Which words do American's pronounce most strangely compared to the proper English way ?

Question

Sometimes their pronounciations are so foreign sounding that you have to quickly double-think/check their meaning.

Two that come to my mind are:

aluminium
route (they seem to pronounce it like: raute)

(I'm only teasing USA about "proper english way" - i like/prefer a few words they pronounce)

Answer 1

I'm no great lover of the American "language", but let's not get too carried away here, or we'll be shooting ourselves in the foot.

Some of the words that have been quoted are actually pronounced by the Americans the way they were "designed" to be. It's WE that have changed the pronunciation in many cases. (That's natural, of course - it's bound to flourish in its natural habitat!).

e.g. "leisure". This is from French, and was pronounced the American way. (Or close to it).

"laboratory". French "laboratoire". As above.

"saw". From German. Same again.

I could go on, but you get the picture.

However, with words like "route", for example, we're right, they're wrong.

The funniest one I've ever come across is the name "Cecil", which was pronounced "See-sill".

Answer 2

I'm American and I can say that we have slaughtered the mother tounge. However in our defense.... when we moved over here to the New World, we had a proper way of speaking and over the years and miles of land between familys and towns... we got inventive! How about some of the 'hillbilly' accents? "hi ya'll!" some of these conjure up images of very ignorant folk, and the truth be known... these are some of the most clever and wise of us! A country boy will survive is really true.

Answer 3

language shifts suprisingly quickly . Especially vowel pronunciation . Quite often letters are lost too. This process happened in England just as much as in America so you cant say "english english" is any more correct than US English .In fact there are examples whre US English has retained words and pronunciations that have died out in England . Example the word "gotten" . Dickens for example would have a hard time understanding the pronunciation in present day England. Shakespeare wouldn't understand a word! If you want a more extreme version of this procccess . All the Latin languages . French Spanish , Italian etc were once dialects of Roman latin . today they have become separate languages .

Answer 4

I'm American and I can say that we have slaughtered the mother tounge. However in our defense.... when we moved over here to the New World, we had a proper way of speaking and over the years and miles of land between familys and towns... we got inventive! How about some of the 'hillbilly' accents? "hi ya'll!" some of these conjure up images of very ignorant folk, and the truth be known... these are some of the most clever and wise of us! A country boy will survive is really true.
Why do you think it's so easy for you English blokes to charm the pants off of American ladies???? even the not so attractive guys have a shot over here! We luv ya!

Answer 5

This has to be one of the most entertaining questions I have seen. Wow lindalousmiles, I do not believe I have ever seen so many thumbs down on an answer before! Thank you people who have talked about the pronunciation of route! I live in Texas, and I pronounce route, "root". I get these really weird looks and have even been made fun of before for pronouncing it that way.....

Answer 6

the americans pronounce aluminum correctly as they spell it differently
A L U M I N UM as opposed to the UK spelling A L U M I N I UM

Personally I find it hard to understand why they pluralise words like 'magic' to make it 'magics' which has no meaning to me. (Would the plural of 'logic' be 'logics'? And what would that mean?) Many words the Americans use are actually 'proper' English as they have kept old forms of English (such as the Fall for Autumn and the use of the word 'gotten') that have subsequently fallen out of use in the UK. I don't think I could form a sentence using the word 'gotten', although we still use 'forgotten', curiously.

Answer 7

Most have already been mentioned.
During the Serbian War, US planes took off from Itly. (The 'I' is pronounced as the Turkish 'I' without the dot - something like Utly.
During this war they bombed an area called Kos'ovo, with the emphasis on the second 'o'.
They invaded Eyerak.
Aloominum
Nucler.
Laboratory pronounced as though it's the loo/john.
And then we come to definitions:
UK: the 51st State
Terrorist: a person with a slightly darker skin who isn't a Baptist.
Let's face it; Two countries divided by a common language.

English Language schools make the distinction between British and 'American' (USA) English. It's time we realised (realized) that USA English is rapidly becoming a foreign language. Only then can we boldly say, 'We need an interpreter.'
As my mother once said, 'Oh my God, he split his infinitive!'

Answer 8

There are regional variations, in both the UK and the US. Some I've heard, in addition to some of the others:

US Vye tarmin UK Vit (like Sit) a min For Vitamin
US Ah pricott UK Aypricot For Apricot
US Bay ta UK Beeta For Beta
US Durrbee UK Darby For Derby
US Corjull UK Cor de al For Cordial

And the mcdonalds filet o fish pronunctiation - tell them we speak British English, next time you're in a McD British 'restaurant' -yuck:
US Fillay UK Fillett Fillet

All good fun! Don't try to change each other, appreciate diversity! Rob

Answer 9

The one that bothers me most is dropping the h of "herb". It seems so strange that Americans have adopted the French pronunciation when we live so much closer to France. We pronounce the h because we take the word from the Latin "herba" - some of early mediaeval books of medicinal herbs were written in Latin.

Most American pronunciations are the same as they are spelled (except aluminium), which is logical - so why drop an h?

Answer 10

It's always hard to tell about such a thing. USA is a big country so you can't tell all of them pronounce words in a strangely way. However most of non-American people think they speak wrongly and sometimes with a foreign accent i have to disagree with those who say that . furthermore I'm not an American, I have to say that not all of them speak strangely . The words that are spelt with "r" you can clearly percieve the intonation that americans give to such word althought not all of americans pronounce out the letter "r" with a pitched-intonation. its like if you watch a multi-cultural event like Oscar you will see what i mean.
Once you've pointed out this question i don't want to be labeled as a geek who gave you a lecture just to wind you up and ended up not answering your question. to Avoiding Such comentaries i would say that the word americans pronounce most strangely is "water" which compared with the english way of it, you will see considerable differences.

Answer 11

It's not just pronounciation. And I think atheists answer is brilliant. But it's also misunderstandings too. Like *** means gay to an American but to the Brits it's a cigarette. Fanny to a Americans in the backside but to Brits it's the front bit of a woman also known here as a front bottom, how typically coy and English! Bum is a tramp, but to us it's the bottom, I am not anal honest! A tramp to us is a street person a tramp to you is a woman of loose morals. As someone once said - two nations divided by a common language. Ta ra xx
I just previewed this and to my astonishment fagg was bleeped out and of course Yahoo is American isn't it! Proves my point.