Talk sophisticated with PronunciationManual

The PronunciationManual YouTube account consists of short clips of clearly enunciated borrowed words and proper nouns that are often uttered by English speakers, including some tricky single malt Scotch whiskey names. These pronunciations are sure to impress your friends with your nous (pronounced "nooo-see") and sophistication.

PronunciationManual's YouTube channel (via Kottke)

• [bardfinn]

  “How to pronounce Laphroaig” – “dee lih shus”.

  • [ImmutableMichael]

    Like stubbing out cigarettes on old seaweed. In a good way, that is…

    • [chgoliz]

      I’m drinking with bardfinn instead of you.  Cheers, bardfinn!

  • [dolo54]

    The first time I had Laphroaig I thought it tasted like licking the underside of a mossy stone. Now it’s one of my favorite whiskies.

• [Remy Porter]

  my hovercraft is full of eels.

  • [invictus]

    We regret to inform you that this turn of events is not covered by your extended warranty. A specialist removal service is available at an additional fee for your convenience.

    • [technogeekagain]

       Thanks, I’ve been wondering how to remove the specialist from my convenience.

      • [invictus]

        Oooh!
        You win.

  • [Kevin Pierce]

    Der iz sauerkraut in my lederhosen.

• [Guido Núñez-Mujica]

  I hope they teach me the correct pronunciation of ghotis

• [Jesse Nikolic]

  Best one I’ve found so far, makes me laugh every time.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3_DjiLLDfo

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    What makes me laugh is that you can bump up the resolution to 720p.

  • [GawainLavers]

    The ones that are pretty close to the actual letters are the best.

  • [bcsizemo]

    Why does it sound like a lot of these end up with some type of Southern inflection….?

    I can drive a couple of hours to the Appalachian mountains and find plenty of people who sound like this in real life…

• [deadbot]

  This is the cleverest way of dumbing things down I’ve ever encountered.

• [technogeekagain]

  Prahn-you-ki-a-TIE-on-mah-NWAL..

  (There really are more stylish ways to mispronounce than the ones demonstrated.)

• [GawainLavers]

  Yay, Youtube commenters:

  wtf?
  o.O
  I don’t get it…Is there some pop culture reason these pronunciation videos are getting “liked” that I am just not aware of?

  Or has the world really gotten THAT stupid?

  UpRoaryus 1 day ago in playlist Channel

  (from “Twilight”, also good)

  However, speaking of Blaughfloyeeb-g, has this been posted yet?

  Scotch Pronunciation Guide with Brian Cox

• [eselqueso]

  this makes me happy.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqkYsjyzAWw

• [kallikanzaros]

  Seen about a dozen and I still cant get rid of the WTF

  • [ocker3]

     repeated applications may not solve your problem

• [Benjamin Neale]

  Easily my favorite has to be this one - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DSgsON3u8E

• [tw1515tw]

  The water in Majorca
  http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=Uz9_YfIQaz4&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DUz9_YfIQaz4

• [Petzl]

  Is this a joke site?  It in no way tells you have to pronounce “Laphroaig”
  as opposed to:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F_AXdfFIBY

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    How to pronounce: Whoosh.

    • [Petzl]

      I don’t get the joke.  It’s just spam.  What’s funny about misinformation?
      Don’t “whoosh” me again– this would be unwise.

      • [chgoliz]

        *gasping for breath between giggles*

      • [Robert Drop]

        It’s pretty darn funny and unlikely to be confused for the real pronunciations*.  On the other hand, in the US there’s such an issue with people not knowing the meaning/spelling/pronunciation of words, I am waiting for someone to start talking about the philosopher Wintoogunonasty.

        *Though I’m pretty sure that actually is the preferred way to say “Prada.”

      • [dculberson]

         Woosh

• [Martin Steele]

  >single malt Scotch whiskey

  Let’s start with spelling, then move on pronunciations… ;)

• [bingobangoboy]

  Carpe Diem is pretty good, too.

• [Jewels Vern]

  Did you know “gullible” is not in the dictionary?

• [Bevatron Repairman]

  Do they have shibboleth?  I didn’t see it and that just might come in handy.

• [anechoic]

  actually, “NOUS” is pronounced “noose” not “noose-say”

• [Deidzoeb]

  Sophistication: convincing people that your provincial preferences are objectively better than theirs.

• [kpelt]

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-kMBF_GvFA

  This one always cracks me up.

• [Pathmanson]

   Buöldordusch! None of those i have tested actually even come close to being correct. You simply don’t ever pronounce words in French, German or Swedish in this way without being looked at as an idot by the natives. Joke site, as far as i can see. Even the English and Scottish ones doesn’t make sense to me. As a native speaker of several Swedish dialects i can say that nobody over here talks like that, ever. Joök zit!

• [Mark Wadia]

  They got most of these wrong.

• [Joseph Francis]

  It’s the helvetica that really makes these videos.

• [elix]

  So much woosh.

  • [Donald Petersen]

    Even though it’s a repost from eight months ago it still delights me.  Just a fresh crop of whooshees!

• [regeya]

  My absolute favorite Pronunciation Manual entry is “schadenfreude”.  When my wife or I flub a pronunciation really badly, I feel obligated to say, “a-scootin’…a-fruity.”

• [regeya]

  Somehow, I had missed that Pronunciation Manual was on Ellen.  Oh…right…because I don’t watch Ellen.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYRRb-M0hPk&feature=related