Very good! One small point: While Americans do usually pronounce a "t" in the middle of a word as a d, (such as city -> siddy), if the internal t is followed by a vowel and an n, it becomes a glottal stop. So around 2:50 where you had the American say written as wridden, Americans actually say written as wri'en (substituting the t with a glottal stop). But the glottal stop is very short. Much shorter than in many British regional accents where internal T's become glottal stops.
Although many younger people say wri’en (actually putting in a vowel after a glottal stop), we older people tend to say wri’n (the tongue is in place as if to pronounce the T and remains there while the N sound is pronounced, thereby preventing the vowel from being pronounced).
Medial Ts are not pronounced as a pure D in American English. It's actually pronounced as a flap, like a single Spanish R. A glottal stop that's very pronounced in my neck of the woods (I'm a Hoosier, or someone from Indiana for those unfamiliar with the term) is the word "nothing." The TH devolves into a very hard glottal stop for me. That and I reduce -ing to -in'.
I know that, in the USA, a lot of these words are pronounced differently by different people. And I am not sure if it is strictly regional. My brother said "foy-yay," while I say "foy-yer." (Don't know if this had anything to do with it, but he took French in school and I did not) But I do say "neesh" and "cleek." And no one thinks I am weird. So they must be common enough American pronunciations. I am also sure that there are different pronunciations in different parts of England, never mind the UK. I know because I've read lots of comments on the internet from various English who complain that some English people, mostly from the Southeast, claim that their version of English is the only one (or at least only acceptible one) in England, while people in other parts of England definitely don't say things the same way. (My favorite is the English who are told that the word "mom" is American only, despite having used the word in their part of England for generations.) One thing I think many English people don't notice about the US is that there is no one dominant linguistic region that determines the prestige version of American English. While London culturally dominates all of England, no one place in the US has that same dominance. For example, many presidents of the US have had strong regional accents. Americans aren't forced, or even encouraged, to adopt a common prestige accent.
Most amusing. I don’t think, though, that His Lordship would pronounce “neither” as neether - though the American certainly would. Milord’s pronunciation would rhyme with nigh-ther.
I never figured out why the English put accent on the second syllable of GARadje, as i say in Canada. Otherwise I was split about 50/50 between US and UK. Filet and valet remind me of some trivia. Canadian French retained many final consonants long after Paris dropped them. For example the common family name Blanchet is often spelled Blanchette to reflect how it is said.
I think most people in England say either (1) GARahzhe or (2) GARidge, with the emphasis on the first syllable in both cases. (3) garAHZHE, with the emphasis on the second syllable, would be very unusual, and definitely sounds American to me. The choice between (1) and (2), like most things in England, is partly a matter of social class. Working class and very upper class people would both use (1); most people in between would use (2). Btw I think 'valet' with the 't' pronounced would now be unusual even among people who actually have valets. (Who would probably say 'my man' not 'my valet' anyway. Does Bertie Wooster ever call Jeeves his valet? Jeeves would probably walk out if he did.)
As a speaker of Californian English, I definitely say val-lay and mater-D, but I'm aware that back East they say a lot of thing differently and have several more vowels that all sound the same to me
I lived in Manchester for nine months between China and moving to California. I really loved it and would often go to the Lowry museum in Salford Quays,
Please make a video abut the native writing systems in america, or at least about the languages in america, just as you did with africa. It'd be so cool
Thanks Mr Huxtable (or can I call you Dave Herbleu), I think that there is a certain amount of affectation in pronunciation. Regards Andy Lowings ( or Andy 'Loins' as some say)
I’m on the east coast US and it is very common to say en root, though some people do say in rout. Our simple Root 66 as opposed rout 66. Think of the famous song. Also, I think sayin neesh is as common as nich.
As a native American-English speaker from the Midwest, I can pronounce niche both à la française and à la anglaise without it bothering me. Homage, however, is not so amenable for me. I cannot force myself to pronounce it as it would be in French-it must begin with an /h/ and end in a /dʒ/. Mind you, I am also a fluent French speaker, which makes this last tidbit a bit ironic.
I believe you mentioned in another video living on the West Coast but on the East Coast we definitely say en route an en root, albeit without the cool French R.
Increasingly I hear English people using the American pronunciation of coupé. Is this a trend change moving west to east or is there evidence of Americans shifting to the English pronunciation of French derived words?
