Bloopers! Homos, aryans, and hi-undies...

[firepoint525]

I remember a guy doing an ad intended for "homeowners". I heard it as '**** nerds'.

The original (1982) version of "Here I Go Again" by Whitesnake had the lyric, "like a hobo, I was born to walk alone." Because of the possibility of mistaking "hobo" for "ho-mo," for the 1987 versions (both of them), it was changed to the familiar "like a drifter, I was born to walk alone." Far as I know, no members of the Drifters ever complained about it!

 

[JeffM]

This could spin off into a whole 'nother thread about "Mondegreens" (misunderstood lyrics)! I've heard the one about "carry a laser;" that maybe deserves to have some slack cut as "kyrie elaison" isn't a typical phrase you'd find in a lyric. As for Whitesnake, how about "Like a drifter, I was born to wear cologne?" (And of course, the Beatles' "Someday monkeys play piano songs"...)

When I first saw Shania Twain's name in print, I thought it was supposed to rhyme! (I.e., "Shaynia Twayn.")

For a confusing song title, it's tough to beat Led Zep's "D'yer Mak'er", apparently a Brit-accented pun on "Jamaica," which makes sense considering its pseudo-reggae rhythm. The oddly-placed apostrophes don't help either! I've heard plenty of DJS, even old pros, read it as "dire maker," almost as if it were "tool and die maker."

 

[firepoint525]

Before this goes completely over into song lyrics, I will offer up a couple more examples of confusing town names. (And I did not type in "kyrie elaison" earlier, mainly because I did not know how to spell it!)

The town of Rives in west Tennessee, population, a few hundred at most. While I was working at the previously mentioned Martin station, we got a community announcement about a church in Rives holding a revival. Martin and Rives are in neighboring counties, so most "Martians" should have heard of Rives. Just to be on the safe side, I still wrote "Reeves" at the top of the card announcing the revival, but I believe I still heard it mispronounced. Yes it is possible to mispronounce a one-syllable name!

Then when we were on our trip to Pensacola, we passed through a small town just north of Pensacola which goes by the name Cantonment. Having no idea how to pronounce it, I jokingly called it "containment," although I assumed that the correct pronunciation was "cant-a-ment," or something like that. It was only upon our return trip to the Pensacola area this past spring that I learned that it was "can-TONE-ment."

 

[LKellerIII]

Local pronunications vary a lot. There's Houston - "Hyoo-stun" in Texas, "House-tun in New York and Delaware. No matter how short the name of a home town is, locals usually have an even shorter pronunciation. I once met a couple who said they were from "Swiggo" New York. It took me a couple of days to figure out they meant "Oswego" (oss-wee-go).

About the same time, I met another couple from "Loovul" Kentucky (Louisville).

Here in the SF Bay Area, we have "Sanazay" (San Jose), "Conkerd" (Concord) and "Sallyandro" (San Leandro).

Then there's the eternal debate between those who say "San Frun-SISS-co" and those who say "San-FRAN-siss-co."

 

[JeffM]

"Oss-wee-go" into the wild blue yonder...

I don't know about now, but "back in the days" every station in Los Angeles seemed to have its own pronunciation of its home town...Lows Anjalees, Laws Angle-es, Loss An-jealous, etc. In the midwest we have Pierre, SD, which is pronounced "peer", New Berlin, WI, which is "new BURL-in," and Sault Sainte-Marie, MI, the first part of which is pronounced "sue." It's everywhere!

 

[anotherguyTN]

More on the mis-pronunciation of foreign car brands:

When Isuzu started selling cars in the US (and they've recently pulled out of the US market) I heard some ads pronouncing it the way it's spelled (I-SOO-ZOO), which made more sense to me, but I also heard other ads pronouncing it as I-ZOO-SOO

My wife and I have had 3 German girls as exchange students, and they were amused by how we pronounce Volkswagen. We pronounce it VOLKS-WAGON, while they pronounce it VOLKS-VAHGEN. This year we're getting a girl from Taiwan, so it will be interesting to hear how she pronounces the names of some Chinese food!

 

[firepoint525]

Here in Tennessee, we have two "Rutherfords," the actual town down in west Tennessee, and the county here in the midstate (which, ironically enough, is where Murfreesboro is located). The "th" sound in the town is usually pronounced with the "soft" th sound (like in "this"), while the county name is usually pronounced with the "hard" th (as in "think"). But (in a nod to what Lkeller posted above), the locals usually pronounce the town name "Rullaferd" or even "Rullafud."

 

[firepoint525]

About the same time, I met another couple from "Loovul" Kentucky (Louisville).

I knew of a girl from northern Kentucky who tried to tell some lame joke about the pronunciation of the capital city of Kentucky, apparently thinking that we Tennesseans would mis-guess "Louisville" as the bluegrass state's capital city. I just said "Frankfort," which basically shut her down.

Here in the SF Bay Area, we have "Sanazay" (San Jose), "Conkerd" (Concord) and "Sallyandro" (San Leandro).

Concord Road near Brentwood, TN, is pronounced "CON-cord." If you pronounce it any differently, you have not "conquered" the pronunciation of that one (and are thus, not a local).

Then there's the eternal debate between those who say "San Frun-SISS-co" and those who say "San-FRAN-siss-co."

As long as you wear flowers in your hair. I have heard that they bristle at "Frisco," but apparently, they forgot to tell Otis Redding. (But he, too, was not a local.)