My worst example was the word GIF pronounced like the peanut butter instead of properly as in Graphical. It’s worse because Amanda Montell was writing a linguistics book about the history of language and words.

Recent example was “eschew” which is pronounced Eh-shoo but the narrator said “Eskew” and it confused me so much I had to Google it to make sure I hadn’t been saying it wrong my whole life. What exmaples have you found?

  • LifeHappenzEvryMomnt@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    YES! For some reason they chose a woman with an Asian accent* and a non native English speaker to read The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down which is about Hmong immigrants in CA. The book is from the point of view of an American non-Asian woman who did extensive research and had a relationship with the Hmong family featured in the book. Not only is the reader’s accent pronounced, her pronunciation of common English words is inexplicable, i.e. it’s not British English. This is one of my favorite books I’ve read and I thought I’d enjoy listening to it. I couldn’t even finish it.

    • Her voice reminds me of what Maxine Hong Kingston would describe as “good Chinese girl” speech.