Off Piste - English pronunciation question....

jp928

Well-Known Member
Have been stewing on this years now, ever since we started watching QI.

Re Alan D - is it my ears, or is his name being pronounced 'Dav-iss' , despite being spelled 'Davies', which we (Strines) would pronounce 'Dav-ees'? Or something in between? Is it normal to pronounce both these spellings the same way? I know the yanks seem to pronounce 'Less' and 'Les' as the former. From Dad's Army, am familiar with the pronunciation of Featherstonehaugh.
thanks
 
Stephen Fry always says Dave Iss

But he could be wrong, for example, we don't know whether Fry is an aluminium, or an aloominum guy.

Alan Davies could be humouring him by putting up with being called Dave Iss

It's the old tomAto / tomaaarto conundrum, which came first, oh hang on, that's to do with eggs and chick hens......

One thing we have learned, at 5.21 am here, it is beer o' clock down under.
 
Yes, it should follow how a person likes their name pronounced. Its a bit like Churchill's (?) comment about American pronunciation - 'Two countries separated by a common language'. Our PM was in US recently. Normal pronunciation of his name here is 'Alban-easy' , where the yanks said 'Alban-aise'....
thanks
 
Keeping on the P6 theme, i wasn't really sure how one should pronounce the surname of David Bache.
Something like Beitch i presume?
 
Keeping on the P6 theme, i wasn't really sure how one should pronounce the surname of David Bache.
Something like Beitch i presume?
The 1961 "Assignment P6" film narrator pronounces it "Bay-tsch". That's generally how I've heard his name pronounced by people who know a lot, too.
As it happens, there is also small village on the outskirts of Chester called Bache and pronounced in the same way. I'm passing through it as I type. I've taken a recording of the automated announcer, but the forum won't let me upload the MP3 file.
 
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Keeping with Mr Bache, I received this shot from a friend and thought worthy of sharing.

Looking like he’d fit in with the Krays in this shot .. 7F54B892-B6F3-428E-AB4D-5DCEF7E06C6C.jpeg
 
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But he could be wrong, for example, we don't know whether Fry is an aluminium, or an aloominum guy.

That’s down to the Rev Webster here in the states. He’s also responsible for removing the ‘U’ from Labour, humour, colour etc. he also wanted to spell soup ‘soop’ thankfully someone stopped him from that lunacy.
 
Yes, Webster has a lot to answer for, in apparently unilaterally changing many spellings. To say nothing of 'in back' for 'behind' and 'off of', which really gets my goat!
 
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