Shibboleths...

[repeating integers]

"Shibboleth" sounds like the name of a horrible Lovecraftian monstrosity.

Anyway. In Wales, where I go on holiday every year, there is a town called "Eglwyswrw". I challenge you to pronounce this correctly if you're not Welsh (I only vaguely know how to do it, and that's from being taught by Welsh friends/relatives).

 

[NerfedFalcon]

australian and everyone fails to fake the accent. just so you know croc dundee and steve irwin have accents that you would basically never hear in australia

best way to sum up australian pronounciation is with
"how is it going" howzitgoin

Not to mention that people from outside Victoria always call it "Melbourne" when it's pronounced "Melbun."

 

[lechat]

australian and everyone fails to fake the accent. just so you know croc dundee and steve irwin have accents that you would basically never hear in australia

best way to sum up australian pronounciation is with
"how is it going" howzitgoin

Not to mention that people from outside Victoria always call it "Melbourne" when it's pronounced "Melbun."

what part of oz are you from?
i'm from syd and i've always thought it was melben

 

[NerfedFalcon]

what part of oz are you from?
i'm from syd and i've always thought it was melben

Suburb of Melbourne. I live there, so of course I know how to pronounce it right. I just don't meet a lot of people that don't in my daily life. Have met them, though.

 

[Eleuthera]

The classical Dutch (well, Flemish) one is "Schild ende Vriend" (Shield and Friend), which was supposedly used during the "Brugse Metten" to weed out all the non-flemish (ie French) people (and kill them).

 

[Leadfinger]

In Massachusetts, the city of Worcester is pronounced, "Wistaa."

 

[not_the_dm]

Slaithewaite.
Go on, try. Nope, that's wrong, it's pronounced "Slough-ut" (I imagine it helps if you know how to pronounce Slough).
Oh, and then there's Haddenham. That's said Adnum. And grass doesn't have an 'r' in it.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

Drizzt

Please pronounce taht for me.

ITS PRONOUNCED DRIZZIT I DON'T CARE WHAT ANYONE SAYS THE "T" BEING SILENT SOUNDS RETARDED.

OT: My county. Siskiyou.

Seems simple, but I have yet to hear it pronounced perfectly.

 

[lechat]

what part of oz are you from?
i'm from syd and i've always thought it was melben

Suburb of Melbourne. I live there, so of course I know how to pronounce it right. I just don't meet a lot of people that don't in my daily life. Have met them, though.

lol debatable that either of us is pronouncing it right since it is more than likely named after some place in england or at least using their spelling.

here's a decent site for listening to the pronouciation but i would love to hear a pom say it just to be sure the yanks arent the only ones saying it wrong
http://www.forvo.com/word/melbourne/

 

[Crises^]

In Ireland we have a lot of these too
For instance Dún Laoghaire pronounced dun Lee re

 

[Zantos]

In Massachusetts, the city of Worcester is pronounced, "Wistaa."

The original and best (that's a lie, it's too far south) is pronounced 'wusster'. Supposedly it was great as an anti-German spy tactic since it appears in most kitchen cupboards outside Yorkshire.

Closer to home there's 'Slaithwaite', 'Dodworth', 'Cudworth', 'Barugh', 'Scunthorpe' and 'Clitheroe'. That last one isn't actually deceptive, but someone pointed out that it does say Clit Hero.

Scunthorpe is also not deceptive, and unfortunately it seems the amusement value of the game 'Find the rude word in Scunthorpe' is diminished when it's written down.

 

[BringBackBuck]

I'm from New Zealand and few people outside of our little part of the world know much about the Maori language.

Glad I'm not from this place though because you could never fit it on a passport:

Spoiler: Taumata...etc

 

[lechat]

I'm from New Zealand and few people outside of our little part of the world know much about the Maori language.

Glad I'm not from this place though because you could never fit it on a passport:

Spoiler: Taumata...etc

your country just got trolled by whoever named that place.
any idea what it means?
if i had to guess it's prolly something like "lush island of proud warriors who will either fuck your shit up or be your best drinking buddy" but i'm just guessing based on my maori friends

 

[Rainforce]

My favourite word to get German/French people to say in English is Squirrel. My sister's Boyfriend is french and just cannot say it, and AFAIK there is no sound similar the 'qui' bit in German so they struggle to form the sound.

Can't say that I ever had problems with "squirrel", considering how we have quite some words with qu. And, if nothing else helps, we just go and replace it with kw anyways. Bekause.

 

[Ambitiousmould]

In Massachusetts, the city of Worcester is pronounced, "Wistaa."

The original and best (that's a lie, it's too far south) is pronounced 'wusster'. Supposedly it was great as an anti-German spy tactic since it appears in most kitchen cupboards outside Yorkshire.

Closer to home there's 'Slaithwaite', 'Dodworth', 'Cudworth', 'Barugh', 'Scunthorpe' and 'Clitheroe'. That last one isn't actually deceptive, but someone pointed out that it does say Clit Hero.

Scunthorpe is also not deceptive, and unfortunately it seems the amusement value of the game 'Find the rude word in Scunthorpe' is diminished when it's written down.

My old english teacher used to pronounce dodworth how it's spelled (dod-worth) rather than the proper way (dod-uth) it made us all laugh

 

[SckizoBoy]

The classical Dutch (well, Flemish) one is "Schild ende Vriend" (Shield and Friend), which was supposedly used during the "Brugse Metten" to weed out all the non-flemish (ie French) people (and kill them).

See, I thought that was more applicable to Germans... since Dutch pronounce it as 'skildt', whereas Germans would pronounce it as 'sheeldt'... *shrug* (while the French don't actually have that phonology)

My favourite word to get German/French people to say in English is Squirrel. My sister's Boyfriend is french and just cannot say it, and AFAIK there is no sound similar the 'qui' bit in German so they struggle to form the sound.

'Squirrel' was used by British troops to identify German infiltrators during WWII because even fluent ENglish speaking Germans would pronounce it as 'skvirrel'...(!)

 

[Eleuthera]

The classical Dutch (well, Flemish) one is "Schild ende Vriend" (Shield and Friend), which was supposedly used during the "Brugse Metten" to weed out all the non-flemish (ie French) people (and kill them).

See, I thought that was more applicable to Germans... since Dutch pronounce it as 'skildt', whereas Germans would pronounce it as 'sheeldt'... *shrug* (while the French don't actually have that phonology)

The Dutch pronounciation is closer to the German actually, the 'sch' sound is 'sg', the French would pronounce it "Skilt ende Freent" instead of "Sgilt ende Vreened"

 

[Thommo]

I have one from Australia
the town of Orroroo

 

[HellbirdIV]

My name is "Mårten", and without fail, non-native speakers (except Danish and Norwegians because they have a very similar language to Swedish) will pronounce it as "Marten", "Morten", "Moherten", "Maurten", "Meerten" or "Moarten". Even efter several tries.

 

[Thaluikhain]

"G'day".

Apparently, USAliens pronounce it "Gee day", whereas locals will tell you it was "Gud day" way back when people would actually say that.

Also, "forehead" is pronounced "for'd", much the same way as actors in period British telemovies about sailors pronounce "forward".