"Jaguar - that's how it's spelt".

Spelt? Spelt is a fish. Jaguar isn't.

I don't mind most Americanisms, I see them as the evolution of language. However, in the case of proper nouns, it does bug me; if it's a British word, they are as objectively wrong as language can be.

Jag-u-ar. Ir-aq. Ir-an. Al-u-min-i-um. Car-i-bbe-an.

Edit: Oh yes, spelt is valid English. Only US English does away with it in favour of "spelled".

>> ^Quboid:

I don't mind most Americanisms, I see them as the evolution of language. However, in the case of proper nouns, it does bug me; if it's a British word, they are as objectively wrong as language can be.
Jag-u-ar. Ir-aq. Ir-an. Al-u-min-i-um. Car-i-bbe-an.
Edit: Oh yes, spelt is valid English. Only US English does away with it in favour of "spelled".


Except aluminium was called aluminum by the chemist who discovered it, Humphry Davy, in his 1812 book which publicized the metal. It was some anonymous jackass writing a review of Davy's book who decided to change it to aluminium because he didn't like the sound of Davy's choice.

Jaguar is a Portuguese word and I believe their pronunciation is closer to "jag-war" than "jag-you-are".

But generally, I agree with you. I still say catch myself saying "eye-rack" and "eye-ran" instead of "ee-rock" and "ee-ron". I go back and forth on the emphasis on Caribbean. It's hard to break old habits.

It's one of my biggest pet peeves, how folks from other countries don't pronounce a country's name the way the country does.

Cuba. Kooo-ba.

I was talking to a Cuban citizen in Heathrow Airport (I'm American) and when I asked where he was from he said, "Kooo-ba." Then did a mental shake, and said "Er, Cue-ba." I was shocked that my entire nation mispronounces his country's name, and he feels like he should CORRECT HIMSELF for my benefit.

This is wrong on so many levels, I can't hardly stand it.

It has been Kooo-ba ever since for me. And I listen carefully for other country's CORRECT NAME.

Ironically -- humorously -- the United States of America -- the United States -- can actually be translated into other languages, so I don't hold other country's to my own personal standard.

Have you ever heard a Southern say "Italian"? "Eye-talian." My father, with a Masters Degree in Engineering from MIT, say "Eye-talian." "High-why-yah."

My god.

>> ^bareboards2:

It's one of my biggest pet peeves, how folks from other countries don't pronounce a country's name the way the country does.
Cuba. Kooo-ba.
I was talking to a Cuban citizen in Heathrow Airport (I'm American) and when I asked where he was from he said, "Kooo-ba." Then did a mental shake, and said "Er, Cue-ba." I was shocked that my entire nation mispronounces his country's name, and he feels like he should CORRECT HIMSELF for my benefit.
This is wrong on so many levels, I can't hardly stand it.
It has been Kooo-ba ever since for me. And I listen carefully for other country's CORRECT NAME.
Ironically -- humorously -- the United States of America -- the United States -- can actually be translated into other languages, so I don't hold other country's to my own personal standard.
Have you ever heard a Southern say "Italian"? "Eye-talian." My father, with a Masters Degree in Engineering from MIT, say "Eye-talian." "High-why-yah."
My god.


So... you don't ever say Germany?

I agree that it's cool to say things in the "local" language, but a lot of the time you're basically pronouncing the country's name in English rather than in the local language. Like Polska vs Poland, Ukraine vs Україна etc

Jaguar the car is a British brand - maybe whoever named it after the cat got the cat's name wrong, but it then because a new pronoun of their choice. I had assumed aluminium followed the same naming convention as many materials ("ium"), this is probably what the anonymous jackass also thought. Also, in fairness, Iraq and Iran were probably named after some ancient name - if the Brits had come up with names from scratch, they'd be called New Essex and New Weston-super-Mare. Which would be odd.

Germany's not a mispronunciation of Deutschland in the same way as Cue-ba is so it seems less offensive IMHO, but it still doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

*talks

Adding video to channels (Talks) - requested by ant.