The word penchant just sounds like a natural English word with Romance roots when said the American way, but it sounds like a pompous French loanword the British way.
A British accent is an English accent, they are the same thing. Scotland Ireland and Wales have different accents, and their own languages, which the Brits tried to destroy
For a start, there's no such thing as "the British accent". Secondly, I won't get into the issue of Northern Ireland, life's too short, but Scotland, Wales and England make up the island of Great Britain and therefore it's entirely correct to call all three (and their numerous accents) British. Not only that but the inhabitants of the island of Great Britain, before the arrival of the Anglo Saxons ("the English") and Gaels ("the Scots"), spoke Brythonic languages, of which Welsh is a surviving example. Therefore you could say that the Welsh language (and the Welsh accent) actually is "British" unlike the English language, which was imported from continental Europe. To put it crudely, the Welsh are the Brits not the English.
Filet was originally pronounced with the "t" in french too. "Filé" is only the modern pronunciation. Similar situation with "valet", pronounced with the "t" til the 17th century. Herb I believe is more than just a loanword now, unless you consider that all words of Anglo-norman origin are loanwords. Anyway, neither sounds like herbe in french. Ingénu (M) / ingénue (F) is pronounced the same way, the e is silent. The main meaning of lingerie in modern french is "underwear" (though not necessarily sexy).
The British pronunciation of Fillet and Valet is older, whereas the American pronunciation of herb is older. This can be found in various English pronunciation dictionaries from the 20th, 19th century
You could also have mentioned how names like Maurice, Gerard and Bernard are pronounced with a more Gallic flavour in the USA in comparison to the UK. I''m sure there are others too.
Wow, so that’s how that came about. Niche as nitch is weird, I can’t stand route as rowt, but I do say h’erb with a silent h as in honour. It’s absolutely fine that Americans have American (english) and sometimes I really like it, like the political scientist from Boston College on RTÉ news. But I think American spellings are flat or something almost like they’re misspelt (misspelled 🇺🇸), I respect that they are American and therefore correct in American, but it irritates me when people use center, tire, counselor, traveling, etc in Hibero-English or British English. There are words common in Ireland and the UK that I wouldn’t want to ser disappear such as fortnight, dreamt, footpath; even shop is antiquated to some people. Fall is a pretty word though, but autumn is nicer. I heard that they used Fall for autumn in Scots. Gracias como siempre, Señor.
We could say borrowed French words pronounciation between the US and UK is... _coupé-décalé._ So, let's dance! En tant que français, cette scène de répartition m'a fracassé les méninges et transformé ma matière grise en fricassée !
Im pretty sure both Americans and Brits have pummelled English to the point of being unrecognizable to Bede, Chaucer, and probably even Shakespeare. Americans make every vowel a dipthong and in the UK, they (some - I mean) cling to RP (Jacobean) pronunciation to a ridiculous fault. Anyway, the mission of communication is to be understood. If it has done that, then it has succeeded, no matter the piccadillos or eccentricities. I find something amusing and memorable about most all English-speaking accents.
I wouldn’t say pummelled as if it’s a bad thing. Bede wouldn’t understand Chaucer and neither of them would understand Shakespeare. Language change is natural and normal.
@@DaveHuxtableLanguages Thanks for commenting, Dave. I really love your videos. I've probably played the one about French loan words two dozen times. It is so amusing to me...lingerie? That means linen closet. Nothing sexy about that. Haha.
Homage pronounced as "omarge" is a recent pretentious adoption on both sides of the Atlantic (I think). During your recent years in America you've heard it more and perhaps attribute it to geography not its recency. Older American recordings use the correct "homidge", I'm pretty sure. Some recent UK recordings use "omarge". Is Homer Simpson to blame?
Yes! Exactly this! I'm American, and I only started hearing the pretentious version within maybe the last decade or so. I've been around a good deal longer than that, and don't recall it being pronounced that way by *anyone* until recently. I don't know who started it, but I sincerely wish they'd stop it. It's the same with niche. It was "nitch" for my whole life until recently; now all these people who ought to know better are pronouncing it "neesh." Sheesh. (Yes, these are kind of pet peeves, I guess.)
Another one that you could add to this: croissant. Us Brits do butcher it a bit but at least put the emphasis in the same place as the French do, the first syllable. But pronouncing it as cruh-SANT is just bizarre!
