BBC English As Heard By An American

In Australia that's how you would spell hair hair. Haehhhh maybe?

Mispronunciations? I don't think any pronunciations are right or that any are wrong. They just differ. I get some of these but I'm not sure about others:

1. Is this about emphasis or the "connecting" 'r'? If it is the former I don't think I've heard it.

2. Couldn't think of anything except "nuke" and "Nuuk"

3. Don't think I've heard this.

4. As said before probably a Cockney accent. I get this.

5. I think the same sound (or a similar one) would be interpreted differently in different contexts here.

6. In my accent koala has three syllables. I can't imagine this is what is being got at.

7. Unless it's the lengthening of the final vowel they sound the same to me.

8. I know the first vowel is often a schema here, which might not be audible sometimes.

9. So you put the emphasis somewhere else? Weird.

10. "Wall" is pronounced with a different vowel in a British accent. (To rhyme with brawl)

11. As you said that syllable is muffled.

12. Not sure about this, maybe a Northern English accent?

13. I'm one of these people. Also can be pronounced "gLACEier". Again is the emphasis somewhere else in the USA?

14. Yes, this was easy to get.

15. Linking 'r' again.

16. Never heard the emphasis on "cop" before.

17. Could only think of "feud" (which I don't know how to pronounce).

18. Heard this but it is rare and considered "posh".

19. Linking 'r' and the 'y' sound in the "Cu" syllable?

20. Muffling a syllable again.

21. In the North of England the sound made by "u" here is replaced by the same sound as in "put" (so that "put" rhymes with "but"). I hear this quite a lot.

22. See above.

The pronunciations are different but neither is wrong.

Interesting. 3. I wouldn't pronounce it that way and haven't heard it with the emphasis on the second syllable. 7. I pronounce "pasta" ˈpastə. How is it pronounced in the USA? 13. I haven't heard a "sh" in the middle before. 18. Yes, they're probably old documentaries.

The use of /æ/ in a British accent at all is now rare. It was historically used in Received Pronunciation (which hasn't updated to fit how words are actually pronounced now and is what Wikipedia uses). It is still used in an American accent and is one of the main distinguishing factors to my ear. I understand the difference though: the first syllable sounds like "possed" and not "past" in the USA (although this is further complicated by the fact that in the South of England "past" is pronounced /pɑːst/).

Yeah, there are definite mispronunciations. Everyone is literate in spelling of simple common words, so some are just lazy mispronunciations.

@someone, have you read my above comments? There are few actual mispronunciations that people actually use. You can pronounce words how you like. Obviously if you want to be understood you shouldn't pronounce "someone" the same as you pronounce "penguin", but no accent (and I mean literally no accent) has any basis whatsoever to call itself more correct than any other that people genuinely speak with.

IPA is atrocious. If you are reading, say, an English language article already and want to know how to pronounce something in English why not use a common English pronunciation guide instead of an every language-ever-conceived chart that makes Roman declensions look like a fun day at Waikiki?

aɪpiːˈɛɪ ɪz nɒt əˈtɹəʊʃəs. ɪt ɪz ˈaktʃəliː ˈvɛɹiː ˈjuːsfəl ɪn kənˈvɛɪjɪŋ pɹəˌnʌntsiːˈɛɪʃənz. fəɹ ˈɪŋglɪʃ ə pɹəˌnʌntsiːˈɛɪʃən gaɪd wʊd biː ˈniːdɪd fəɹ iːtʃ wɜːd. ˌaɪpiːˈɛɪ ɪz mɔːɹ əˈfiʃənt.

maybe but how you write it is open for interpretation aswell, depending on the nationality of the person reading it. For known words (in or outside our own language) we have come to remember the way it is pronounced, but if someone throws letters together, they might have one sound in mind while someone else interprets it differently. (eventhough it is not a made up word, typing "wow" some might hear it as w-ow (as in oh no) and others like wauw (as in owl))

Hope you get what I mean. I notice knowing more languages does not make it easier in this case, because reading the "phonetic word" my mind thinks in different accents all at once haha. The "a" in one language is pronounced very different in another ( and even in its own language, see the famous Ghoti reference)