The OP asked "How do you pronounce..." Not how does a Swede pronounce, nor a Norwegian, nor even a Glaswegian, nor Donald Trump pronounce 'Svea 123'. Not even 'How is 'Svea 123' supposed to be correctly pronounced?". I say Svey-ah 1, 2, 3. Start the bubble machine...
I know this is an old thread, and I speak Australian, but we say: "SVAY-UH one-two-three" (svay as in yay); "PRYMUS" (pry and in spy; mus as in pussycat). I can assure you that our Kiwi neighbours have a different way of pronouncing the letters "i" "y" and most other vowels... Cheers Tony
The two fellows from New York are travelling in central Florida and come to the town of Kissimmee. They start arguing about how the name of the town is pronounced, Kiss-a-me or Ki-sim-ee, accent on the first or the second syllable. The argument grows more and more heated until they decide to resolve it by asking a local. They pull into the parking lot of a fast food restaurant and go inside. They step up to the counter and the teenager behind the counter asks if he can help them. "Yes", replies one off them, "we've been arguing about how you pronounce the name of this place." "Tell this moron next to me how you pronounce the name of this place. Speak slowly and carefully because he's an idiot." The young fellow turns to the other New Yorker, looks at him a moment and slowly says "Bur-ger King."
Ah, love the old stuff. I say svee-uh. I also say "one-twenty-three". I have never been able to get used to "prymus". I always gave it the Continental pronunciation of pree-mus. The English-speaking world does seem mostly pry-mus, though.... The best pronunciation discussion we ever had, though, was not about stoves. This was long ago, and involved the use of "R" to designate non-rhotic pronunciation (an impossibility by definition-- how can you illustrate the dropped R by using the R?) Anyway, it all started when an Englishman objected to a friend's pronunciation of "almond" (the nut) when, he said, clearly the pronunciation was "armond". It was off to the races after that; confusion and hilarity ensued.
Around these parts the shibboleth is "Puyallup", a city of several thousand near Tacoma. And if you are in Spokane and say "spo-cane" (as in sugar cane), you are marked as a hopeless outsider. It is Spo-kan (as in tin can). True story: about 10 years ago I was in a month-long jury trial in Spokane. My co-counsel had recently moved here from Nebraska. I carefully instructed her on pronunciation. But she said Spo-cane three times-- before a Spokane jury no less! Oh well-- we won anyway.... By the way, I suspect that there are many outlanders who know nothing of Spokane-- a really nice place. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spokane,_Washington
I heard a keynote speaker once claimed he was from Spokane (pronounced it as spo-cane) I knew he was NOT.
Im sure its fine whichever way you wish to pronounce it we got used to mr trump being called daahnld though thats not exactly how we would normally pronounce his name when I was in aussie it was a source of amusement when news of the city of cairns came up for some odd reason they pronounce it Cans
@Garth "Cairns" is definitely "Cans"! Both the the "i" and the "r" are silent. As in: "Would you like to go Cairns and drink some cans"? Regardless of the spelling, the sound is the same... [But if you go to to the town of Scone, and pronounce it like you would the thing we eat (a "scone") you are likely to get your head punched...]. Cheers Tony
Boeing (pronounced Bow-ing, like the bow and arrow) moved its headquarters to Chicago. The mayor called the company "Boing". Nevada .. Nev-Ad-Ah not Nev-Awd-Ah. @Tony Press How do you pronounce the town of Scone?
@Tony Press is very correct about the difference between Australian and NZ pronunciation A few years back I had to call a colleague in Australia Receptionist answers Me, can you put me through to Tim please Receptionist, who? Me, Tim please Receptionist, who....? Me, TIM....please Moment of silence Receptionist, OHHH you mean T im... please hold whilst I transfer you I could then hear her and her colleagues laughing as she explained that she finally worked out I was asking for T im but it sounded to her that I was asking for Tum.... Still have a laugh about it when I chat to T im Cheers Barrett
Thanks for that reminder. One of the first things I learned when I moved there in '92. My cousin made the joke, when he lived in Seattle for a couple of years, he had lived in Texas, Kentucky, family in Georgia ..... that it would be pronounced Pull Ya'll Up. (NOT). I went through Puyallup every time I was on my way to Mt Rainier.
@snwcmpr The town “o” in the town of Scone is pronounced like the o in telephone: whereas the o in the scone you eat is pronounced (in Australia) like the o in on. @Barrett Of course the whole Australia v New Zealand humour over pronunciation and accent produced this: Cheers Tony
