I heard on the radio this person saying pon-shon. Someone"corrected" him and kena scolded instead.
And so I too learnt how to pronounce "penchant" with panache. Its origin is after all, ooh la la, French.
I Googled and found a chat forum discussing how to pronounce such words without getting malu (yes, I'm not sticking to Standard English today.... it's been a long work day). The thread also had homage, pronounced as "oh-maage"; and nougat (noo-gah).
Funny, though, how did I learn as a boy to say "ron-dee-voo" for rendezvous. Must be because of that well-known restaurant! In fact, I have never heard any Singaporean mispronouncing this word.Yet, walk on the streets, and you will hear "fee-lim" (film) or hair-loom (heirloom).
But I don't laugh at others on this score. Until fairly recently, I thought sachet (sare-shay) was, well, "sare-cher-et"!
It's good to end this post with a couple of themed jokes, so here goes:
A: Where are you going on your next holiday?
B: I'm going to House-turn, then Sand Juan.
A (puffing up): Oh, you mean Hues-turn (Houston) and Sand Wan (San Juan). So, when are you going?
B (fed up): In Hoon or Hoolie, lor.
Customer: I'll like to buy a copy of that Vo-ghee-u magazine.
Newsagent: You mean Voh-oak (Vogue) magazine?
Customer: Yah lah. I have no time to arrgh with you.
This quote from the unlamented Bush II era when he said, "The problem with the French is, they don't have a word from 'entrepreneur'". I've also heard of the Bush II presidency being referred to as 'The Reign of Error'.
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