On May 27, 2005, at 3:25, Jean Nathan wrote:
Only works in the UK because we know van Gogh is pronounced 'van Go' in the US. The UK tends to pronounce it 'van Goff'.
And Poland "van Gog" :) I got so used to the US pronounciation of Vermeer (ver-mee-err) that I missed a lot of a very interesting conversation - in Polish - a couple of weeks ago. They were all talking about this - unknown to me - painter called "Vehr-mehr", claiming he was very-well known, and I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how come I've never heard of the man. It was only after someone mentioned a couple of the man's paintings by title, that the light dawned :)
Same as the US pronounces Iraq as "I - rack" with a long "i" as in "might",
Er... Not really. I don't watch TV, and I don't listen to the radio, and as both my DH and I say "Ee-rack" (as do all my family), I had to check with DH who *does* watch the news and other TV programs (programmes <g>) daily. He says about 25% pronounce it as "Ay-rack" and it always strikes him as either uneducated or else intended to be jocular - making fun of the uneducated (same as some people say "Ay-talian", which is *not* the standard way of pronouncing "Italian" in US).
-- Tamara P Duvall http://t-n-lace.net/ Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland) To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
