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"sauna"

It's "sow" (as in female pig) + "nuh" (as in nuh-uh), NOT "saw" (as in to cut wood) + "nuh."

Can I get a Finn to back me up?

― Df'nM (OutDatWay), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 18:57 (nineteen years ago)

I don't know dude, I've always said saw-nuh.

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 19:01 (nineteen years ago)

the second loudspeaker icon here is the Finnish pronunciation, but both are OK in English.

― StanM (StanM), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 19:02 (nineteen years ago)

It's a very quixotic (kee-HOE-tick) quest you're on.

― M. V. (M.V.), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 19:02 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, who can explain the arguments one gets in sometimes?

― Df'nM (OutDatWay), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 19:41 (nineteen years ago)

Sound - nd + nuh is right, so says me, my finnish roommate, and the science of mathematics.

― Mattattack (matt attack), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 22:58 (nineteen years ago)

It's not a Finnish word anymore, so going back to Finnish pronunciation doesn't really mean anything.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 23:53 (nineteen years ago)

If you say it Finnish style, you have to also say it with a convincing Finnish accent.

― M. White (Miguelito), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 23:54 (nineteen years ago)

Pronounce this word: NIGERIAN

Neye-JEER-ee-an == of or related to Nigeria

Nee-ZHAIR-ee-an == of or related to Niger

(This occurred to me while listening to NPR.)

― elmo (allocryptic), Thursday, 3 November 2005 00:27 (nineteen years ago)

i was under the impression that it's "Nigeran" for the latter.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 3 November 2005 00:30 (nineteen years ago)

and if it isn't, it ought to be

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 3 November 2005 00:32 (nineteen years ago)

Possibly! I do not know for sure. If so, then Julian Marshall of BBC World Service has got some explaining to do.

― elmo (allocryptic), Thursday, 3 November 2005 00:33 (nineteen years ago)

It's Nigerien (with an e)

― Cressida Breem (neruokruokruokne?), Thursday, 3 November 2005 04:58 (nineteen years ago)

would you believe i heard someone on television pronounce quixotic "kwicks-AW-tick"?

― heywood jablomi (heywood), Thursday, 3 November 2005 05:28 (nineteen years ago)

Yes, that's not unbelievable as there are some truly idiotic pronounciations out there. I once had a history teacher who pronounced "Versailles" exactly like it is written -- Ver-saa-els (with a broad Australian accent). Terrible!

― salexander / sofia (salexander), Thursday, 3 November 2005 05:33 (nineteen years ago)

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=dickhead

― stupid fucks, Thursday, 3 November 2005 05:36 (nineteen years ago)

There was a funny story in the NYT some months back about pronunciation battles in Texas. There are a bunch of towns with Spanish names that have for years had American pronunciations -- the example the article gave was San Jacinto, which the English speakers call "San Juh-SIN-toe." But now that Spanish speakers are becoming sizable minorities and in some cases majorities in these towns, they naturally are pronouncing them in the original Spanish ("Ha-SEEN-toe"), which is freaking out the English speakers, who are trying in some places to pass city ordinances establishing the bastardized English pronunciation as the "official" pronunciation.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Thursday, 3 November 2005 05:39 (nineteen years ago)

That is so arrogant, hope they lose. Ha-seen-toe sounds better anyway. Actually, won't something similar happen when non-Western English-speakers outnumber Western English speakers? We will just have to accept bastardisations of English then -- and that is the comeuppance for imperialism people.

― salexander / sofia (salexander), Thursday, 3 November 2005 05:45 (nineteen years ago)

would you believe i heard someone on television pronounce quixotic "kwicks-AW-tick"?

I'm not sure what levels of irony are going on here, but that of course is the "correct" pronunciation.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 3 November 2005 05:48 (nineteen years ago)

Isn't it kwiks-ot-ick?

― salexander / sofia (salexander), Thursday, 3 November 2005 05:54 (nineteen years ago)

In my accent, those two are the same.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 3 November 2005 05:56 (nineteen years ago)

Oh of course, if it's an American accent. That's why I thought it sounded strange before.

― salexander / sofia (salexander), Thursday, 3 November 2005 05:59 (nineteen years ago)

I mean you're pronouncing it like "rot", right? Not like "rote"?

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 3 November 2005 06:21 (nineteen years ago)

Yes, with an Australian accent. So it sounds like the equivalent of the American pronounciation but with an Australian voice (I think).

