Questions you'd like answering, regardless of how trivial they may seem

[AndyRM]

Why do we pronounce 'quixotic' as kwick-sottic and not key-ho-tic?

I've genuinely never heard it pronounced "kwick-sottic" and would be having a word with anyone who did.

Cervantes would be raging.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Ah, but how do you know there isn't reincarnation? There's a whole thread on its own and none of us would be able definitively.prove it either way. Well, not as far as we know anyway.

Maybe you are a butterfly dreaming you are a man, dreaming you are a butterfly?

 

[MontyVeda]

I've genuinely never heard it pronounced "kwick-sottic" and would be having a word with anyone who did.

Cervantes would be raging.

I've never heard it pronounced any other way... even the online dictionaries all seem to favour /kwɪkˈsɒtɪk/

 

[AndyRM]

I've never heard it pronounced any other way... even the online dictionaries all seem to favour /kwɪkˈsɒtɪk/

That's wild. I suppose I was introduced to the book in LA where there's a huge Hispanic population so I've never thought of it any other way.

In a similar vein I pronounce jalapeno properly which has confused more than one person.

 

[Alex321]

I've never heard it pronounced any other way... even the online dictionaries all seem to favour /kwɪkˈsɒtɪk/

I have very rarely heard it spoken, but have reasonably often heard the source of Don Quixote, and I have never heard that pronounced as kwix-ote.

 

[MontyVeda]

I have very rarely heard it spoken, but have reasonably often heard the source of Don Quixote, and I have never heard that pronounced as kwix-ote.

I was ridiculed by my whole family back in 1985 after proudly telling them that i'd got Nik Kershaw's new single; Don Kwixote

 

[swee'pea99]

My jaw dropped the first time I heard Jeremy Paxman give a UC answer as "Don Kwiksot". Kee-hoty or thereabouts, surely? Apparently, as I discovered on googling, that's how posh people pronounce it.

 

[FishFright]

My jaw dropped the first time I heard Jeremy Paxman give a UC answer as "Don Kwiksot". Kee-hoty or thereabouts, surely? Apparently, as I discovered on googling, that's how posh people pronounce it.

It's a great example of how foreign words are repeatedly mispronounced by the English until it becomes the official pronunciation used by those who went to the right public schools.

 

[MontyVeda]

Ah, but how do you know there isn't reincarnation? There's a whole thread on its own and none of us would be able definitively.prove it either way. Well, not as far as we know anyway.

The same way I 'know' that there isn't a god, a tooth fairy, ghosts, etc.

 

[Punkawallah]

The same way I 'know' that there isn't a god, a tooth fairy, ghosts, etc.

I don’t know how to break this, but there have been some 2700 recorded deities in human history. I’m happy to believe in all 2700, on the principle that if the body of opinion which considers belief enough to bring something into existence is correct, it will make ‘judgement day’ very interesting.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

I don’t know how to break this, but there have been some 2700 recorded deities in human history. I’m happy to believe in all 2700, on the principle that if the body of opinion which considers belief enough to bring something into existence is correct, it will make ‘judgement day’ very interesting.

Probably more if you include very funny shaped rock and tree that migth have been worshipped in pre-historic times

Humans do seem to like to have some sort of divine being to oversee things - or to blame if things go wrong

of course the fact that the divine being's chief servant gets a nice easy life and lots of power might be relevant???

 

[Chris S]

I don’t know how to break this, but there have been some 2700 recorded deities in human history. I’m happy to believe in all 2700, on the principle that if the body of opinion which considers belief enough to bring something into existence is correct, it will make ‘judgement day’ very interesting.

There are over 4,000 deities worshiped in Hinduism alone!

 

[Chris S]

Why is lager sold in 3/4 pint cans?

In 2011, the UK government reduced the duty on beers with an ABV of 2.8% or below, but only if they were sold in containers of 440ml or less.

I've just found out that weight of 440ml of beer plus its can worked out at one imperial pound. It would have originally made calculating the weight of loads easier.

 

[MontyVeda]

There are over 4,000 deities worshiped in Hinduism alone!

it's almost as if they just made it up as they went along.

 

[Badger_Boom]

It's a great example of how foreign words are repeatedly mispronounced by the English until it becomes the official pronunciation used by those who went to the right public schools.

...who are all called things like Featherstonehaugh, Cholmondeley or Powell.