@?&®% Mispronunciations!

[BenG]

Originally Posted by copyrite

Haha... there's probably folks in the South who would think you're the one from another planet.

Nonsense! Bostonians do not have accents.

[BenG]

I remember listening to a book on Librivox where the reader came across the British spelling of drafty (draughty) and pronounced it draw-ty.

[GrannyGrump]

One of the most annoying Librivox fluffs I ever heard --- A collection of short stories.
And at the start of every story, the narrator informs us the author is "Guy (rhyme with eye) Maussapant." I wonder if he is spinning in his grave.

Librivox has a policy not to inform narrators of mispronunciations, but I would think that the correct *author's name* is a pretty vital part of the book!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by GrannyGrump

Librivox has a policy not to inform narrators of mispronunciations, but I would think that the correct *author's name* is a pretty vital part of the book!

That's a very silly policy, to my mind. How can narrators know that they're mispronouncing something, and correct the problem, if nobody tells them?

[GrannyGrump]

They don't want their volunteers' feelings hurt; it might drive them away never to return to read aloud again. It is even in the "proof-listener" instructions, that the listener can pretty much only criticize for a re-do things like *extreme* back-ground noise and totally garbled and unintelligible reading. (Unless the reader *asks* for critique of pronunciation.)

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by GrannyGrump

They don't want their volunteers' feelings hurt; it might drive them away never to return to read aloud again.

Poor sensitive souls . Seriously, that's a ridiculous policy, I think. They should be aiming to improve the quality of their output.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by GrannyGrump

One of the most annoying Librivox fluffs I ever heard --- A collection of short stories.
And at the start of every story, the narrator informs us the author is "Guy (rhyme with eye) Maussapant." I wonder if he is spinning in his grave.

Not being English, how should you pronounce that name then? (I always pronounce it like that in my head...) I'm talking about the first name...

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Not being English, how should you pronounce that name then? (I always pronounce it like that in my head...) I'm talking about the first name...

The narrator was getting the "s" and the "p" the wrong way around. It's "Maupassant", not "Mausappant".

Given that he was a French writer, I'm pretty sure he would pronounce his first name "gee" to rhyme with "see", with a hard "g".

[FizzyWater]

Listening to an audiobook today with a main character "Valentin". The character is supposed to be Russian.

Not being Russian, I can't say for sure, but I'm expecting this to be read as "VAL-en-tin".

The narrator is saying "Val-IN-tin" - which is jarring enough to me, given I'm expecting the other - but about 80% of the time, she's actually saying "Val-IN-tee-in" (as if it were spelled Valentian, not Valentin". It's driving me a little bit crazy.

ETA: Oh, and there's a character "Anastasia" - and she's pronouncing it "Ah-na-sta-SEE-ya".

[Ravensknight]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

ETA: Oh, and there's a character "Anastasia" - and she's pronouncing it "Ah-na-sta-SEE-ya".

That's how I pronounce it in my head

[issybird]

Right now, I'm listening to Grace Conlin read Wharton's The Custom of the Country. She pronounces "coronet" as "coronay" and "egregious" with two hard g's.

[arjaybe]

@issybird As you have an eye (ear) for mispronunciations, and I don't want any in my recordings of my stories, how would you recommend I pronounce ancillary? Not being sure which of the three I could think of might be right, I just chose one and hoped for the best.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by arjaybe

@issybird As you have an eye (ear) for mispronunciations, and I don't want any in my recordings of my stories, how would you recommend I pronounce ancillary? Not being sure which of the three I could think of might be right, I just chose one and hoped for the best.

An-SILL-uh-ree

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by arjaybe

@issybird As you have an eye (ear) for mispronunciations, and I don't want any in my recordings of my stories, how would you recommend I pronounce ancillary? Not being sure which of the three I could think of might be right, I just chose one and hoped for the best.

Originally Posted by HarryT

An-SILL-uh-ree

an-suh-lair-ee

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

an-suh-lair-ee

I was going to say "that's just weird", but my dictionary tells me that it is indeed the American pronunciation (with the stress on the "an"), but it still sounds weird to me .