Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[HVC]

Yes. As that's how it's spelled. Theres an A in it.

We pronounce the A too so much so we do it twice

Oreg-no?

North Americans tend to put the emphasis on the first syllable - o-REH-gano, whereas Brits tend to put it on the third - o-re-GAH-no. Both pronounce the "A" sound.

No one watched my video 

[garbon]

God this is fucking dull.

[HVC]

God this is fucking dull.

Not into etymology?

[garbon]

God this is fucking dull.

Not into etymology?

All day on how we pronounce a word differently...

[Jacob]

All day on how we pronounce a word differently...

You're free to liven up the conversation with engaging topics. Be the change!

I'm sure we'd all appreciate it.

[Admiral Yi]

How do other English speaking countries pronounce urinal?  I had a bunch of Brit classmates at grad school and was gobsmacked to learn they pronounce it you-RYE-nal.  Maybe putting the stress on the wrong syLABle is a generalized English language tic?

[Tamas]

God this is fucking dull.

Not into etymology?

All day on how we pronounce a word differently...

If written and spoken forms of words would have more than a passing resemblance, this wouldn't happen. :p as a kid I never understood the spelling competition in American movies especially of course because they were dubbed to Hungarian and all of it was "well duh!"

[Sheilbh]

Not our fault we had a Great Vowel Shift

Edit: FWIW Old English spelling and pronunciation are consistent. So yet another thing that can be blamed on the Normans (French).

[HVC]

Not our fault we had a Great Vowel Shift

Edit: FWIW Old English spelling and pronunciation are consistent. So yet another thing that can be blamed on the Normans (French).

Can't blame the French for everything, you had another big shift in the late 1700s, early 1800s. You all sounded like yanks before that. And somehow you also forgot how to pronounce R's

[Josquius]

Not our fault we had a Great Vowel Shift

Edit: FWIW Old English spelling and pronunciation are consistent. So yet another thing that can be blamed on the Normans (French).

Can't blame the French for everything, you had another big shift in the late 1700s, early 1800s. You all sounded like yanks before that. And somehow you also forgot how to pronounce R's

This myth angers me.
American is an offshoot of Mercian with scatterings of West country. You still find a lot of American features there.
Most Brits have never sounded that way.
If you're looking for the English accent closest to the original then it's up my way you need to look (if Frisian is counted as cheating anyway)

[HVC]

BBC says differently 

It turns out that Brits in the 1600s, like modern-day Americans, largely pronounced all their Rs.

So at least when it comes to their treatment of the 18th letter, Americans generally sound more like the Brits of several centuries ago. So do Canadians west of Quebec – thanks to loyalists to the Crown fleeing north during the American Revolution.

As a result, although there are plenty of variations, modern American pronunciation is generally more akin to at least the 18th-Century British kind than modern British pronunciation.

And so on

*edit* sorry garbon

[Josquius]

Slightly more on topic but not really- have taxes just been dropped?
My take-home salary seems to have gone up several hundred pounds.

BBC says differently 

It turns out that Brits in the 1600s, like modern-day Americans, largely pronounced all their Rs.

So at least when it comes to their treatment of the 18th letter, Americans generally sound more like the Brits of several centuries ago. So do Canadians west of Quebec – thanks to loyalists to the Crown fleeing north during the American Revolution.

As a result, although there are plenty of variations, modern American pronunciation is generally more akin to at least the 18th-Century British kind than modern British pronunciation.

And so on

*edit* sorry garbon

This just deals with rhoticism. You still find that American-style in the west country.
There's more letters than just R in the alphabet :p

This guy's videos are good. Here is talks about the development of the London accent with time and shows where the R drops in the 18th century. This being the prestige dialect it then murdered the R in much of England.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lXv3Tt4x20&t=653s

[HVC]

Beginning of the article focused on rhotic R, rest of the article is pronunciation in general.

[crazy canuck]

North Americans tend to put the emphasis on the first syllable - OH-regano, whereas Brits tend to put it on the third - o-re-GAH-no. Both pronounce the "A" sound.

Meanwhile, in my German family we put the emphasis on the second syllable. o-REH-gano.

Anyone put emphasis on the final syllable? Then we have all four possibilities played through.

(Side note - a uni professor once flew off on a rant about someone saying paPYrus, i.e. the accepted German way, when the correct old Greek(?) pronunciation is PApyrus. nb: the py is pronounced close to "pee" in German )

That's actually what North Americans do too (I've edited my original post to reflect that  ). Perhaps that's the result of German influence in the Americas?

Everybody but the British pronounces it correctly. If you look at the video posted by HVC you will see why.

The real question is why have the British mangled the pronunciation.

[Sheilbh]

I dispute the whole idea of correct pronunciation. I thought we'd got over that and the need for BBC English/mid-century TV voice. There's understood or not. Sometimes it's the same everywhere, sometimes there's a really clear consensus - often there isn't.

No right and wrong - same with evolutions in grammar. At best there are pronunciations that carry specific meanings in certain contexts.

(As someone with a few American pronunciations in random words for reasons I can't explain )

Edit: Except for the Aussie and Irish pronunciation of data, which I think is wrong.