― salexander / sofia (salexander), Thursday, 3 November 2005 06:50 (nineteen years ago)

I pronounced it thusly: ’saw–nuh’. I don’t believe in right & wrong pronunciations, though I correct people’s pronunciation of my name to bring it in line with how I pronounce it. Also whenever people say ’eether’ or ’neether’ I automatically yell ’eye–ther!’ or ’nigh–ther!’

― Kodanshi, Thursday, 3 November 2005 12:48 (nineteen years ago)

That pun about "the hills are alive with the sauna music" only works one way.

― Paul Eater (eater), Thursday, 3 November 2005 14:38 (nineteen years ago)

sauna in this context is an english word, as mentioned above. not much point in spending too much time worrying about the finnish pronunciation

― ambrose (ambrose), Thursday, 3 November 2005 14:44 (nineteen years ago)

Yes but "the only boy who could ever reach me was a sauna preacher man" requires the other pronunciation (but is not enough to justify it, not at all).

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 3 November 2005 15:25 (nineteen years ago)

Sound - nd + nuh is right, so says me, my finnish roommate, and the science of mathematics.

This is indeed the correct pronounciation, in case you were wondering.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Thursday, 3 November 2005 15:27 (nineteen years ago)

three months pass...

I've never said the word aloud, but all my life I've been mentally mispronouncing "gimcrack."

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 22:32 (nineteen years ago)

In Sydney there's a town called 'San Souci', which is of course French for 'no worries'. Here, though, it's pronounced 'Sand Suzy'. My granfather, stationed in France in WWII, used to pronounce Ypres, 'Wipers', and this was apparently the norm for Brit troops, or so he said.

― ratty, Tuesday, 28 February 2006 22:44 (nineteen years ago)

Where the hell do they say "narrator": na-RAH-tor????? In addition to pronouncing "against": uh-GAYNST, this one Olympics commentator kept doing it. We were all like "Um ... well, Canadian by default, I guess?"

― literalisp (literalisp), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 23:28 (nineteen years ago)

that's true about Ypres, ratty.

― dog latin (dog latin), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 23:29 (nineteen years ago)

i hate it when aristocratic types on tv don't pronounce the final "t" in "restaurant". what the fuck is up with that?

― dog latin (dog latin), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 23:31 (nineteen years ago)

I actually had to ask my Production Coordinator how he wanted me to pronounce "bologna" in a ten-second billboard spot for a local meats company.

I mean, I've always pronounced it "bah-low-knee", but I didn't want to come across as a total hick. We decided that pronouncing it "bah-low-nuh" would come across as too froo-froo on the air.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 23:41 (nineteen years ago)

Webster's gives "bah-low-knee" as the standard pronunciation, even when spelled as "bologna" ("-nyah" and "-nah" are given as variants).

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 23:45 (nineteen years ago)

I had no idea baloney = bologna till this moment!

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 23:47 (nineteen years ago)

So, hang on. If you were visiting Bologna, would you call it Baloney?

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 23:48 (nineteen years ago)

My Spanish professor says Don Kwik-sot.

― Cathy (Cathy), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 23:58 (nineteen years ago)

I wonder if anyone says quixotic "kee-oh-tic".

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 00:07 (nineteen years ago)

MV did, post three, five months ago

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 00:10 (nineteen years ago)

I say "Don Kee-oh-tee" but "Kwiks-o-tic". I think that's right, right? But if so, how did the pronounciation difference come about? The latter is derived from the former, no? (I'm fearing being shown up as stupid, now.)

― emil.y (emil.y), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 00:13 (nineteen years ago)

people read "quixotic" who didn't know that the word came from the man and that the man came from la mancha (olé!)

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 00:15 (nineteen years ago)

But then why is it standard? Just through use? Didn't anybody correct the first people to make the mistake? WHY OH WHY OH WHY?

― emil.y (emil.y), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 00:17 (nineteen years ago)

i say "key-ho-tee" and "key-ho-tic"

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 00:18 (nineteen years ago)

RJG says kee-ho-tic, I think.

― Cathy (Cathy), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 00:19 (nineteen years ago)

anyway it such a WASTE OF THE BEST LETTER what are the spaniards thinking of?

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 00:19 (nineteen years ago)

I have read Don Quixote but I don't really know what quixotic means, so I've never said it.

― Cathy (Cathy), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 00:20 (nineteen years ago)

spanish pronunciation of spanish only started with telly

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 00:20 (nineteen years ago)

they tend to spell it Don Quijote over here, I think.

