Bernie Sanders keeps saying Ol-ah-gawky but I thought it was o-le-garky?

Have I been mis-prouncing it this whole time? English is not my first language I am French. I am talking about Oligarchy

30 points · 19 comments · view on lemmy.world

19 Comments

BertramDitore@lemm.ee · 87 pts · 1y

Bernie has a very strong Brooklyn accent which is why the R turns to aw, but either pronunciation is totally fine.

freamon@preferred.social · 28 pts · 1y

No, you're right. It's just how it sounds with Sanders' distinct accent.

davel@lemmy.ml · 16 pts · 1y (3 replies)

Some east coast areas, like where Sanders is from, inherited non-rhoticity from England. The “r” is pronounced in most US accents.

tazzy@lemm.ee · 8 pts · 1y (2 replies)

Hey cool thanks for this! Love learning about language and have never even heard this term before , or I guess as Bernie would say “I have Nevah even head of this tem befoe” lol

davel@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 1y (1 reply)

If you loved this then you will likely enjoy British linguist YouTuber @DrGeoffLindsey.

Wetstew@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y

I'll also toss A Way with Words on the pile too. It's a long running NPR-adjacent radio show/podcast about linquistics.

My favorite was a dive they did on the descriptor "like a dead preacher" to refer to an annoying awkward thing to move.

supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz · 16 pts · 1y

Bernie Sanders can pronounce it however the fuck he wants, with as thick of a brooklyn accent as he wants.

He has earned at least that much lol

themadcodger@kbin.earth · 15 pts · 1y

The further NE you go in the US the more non-rhotic the dialect becomes, more or less.

xmunk@sh.itjust.works · 15 pts · 1y

You say to mah to, I say to may to... we both agree that we need to tear down this unjust vegetal system and sing Les Marseilles while we do it.

geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml · 11 pts · 1y

You are correct. It is le garky not la garky. But Bernie does not follow the norms of gendered language.

Diddlydee@feddit.uk · 8 pts · 1y

Most words will sound different every few miles. There are countless regional accents, meaning there is no right or wrong. I'm northern Irish and I say mir instead of mirror. It's wrong but it's not wrong, if you know what I mean.

ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 1y (2 replies)

Have you never heard of an accent before?

tazzy@lemm.ee · 1 pts · 1y (1 reply)

No I haven’t. Up until I read these replies on Lenny I had no idea it was a thing. TIL

OceanSoap@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 1y

I'm going to assume you're not being sarcastic here. Aren't there accents in France?

southsamurai@sh.itjust.works · 7 pts · 1y

You should hear how us mountain folk pronounce it.

Awl-uh-garky, or all-uh-gurky are the two most common at my shooting club (and yes, left wing shooting clubs exist in the south, even here in the sticks).

jbrains@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 1y

The second vowel is an unstressed "i". In most varieties of English, since it is unstressed, we pronounce it as a schwa, which sounds roughly like "uh".

If you'd like to articulate that syllable, like you might do in French, then pronounce it like the "i" in "sit". That's completely optional.

xkbx@startrek.website · 5 pts · 1y

I’ve been pronouncing it all-e-glucky

stringere@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 1y

oh, it's garlicky

Gustephan@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y

Isn't oligarchy a loan word from the French language? Or like, if not a loan word I'm sure it at least has French etymology