Aluminium sounds cool if you’re British and aluminum sounds cool if you’re American. How do the other English speaking countries say it?
Comment on looking forward to the comments
Varyk@sh.itjust.works 1 year agoThat’s what the inventor chose, so yup. Unfortunately, jif is the correct pronunciation.
My favorite example of this is aluminum. Twice now, I’ve spoken to British English speakers that insist aluminum is pronounced the British way. And when I point out aluminum is an American invention, they check their phone, roll their eyes, and accept that I can say it that way, but they never will.
And euphonically they’re correct, the British pronunciation of aluminum sounds way cooler. I used to use gif until I looked up the usage history specifically for these moments, hahaha. But that’s not its name. So I use jif.
agent_flounder@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Varyk@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
I’ve only heard the British and American version myself
CrypticFawn@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
Unfortunately, jif is the correct pronunciation.
Incorrect. I’ve already covered why in previous comments though.
Varyk@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
Back at you.
DulyNoted@lemmy.world 1 year ago
There’s a concept in linguistics known as descriptivism vs proscriptivism. We either accept that things change meanings and pronunciations regionally and over time, or we try to absolutely state that there’s one correct way, and every other way is wrong.
A major issue with the “I’m right you’re wrong” approach is the in-group decides who is right and wrong. Regional slang is just wrong, not an equally valid way to speak. Those with formal educations are inherently more correct, and thus their grasp of their native language is more correct. This doesn’t really make sense when you think about it, other than to put down groups perceived as lesser.
Additionally, academics can convince themselves of one thing, and totally fail to be relevant to the real world. This leads your average person to become disenfranchised with academia and talk about how academics in their ivory towers have no understanding of how the real world works.
Anyway, that’s why I pronounce it joeff.
Varyk@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
Very nicely put. I always noticed this phenomenon but ascribed it to people clinging to schemic security blankets, but it’s good to know that there’s a term that describes the illogical dependence on evolving correctness.