― Cathy (Cathy), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 00:21 (nineteen years ago)

Skipping 145 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Also, Webster's prefers "mohve". Still not sure of the difference in color between mauve and lavender. Mauve might be a shade darker, but then again, lavender might be a plant whose flowers are mauve-colored. Something for another thread. maybe.

― kenan, Sunday, 25 July 2010 16:43 (fifteen years ago)

I think of mauve as a fair bit darker than lavender but I've been looking at lavender flowers this summer that are more or less blue imo

― flashing drill + penis fan (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 25 July 2010 16:45 (fifteen years ago)

Lavender is pretty close to a standard purple. Mauve is like dark pink.

― kkvgz, Sunday, 25 July 2010 16:59 (fifteen years ago)

Mind blown by the Boulez thing

Well, the 'z' is sounded in Berlioz too after all

― tom d: he did what he had to do now he is dead (Tom D.), Monday, 26 July 2010 10:06 (fifteen years ago)

Yeah, but not in "voulez", which you'd expect to be pronounced the same as "Boulez".

― Tuomas, Monday, 26 July 2010 12:15 (fifteen years ago)

Of course, but not that surprising that a proper name might be pronounced differently - as in the case of Berlioz? Also, it might not be a French name, I don't know.

― tom d: he did what he had to do now he is dead (Tom D.), Monday, 26 July 2010 12:21 (fifteen years ago)

It did cross my mind that the -ez pronunciation I knew might be for verbs only, or at least never surnames, but since that other guy's surname has a silent z, I guess the only rule is that there isn't a rule (for proper names, at least)

― piskie sour (a passing spacecadet), Monday, 26 July 2010 12:33 (fifteen years ago)

french rule is definitely not to pronounce the z in -ez, i'm guessing that it's sounded in those cases b/c both boulez and berlioz are names with a non-french origin (spanish perhaps?) - boulez being more surprising because it "looks" french.

(cf french tennis player tatiana golovin - the-in is pronounced as it looks, i believe, not with the usual french nasal inflection, because she's ethnically russian and it's a russian name, not a french one.)

― لوووووووووووووووووووول (lex pretend), Monday, 26 July 2010 12:41 (fifteen years ago)

This reminds me of a debate over Pinochet's surname, which Britishers generally pronounce as if it were French - wikipedia says that neither side in the debate I was eavesdropping on was correct, as the "ch" is pronounced in the usual Spanish way and not the French way, but the man himself used a silent "t"

― piskie sour (a passing spacecadet), Monday, 26 July 2010 12:51 (fifteen years ago)

two years pass...

pronounce the last two words in "le mystere des voix bulgares."

― les yper-fem (get bent), Saturday, 12 January 2013 20:44 (twelve years ago)

vwah bool-gar

― conrad, Saturday, 12 January 2013 20:49 (twelve years ago)

that's what i thought.

― les yper-fem (get bent), Saturday, 12 January 2013 20:50 (twelve years ago)

"Yoinks! Burglaries!"

― Shields & Yarnell Present: The Perils of Puberty (Old Lunch), Saturday, 12 January 2013 21:25 (twelve years ago)

irl lol

― Tarfumes The Escape Goat, Saturday, 12 January 2013 22:07 (twelve years ago)

woah is it bool not byl? This page says byl, but I'm ready to be schooled here.

― anatol_merklich, Saturday, 19 January 2013 16:19 (twelve years ago)

the french "u" is like the english "e" (as in "key") with pursed lips

― hypnotiQ tanqueray (clouds), Saturday, 19 January 2013 16:39 (twelve years ago)

yah obv! ie what I (Norwegian) would call "y" or "ü" or any place on the continuum, if any, between them. But conrad said "bool", and English "oo" is also not totally inconceivable as exceptions in French pronunciation of "u", especially in the case of a foreign demonym.

― anatol_merklich, Saturday, 19 January 2013 17:04 (twelve years ago)

xp ?

http://fr.thefreedictionary.com/bulgare

― things that are jokes pretty much (Nilmar Honorato da Silva), Saturday, 19 January 2013 17:28 (twelve years ago)

the french "u" is like the english "e" (as in "key") with pursed lips

Uh, what?

― Designated Striver (Tom D.), Saturday, 19 January 2013 17:31 (twelve years ago)

eight years pass...

“Sentient”
Web says “senshent” but I’ve always heard “sen ti ent”

― calstars, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 00:41 (four years ago)

Web version is more proper but either one gets you there among english speaking Americans.

