Let's Explore and Quibble Over Some Words
 

Mod edit: Nate beat me to splitting What Do Sound Like from WDYLL, so I'm splitting my own conversation from it.

"H"s aren't silent in English, Fabiotto.

This is a honourable statement.

To be fair, many English words beginning with H were historically pronounced with the H silent, and this still persists in some accents. Just not normally in the U.S., with the exception of honour. And herb, for reasons I can’t figure out.

That's true. I'm frequently frustrated whenever I see sentences like "a homage." So yeah, shame on me for being dumb. How do you guys pronounce "homage"?

"Homage" is one of those annoying words, much like "garage", for which my pronunciation has been contaminated by overexposure to American media. Hence, I alternate pronunciations and generally try to avoid the words completely if I can.

Homidge and Gararj respectively.

Most people I know pronounce them Omarj and Garridge respectively. :confused:

EDIT: That's a bit misleading. I can't think of a single instance of hearing somebody use the word Homage in real-time. I pronounce it Omarj. But then until this summer I thought Rennet was pronounced Rennay.

home-ah-gay

I hate the way that the supposed english way of saying "Mall" is Mal.
I mean, WTF?! We say Hall, Ball, Fall in the exact same way. Yet Mall is friggin Mal?!
That just makes absolutely no sense and never will. Finally, a reason to move to america!

Yeah, I thought that until I learnt that the word is derived from Pall Mall/The Mall, the place in London which is pronounced /mæl/. So etymologically it makes sense, and I should hope by now you’ve realized words in English are really pronounced as per their individual history, not because of any all-encompassing rules.

I have only ever heard the word "mall" be used by Americans.

There are two malls in Norwich. Only one is called a mall by name, but if you mention ‘the mall’ you’ll be asked which one you mean.

We have two malls, but they're always referred to by name. (Beechwoods and Regent Arcade)

I studied it during my English lessons at school... some words beginning with h allow an. For example I know that an hour isn't wrong.

In America, it's pronounced GRODJ. That, or carhole. Any other pronunciation merits you the badge of 'fancy boy.'

As far as shopping centers, I typically like to spell the word 'Maul.'

Sounds like a highly sought label.

It is, particularly when you're at the maul trying to grab it off the rack during a clearance sale.

I hate it when people pronounce "envelope" "onvolope". I bet there's a fair few of you who do that here. I also hate "mum". I was always brought up to say "mam".
I'd always say "garridge", and as for "mall", I'd say "supermarket".

You call the maul a supermarket?? Jeez. That's like calling House of Parliament a Carnival.

I say ONVOLOPE.

"Onvelope" gets on my nerves, too, but it's a perfectly valid pronunciation.

And, uh, malls and supermarkets are different things. It'd be like calling a street a shop.

EDIT: Actually, since we share geography, would you call Meadowhall a supermarket?

Say, what's the name of that big supermarket that we have here in the UK that's a knockoff of Walmart?

Mam/mum/mom is the reason I say mother instead.
I dislike the Masc/Feminine thing about foreign languages.

ASDA is part of the WalMart family

I'd call it a shopping centre. I see your point. In that case, I would call a mall a shopping centre. Apologies for the cock-up.

No, no... you're fine.

You use a different word just because the alternative has different spellings and pronunciations?

ASDA. That's it.

A good friend of mine's grandad was one of the founders of Asda. He made the "as" part. Don't know what his full name was, though.

Was it Fred or Peter Asquith?

That looks like the man.

WalesMart?

The point was that the 'h' in 'hour' is silent but the 'h' in 'horrible' is pronounced. So you would say "An hour' and 'A horrible".

For what it's worth, I pronounce the word 'mall' rhyming with 'shawl' but usually call them shopping centres anyway. I am shocked and horrified that anyone on the planet uses the pronunciation 'Garridge'.