Centuri pronunciation?

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Of course I should mention (again) a little prank I pull sometimes at restaurants.

When you go the maitre-D'ee and they want to make you wait a little bit, and they then ask for your name.. I sometimes reply with: "Slartibartfarst".
The girl usually squinches her eye-brows and asks: "Uhm, how do you spell that?"

and I reply: " P - A - U - L "

The wife hates when I do that!
 
Where I grew up, my last name was common and I never thought about it much. As an adult I have had exactly two people pronounce my last name correctly, and I was surprised both times. I used to get annoyed, as it is a simple name and how could anyone not know how to say it? But I was eventually able to let go, as a result I am not tied to any singular pronunciation of any word in the "English" language. And I always connected Centuri to Centauri and did a double take the first time I heard it pronounced as century- then thought "oh yeah, I can see that..."
 
Fərār is what I'd assume. Is that wrong?

Mine is Āvĭns. About half of all people say Ăvĭns. Some say Evans, or Abrams, or who the hell know what. (Yes, even some who see it written.) About 1/4 to 1/3 get it right. I tell them that they're in a special elite group.

From my parents I got the habit of spelling it over the phone "A as in apply, V as in Victor, i n s". I added "i n s as in Immigration and Naturalization Service". When my daughter was 8 or 9 or so, she suggested that I should say "A as in acorn" to help people get the long A. She has a point.
 
Flashback: Vintage mispronunciation memories.
There was an episode of The Flying Nun where Sister Bertrille (Sally Fields) was trying to teach English from a book to Alejandro Rey's character (forgot his name). Rey was reading and there were several words with an "ough" ending. Each time he pronounced them the sister would correct him with the correct pronunciation. He would try to follow the "rule" from the previous correction and each time the "rule" would change. I was a kid and it cracked me up.
When you think about it, English is a crazy language. It does not adhere to the rules of structure as closely as many other Romance languages.
For instance, why is rough pronounced ruff, but cough isn't pronounced cuff?
And if through is pronounced threw, shouldn't though be pronounced thew?
For that matter if though is thoh, shouldn't rough be roh and cough be coh?
(Don't lose sleep over it). Heh.
 
jqavins said:
Fərār is what I'd assume. Is that wrong?

Mine is Āvĭns. About half of all people say Ăvĭns. Some say Evans, or Abrams, or who the hell know what. (Yes, even some who see it written.) About 1/4 to 1/3 get it right. I tell them that they're in a special elite group.

From my parents I got the habit of spelling it over the phone "A as in apply, V as in Victor, i n s". I added "i n s as in Immigration and Naturalization Service". When my daughter was 8 or 9 or so, she suggested that I should say "A as in acorn" to help people get the long A. She has a point.
Click to expand...
I'll give you an A for that, as it's how even I now pronounce it after 50 years on the mainland... they should actually be closer to \e\ as in bet, with a slight emphasis on the second syllable but English doesn't like that. Also trill the double r.. ;) :goodjob:
 
kuririn said:
When you think about it, English is a crazy language. It does not adhere to the rules of structure as closely as many other Romance languages.
Click to expand...
That's because it's not a romance language. Not that it isn't crazy, but it's a germanic language. With lots of romance pollution (mainly via French) and no small amount of pollution from any number of other sources. (No, that's not derogatory, "pollution" is what linguists call foreign influences of one language on another.) It's downright mashugana.

Some of my favorite examples are the pronunciations of
  • Laughter, slaughter, water, and Slater.
  • No, now, and know.
 
My wife's first name is Dayna. People who don't know her invariably pronounce it DAN-ya, yet it seems so simple! DAY-nuh... go figure! 😄
 
dr wogz said:
On the same note:

Kansas: Can-ZASS

Arkansas: are-ken-saw

Why isn't it AR-can-ZASS ?!
Click to expand...