― sharpening the contraindications (Aimless), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 00:53 (four years ago)

I've never heard anyone say 'senshent'. Forvo agrees that it's a hard t, on both sides of the Atlantic:

https://forvo.com/word/sentient/#en

― pomenitul, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 01:04 (four years ago)

Sen ti uhnt

― Urbandn hope all ye who enter here (dog latin), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 01:06 (four years ago)

Forvo? More to the point, how do old Etonians pronounce it when conversing among themselves at their club?

― sharpening the contraindications (Aimless), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 01:07 (four years ago)

sen-ti-uhnt or sen-chent

― sarahell, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 08:40 (four years ago)

Sentyent

― flagpost fucking (darraghmac), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 08:47 (four years ago)

Streisand = sentyenyl

― Filibuster Poindexter (Neanderthal), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 12:55 (four years ago)

yentl. Motherfucker

― Filibuster Poindexter (Neanderthal), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 12:56 (four years ago)

What's the consensus on 'prescient'? I hear Americans saying 'preshent' in movies, is that a countrywide thing?

― Maresn3st, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 14:34 (four years ago)

https://miro.medium.com/max/1200/0*yt7Mwvdb8e08xxhk.jpg

― You Can't Have the Woogie Without a Little Boogie (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 14:37 (four years ago)

That's what Sean Connery used to get on his birthday. Surely to goodness no.

― Authoritarian Steaks (Tom D.), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 14:39 (four years ago)

(xp)

― Authoritarian Steaks (Tom D.), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 14:39 (four years ago)

Think I first heard Shane Carruth say it in 'Primer', have definitely heard it in a couple of American TV shows since.

― Maresn3st, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 15:03 (four years ago)

Pressy-ent imo

― flagpost fucking (darraghmac), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 15:14 (four years ago)

I would agree although I can't say for sure that 'prescient' isn't one of the many, many words which I've encountered more in text than in speech and therefore probably don't actually know how to correctly pronounce but casually toss into verbal communication anyway to the jeers and titters of anyone more learned who's within earshot.

I think I said 'unwieldly' for an embarrassingly long time.

― You Can't Have the Woogie Without a Little Boogie (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 15:20 (four years ago)

Otherwieldly

― flagpost fucking (darraghmac), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 15:21 (four years ago)

happy to help

https://voca.ro/1dGZCUAbI0FZ

― intern at pepe le pew research (Simon H.), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 16:27 (four years ago)

Prescient is one of those words that I would never use in a conversation. Fine in writing though

― calstars, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 17:21 (four years ago)

Billy Corgan uses it

― Filibuster Poindexter (Neanderthal), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 17:32 (four years ago)

That's what Sean Connery used to get on his birthday. Surely to goodness no.

lol I was going to say "that's what Sean Connery says when his name is said during roll call"

― 80's hair metal , and good praise music ! (DJP), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 17:52 (four years ago)

one month passes...

Pedant

― AP Chemirocha (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 16 June 2021 22:17 (four years ago)

PEDant
cf peDANtic

― calstars, Wednesday, 16 June 2021 23:05 (four years ago)

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=dickhead

― stupid fucks, Wednesday, November 2, 2005 11:36 PM (fifteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

― underminer of twenty years of excellent contribution to this borad (dan m), Wednesday, 16 June 2021 23:10 (four years ago)

karate

― cancel culture club (Neanderthal), Thursday, 17 June 2021 13:29 (four years ago)

kuh-rot-tay

― treeship., Thursday, 17 June 2021 13:31 (four years ago)

kuh-ray-zee

― Jerome Percival Jesus (Old Lunch), Thursday, 17 June 2021 13:32 (four years ago)

I just accept at this point that every American English pronunciation of a Japanese word or name is completely wrong. Case in point:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGzdjnvoXek

― Jerome Percival Jesus (Old Lunch), Thursday, 17 June 2021 13:35 (four years ago)

Swathe

― 29 facepalms, Thursday, 17 June 2021 13:46 (four years ago)

four years pass...

I'm watching a documentary where several people (US-based) have pronounced the name of Australia's capital city as "can-BARE-uh". I have never heard this before!

― Kim Kimberly, Monday, 14 July 2025 04:26 (three weeks ago)

tbf no one can honestly predict how the australians pronounce/stress anything. (apart from shortening, i guess? and dingos) which is among the reasons that they rule

just wait until they hear about the fascist american attorney general's name

― mookieproof, Monday, 14 July 2025 05:07 (three weeks ago)

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