GPS speak - will it change the way we say things?

[Lotz-A-Landies]

I get frustrated with my Navwoman when she pronounces things wrong. The other day it was Beauchamp "beau-champ" instead of "beach-am" today it was Edensor "eden-sor" instead of "E-den-za" there have been many before those.

Will we find that the way we say things in future will become the text-to-speach verson rather than the historical way?

[roverfan]

Not unless teachers are replaced by robots or sat nav devices

[Lotz-A-Landies]

That's good to hear that the Dept of Education has added a course on street and place names into the curriculum. How much other education is doing web searches where there is no verbal pronunciation of text. So in a way the teacher has been replaced by a robot, or at least a computer for a part of the educational cycle.

Diana

[jx2mad]

I have just updated my Navman maps and now if I put in my home address (I live in a side dead end road) it sends me past my turn about 3 Km, loop around a block, back to my turnoff and then home. Drives me insane.

[B92 8NW]

Must admit I find some of the pronunciations bloody funny and slip them into vocabulary (usually when driving) provided someone else is aware of the in-joke.

Mine says Maroondah in the most pretentious manner with a bit of a Welsh timbre to it... quite funny versus the bogan way most people pronounce it.

I've never been or heard of Beauchamp and would most likely have pronounced it Beau-shom. Some of these pronunciations can be a bit esoteric and the locals often look at you like you have two heads when you say it wrong.

Speaking of two heads, its easy to tell those from Launceston by the way they pronounce it vs. the bastardised LAWN-ceston.

[PhilipA]

We call our ozzie Garmin girl "Julia" as she pronounces road as "Roooaaaad"
"Tuuurn riiight on Avooooca Roooaaad"
Regards Philip A

[Lotz-A-Landies]

I have just updated my Navman maps and now if I put in my home address (I live in a side dead end road) it sends me past my turn about 3 Km, loop around a block, back to my turnoff and then home. Drives me insane.It's all Sensis (Telstra) fault! Isn't everything?

I have the same problem at the farm, not that I need it but I often check it's navigation to see how bad it is. Coming back from the beaches, Culburra, Calala and Currarong when we get to our street, instead of it turning right, (we own the corner of the main road and the road our main gate is on), it turns us left, takes us 2 Km down the road oposite, turns us right another 3 km, right again 1.7 Km, right again 2 Km, then left at our road where we should have turned 8.7 Km ago. I followed just to see how wrong it is.

Now when I get into a cab and the driver starts programming in the address, I say no thanks and get out.

GPS are good for speed checks and when you don't know where you are going and don't have a MAP.

Diana

[130man]

Hi all, children learn to speak from their most common exposure to heard words, which is usually parents. Some kids with high TV time take on the dominant pronounciations, mainly American, that permeate our TV airwaves. As Navman style devices become more common, there will be some effect on general pronounciation. My wife, an Highschool English teacher, has noted a deterioration in spelling since mobile phone messaging has become so common. No doubt this will spread over time. Remember, all languages, particularly English, are evolving so there may be no way to stop it or slow it down. I occasionally find myself struggling to follow conversations with younger people as their word useage escapes me. Some of this would be localised slang but much of it is widespread amongst the younger generation. I recently heard a person described as "fully sick" in admiring tones. Beats me. Dictionaries will struggle to keep up. The above term is probably outdated by now. Cheers, 130man.

[austastar]

Hi,
Mackery St instead of Macquarie St was a source of amusement for a while till an update seems to have fixed it.

cheers

[bob10]

It's all Sensis (Telstra) fault! Isn't everything?


GPS are good for speed checks and when you don't know where you are going and don't have a MAP.

Diana
Many years ago, in a rural area far far away,[ central Qld.], my dad must have had a GPS imbedded in his head by Aliens. He and his friends could find their way anywhere in the area , no problem . As an example, when we were flooded in near Ilfracombe, water about a foot under the house, nothing left but some scones, flour @ rice, he saddled his best horse, a packhorse and set off , swam 3 creeks and a river, came back with some food [ and a bottle of rum] The bloody cat ate most of the scones, before he got back, we had rice dampers for a few days. Gps? lazy mans way. Bob

[bee utey]

Curse dem lazy unedjicated furriners for messing up our local dialect.:angel:

Now what about those Indian call centre operators asking, er, am I speaking to Mr :twisted::twisted::twisted: plize? No! (Crash!)