I almost split a gasket in the office one time when one of our guys brought that up and the next fellow over, a quiet guy who could just come up with the zingers, said with a perfectly straight face,

"I always thought it was "ken-SAW"...

kuririn said:
Still remember Tony Dorsett going through high school and college as Tony DOR-sett.
Then when he achieved success as a Dallas Cowboys running back he said it's pronounced Dor-SETT.
That cracked me up. I think he was yanking everybodys' chains just because he could.
Click to expand...

Sorry to jerk the thread back up a ways, but when I saw this I couldn't resist name dropping. Tony & I shared a home room and classes off and on from 7th -12th grade. He was a quiet guy, and I liked him, though me being the pale, white and nerdy 98-lb weakling type we didn't run in the same circles generally. With his achievements, I guess I'll give it to him, though at the time it got quite the jagging locally - note, just to give you an idea why, Mike Ditka hails from just a few miles from me as well...

Poor Tony, I understand, isn't doing so well. For a long time he sponsored a charity golf event benefitting the charity that runs the sheltered workshop where my son attends. But I understand the concussion syndrome has really tore him up, God help him. Another of my classmates, Dan Rains, was part of that Chicago Bears Super bowl shuffle thing or something like that.

But for showboats, you can't beat ol' Broadway Joe, who's parents were friends of my best friend's parents - that sounds pretty tenuous, but as my friend was a real die-hard football guy, he valued the friendship. I never met them, or Joe, either. Now he's doing Medicare commercials. Life, eh?
 
jqavins said:
Kī∙rō is a city. Kā∙rō is corn syrup.
Click to expand...

And syrup was produced in Kā∙rō. Georgia. Their football team are the Cairo Syrupmakers.

29--Cairo_syrupmakers.jpg


Confusingly, Kā∙rō/Cairo didn't produce Karo corn syrup... They produced Roddenberry cane syrup.
They also produced rock and roll singer/front man, Mickey Thomas of Elvin Bishop and Jefferson Starship.


markschnell said:
Like "sh" and exactly like mach schnell.
Click to expand...

I went to school with a Mark Schnell, his last name was often a two syllable word.
 
The first time this Jersey boy drove his daughter to school in West Virginia (a little late) and the lady in the office asked me "Shrodabus?" (with a short o), I felt like a complete idiot asking her what she'd said. Twice. It was "She ride a bus?"
 
caveduck said:
We have Nevada, IA pronounced by natives as nehVAYdah. It was named after the (clearly Spanish) Sierra Nevada mountains, which are not even remotely close to Iowa. My fellow Iowans subsequently broke the pronunciation. Go figure. They didn't do very well with Des Moines either, the origin of which is shrouded in mystery but is definitely French flavored.
Click to expand...
Easterner: I don't know much about Iowa, but I sure3 do love those Doobahcue hams.
Iowan: Ah, ya mean
caveduck said:
We have Nevada, IA pronounced by natives as nehVAYdah. It was named after the (clearly Spanish) Sierra Nevada mountains, which are not even remotely close to Iowa. My fellow Iowans subsequently broke the pronunciation. Go figure. They didn't do very well with Des Moines either, the origin of which is shrouded in mystery but is definitely French flavored.
Click to expand...
Easterner: I don't know much about Iowa, but we sure love those Doobecue hams.
Iowan: Ya mean Dubuque?

Never mind. This could go on for weeks.
 
kuririn said:
Edit: 8:40 mark: "Centuri" by Lee Piester, founder.
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting this video. I had not seen it before. When I was 7, in the summer of1962, I found a Centuri rocket in my dad's closet. He said, "we'll build it when you're 8". I said something to the effect of "the He!! we will", and we started on it that day. I can see from the video that we must have had one of the first kits made. What fun with that rocket and then the Black Widow! I met Lee in 2018 at NARCON. What a thrill that was.

Jim

PS - I always called it CENturi. Oh, well.
 
I still hear the occasional "How-why-yuh" for my state by out of staters.
Arthur Godfrey once explained to a fan that it's pronounced "Ha-vah-ee".
To which the fan said thank you.
And Godfrey replied You're velcome.
:D (Old joke)
 

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