Pronunciations
 

Hi all, I’m new here. I stumbled across this domain while looking at information for my old Singer (328K) and if it’ll fit into a treadle cabinet without remaking the entire wood top & new connections.
Anyhow, every time I see the name Pfaff, I want to say P-faff. I can’t undo it! And it just started. I always pronounced it “faff” before. What the heck. lol For a long time I didn’t know how to say Janome. I thought it was like Ja’gnome. lol
I have this problem with lawnmowers, too, it seems. For example, Husqvarna, I want to say Husk-a-varna. My husband has to correct me. And Cub Cadet always comes out Club Cadet. lol
Yet for cars, he says hi-un-die for “hun-day”, Hyundai. I correct him, but it doesn’t stick. He does it on purpose at this point.

For sewing names, watching the quilt shows on PBS which are usually sponsored by local stores or major manufacturer's helps me with pronunciations.

One of the things I have a terrible time with is "Chick-fil-A", we didn't have them in Alaska (pre-1983), we didn't have them in the Seattle area until maybe 5 years ago? Only time I ever saw ads or mentions was at college bowl games and I have it in my head as "Chick-uh-fill-uh".

One of the the things I love about the internet is I can hear pronunciations, so much easier than the old dictionary marks...

We have Roku and I don’t know if we can get a quilting show, but I can check.

E-liz-a-beth, how about E-le-a-no-ra. Eleanora or Elnora, etc. It can get confusing.

P-faff is actually kinda funny!

My grandfather was a very playful person. He loved wordplay and would often mispronounce words just for fun. "Yawtch-it" for yacht was a very common one. I miss him so much.
Apparently as a child, I said "pan-a-cakes" instead of pancakes.
I have a joke to help with the Janome issue...
Two sewing machines were sitting at a bar. One turned to the other and said "Hey, aren't you a famous Singer?" The other one replied "Why, Janome?" (jah know me). The bartender sighed and said "Oh, Brother!" 😆😆😆😆

I was the same way with Chick-fil-a, thought it was pronounced Chick-fill-uh.

If you listen closely to TV dialogues, you can hear mispronunciations of unfamiliar words that are spoken phonetically instead of correctly.
And, lots of people can't spell Autumn correctly. They work at Starbucks and take-out eateries.

When I first heard to think "safe asset" as a way to understand pronouncing Kaffe Fassett, I was relieved. I'd been using a short "a" rather than long. Now, I just need a mnemonic for Edyta Sitar...

A friend's name is Joann, but pronounced Jo ahn - and she gets very agitated when it's mispronounced. IMO, if it's spelled the same as a common name, it's fair for people to say it the "normal" way. I just can't get that worked up over things. Maybe that's bc it isn't me being called by the wrong name?

I lived with my grandparents until I was almost 5. My grandfather had a few words that he pronounced incorrectly. Windlesill, for example. There is no "L" in the middle of windowsill, so where did that come from? And I often say, "draw" when I mean "drawer" - a habit I picked up from one of my first co-workers, many decades ago. If I catch myself, i add the "er" but it comes out almost as a separate word. Well, if that's the worst people can say about me, I'd say that's pretty good!

Ha! Love the sewing machine joke. That was a good one!

Some pronunciations come with what part of the country you are from or in.

I say worsh for wash, with the r sound like the word wore with an sh at the end, can't stop doing it - its how it is pronounced from where I grew up. I also say hammer with a long A sound pronouncing it like heymer instead of hammer. DH loves that one!

Accents figure in too. A person I know from North Carolina says impotent for the word important, as an example. A family member says innerest (no first T sound) for the word interest