How Do YOU Pronounce Fortean?

[Stormkhan]

What, like in Hogfather?

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

You can self-assemble the letters anyway you like.

Having spent a couple of hours assembling an Ikea extending dining table "VANGSTA" yesterday and being utterly incapable of getting the slidable frame properly aligned, I would pronounce it "F*CKING SHITE!"

 

[Zographos]

Having spent a couple of hours assembling an Ikea extending dining table "VANGSTA" yesterday and being utterly incapable of getting the slidable frame properly aligned, I would pronounce it "F*CKING SHITE!"

It would no doubt help if they supplied instructions actually written in English.

 

[Stormkhan]

I'm convinced they are like Meccano - they add or leave out parts to act as a 'challenge'.

 

[Zographos]

I'm convinced they are like Meccano - they add or leave out parts to act as a 'challenge'.

Indeed. Life would be too easy otherwise, and there'd be no fun in that!

 

[ChasFink]

Back to the original question: this American pronounces it with three syllables, strong stress on the first, less on the second. I don't know how to put IPA here short of a laborious cut and paste, so...

FORT-ee-an

Long e in the middle. In normal conversation the t can sound like a d, and the a is usually a schwa.

There was an X-Files on the other day where Mulder says the word. I was out of the room but it sounded like a very strange pronunciation.

And my question is: should it be capitalized? It's named after a person, but some such words are all lower case.

 

[Floyd]

Four-tay-an.

 

[ChasFink]

Four-tay-an.

I think that may have been the way Mulder said it.

 

[catseye]

Four-tay-an.

What possessed him? I mean, you don't sit down for a nice cup of 'tay'.

 

[Zographos]

What possessed him? I mean, you don't sit down for a nice cup of 'tay'.

You do in Northern Ireland.

 

[Floyd]

What possessed him? I mean, you don't sit down for a nice cup of 'tay'.

Perhaps he and I have gone a bit Spanish, pronouncing the e as ay.

 

[catseye]

You do in Northern Ireland.

But that's accent rather than mispronunciation.

 

[Zographos]

But that's accent rather than mispronunciation.

I think it's more local dialect - Ulster Scots - which is recognised now as a "part of the cultural wealth of the island of Ireland" under the 1998 Good Friday Belfast Agreement.

 

[Sid]

I think it's more local dialect - Ulster Scots - which is recognised now as a "part of the cultural wealth of the island of Ireland" under the 1998 Good Friday Belfast Agreement.

Anyone Fortea'n bickies?

 

[Zographos]

Anyone Fortea'n bickies?

Is that tae go wae the tae?

 

[Sid]

Is that tae go wae the tae?

Och I, ye ken, course 'tis.

 

[Zographos]

Och I, ye ken, course 'tis.

We're bak tae just Scots but I tak yer point.

 

[Zographos]

I bought the Fortean TV DVD last year when it came out and I was watching a bit of it again over the weekend. Reverend (or Father) Lionel Fanthorpe introduces and narrates the episodes and he pronounces the word in question as "Fort-e-an" for what it's worth.

 

[Steven]

Maybe there is no 'correct' pronunciation, and it's an individual choice?

 

[Stormkhan]

Perhaps we can introduce a new pronunciation.
How about like an appeal to the Supreme Being: "For -TEA-ANNE!"

Thinking on it, "Why have you boiled that kettle of water?"

 

[Zographos]

Perhaps we can introduce a new pronunciation.
How about like an appeal to the Supreme Being: "For -TEA-ANNE!"

Thinking on it, "Why have you boiled that kettle of water?"

It could be a new version of Polly Put the Kettle On!

 

[Zographos]

Maybe there is no 'correct' pronunciation, and it's an individual choice?

The pronunciation would therefore be subjective depending on each individual person. That seems fine to me.

 

[Shady]

Anyone pronouncing it "forty-ann" should be hanged by the neck until they be dead, then gibbetted at a cross roads as a warning to passing Forteans should they utter the same blasphemy.

Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed

 

[Zographos]

Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed

I would go further and say that if one knew such a person were going to pronounce it that way then they should be garrotted with cheese wire when they were 3 seconds old.

 

[Sid]

I would go further and say that if one knew such a person were going to pronounce it that way then they should be garrotted with cheese wire when they were 3 seconds old.

Such a person was very Fortean-ate then!

 

[Zographos]

Such a person was very Fortean-ate then!

I'm quoting from the great shock jock James Stannage there!

 

[Sollywos]

Oh dear ... it's not always easy to be tolerant is it?

 

[Zographos]

Oh dear ... it's not always easy to be tolerant is it?

No, but one tries.

 

[Stormkhan]

But what about the other one?

 

[Floyd]

But what about the other one?

The other is very trying.