Friday, 26 June 2009

That’s light. Eat it!

In EFL, mistakes in pronunciation may contaminate written English.
As we know, many people have problems with the pronunciation of r and l.

...and with iː and ɪ.

But this causes problems in spelling, too. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it causes problems in sorting out apparent homonyms (homonyms when mispronounced).
Oh dear.
(Authentic pictures from engrishfunny.com.)
at

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous26 June 2009 at 22:07

    I wonder what country the sushi bar one is from. Can't be Japan as they have a clear distinction between long and short vowel sounds (and also are unaware and confused that a place for sushi could be called a "bar"). Korea maybe??

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  2. Shige29 June 2009 at 02:41

    I agree with japanexplained. At least in terms of English vocabulary the Japanese have, it is unlikely that 'it' and 'eat' are confused. It is true that the Japanese have difficulty distinguishing iː and ɪ, but this doesn't seem to be the case with this sushi bar sign.

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