I pronounce U

I have some linguistic weirdos and mysteries to blog about. In several languages this time.

Finnish

We have a TV program called 'A-studio'. Since 'studio' is also 'studio' in Finnish, there's no tension from my part when it's pronounced in Finnish. But, then there is 'A-talk'. It should be 'A-keskustelu' but 'talk' is English and thus pronounced in English. But but, 'A' is pronounced in Finnish, more like the letter 'R'. I hate it. Also, we have 'A-zoom', which follows the idiotic two-language pronounciation path. The 'A' comes apparently from a Finnish word 'ajankohtainen' (topical). It would be nice to hear them say 'Ajankohtainen-talk' or something. Those hosts of the show look very contempting, educated and snobby. How on earth can they deal with the 'A-talk' dilemma, LOL?

One of the all-time weirdos for me is the Finnish word 'ilmeisesti'. It is translated into English 'obviously'. Somehow the meaning of 'ilmeisesti' has changed into 'probably'. The word's origin, 'ilmiselvästi', equals with 'obviously' still. I have no idea what's happened along the way. Do you? There's a similar issue with the word 'varmaan' which used to mean 'for sure' but has nowadays changed into 'I guess'. How vague can one get eventually?

In Berlin World championships this year, there was a lot of athletes with interesting names. It was somewhat titillating (kutkuttava) to watch the Finnish commentators stumble and fall with them. There was a Polish sportsman called Adam Kszczot! It wouldn't be surprising to hear if many reporters had asked him: "May I call you Adam?" LOL! That name reminds me of a certain super villain character in Superman comics antiques. Also a US sprinter Muna Lee made me laugh at the expense of the commentators. Because 'Muna' means, not only egg but balls, dick or whatever down there is called, in Finnish, and the commentators were careful not to spell it in a Finnish way. For example, "Muna otti varaslähdön" (Penis took a false start). They pronounced it like "mew-nuh" and they could be right to do it that way. I won't argue anyway.

Finland-Swedish

It's been almost relaxing to listen to the Radio Vega in Finland. It broadcasts Finland-Swedish programs only. I have been noting that they abbreviate words, not the sentences, like those in Sweden. Remember 'vasadu' and 'nudags'? Now I can hear words like 'int' (inte) and 'da' (dag).

Especially the Swedish news on the radio are of good practise for intermediate (for some reason I don't dig that word) Swedish-speakers like myself. They pronounce properly without background noise, and usually some of the news are already related to older news which makes it easier to follow.

Swedish

I was discussing with my uncle who has lived in Sweden for 40-plus years. We discovered the word 'tallrik' which means 'plate'. It also means pineful, a place with lots of pines, since 'tall' means 'pine'. Instead 'tal' means a lot of things, and 'talrik' means 'numerous'. So you have to do a damn good job in pronouncing sometimes. And, sorry Amig-O if you're on the line, it's still not always the context that tells the difference. We were BBQ'ing, having plates on the table. Surrounded by the pines.

Another oldie for me is a pair of Swedish words. 'Grönsaker' means basically 'green things', which sounds like an understatement of the year when you talk about vegetables. Yup, Hairy Swede blogged about that several posts ago, but he forgot another equivalent: 'vitvaru' - 'white stuff'. That means the kitchenware, because they all used to be white. Well, they aren't all white anymore. Yet the name is in use.

Also the Swedes have their own trouble with English words. It's not rare to hear 'John Lennon' pronounced as 'Yon Lennon'. Being a number one fan of his wife, I think he actually might have liked the Swedish way of pronouncing his name.

Danish

I missed this in my Denmark extravaganza. I was amused by two Danish words. The first I noticed that 'sönder' (actually with a Danish ö) means 'south', not 'broken' like the word is in Swedish. A lot of 'broken' streets et cetera in Denmark, he he. The other one was of course 'böger' (books). Well, it's actually 'bögar' (gays) in Swedish, but the word 'pocket-böger' sounded funny to me still.

English

When Ronald Reagan was chosen for president in 1980, there was a debate in Finland about how to pronounce his name. 'Rea' in 'Reagan' was pronounced by some like 'reel', while some knew better to advice the others to say it like 'great'. The most usual way the Finns do it is like 'ray gun', no pun intended. The same thing with Warren Beatty. I have heard many say 'beat' in 'Beatty' like 'beat' (huh?), whereas some besser-wisser has corrected and told it should be like 'bate'. The most embarrassing moment in my pronounciation-spotting was met when a host of a quiz show repeatedly called him Warren Beauty. The same person, who is an actor in fact, calls constantly Groucho Marx as 'Grue-cho', as if it were a French name. And he's not the only one to use that pronounciation. If you have ever seen or heard any of Marx Brothers' entertainment, you should know 'grou' in 'Groucho' is called like in 'crowd'.

Another exception is Steven Seagal. I like some of his movies, because they are so pointless and the good guys always win. And the bad guys ALWAYS have great skills in martial arts, LOL! It seems like Steven has also used millionaire's shampoo. What that means is for old readers to know and for new readers to find out. Well, against all odds, I like to pronounce his name like 'se-gull'. Not like 'seagull', not like 'say gal' (again, no puns here). Gladly I have found that many web-writers share my opinion. What's yours?

Latin

Ok ok, this may sound a bit snobbish, but I really have something to comment about Latin as well. Not the font, LOL! I have noticed that the Ceasar's famous phrase "veni, vidi, vici" - although often used - is a mystery when it comes to pronouncing it. The letter 'c' was generally pronounced like 'k' in Latin, but there were some exceptions when it was pronounced like 's'. I'd go for the 'k'. It's interesting if no instructions how to speak original Latin fluently has survived.

My English teacher at some advanced schooling course years ago was criticizing me for the use of 'circa' in my essay. She taught me that it's Swedish and I accepted it. I learnt my lesson - until I read that Larsson's book this year. The same 'circa' was used there too and at first I thought it was just another mistake in translation. When I checked it in the Internet, I found out that it was used in English as well. Well, I haven't seen it, but I guess I can't challenge the web. The word is actually Latin, and therefore can be used in any languages. (see how the first 'c' is spelt like 's' and the second like 'k'!) I still won't use it in my English writings but at least now I know better. And hopefully you do too.