I`ve noticed that we Americans seem to have a peculiar way with pronouncing the short "oh" sound in proper names. Hence we have Ariel "Shar-own", "Slow-bodan Milow-sovic", "Bow-gow-ta", "Kow-soh-voh" and so on. Europeans, Aussies and South Africans all seem to pronounce these with a very different, and shorter, "o" vowel. Which is correct?

In truth, there is no absolute measure of "correctness" because it depends on WHERE you're speaking.
In Australia, Melbourne is pronounced "MEL'-buhn" with the "buhn" contracted so that the b and n are nearly conjoined without any vowel sound. If you pronounce it that way in the USA, people won't understand what you're trying to say.
Better examples: there's a town in Missouri spelled N-e-v-a-d-a. It's pronounced "Nuh-VAY-duh", and if you say "Neh-VAAH-duh" people will think you're referring to the state not the city.
In South Dakota, the capital is pronounced "PEER", but anywhere else, the word is pronounced like it's spelled, "Pee-AIR".

Vice President Cheney states that his own name is actually to be pronounced "CHEE-knee", not "CHAY-knee", but since everyone's mangled it for so long he's given up correcting people. Thus, language (including proper names) evolves with time and society.

Which is most correct?
Depends on where you are, both in place and in time.

Sorry, Webster, the state is pronounced Nuh-VA-duh, not Nuh-VAAH-duh. Only outlanders pronounce it that way (I know, that's the correct Spanish pronunciation, but...)

The Queens English is the correct way to speak.

Dan, what you observe rehort "o" depends on where in the US you are. In the midwest, the long and short "o" can become something a lot like an "a" and just an "uh": "Mih-LAA-suh-vitch" "Kaa-saa--voh" etc. Aussies and South Africans are likely to put their own spin on any vowel, similarly, but the way they or anyone else pronounce foreign words is likely to be just as "wrong" as the way Americans pronounce them.

For example: in Russian, ballet dancer Barishnikov's first name is pronounced (for English transliteration) something like "Mee-Khile" (Mee-kha-eel with the second and third syllables run together into one). Americans routinely pronounce it "Mick-ayl," and each non-Slavic-speaking country comes up with something different, from "Mickel" to "Meeshel" and beyond.

Part of the problem is that we English speakers insist on accenting certain syllables (often next-to-last or the one before that), which makes the vowel in that syllable longer automatically for us. In many languages, the accent goes somewhere else (last syllable of Bogota, for example) or nowhere at all (Kosovo), and having an accent doesn't mean making the vowel long.

Americans do have a "peculiar way" of correcting each other, though -- are you sure "Shar-own" is "wrong" or more "wrong" than "SHARon"? Do you know how Kosovo is pronounced there in Kosovo (I believe it would be closer to kawsehvaw)?

Your question: Which is correct? The only correct pronunciation is the way it's pronounced there in the home country. Everything else is an approximation. Don't you think to Ariel Sharon Europeans, Aussies, and South Africans all have accents, just as much as we Americans do?

As a dictionary, I was remiss in not pointing out that the title topic is spelled "pronunciation"...(as if it matters...but I am, after all, a dictionary...it's what I do).

how is this related to travel? question answer in a nutshell - depends where you live and how people you've grown up around pronounce words. we learn mostly by imitation

When in Rome, do as the Romans do! The people who live there pronounce it correctly, no matter what Webster says.

Webster, my dear,

I'm willing to wager that there are those who spell it "pronounciation" who go around feeling superior to those who say "pronunciation" because they think those people are incorrect and don't know how to spell, either.

Let's see -- there's orientated, coronated, furniture suit, heinious, fall foilage, just for starters. Others?

Hey Merriam, I have a question for you:

HUH?


What in the world are you talking about?

Sorry, Roget -- thought you of all people would recognize the problems. First paragraph says the ignorant don't always know they are. I've had people correct me on "pronunciation," telling me it's "pronounciation."

Second paragraph: no such words as orientate (it's orient), coronate (it's crown), or heinious (it's heinous). Furniture does not come in "suits," it comes in "suites" (pronounced sweets); if you have a furniture suit, it's probably very uncomfortable with all that wood under your arms. And as many on this forum have observed, it's fo-li-age, not foil-age.

How about nucular (nuclear) and realitor (realtor)?

"Coronate" is a commonly used term with the same meaning as "crown".

Not that: Not in my dictionary, it isn't. No "coronate" there. It's a figment of some illiterate newsmen's imagination.

I have passed judgment (no "E" in that word, BTW) and hereby nominate myself for membership in the Pompous Arse Club (Europe forum club). Have a lovely Monday all.

More fun.

Here are a couple of words that bug me when I hear them.

Irregardless
Often - with the t pronounced

OK, as long as we're sharing a few pet peeves, here are the ones that drive me crazy:

People who pronounce the word "nuclear" as "NUC-yuh-ler" instead of "NUC-lee-er."

People who pronounce the word "realtor" as "REEL-uh-ter" instead of "REAL-tor."

Also, for some reason, the metro announcers here in DC can't pronounce the word "Judiciary" (as in Judiciary Square metro stop) -- when they announce it, they always say "Judisherary."

How about "supposebly"? I know several people with advanced degrees who use this word all the time! Heinious and irregardless are also annoying as other posters have already pointed out. One that is peculiar to New England (I think) is pronouncing "height" with a "th" sound at the end. And is the phrase "went missing" correct to describe someone or something that has dissapeared? I hear it on my local TV news all the time (upstate NY) but it just doesn't sound right!

"Went missing" is just one of those phrases that people have discovered, think is quaint, and are now using to death. Ignore it and maybe it'll go away.

I hear around the mid-Atlantic and south, "...take and ..." -- as in "you take and get your hammer, then you take and hammer in the nail."

Okay, let's get back in the travel mode...

The capital of South Dakota is Pierre. The locals pronounce it "pier," not the fancy-shmancy french pronunciation "pee-air." Been pronounced that way for over a hundred years.

Your teachers taught you wrong.

Hey, if you east coasters are going to panic over the fishing port Glouchester, MA as "glow-stir" and not how it looks--"glow-chester"--I want to set the record straight.

Except that it's Gloucester, without an H, and pronounced Gloss-ter.