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I'm used to hearing odd pronunciations of some English words from non-native speakers or from speakers of other dialects of English, e.g., Indian English. These are often simply a matter of stressing some syllable other than the standard. A classic example is the pronunciation of economic in which the accent is on the second syllable rather than on the third. Today I heard what I would consider one of these non-standard pronunciations from someone who I would have thought was a native speaker of English, UK PM Gordon Brown. He pronounced the verb contribute with the emphasis on the first syllable. Is this the standard UK pronunciation?
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Yes. There are well-known differences in stress patterns between UK and US English: for example UK DIStributed and US diSTRIbuted, laBORatory and LAbratory, [i]conTROversy and CONtroversy. It seems to affect words of Greco-Latinate origin of over three syllables. I'll try to find some online references.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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So maybe I just speak with a UK emphasis pattern? Ha! I grew up reading a lot. Most of my vocabulary comes from reading, rather than hearing a word. As a result, there are some words that I mispronounce because that's how they sounded in my head when I first read them. I've corrected myself in some cases, but less commonly used words are stuck in the original 'wrong' pronunciations.
tempus edax rerum
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My high school physics teacher was from India. The first week of class, she summoned someone to the board and told him to "devil up dis tea room". We were totally mystified. She started to get angry because he was just standing there, then she asked the rest of us to help him and we didn't know what to do either. Eventually, we learned how to develop this theorem.
My favorite saying of hers though is "If you do not have french curves, vee vill pro wide you with french curves. Vee vant to make your life more come fort able." Not only for the way she said it, but the idea that we might suddenly be endowed with sexy curves.
Then there were the old Home Depot commercials where the musical rhythm of the jingle converted it to "Low prices are just thuh buh guh ning."
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...someone who I would have thought was a native speaker of English, UK PM Gordon Brown. He pronounced the verb contribute with the emphasis on the first syllable. Is this the standard UK pronunciation? Hang on, hang on, he's nae a native English speaker Faldage - hoots mon, he's a Scot is he nae?  I bet he trilled the 'r' as well?
Last edited by The Pook; 04/17/08 11:36 PM.
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He had what sounded to me like a very bland, basic English accent. Didn't sound in the least Scottish and I know Scottish accent; I grew up with the Renfrew accent all around me.
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He's definitely a lowland Scot, from Glasgow. Gordon Brown British PM
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Gordon Brown was born in Govan, Glasgow, Scotland,[ 6][ 7] although media[ 8][ 9] have occasionally given his place of birth as Giffnock, Renfrewshire, where his parents were living at the time. I know he's a Scot. That's the accent I grew up with all around me. His voice seems to have forgotten that inconvenient truth.
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Gordon Brown was born in Govan, Glasgow, Scotland,[ 6][ 7] although media[ 8][ 9] have occasionally given his place of birth as Giffnock, Renfrewshire, where his parents were living at the time. I know he's a Scot. That's the accent I grew up with all around me. His voice seems to have forgotten that inconvenient truth. He sounds like a lowland Scot to me, though one educated at private schools I guess. But then I haven't listened to him much.
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