Koh-ning… Or something like that.
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My wife has a master’s degree in speech and language pathology. It’s called a consonant cluster - the C and L. Similarly, some people can’t pronounce athlete without introducing a slight vowel in the middle - ath-uh-lete. Many people, through no fault of their own, have problems with them, including George W. People used to love to make fun of him an try to make him seem less intelligent because of it. Just as bad as calling someone a gimp because one of their legs is shorter than the other. Yes that was me, Not the name caller - the gimp.
The Japanese language prefers to have wovels between konsonants →
Christmas becomes Kurisumasu
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After all the Koenig’s, I say bring on the Shogun.
Wa kerimas sen, Armor_Buff samma.
I too am among the nuclearly challenged.
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This must be worth another um outing…
At a formal lunch in Paris in honour of General de Gaulle’s retirement as President of France, Madame de Gaulle was asked what was she looking forward to now?
“A penis!” she exclaimed in a loud voice.
After a shocked silence General de Gaulle leaned towards his wife and said “My dear, I think the English pronounce it “ ‘appiness”.
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Büstenhalter - that’s a hell of a German word…reminds me of an old joke…
What’s the German word for bra?
Stopenzefloppin
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Michael I must disagree as I live in Louisville, Kentucky. It is ALWAYS properly pronounced as “Laawveill” One syllable and mumbled appropriately. 
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Or Lou-vill, or Luvill, or just; da Ville.
Similar to New Orleans - Nawlens
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“Featherstone-Haugh” is pronounced ‘Fanshaw’.
Designed to 'oik out the 'Oiks & plebs from the Toffs
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And, in the same vein, “Mele Kalikimaka” is not “Merry Christmas” in Hawaiian, it’s “Merry Christmas” transliterated according to the phonotactic rules of Hawaiian:
Merry Christmas
Every consonant must be followed by a vowel, the ‘t’ is removed because it’s silent, and the ‘ch’ is replaced by the hard ‘c’ it’s pronounced as.
Mery Carisimasa
But ‘c’ is not a letter in Hawaiian; the closed equivalent is ‘k’.
Mery Karisimasa
‘R’ is not a letter in Hawaiian; its equivalent is ‘L’, and ‘y’ is replaced by ‘e’, the sound it already denotes in English.
Mele Kalisimasa
‘S’ is not a letter in Hawaiian; the closest phonetic equivalent is ‘k’.
Mele Kalikimaka
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I like that about German. Pretty much the same in Russian.
Probably why I never made a serious attempt at French.
Tougher for me is Arabic and Dari where some of the vowels are sort of implied - kinda like my post above. They’re not written, but you have to throw one in to separate those consonants.
My language issue for the day: Taking the wife to Texas de Brazil for Valentine’s day. Spanish is not a language I speak well enough. Yet. So when I looked up online how to pronounce Churrascaria I found three distinctly different recordings. I find it may be easier to just say it’s a Brazilian Steak House.
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I always considered German to be an “Angry language”…
Here’s why.
Jeez, Hans. Don’t be such a Sour Kraut. 
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Vowels seem to have been an afterthought in some (ancient) languages, I seem to recall Punic (Carthaginian) dispensed with them entirely, and for words with a similar order of consonants they have to inferred from the context. It is fortunate vowels evolved as nowadays in modern English “Vlv” could denote either a Scandinavian motor manufacturer or a part of the female intimate anatomy…
Cheers,
M
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I admit to being in a pissy mood right now, however . . .
Even though I have enjoyed SOME of the posts in this thread, I am SO GLAD the admins, (@HeavyArty) I believe, thought it wise to move these 95+ posts OUT of whatever modeling thread it first appeared in!
Thank Heaven for the Admin!
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I didn’t realise this thread started somewhere else! Definitely wants to be its own separate place…
I worked with a Dutch guy who said his own language was German with a throat disease…
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The Dutch also mix in Scandinavian words, sprinkled with some English and the odd bits of totally incomprehensible stuff.
Hey, I comprehend them!
I also speak German and can say that, even though Dutch is a Germanic language, the differences are big enough that there is very much room for misunderstandings if we address each other in our own language…
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