@?&®% Mispronunciations!

[silverraven]

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

You'd have to know you were wrong, to think of looking it up. My first guess was "keens" too. I'm not sure I know him, though it sounds a little familiar.

My guess was "keens" too. I wouldn't have known that was wrong to look it up.
S

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by issybird

“Keens.”

While the Keynes in "John Maynard Keynes" is pronounced kaynz, The Keynes in "Milton Keynes" really is pronounced keenz, so the mistake is understandable.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

While the Keynes in "John Maynard Keynes" is pronounced kaynz, The Keynes in "Milton Keynes" really is pronounced keenz, so the mistake is understandable.

I absolutely must disagree with this. J.M. Keynes is one of the seminal thinkers of the 20th century and the narrator of a non-fiction book which covers economic issues should be conversant in both the literal as well as metaphorical sense with the terms and proper names. And, the production process should catch errors if they occur!

[arjaybe]

You have to know that it might be an error, though, and it's more than possible that no one in the production chain had any reason to think it was. It's probable that they all had the same comfortable certainty of its pronunciation.

[Calenorn]

I once listened to a famous author read his own audiobook. He pronounced the name of an important character differently in different chapters.

Who am I to judge?

[issybird]

They need to do a better job to make sure that the terms in non-fiction books are pronounced correctly and especially proper names. It wouldn’t be that hard - just get someone who has a background in the subject to vet it. And this is not an obscure person.

Audiobooks that have mispronunciations are shoddy. It’s the equivalent of misspellings in a print book, except that you can’t ascribe it to a typo. It’s sheer ignorance and laziness.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Calenorn

I once listened to a famous author read his own audiobook. He pronounced the name of an important character differently in different chapters.

Who am I to judge?

The buyer always gets to judge. That’s easy.

An author reading his own book is always a dealbreaker for me; the results tend to range from mediocre to lousy. However, if I’d listened to this, not only would I not have listened to another book read by him, I’d also not read another book by him.

So who is it?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by issybird

The buyer always gets to judge. That’s easy.

An author reading his own book is always a dealbreaker for me; the results tend to range from mediocre to lousy. However, if I’d listened to this, not only would I not have listened to another book read by him, I’d also not read another book by him.

So who is it?

Philip Pullman is narrating the His Dark Materials series and he does an excellent job. They are multi-cast and I really like the choices for the voices.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by issybird

The buyer always gets to judge. That’s easy.

An author reading his own book is always a dealbreaker for me; the results tend to range from mediocre to lousy.

Interesting. The only audiobook I've ever been able to get close to finishing was Dreams From My Father, read by the author. I still got impatient, bored and gave up, but made it further through than any audiobook before or since.

[SeaBookGuy]

Originally Posted by issybird

The buyer always gets to judge. That’s easy.

An author reading his own book is always a dealbreaker for me; the results tend to range from mediocre to lousy. However, if I’d listened to this, not only would I not have listened to another book read by him, I’d also not read another book by him.

So who is it?

That's often true, but not quite always. I have run across a few books where the author has done a good job, most recent being The Observations by Jane Harris.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by issybird

[...] And, the production process should catch errors if they occur!

Now that I agree with. Someone in the production process should have spotted the error.

[DiapDealer]

I'm forgiving of a lot, but the somewhat common mispronunciations of "realty/realtor" and "nuclear" will still get you banished from my ears PDQ. I have zero patience for it. Can you really not hear that people aren't saying the same words you are? Have you never actually looked at the words?

[arjaybe]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I'm forgiving of a lot, but the somewhat common mispronunciations of "realty/realtor" and "nuclear" will still get you banished from my ears PDQ. I have zero patience for it. Can you really not hear that people aren't saying the same words you are? Have you never actually looked at the words?

Yeah, there's only one "u" in nuclear, isn't there?

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by arjaybe

Yeah, there's only one "u" in nuclear, isn't there?

Yep.
And no moving the "a" after the "l" in realty/realtor, either.

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Yep.
And no moving the "a" after the "l" in realty/realtor, either.

Well, they're just made up American words anyway.