Re: Rhys Ifans! Welsh fans, another pronunciation pop question
| From: | Paul Bennett <paul-bennett@...> |
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| Date: | Sunday, November 28, 2004, 19:48 |
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On Sun, 28 Nov 2004 20:51:25 +0200, Steg Belsky <draqonfayir@...>
wrote:
> On Nov 28, 2004, at 8:09 PM, Sally Caves wrote:
>> No more so than the Brits of latter years, who liked to pronounce Don
>> Juan
>> as "Don Joo-inn" and the river Guadalquivir as "Gwaddle Quiver."
>
> Or the barrage of British-sounding ads for "Jag-yoo-uh" cars i heard
> and saw last time i was in the 'States. I really don't see the point
> of those... i understand the American cultural idea of British = posh =
> high-class = good, but where does pronouncing a well-known American
> word in a very silly- and incorrect-sounding way come into it?
There's an arguement to be made (with the usual "Paris" and "London"
counterarguement) that since it's a British car, it ought to be pronounced
in the British way. Certainly, the British version seems to seem classier
than "Jag-wire". Of course, this hasn't stopped the horrific manglings of
Hyundai and Daewoo that I've heard on both sides of the Atlantic, and the
bizarre transatlantic differences in Nissan (/ni:.sAn/ vs /nIs.@n/), Nike
(/n6jki/ vs /nAjk/) and Adidas (/@'di:d@s/ vs /'adIdas/), inter alia.
Paul
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