How do Americans get to think that the great countries of the Middle East are called Eye-ran and Eyr-rack? Qatar is a tough one, granted, but they seem to think it's "Catarrh"
Indeed. I think especially in the military you have to make foreign places sound as not-foreign as possible. I think there’s a video in this - especially since they make foreign food sound hyper foreign, eg pahsta, parmezhahn, and -my favourite- rizohdoh (risotto)
@@DaveHuxtableLanguagesas an American I have no idea how else you’d pronounce those foods. Do you have another video about how Americans pronounce foreign words vs the English?
Very good! One small point: While Americans do usually pronounce a "t" in the middle of a word as a d, (such as city -> siddy), if the internal t is followed by a vowel and an n, it becomes a glottal stop. So around 2:50 where you had the American say written as wridden, Americans actually say written as wri'en (substituting the t with a glottal stop). But the glottal stop is very short. Much shorter than in many British regional accents where internal T's become glottal stops.
Although many younger people say wri’en (actually putting in a vowel after a glottal stop), we older people tend to say wri’n (the tongue is in place as if to pronounce the T and remains there while the N sound is pronounced, thereby preventing the vowel from being pronounced).
@@dancinggiraffe6058 Good observation!
Medial Ts are not pronounced as a pure D in American English. It's actually pronounced as a flap, like a single Spanish R. A glottal stop that's very pronounced in my neck of the woods (I'm a Hoosier, or someone from Indiana for those unfamiliar with the term) is the word "nothing." The TH devolves into a very hard glottal stop for me. That and I reduce -ing to -in'.
Another highly amusing piece Dave. Well done. I chuckled audibly.
Okay this was way better than i expected lol hilarious more of these animated language thingies please merci infiniment
Well done, sir. I don't speak a word of French, yet I still found this entertaining.
Glad to hear it!
I always found the American pronunciation of "foyer" amusing as well.
Why is foy-yer amusing
@@marafty3776 Because it's a french word, so "foy-ay".
there is a comedic value to this I’ve always loved the french language, anyway love your channel
A brilliant lesson in the history of Where Did Those Darn Words Come From?
J'adore ! I keep rewatching it.
Good to hear!
This presentation gets the point across , well done for making it engaging !
I completely lost it at the French guy saying "ze piss tritty". ROTFLMAO and also learned things!
This episode covers an important topic in a very funny and entertaining way!!!
Loved this, cant stop laughing until the end.
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it.
I know that, in the USA, a lot of these words are pronounced differently by different people. And I am not sure if it is strictly regional. My brother said "foy-yay," while I say "foy-yer." (Don't know if this had anything to do with it, but he took French in school and I did not) But I do say "neesh" and "cleek." And no one thinks I am weird. So they must be common enough American pronunciations. I am also sure that there are different pronunciations in different parts of England, never mind the UK. I know because I've read lots of comments on the internet from various English who complain that some English people, mostly from the Southeast, claim that their version of English is the only one (or at least only acceptible one) in England, while people in other parts of England definitely don't say things the same way. (My favorite is the English who are told that the word "mom" is American only, despite having used the word in their part of England for generations.)
One thing I think many English people don't notice about the US is that there is no one dominant linguistic region that determines the prestige version of American English. While London culturally dominates all of England, no one place in the US has that same dominance. For example, many presidents of the US have had strong regional accents. Americans aren't forced, or even encouraged, to adopt a common prestige accent.
Most amusing. I don’t think, though, that His Lordship would pronounce “neither” as neether - though the American certainly would. Milord’s pronunciation would rhyme with nigh-ther.
Thanks for pointing that out. I think I personally use both pronunciations.
your channel is really great :)
I’m really glad you like it!
Criminally underrated video!
Thank you! Please share far and wide.
When I hear Americans say "bone appetite" or "Notre dame"I have to count to ten and calm down. 😂
Great video… so funny. Bien trouvé 😎👍😂
I never figured out why the English put accent on the second syllable of GARadje, as i say in Canada. Otherwise I was split about 50/50 between US and UK.
Filet and valet remind me of some trivia. Canadian French retained many final consonants long after Paris dropped them. For example the common family name Blanchet is often spelled Blanchette to reflect how it is said.
I think most people in England say either (1) GARahzhe or (2) GARidge, with the emphasis on the first syllable in both cases. (3) garAHZHE, with the emphasis on the second syllable, would be very unusual, and definitely sounds American to me. The choice between (1) and (2), like most things in England, is partly a matter of social class. Working class and very upper class people would both use (1); most people in between would use (2). Btw I think 'valet' with the 't' pronounced would now be unusual even among people who actually have valets. (Who would probably say 'my man' not 'my valet' anyway. Does Bertie Wooster ever call Jeeves his valet? Jeeves would probably walk out if he did.)
