I haven't figured out yet why Brits who pronounce words like FAST, PAST, LAST with a LONG A sound such as "ah".....will take a word like "pasta" and make it sound like the American version of "fast"-a. YET - Americans have these short "a" words like "fast", "last", "past".....but pronounce PASTA with a long "A" as is "pahsta".
Stranger still are some American pronunciations of countries and languages. Although it is now changing a little, Americans used to say "AI-talian" for "Italian". However, they still pronounce Iraq as "AI-raq". Have even heard "AI-ran" for Iran!!
And then there are some beautiful Indian names: Asha, Laxmi - and Americans tend to pronounce them with a short "a" - "ash-a" and LAX (rhyming with lax-ative!)MI. ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Language (even when it's the "same" language) can be interesting!
THEN if you REALLY want STRANGE - try New York State!! The town of "Pulaski" (named after a Polish emigrant Gen. Pulaski) is called "PULAS.....kai!"(the Poles would turn round in their graves if the ever heard such a pronunciation!). The name of the town "Medina" (which is an Arabic word for "central market") is pronounced MeDAIna! The beautiful name Salina (a name in Spanish) is pronounced as Sah-LAI-nah! in NY State. Chili (who can mess that up??) is pronounced as CHAI-LAI in Upstate NY. Lima (hopefully named after the Capital of Peru) is pronounced as "LAI-ma" in NY State. VERY strange pronunciations all around! There is also a town named Mexico in NY State - I asked residents of that town "so you all are Mexicans, no?" - OH NO!!! They call themselves "Mexiconians'!!! Go figure!
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