronounced like the double "ee" like at the end of "committee" but shortened (check how many people pronounce "wiki" correctly - mostly wrong, it is Hawaiian pronounced like "wee-key"); "o" pronounced like the "o" in "** ** **"; "u" like the "u" in "fubar". As with Hawaiian and Japanese, in Spanish, Las Vegas, follow the same vowel sounds above. BTW the car is named after Soichiro Honda, is, using the above guide, is pronounced Honda (with the "o" sound above) not Handa (remember it is the founder's family name).

 

[toMACsh]

I've noticed that 99.9% of people mispronounce my home town of "Honolulu" it comes out as Hanalulu. ...

My kind of post! So, phonetically, as close as I can come without the accent marks (what are those called?) it would be Hone-O-lew-lew, right? I confess to having mispronounced it for years! I used to live in Illinois, and remember as a kid that the populace was just then learning that the 's' is silent.

 

[chscag]

I've noticed that 99.9% of people mispronounce my home town of "Honolulu" it comes out as Hanalulu.

Having lived and worked there for 8 years (US Govt) I always got a laugh at newcomers when they tried to pronounce some of the Hawaiian names or places. My favorite was when folks referred to the "Like, Like" highway as the English prononciation of "like" as when you like something, rather than "Leakii, Leakii". Loved living there and would have stayed had it not been for an aspiring career and the desire to move upward. (So here I am in Texas, LOL)

 

[ManoaHi]

My kind of post! So, phonetically, as close as I can come without the accent marks (what are those called?) it would be Hone-O-lew-lew, right? I confess to having mispronounced it for years! I used to live in Illinois, and remember as a kid that the populace was just then learning that the 's' is silent.

Yes, you are correct: Hone-O-Lew-Lew

 

[badshoehabit]

I think it's accent rather than mispronunciation - Brits say Hon whereas Americans say Han. Now is it St Lewis or St Loo-we?

 

[IWT]

Now is it St Lewis or St Loo-we?

It's Lewis; as in Robert Louis Stevenson (so frequently mispronounced as Loo-ee);D

Ian