661
submitted 5 months ago by Deebster@programming.dev to c/xkcd@lemmy.world

xkcd #2942: Fluid Speech

https://xkcd.com/2942

explainxkcd.com for #2942

Alt text:

Thank you to linguist Gretchen McCulloch for teaching me about phonetic assimilation, and for teaching me that if you stand around in public reading texts from a linguist and murmuring example phrases to yourself, people will eventually ask if you're okay.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] MajorHavoc@programming.dev 28 points 5 months ago

Nice. There's lots of areas I've lived where the locals drop specific consonants from the names of places. So anyone who actually pronounces the place name "correctly" is immediately recognized as new to town.

[-] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 12 points 5 months ago

I can only think if Toron(t)o. Never really thought about other towns doing the same thing.

[-] Kernal64@sh.itjust.works 12 points 5 months ago

When I hear someone from that city say their city's name, it sounds like it should be spelled "Trono."

[-] CDenno@lemmy.world 11 points 5 months ago

Shibboleths are amazing! Calgary is almost universally pronounced "Cal-Gary" by non-locals, locals say "Calgree"

[-] Kernal64@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 months ago

I'm gonna have to disagree with you. Have you ever seen a Shoggoth? They're horrific and just because they're protoplasmic beings doesn't mean their mispronunciation of English should be celebrated.

load more comments (8 replies)
load more comments (10 replies)
this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2024
661 points (99.0% liked)

xkcd

8839 readers
6 users here now

A community for a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS