Things You Realized Recently

[RatioTile]

Ever had a misconception for the longest time that you cleared up recently, and were surprised to know the truth? Here's some of my examples:

1) Dollywood - I had heard of this place before, but I thought it was just a mansion where Dolly Parton lives, similar to Graceland for Elvis and Neverland Ranch for Michael Jackson, with her trophies and other achievements showcased like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Only recently when @Giant Eland visited did I learn it's a theme park with roller coasters.

2) French laughter - I used to think "hon hon hon" was the French onomatopoeia for laughter, like "jajaja" in Spanish and "555" in Thai. Turns out it was just mockery of a particular Frenchman, Maurice Chevalier.

3) Atlanta's location - I used to think Atlanta, Georgia, was located on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, especially because they have Georgia Aquarium. I was surprised to learn it's far inland.

 

[Austin the Sengi]

Earlier today, I found out from a keeper that the pronunciation for Liocichla is leo-sick-luh.

For reference, I assumed for the longest time it was pronounced leo-chich-luh.

 

[PossumRoach]

I apparently left my kazoo in my parka pocket instead of dropping it somewhere in the middle of Istanbul. Now I have two kazoos.

Edit: the fruit that 8 though was a cantaloupe is actually a honeydew melon. We just call any melon that’s not a watermelon “kavun” here in Turkey.

 

[DaLilFishie]

Earlier today, I found out from a keeper that the pronunciation for Liocichla is leo-sick-luh.

For reference, I assumed for the longest time it was pronounced leo-chich-luh.

Is it from the same root as cichlid, which is pronounced the same way (sick-lid)? Cichlid is one lots of people struggle to pronounce it seems - I've heard it said kick-lid, chich-lid, sitch-lid, ky(pronounced like sky)-klid, kitch-lid, and other variations thereof.

Speaking of pronunciation of bird names, I was very taken aback the first time I heard 'gerygone' said aloud, as I'd only read the word prior - its jer-rig-o-nee, not jerry-gon as I had expected! A similar thing happened with scaup - as there are no ducks called scaups in Australia, I'd never heard the word pronounced and was unsure how to say it - scorp, scowp, or some other way? I only found out after running into a British birder in Kasai Rinkai Park, Tokyo of all places, and asked him whether the ducks we were looking at were Greater or Lesser Scaup - it seems it's scop. Huh.

 

[Austin the Sengi]

@DaLilFishie, I would assume so; though, it is not as understood by most people.

 

[Prochilodus246]

A similar thing happened with scaup - as there are no ducks called scaups in Australia, I'd never heard the word pronounced and was unsure how to say it - scorp, scowp, or some other way? I only found out after running into a British birder in Kasai Rinkai Park, Tokyo of all places, and asked him whether the ducks we were looking at were Greater or Lesser Scaup - it seems it's scop. Huh.

I think this is more so pronunciation in different British accents. I personally say Scorp but have heard the other two used on occasion but not as frequently.

 

[Prochilodus246]

One thing I only recently realized is that you can publish a book for free via Amazon which brings my hopes of turning a book about my zoo travels next summer into more than just a dream.

 

[Sneeuwpanter]

Not recently, but way to late in life i realized a pony does not grow up to become a horse

 

[Rizz Carlton]

There were video reels with terms like "gurt", "sybau", and "pmo" which are quite hot on Instagram recently, which I have a zero clue on what they meant. Only a few days ago I found that terms like pmo is short for "pissing me off", while gurt or gurting is a new term of it's own (Doing smart thing that is actually dangerous).

Getting older sucks when you become slower in understanding the current meme culture.

 

[Chlidonias]

Speaking of pronunciation of bird names, I was very taken aback the first time I heard 'gerygone' said aloud, as I'd only read the word prior - its jer-rig-o-nee, not jerry-gon as I had expected!

It's from Ancient Greek and means "borne of sound" (i.e. roughly "beautiful singer").

A similar thing happened with scaup - as there are no ducks called scaups in Australia, I'd never heard the word pronounced and was unsure how to say it - scorp, scowp, or some other way? I only found out after running into a British birder in Kasai Rinkai Park, Tokyo of all places, and asked him whether the ducks we were looking at were Greater or Lesser Scaup - it seems it's scop. Huh.

I think this is more so pronunciation in different British accents. I personally say Scorp but have heard the other two used on occasion but not as frequently.

Yes, this is just an accent thing. I imagine if that birder had said "I caught a scaup" it would have sounded like "I cot a scop". It's kind of like if you pronounced bath with a long a but then heard a person from a particular part of England say it and thus thought "oh it's actually pronounced with a hard a".

I say "scorp" (as in caught or taught) which is the most common pronunciation, but "scowp" is used by a lot of folk as well.

 

[Chlidonias]

Earlier today, I found out from a keeper that the pronunciation for Liocichla is leo-sick-luh.

For reference, I assumed for the longest time it was pronounced leo-chich-luh.

Is it from the same root as cichlid, which is pronounced the same way (sick-lid)?

Yes but also no. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek word kikhle which was used for thrushes and a species of wrasse. So it's the same word, but used for two different animals.

This is why so many thrushes and babblers have cichla as part of their scientific names.

Liocichla means "false thrush", while "cichlid" is just the word kikhle (i.e. the name of the fish) transferred through Latin (it is shortened from the family name Cichlidae, which is from the type genus Cichla).

 

[TheChulloChampion]

Neuter and castrate mean the same thing. Yet, you don't call dogs eunuchs or humans neutered.

 

[RatioTile]

I thought Yogyagarta and Jakarta were names in different languages for the same place, and I also thought that Bruges was simply the Dutch-language name for Brussels. Like Mumbai/Bombay, Beijing/Peking, Sri Lanka/Ceylon, Sulawesi/Celebes, etc.

Languages that use the Latin alphabet but pronounce letters really differently from English can be confusing. I used to pronounce Zoo Wroclaw as "row-claw" until I learned it was more like "Voslov." I was also confused that Kiribati is pronounced "Kira-bas" and Edinburgh "Edin-borough."

 

[Mr Gharial]

I also thought that Bruges was simply the Dutch-language name for Brussels

This reads really funny as a Dutch guy. Bruges (Bruuj) is the French pronounciation of Brugge (Bruhgeh*) (*Dutch G), while the English word Brussels is based on the Dutch Brussel* (Dutch R), the French pronounciation being Bruxelles (Bruujelle).

Languages that use the Latin alphabet but pronounce letters really differently from English can be confusing.

Quick Dutch lesson:

- Rolling R like Spanish and Italian (baRcelona, aRRivadeci)

- Choke on your G like Middle-eastern languages (CHutzpah, aCHmed)

- All vowels are moved just a little bit on pronounciation
The pronounciation of I is IJ/Y in Dutch (Ice = IJs)
The pronounciation of A is E (Cake = Keek)
The pronounciation of A is U (A shoe = Uh sjoe)
The pronounciation of E is IE (Feet = Fiet)
The pronounciation of U is OE (You = Joe)

Okay, the more comparisons I'm making the less sense this makes... I'm giving up.

I used to pronounce Zoo Wroclaw as "row-claw" until I learned it was more like "Voslov."

Well, that one's news to me...

 

[evilmonkey239]

Somehow I only realized in the last three years that Columbia and Colombia were two different words.

 

[Maguari]

Languages that use the Latin alphabet but pronounce letters really differently from English can be confusing. I used to pronounce Zoo Wroclaw as "row-claw" until I learned it was more like "Voslov." I was also confused that Kiribati is pronounced "Kira-bas" and Edinburgh "Edin-borough."

Wroclaw is more like "Vrots-waf' - and it does actually clue you to part of that, as the 'l' isn't an 'l' but a 'ł', which is basically pronounced as the English 'w'. Lodz is the other major zoo place that uses this - it's actually 'Łódź', which is pronounced roughly as 'wudge'.

Edinburgh as Ed-in-bor-ough' (four syllables) would feel a bit alien to anyone in Britain - it's generally 'Ed-in-bruh' (three syllables).

Kiribati is one close to my own heart as it's a localisation of my own surname, Gilbert - the colonial name for the islands being the Gilbert Islands.

The question of how far to go to match local pronunciations when speaking English is always tricky - saying 'Paree' in place of Paris or 'Behr-lin' for Berlin would be weird because the English versions are so established - but Bydgoszcz or Gyor or Amneville always put you on less certain ground..!

 

[pachyderm pro]

I used to pronounce Zoo Wroclaw as "row-claw" until I learned it was more like "Voslov.

Same here until literally one month ago.

 

[Wanderer]

If you want to annoy Polish people, you can also use the German name "Breslau".

 

[dillotest0]

Wroclaw is more like "Vrots-waf' - and it does actually clue you to part of that, as the 'l' isn't an 'l' but a 'ł', which is basically pronounced as the English 'w'. Lodz is the other major zoo place that uses this - it's actually 'Łódź', which is pronounced roughly as 'wudge'.

Edinburgh as Ed-in-bor-ough' (four syllables) would feel a bit alien to anyone in Britain - it's generally 'Ed-in-bruh' (three syllables).

Kiribati is one close to my own heart as it's a localisation of my own surname, Gilbert - the colonial name for the islands being the Gilbert Islands.

The question of how far to go to match local pronunciations when speaking English is always tricky - saying 'Paree' in place of Paris or 'Behr-lin' for Berlin would be weird because the English versions are so established - but Bydgoszcz or Gyor or Amneville always put you on less certain ground..!

In the case of the capitals I do pronounce them; Behr-lin, Par-ees; or some extent of that.
But I do think in the case of animal names... it often is a similar debacle of how much you are willing to go with how 'faithful' their names are pronounced. Llama is always pronounced with a regular l in English but always as it should in Spanish, with 'll' representing the 'y' sound, The 'J' in 'jaguar' and 'jerboa' usually sounds the same in English, although the name 'jaguar' is pronounced closer to 'yaguar' in a faithful sense for a similar reason, Axolotl is almost always pronounced very phonetically in English but if one is to pronounce it as it's supposed to in Aztec you run the risk of nobody knowing what you are describing.
I recall a while ago there was a big internet-outrage about how the word 'emu' is pronounced in English... with many anglophones pronouncing it 'eem-you', when the 'y' isn't supposed to exist as it is a word that came from Portuguese. But then the 'e' is supposed to be a short sound as well, and most peope I have heard who pronounce it as 'ehm-uu' don't have English as their first language.
And in some cases it is totally futile... I recall once trying to discern how 'hoatzin' should be pronounced...only to find that the name 'hoatzin' came from a language spoken in Central America... and must've referred to a different bird from that which is referred to by the name and lives in South America. And so on!!

As for the subject of this thread...
I had the idea that Berlin[!] was on the fringes of East and West Germany; so that one half of the city stretched into one Germany and so for the other. Only to find that the whole of Berlin geographically is in the East; with the west governing the western bits of it as an exclave

 

[RatioTile]

Because Rotterdam Zoo is also called Diergaarde Blijdorp, I thought Blijdorp was an alternate name for the entire city. Turns out it's just the name of a single district in that city.

"Vogel" means bird in both German and Dutch, but only in German is it also slang for a dimwitted or ridiculous person.

This confused me a bit as a kid:

Samson - strong guy with long hair from the Bible
Samsung - South Korean corporation
Samsonite - makes luggage

Also, Century 21 (real estate) vs. Forever 21 (fashion).