Let's start with a mistitled Spanish video
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Wikipedia wrote: There is anecdotal evidence of the name Scheveningen being used as a shibboleth during World War II to identify German spies: they would pronounce the initial "Sch" differently from Dutch native speakers.
Mazille wrote:You'd think a spy good enough to pass for someone from the Netherlands would know to pronounce it like the Dutch s-ch instead of the German sch
A similar tale is being told about 'schild ende vriend' during the uprising against the french (brugse metten)Papa Smurf wrote:
According to legend that one was used to identify German spies in WW2:Wikipedia wrote: There is anecdotal evidence of the name Scheveningen being used as a shibboleth during World War II to identify German spies: they would pronounce the initial "Sch" differently from Dutch native speakers.
igorfrankensteen wrote:Oh, and let's not forget the people (again, especially here in America) who INSIST on mispronouncing non-American words, for political reasons.
Papa Smurf wrote:Mazille wrote:You'd think a spy good enough to pass for someone from the Netherlands would know to pronounce it like the Dutch s-ch instead of the German sch
Knowing how it should be pronounced doesn't mean someone can actually pronounce it. I know from experience that many Germans do have a lot of trouble pronouncing Schevingen.
The archaic form of Den Haag (The Hague, another city ), 's-Gravenhage is even more troublesome courtesey of the r following the s-G (which by itself is pronounced just like Sch in Scheveningen). Even if they manage to get the s-Gr combination right in principle it still won't sound right to a native speaker, no matter how hard they try.
Animavore wrote:Llanfairpwllgwyngyll
ɬanˌvairpuɬˈɡwɨ̞nɡɨ̞ɬ
igorfrankensteen wrote:Observation, not intended as antagonism: most of these aren't exactly words that foreigners CAN'T pronounce correctly.
Some require the generation of sounds or phonemes that are not in the lexicon of the non-native speaker.
igorfrankensteen wrote:Others are unlikely to be pronounced correctly if the speaker is trying to read them out, without hearing a native say them first.
igorfrankensteen wrote: My favorites along these lines, are words with what might be called "idiomatic pronunciations." That is, words which one just has to learn through living in the local dialects, how to say out loud, in spite of the fact that there aren't even any hints in the printed version as to how to say them. Words with silent letters come to mind first, but I have seen a few words (none of which I can recall now) whose printed spelling bear no relation at all to their pronunciation.
Thomas Eshuis wrote:schuddebuikjes en Scheveningen
babel wrote:A similar tale is being told about 'schild ende vriend' during the uprising against the french (brugse metten)
Non-native speakers tend to pronounce the sch as sk, which actually cost them their lives.![]()
Scot Dutchy wrote:Welsh is a wonder even to the Welsh.
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