Depends who I’m speaking to. I pronounce words correctly unless I’m drunk or drugged or unless I’m talking to someone who’s made it known to me that they think my using language correctly is in some way an insult to them or is evidence of my thinking I’m ‘better’ than them. In that scenario I just start to over pronounce a plethora of $5 words in a kind of Scottish received pronunciation, which can commonly be mistaken for a canadian accent, apparently.
Having grown up in Italy, I have conversations like these all the time:
… and I’ll have a bruschetta (“bru-sketta”) please
Certainly. The brusheta? (Clearly trying to subtly correct me)
Yes… the bruschetta. Thanks.
OK… the brusheta.
Most other American pronunciations of Italian words aren’t that bad, actually, thought. And I’ll even say “latte.”
I’ve always had the urge to order a latte and then ask the barista why they put coffee in it. I’m not enough of an asshole to go through with it, though.
RomanTic - in RomComs they drop the T and it drives me up the wall! It becomes “romanic” - OMG he’s so romanic! And once heard it cannot be unheard! UGH!
As an “Upper Canadian” raised by British ex-pats, my natural accent and pronunciation and intonation is vaguely “English”. I didn’t know how different this was until I moved west and got told I had a “Toronto” accent. And my SO is from NFLD, so accents and pronunciation differences abound in our house, even more so when alcohol is involved.
Apart from the “romanic” thing or “pacific” instead of “specific” (or in writing “of” instead of “have”) - I think I just accept most as regionalisms; just the way things are said there.
Also as a canuck, I honestly do not hear a difference in how I say “about” or a yankee says “about” but most yanks dissolve into gales of laughter when they hear me say it… /shrug
I’m not sure if this is uncommon or not, but I do pronounce the “th” in the word “clothes,” and a good friend of mine makes fun of me for it. She says something more like “close.” We’re both from the south, so I’m not even sure which is regionally correct (probably hers).
I’ve noticed that, in the South, some people pronounce the word “siren” as “sigh-REEN.” Is that normal anywhere else?
There’s also a tendency to put the accent on the first syllable of certain words that should (I think) have the accent on the second syllable, like _po_lice and _in_surance.
My spouse and I are both from states with messed-up pronunciation problems, so sometimes we have a fun time picking at each others’ lapses. I apparently don’t pronounce “roof” properly, and my spouse occasionally forgets what the letter R sounds like.
you mean aboot? MrsTobinL does not do that but her o’s are a bit rounded. some other canucks we have met though. so totally the moose ran oot and aboot the hoose. not that i got room to complain with my midwest where all the missing r’s from Boston went to accent.