This is the thread where ILXors help those who are unsure how to pronounce certain words. It will collapse in a flurry of transatlantic squabbling fairly quickly of course.
Anyway: biopic. This word is obviously an condensation of 'biographical picture', so accordingly I've always pronounced it BI-ohpic. Most people I know seem to say 'Bi-O-pic', and I've even heard it that way on TV (it was Mark Kermode, I think). Is there any reason it should be pronounced the latter way, or is the rest of the world just wrong, as usual?
― chap, Sunday, 17 June 2007 15:43 (eighteen years ago)
myopic
― RJG, Sunday, 17 June 2007 15:46 (eighteen years ago)
bye-AH-pic
like bye-AH-grah-fee
xpost yes
― Tracer Hand, Sunday, 17 June 2007 15:48 (eighteen years ago)
I say bio like biography like by-oh
― RJG, Sunday, 17 June 2007 15:58 (eighteen years ago)
This is a pure neologism and there are few rules. Analogy with such compunds as bio-logy, would suggest bi-AH-pic. Analogy with bio-sphere would suggest BY-oh-pic. The latter seems more comfortable to me. Britains may feel more comfortable with the former. It makes no odds whichever way you say it.
― Aimless, Sunday, 17 June 2007 16:27 (eighteen years ago)
I say bio like biography like biology like by-oh
― RJG, Sunday, 17 June 2007 16:41 (eighteen years ago)
sorry
I don't say by-oh-graphy or by-oh-logy but I do say by-oh-pic
― RJG, Sunday, 17 June 2007 16:47 (eighteen years ago)
Upon which syllable do you place the accent?
― Aimless, Sunday, 17 June 2007 16:50 (eighteen years ago)
i thought it made no odds!
― Tracer Hand, Sunday, 17 June 2007 16:56 (eighteen years ago)
BY-oh-pic, I suppose, but it's not a huge amount of stress
― RJG, Sunday, 17 June 2007 17:11 (eighteen years ago)
Yeah, I say it exactly the same way.
― chap, Sunday, 17 June 2007 17:18 (eighteen years ago)
i bet you guys say DOCK-u-men-tare-ey, too
― Tracer Hand, Sunday, 17 June 2007 17:22 (eighteen years ago)
Dock-u-MEN-try.
― chap, Sunday, 17 June 2007 17:30 (eighteen years ago)
horrible
whor-able or har-able
― Jeff, Sunday, 17 June 2007 17:33 (eighteen years ago)
how do you really pronounce 'segue'?
― Ignition (Remix), Thursday, 11 December 2008 11:16 (seventeen years ago)
I've only ever heard it pronounced as seg-way, is there another (seg-)way of pronouncing it?
― Ich Ber ein Binliner (Tom D.), Thursday, 11 December 2008 11:21 (seventeen years ago)
yeah. im not sure if they're joking though. shouldn't it be 'seeg'?
― Ignition (Remix), Thursday, 11 December 2008 11:22 (seventeen years ago)
Why not seg-ew?
― Ich Ber ein Binliner (Tom D.), Thursday, 11 December 2008 11:23 (seventeen years ago)
Someone's been had.
― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Thursday, 11 December 2008 11:24 (seventeen years ago)
Junior Boys I never fell in love with, but quite liked. MIA I loved the first single by and then was nonplussed from thereon in. That Medicine record I REALLY disliked. Never got Joy Division.
― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Thursday, 11 December 2008 11:26 (seventeen years ago)
WRONG THREAD KIDS
I thought it was a seeg
― Ich Ber ein Binliner (Tom D.), Thursday, 11 December 2008 11:26 (seventeen years ago)
No, definitely seg-way, to rhyme with Megway.
― Brother Belcher (Marcello Carlin), Thursday, 11 December 2008 11:36 (seventeen years ago)
Blimey. All this time I've been going around seeging!
― I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE UP TO (Colonel Poo), Thursday, 11 December 2008 11:42 (seventeen years ago)
What ILX needs is to learn the phonemic alphabet! Lets see if this works.
/seg'weɪ/
― Jamie T Smith, Thursday, 11 December 2008 12:10 (seventeen years ago)
OK. It does. Here is an IPA typewriter
― Jamie T Smith, Thursday, 11 December 2008 12:13 (seventeen years ago)
/ˌdɒkjəˈmentri:/
― Jamie T Smith, Thursday, 11 December 2008 12:17 (seventeen years ago)
/'segweɪ/
I'm confusing myself about how to mark stress - does the apostrophe go before the stressed syllable or afterwards?
― Jamie T Smith, Thursday, 11 December 2008 12:18 (seventeen years ago)
/kənˈfju:zɪŋ/
― Jamie T Smith, Thursday, 11 December 2008 12:22 (seventeen years ago)
/aɪ lʌv ðɪs, θæŋks ʤeɪmi:/
― Daniel Giraffe, Thursday, 11 December 2008 12:50 (seventeen years ago)
I've been struggling for months on how to say "Barthes" in the proper French accent. I'm tired of saying it "Bart", but theres a very subtle kind of soft hcht sound that I never know when or when it's supposed to be there (cf. Sartre). How the hell does one say this?
― This time, or I'll perc you later (mehlt), Thursday, 11 December 2008 15:42 (seventeen years ago)
Apparently I've been saying Albert Ayler wrongly for years
― Ich Ber ein Binliner (Tom D.), Thursday, 11 December 2008 15:44 (seventeen years ago)
Hilarious hijinks in a Xmas NME from some years past when someone (J Mascis?) was quoted as having listened to Ornette, Coltrane and "Isla" recently. I always wondered what "Ghosts (Second Variation)" would sound like as reinterpreted by Larry Grayson's trusty Generation Game sidekick.
― Brother Belcher (Marcello Carlin), Thursday, 11 December 2008 16:00 (seventeen years ago)
looking for something else in fowler i discovered that the correct pronunciation of cocaine is COCK-AH-EENE
(tbf he also says this battle is lost)
― mark s, Saturday, 11 May 2019 13:05 (six years ago)
(correct english pronunciation i guess i shd have said)
― mark s, Saturday, 11 May 2019 13:08 (six years ago)
looking for something else, officer
― milkshake chuk (wins), Saturday, 11 May 2019 13:18 (six years ago)
a) presumably this would distinguish it from the Land of Cockayne
b) that Eric Clapton song would be 500 percent improved if he used the correct English pronunciation
― Doctor Nu (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 11 May 2019 13:28 (six years ago)