Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.....
Verrrry funny. That so helps a foreign lady to get the hang of it.

[quote:e6211100f7="Buzzfloyd"]The only people I've met who've been familiar with them already have been Scandinavian, Dutch or Japanese. But most people have only seen them in dictionaries.[/quote:e6211100f7]

I'm familiar because I'm interested in that sort of thing. But it wasn't taught in my school.

And I've been assuming that everyone pronounces Angua with a hard "g"(as in grape). I thought it was only the "ua" part that people disagreed about.

I would pronounce the "Ang" part like the "ang" in "angle."

edit: now that I think of it, my grandmother was from Eastern Europe, closer to the Earth equivalent of Uberwald, and she would have pronounced it closer to "Eng-va".

[quote:4c7eed280b="Marcia"]I would pronounce the "Ang" part like the "ang" in "angle."[/quote:4c7eed280b]

Just to play the Devil's Advocaat* here, you could also pronounce the 'ang' with a soft sound as in 'Angela'.

English language is a bit of a bugger, even to the English.

[i:4c7eed280b]*I know it's Advocate, I was just playing for a cheap laugh![/i:4c7eed280b]

There seem to be a multitude of ways to pronounce Angua! Thank goodness Pterry cleared it up.

Marcia, it is indeed a hard g, as I also assumed. It hadn't occured to me to see it as the soft g, or to pronounce the 'ng' without a hard g following.

How do you know that my Angua isn't the same as your Angua? Maybe you say it the right way as well. :p
Gaelic pronounciation makes perfect sense, as does Gaelic spelling. Obviously. Any language that can justify Worstershire sauce as worster sauce, however. .

Worcestershire.

I work with a lady whose name is spelled Worcester and pronounced wooster.

That's how it's supposed to sound?

In Britain, yes but perhaps not in the US of A

I'm surprised the English Dictionary still works in this country!

I've always pronounced it Wuster as in Wuster-cher (like the singer) sauce.

But we are a funny lot in the northeast.

And how are you supposed to pronounce "Colon" in "Sergeant Colon"? Is it Col-on as i have been pronouncing it, or is it supposed to be Coal-on like the bit up your... er, nevermind, i'm sure you all get the idea. Hope this doesn't make me sound too stupid, just always wondered.


"He had the look of a man who has screwed in the bolts, applied the lightning, and is now watching his creation as it lurches angrily down to the village"

I have always pronounced it like Coal-on, like the puctuation and the bit up your wassname. I think I remember at least one joke about semi-Colon.

Colon's name is pronounced exactly the same as the word. That's made clear by a couple of different jokes. Also, it would be stupid and unlike Pterry to have a name that looked the same as a word but which was pronounced differently without making a thing out of it - as in Teatime.

This is EXACTLY why it was bugging me! Unfortunately I don't remember the jokes of which you speak. Maybe you could refresh my memory?
Good point about Mr. Teh,ah,tim,eh, tho!

Okay, when the witches conjure up the demon in "Wyrd sisters", it gives its name as "WxrtHltl-jwlpklz". Am I pronouncing this correctly, or is pronounced with a soft (H)?

The H is silent, as in wardrobe.

The jokes are: the one Kat mentioned about 'semi-colon'; Nobby's line about 'sounds like surgery' in NW, when the Watch are chanting, "Colon! Colon! Colon! Out! Out! Out!"