Spelling rant

[W2R]

mickyDs

Now that you mention MickyDs, why is it that these terrible spellers never make a mistake and call it "MackeyDs"? No problems avoiding THAT spelling mistake.

Those of us whose last names begin with Mc or Mac are always getting our names mispelled with Mac instead of Mc, or with Mc instead of Mac. I guess people just don't care unless junk food is involved.

 

[Gumby]

THAT is impossible for me to attempt to pronounce and not massacre it.


These days in cafes when they ask for a name to call after I've placed an order I just say Fred. My accent often meant I had to respond when they called out "Holland", which is a common mis-hearing of my name down here.

I almost always use my surname for this purpose now; they can't understand me when I use my first name. Although I've also learned to respond to the most common mistaken name they call.

 

[ERD50]

For an answer to your question, I cannot improve on this discussion in TripAdvisor.

Confusion about Irish language and Gaelic - Ireland Forum - TripAdvisor

Thanks for the suggestion about my signature. I decided to put the information in my profile instead. Also see my new avatar!

Good link, thanks. That matches what I learned on my visit (and remembered, despite all the Guinness!). I loved Ireland by the way, wish I had more time there.

And then there is ... Celtic versus "K"eltic...


pronunciation celtic soft hard c - Google Search

Odd, I couldn't seem to view your profile, only 'statistics' show up?

-ERD50

 

[Meadbh]

Odd, I couldn't seem to view your profile, only 'statistics' show up?

-ERD50

I have loosened the privacy settings. I expect you should be able to see it now.

 

[sailor]

Reminds me of a favorite tv comedy from the days of lore, Barney Miller
Quote:
Wojciehowicz : "You say it like it's spelled!"

Did you realized that it's true?
This name sounds Polish and it's easy to read Polish (there is only one way of reading words).
Opposite can be actually quite difficult (Many same sounding Polish phonemes/sounds have various spelling).

 

[braumeister]

I love phonetic languages. If you can read them, you can pronounce them correctly without even thinking.

Russian and German are also that way, I think. So is Portuguese to a large extent. There are probably many more. Once you learn the rules, you've got it; there are no exceptions.

English has just done such an incredible amount of borrowing from other languages that we have a huge number of exceptions to "the rules." That gives us a rich and enormous vocabulary, but sure causes a lot of trouble even for native speakers.

 

[Nodak]

In my first Megacorp job they had a large computer installation with 5 operators per shift. I suspect this was done by an HR person with a warped sense of humor but one shift had all 5 guys named Dave..

 

[jollystomper]

Humorous misspelling story: I participate on Megacorp internal discussion forums for the technical areas I support. my last name is part of my email and is not pronounced as it is spelled. Someone posted "I tried to send an email to jollystomper, but it can back as invalid. Did he leave the company?" Of course, they had misspelled my email (and included the misspelling in the post). Then followed over 30 posts of folks lamenting my leaving, wondering where I had gone, who they should now contact for my areas, etc.These are folks who had emailed me fine on many occasions.

I was almost going to quickly reply but, frankly, seeing the responses I thought I'd enjoy things for a while. The next morning I got a call from my manager "someone emailed me thinking you left the company?" I explained to him what happened, which gave him a chuckle. I finally went on and posted that all was well, just be sure to check how you spell my email ID.

It was nice to see how people thought about me. So no misspelling complaints from me.

 

[Lsbcal]

...(snip)...
And by the way, my forum name is Meadbh, not mead.

Hi Meadbh, could you mention here the phonetic version of your name? I'm still not sure how to think of it. There was a link to a sound recording that sounded like "made" to me, but I want to get it straight from the horses mouth (so to speak).

Lsbcal is my initials + California but it could equally be considered Least Significant Bit in California. And I have no idea how to phonetically say it.

 

[Meadbh]

Hi Meadbh, could you mention here the phonetic version of your name? I'm still not sure how to think of it. There was a link to a sound recording that sounded like "made" to me, but I want to get it straight from the horses mouth (so to speak).

I don't know how to write in phonetics, so, with acknowledgements to YouTube......

Here is a video of a Meadhbh Ryan pronouncing her name (and skydiving):

Meadhbh Ryan :: www.skydiveireland.ie - YouTube

Somewhat less exciting, but with more people pronouncing the name, here is a video of Happy Birthday wishes to an 18 year old Meadhbh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rig8WkF-Q9s‎

 

[ls99]

There was this fellow who went by the name thuder, meaning: the other. His real name was John. To avoid confusion as to which John, he was not the one, he was the other.

