[OSM-talk] pronunciation tag

[elvin ibbotson]

2008/6/24 SteveC <steve at asklater.com>:

> So it would be nice if we could tag how things sound as well as what
> they're called.

First you need to decide how things sound. For example, Redcar is  
pronounced Redker by locals but red car by most others and Greenhill  
(in my home town of Sheffield) is known as Gren'l by Sheffielders  
(unless, perhaps, they're trying to sound posh) but green hill by all  
you other folk. A friend from London would not believe it was not  
pronounced green hill but would have laughed at me if I'd pronounced  
Greenwich green witch. There must be thousands of similar examples  
and this is one reason English can never be written phonetically  
without sacrificing regional dialect. This is less problematic for  
some other languages, but then non-native speakers often mess things  
up (listen to Brits or Americans ordering zuchini or chorizo). Maybe  
we should just concentrate on spelling things right :-)

elvin



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