I pronounce homage, herb, niche and vase as in Britain, but for the other words I use the American pronunciation. I'm from Canada.
We don't pronounce 'valet' like "vuLAY"; we say /væˈleɪ/, nor 'maître d'' as "mader D", we say /ˌmeɪtɹə ˈdi/ [???]
There are rather a lot of you, so I imagine pronunciations vary. I have definitely heard the pronunciations I used here.
As a speaker of Californian English, I definitely say val-lay and mater-D, but I'm aware that back East they say a lot of thing differently and have several more vowels that all sound the same to me
Like the Lowry! I live there, love.
I lived in Manchester for nine months between China and moving to California. I really loved it and would often go to the Lowry museum in Salford Quays,
That's funny. Thanks for the laughs. :)
A phenomenon I have always noticed.
That was quite funny, well done
Please make a video abut the native writing systems in america, or at least about the languages in america, just as you did with africa. It'd be so cool
Great idea! That’s something I would love to do.
You absolutely killed me. 😂😂🤣🤣🤦🏻♀️
I’m a good way, I hope.
Thanks Mr Huxtable (or can I call you Dave Herbleu), I think that there is a certain amount of affectation in pronunciation. Regards Andy Lowings ( or Andy 'Loins' as some say)
I’m on the east coast US and it is very common to say en root, though some people do say in rout. Our simple Root 66 as opposed rout 66. Think of the famous song. Also, I think sayin neesh is as common as nich.
yeah some time ago i found it weird how the two i's in "lingerie" are pronounced very weirdly
Perfect!
As a native American-English speaker from the Midwest, I can pronounce niche both à la française and à la anglaise without it bothering me. Homage, however, is not so amenable for me. I cannot force myself to pronounce it as it would be in French-it must begin with an /h/ and end in a /dʒ/. Mind you, I am also a fluent French speaker, which makes this last tidbit a bit ironic.
I’m always struck by the strong French spin given to Restaurant and Apartment in German.
I get the giggles from the word hors d'oeuvre in American English 😂
Brilliantly done. And first-class cartoonery into the bargain. Of course, the English version is the only correct one!
This is absolutely brilliant! 😅😁
Glad you think so.
I believe you mentioned in another video living on the West Coast but on the East Coast we definitely say en route an en root, albeit without the cool French R.
West coast here I feel like I say en root but perhaps there is both
I'm guessing the French guy is inspired by the angel in A Matter of Life and Death!
Increasingly I hear English people using the American pronunciation of coupé. Is this a trend change moving west to east or is there evidence of Americans shifting to the English pronunciation of French derived words?
I think there are influences in both directions. It often depends on where you first hear a word.
This is hilarious!!
The word penchant just sounds like a natural English word with Romance roots when said the American way, but it sounds like a pompous French loanword the British way.
I hadn’t noticed that one was different in American. I’ll have to start saying I have a penchant for homages.
So good and funny🤣
A British accent is an English accent, they are the same thing. Scotland Ireland and Wales have different accents, and their own languages, which the Brits tried to destroy
For a start, there's no such thing as "the British accent". Secondly, I won't get into the issue of Northern Ireland, life's too short, but Scotland, Wales and England make up the island of Great Britain and therefore it's entirely correct to call all three (and their numerous accents) British. Not only that but the inhabitants of the island of Great Britain, before the arrival of the Anglo Saxons ("the English") and Gaels ("the Scots"), spoke Brythonic languages, of which Welsh is a surviving example. Therefore you could say that the Welsh language (and the Welsh accent) actually is "British" unlike the English language, which was imported from continental Europe. To put it crudely, the Welsh are the Brits not the English.
It would have helped if you had the words populated up on the screen as you are saying them. Are you saying that those words are “French” words.
I agree. This was one of my earliest videos, so I was still learning. The words arose definitely ones English has borrowed from French.
Filet was originally pronounced with the "t" in french too. "Filé" is only the modern pronunciation. Similar situation with "valet", pronounced with the "t" til the 17th century.
Herb I believe is more than just a loanword now, unless you consider that all words of Anglo-norman origin are loanwords. Anyway, neither sounds like herbe in french.
