Quotes About Pronunciation

laborious filters of Italian pronunciation

The notion of 'Queen's English' is usually applied to our pronunciation.

I say the word N-U-C-L-E-R the same way that George W. Bush says it.

Sichuanese dialect is like Mandarin put through a mangle. So the Mandarin 'sh' becomes 's', vowels are stretched out like warm toffee, there are pirate-like rolling 'r' sounds at the end of sentences, and no one can tell the difference between 'n' and 'l' or 'f' and 'h' (the province of Hunan, for example, is known in Sichuan, helpfully, as 'Fulan').

Vowels Irish marks long vowels with an accent; short vowels have no accent. Here are the main vowel sounds:

People tend to try to find something to talk about Zuma. My surname is very nice and simple. Very simple, so they like pronouncing it all the time. So what's the problem?

Mr. Cultier, why do you pronounce your name Cult-E-A if you're American?" "How would you have me pronounce it, Bob?

Cheers,' she said as I left, 'and don't forget you're seeing Matt and I on Monday.' I thought for a moment she'd said 'matineye', an East End pronunciation of 'matinee'. Was I meant to review it? Then I remembered Matt was the production editor. 'Me won't forget,' me muttered as me went downstairs.

Menyara's Creole accent was as thick as his mother's jar of refrigerated roux, and Nick loved the sound of it. He wasn't quite as pleased with his own. No matter how hard he tried to hide his accent, it always came out in certain words like praline, etouffee, pecan, and any time he lost his temper. You could easily tell how mad he was by how Cajun he sounded. And if he started spewing all Cajun words, duck.

To tell you the truth, she doesn't. Freak is the correct pronunciation," he said, then pointed north. "They're the ones who pretend it's something else.

I, like many annoying pedants, will wince when someone says 'less' when they should have said 'fewer.' But my 'poor' sounds like poo-ah, not pore; and my 'grass' rhymes with mass, not farce. What's wrong with that?

I guess my diction just isn't very good.

The English have no respect for their language, and will not teach their children to speak it. They cannot spell it because they have nothing to spell it with but an old foreign alphabet of which only the consonants – and not all of them – have any agreed speech value. Consequently no man can teach himself what it should sound like from reading it; and it is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman despise him.

I have a wonderful English-language dialogue coach. All the time I have to speak English, he is with me. It is a double effort, because you have to say the words correctly and then act them.

If you don't know how to pronounce a word, say it loud!

I picked up the Puerto Rican accent from my father, and my sister picked up my mother's very clear, concise, and slow Mexican-Spanish. So, when she does speak, she speaks with diction. She pronounces every word.

In most legislatures, punctilious attention to correct usage is considered elitist. The word 'government,' for example, is normally pronounced 'gummint'; bureaucracy is 'bureaucacy'; fiscal comes out 'physical,' and one moves not to suspend the rules, but to 'suppend.'

The educated Southerner has no use for an 'r', except at the beginning of a word.

If you can't pronounce a word correctly, just don't use it.

Be able to correctly pronounce the words you would like to speak and have excellent spoken grammar.

I think my style as far as vocal delivery and even down to the pronunciation of certain words is so deliberate.

I think the hardest thing about doing an accent, especially with a Missouri accent, is making sure that you're not mumbling with the words so your diction is clear.

I was, like, 12 or 13; the first hip hop song I tried to rapping to was Macklemore's 'Thrift Shop,' and my English was so bad, but learning to rap to different songs really helped me with my pronunciation, and looking at the lyrics on Rap Genius and stuff like that.

Greek, a language in which everything is pronounced exactly as written