 

[Lsbcal]

I don't know how to write in phonetics, so, with acknowledgements to YouTube......

Here is a video of a Meadhbh Ryan pronouncing her name (and skydiving):
...

OK Meadbh, it does indeed sound like "Mave" with a long "a" as in "Dave". Thanks.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

I am working in a phonetic culture today. Spelling is flexible. Unfortunately, computers and bureaucracies are not.

 

[ls99]

All this discussion about names calls for a joke:

Way back, off of 2nd avenue at the edge of Harlem was Ole Olsen's Cinese laundry. One day a bro stops in and says, Yo, you are Chinese, how come your name Olsen?

The owner answers. Coming through immigration ahead of me was this huge blonde Norwegian, they asked him his name, he said Ole Olsen. When my turn came, again they asked, what is your name? I said Sam Ting. So, my immigration papers said I am Ole Olsen.




By the way, I had to modify the pronounciation of my last last name so Americans can deal with it. They screw up my first name all the time. To top it off I had to give up the the use of my nick name entirely. In English it turns out to be some frilly stuff Rock Hudson would have worn in his budoir.

 

[NW-Bound]

This mention of funny names when pronounced in English prompted me to look up "funny name places" with google.

What I ran across are some unusual names that are not even foreign words. I cannot provide a link to them all, but here's some.

And a forum member may be interested in a Canadian town that was dedicated to him.

 

[Meadbh]

NW-Bound, you forgot Dildo, Joe Batt's Arm, Black Tickle, and Conception Bay, all in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Unfortunately I can not see the first two pictures. But I do wonder about the effects of a name like that English town with the #£?*$@€& name on property values!

 

[NW-Bound]

There are many throughout all English-speaking countries. The ones I linked to were simply at the top of my search list.

And Dildo was linked in my post. I thought it was in the US, and did not look it up to be sure.



PS. In a past post, when someone visited Portland and sought out a well-known landmark close to downtown, a long-term Chinese restaurant with the name "Hang Low", I got very interested because I had visited Portland 3 times, and never knew of this place.

So, I researched on the Web, learned about the restaurant sign that was expensively restored by the city as a beloved landmark. And I also learned that "Hang Low" is a phonetic of the Chinese words "Red Inn" (or was it "Red Restaurant"). I am willing to bet that the past owner of the place knew of the funny sounding phonetic and decided to capitalize on it.

 

[NW-Bound]

Meadbh, you already know about Dildo. The 1st link was a photo of a Crapstone town sign. I do not know why you could not see it.

From an article on the Web:

CRAPSTONE, England — When ordering things by telephone, Stewart Pearce tends to take a proactive approach to the inevitable question “What is your address?”

He lays it out straight, so there is no room for unpleasant confusion. “I say, ‘It’s spelled “crap,” as in crap,’ ” said Mr. Pearce, 61, who has lived in Crapstone, a one-shop country village in Devon, for decades.​

So, people in the UK outside of these towns may not know that these names are real either. And then, there's more. Like Penistone (England), Shitterton (England), or Twatt (Scotland), etc...

 

[haha]

Meadbh, you already know about Dildo.

Isn't that a tad presumptuous?

Ha

 

[NW-Bound]

She mentioned it in her preceding post, without being able to see the photo that I linked in (photo of the town sign, not of the object ).

NW-Bound, you forgot Dildo, Joe Batt's Arm, Black Tickle, and Conception Bay, all in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Unfortunately I can not see the first two pictures. But I do wonder about the effects of a name like that English town with the #£?*$@€& name on property values!

 

[haha]

She mentioned it in her preceding post, without being able to see the photo that I linked in (photo of the town sign, not of the object ).

It's a joke, Amigo. Not that you didn't know that were you doing a set-up.

 

[MRG]

Well I grew up close to Intercourse, Pa. One doesn't have to leave the states to go to a place that makes you go, well thats an interesting name.

MRG

 

[NW-Bound]

I was not trying to set anything up, nor to imply anything either, or a sous-entendre.

And perhaps the recent bouts of hospital stays that forced me to talk bluntly about private body functions, with not just my doctor but also mostly female nurses and nurse aides, have desentisized me to vulgar words.

That may be sad, but perhaps unavoidable. When I was young, I thought elderly people tended to make vulgar jokes. Perhaps I have found one of the reasons for it.