Ingénu (M) / ingénue (F) is pronounced the same way, the e is silent.
The main meaning of lingerie in modern french is "underwear" (though not necessarily sexy).
Perhaps you can say that the world speaks Indian English now. Only some few use the quaint UK style of speaking.
The British pronunciation of Fillet and Valet is older, whereas the American pronunciation of herb is older. This can be found in various English pronunciation dictionaries from the 20th, 19th century
You could also have mentioned how names like Maurice, Gerard and Bernard are pronounced with a more Gallic flavour in the USA in comparison to the UK. I''m sure there are others too.
Good point.
Wow, so that’s how that came about. Niche as nitch is weird, I can’t stand route as rowt, but I do say h’erb with a silent h as in honour. It’s absolutely fine that Americans have American (english) and sometimes I really like it, like the political scientist from Boston College on RTÉ news. But I think American spellings are flat or something almost like they’re misspelt (misspelled 🇺🇸), I respect that they are American and therefore correct in American, but it irritates me when people use center, tire, counselor, traveling, etc in Hibero-English or British English. There are words common in Ireland and the UK that I wouldn’t want to ser disappear such as fortnight, dreamt, footpath; even shop is antiquated to some people. Fall is a pretty word though, but autumn is nicer. I heard that they used Fall for autumn in Scots. Gracias como siempre, Señor.
We could say borrowed French words pronounciation between the US and UK is... _coupé-décalé._ So, let's dance!
En tant que français, cette scène de répartition m'a fracassé les méninges et transformé ma matière grise en fricassée !
I'd prefer that Americans pronounce Des Moines, Baton Rouge, Orléans, Detroit, etc à la française. 😀
I'm Kenyan living in Botswana.
That would be fun! As it is, you would get very blank looks if you used French pronunciation for those place names.
Im pretty sure both Americans and Brits have pummelled English to the point of being unrecognizable to Bede, Chaucer, and probably even Shakespeare.
Americans make every vowel a dipthong and in the UK, they (some - I mean) cling to RP (Jacobean) pronunciation to a ridiculous fault.
Anyway, the mission of communication is to be understood. If it has done that, then it has succeeded, no matter the piccadillos or eccentricities.
I find something amusing and memorable about most all English-speaking accents.
I wouldn’t say pummelled as if it’s a bad thing. Bede wouldn’t understand Chaucer and neither of them would understand Shakespeare. Language change is natural and normal.
@@DaveHuxtableLanguages Thanks for commenting, Dave. I really love your videos. I've probably played the one about French loan words two dozen times. It is so amusing to me...lingerie? That means linen closet. Nothing sexy about that. Haha.
Homage pronounced as "omarge" is a recent pretentious adoption on both sides of the Atlantic (I think). During your recent years in America you've heard it more and perhaps attribute it to geography not its recency. Older American recordings use the correct "homidge", I'm pretty sure. Some recent UK recordings use "omarge". Is Homer Simpson to blame?
Yes! Exactly this! I'm American, and I only started hearing the pretentious version within maybe the last decade or so. I've been around a good deal longer than that, and don't recall it being pronounced that way by *anyone* until recently. I don't know who started it, but I sincerely wish they'd stop it. It's the same with niche. It was "nitch" for my whole life until recently; now all these people who ought to know better are pronouncing it "neesh." Sheesh. (Yes, these are kind of pet peeves, I guess.)
Since you're a youngster you might not be aware that Brits pronounced lingerie (almost) correctly until quite recently.
So kind of you to say so!
Another one that you could add to this: croissant. Us Brits do butcher it a bit but at least put the emphasis in the same place as the French do, the first syllable. But pronouncing it as cruh-SANT is just bizarre!
The fun think is that people say it as if it’s sophisticated.
Hilarious!
too funny!
I say guraaahge and I’m from SW england
Very posh!
How do Americans get to think that the great countries of the Middle East are called Eye-ran and Eyr-rack? Qatar is a tough one, granted, but they seem to think it's "Catarrh"
Indeed. I think especially in the military you have to make foreign places sound as not-foreign as possible. I think there’s a video in this - especially since they make foreign food sound hyper foreign, eg pahsta, parmezhahn, and -my favourite- rizohdoh (risotto)
@@DaveHuxtableLanguagesas an American I have no idea how else you’d pronounce those foods. Do you have another video about how Americans pronounce foreign words vs the English?
:)