[easo]

I too find some amusement in the GPS pronunciation of my streets. Here every street is a battle name from distant shores.

Name GPS
Nazdab Nad-jib
Malaya May- Liar
Buna Boona
Vivi Vy-Vy

But it get Salamander right.

Easo

[33chinacars]

Its not only GPS's that get pronuncations wrong . Even local TV stations cant say towns in their viewing area right. What gives. Have to listen REEEL hard to see where they are talking about
Gary

[uninformed]

I love all the people complaining about these devices,yet insist on having them......what ever happened to the refidex or a map. I will never own a nav gps....just more techno landfill as far as I'm concerned.

[PhilipA]

Being from Brissy, I always like the Sydney newsreader pronunciation of
"Bribie " with a short i as in is.
The one that gets everyone , including me at first is " Tallangatta" which is pronounced "Tal ang g tah" G as in Goo.
My Mother in law always used to call "Cunnamulla" Cullamulla , and she was from Surat, so maybe she had picked up some er "local speak"

Regards Philip A

[zulu Delta 534]

I have always understood that it was compulsory in Australia, when pronouncing a town name that consisted of more than two syllables, to insert a "bloody" between the second and third syllables. eg. Cunnamulla becomes automatically, Cunnabloodymulla, Andamooka becomes Andabloodymooka Wollongong becomes wollonbloodygong,and so on, with the only noticeable exception that I am aware of being Leigh Bloody Creek.
Ever since I have had my GPS I have programmed it to "Australian speak" and have never yet heard it pronounce the full Aussie version of any three syllable town name.
I am most disappointed!
Regards
Glen

[UncleHo]

G'day PhilipA :)

You will also remember southerners saying Mt.Gravat instead of the Brisbane pronunciation of Mt Gra-vatt :)

[Bushie]

Its not only GPS's that get pronuncations wrong . Even local TV stations cant say towns in their viewing area right. What gives. Have to listen REEEL hard to see where they are talking about
Gary

Princess Hwy instead of Princes is a common one around Sydney (drive me crazy :twisted:)


Martyn

[Lotz-A-Landies]

I have always understood that it was compulsory in Australia, when pronouncing a town name that consisted of more than two syllables, to insert a "bloody" between the second and third syllables. eg. Cunnamulla becomes automatically, Cunnabloodymulla, Andamooka becomes Andabloodymooka Wollongong becomes wollonbloodygong,and so on, with the only noticeable exception that I am aware of being Leigh Bloody Creek.
Ever since I have had my GPS I have programmed it to "Australian speak" and have never yet heard it pronounce the full Aussie version of any three syllable town name.
I am most disappointed!
Regards
GlenI thought there were exceptions to the "bloody" rule where you have to add "wheelbarra" to towns containing the syllable "bara"? Coonabarabran becomes "Coona-wheelbarra-bran".

Does anyone have a street etc "Mainwaring" near them? I'd be interested whether it pronounces it the correct "manna-ring" or "main-wear-ing" or even "main-war-ing"!

[JDNSW]

Local pronunciations can be very local. To give a couple of examples from round here -

A small village near here is Lahey's Ck. Locals (within 50km) pronounce it "Lackey's Ck".

One of the roads in Dubbo is Coborrah Rd, which is pronounced with three syllables, accented on the second one which rhymes with "bore". It is the road to Cobborah, 75km away and once a major town, now a tiny village (the railway went through Dunedoo so everyone moved to there!), which is always pronounced "Cobra" with a short "O".

It is difficult to see how a GPS could cope with this sort of variance.

John

[Tombie]

So how does it pronounce NewCastle?

And how do you lot say it?

New Kas L ????

[Bigbjorn]

The hamlet of Leyburn on the Darling Downs is a wonderful example. It is considered correct to pronounce it either Lee-burn or Lay-burn depending whether the speaker lives on the Warwick or Toowoomba side of the Clifton-Leyburn Road. I always call it Lee-burn as my rellies lived near Allora on the Warwick side.

The lady with the nasal North American voice who lives in my Tom-Tom does produce some entertaining pronunciations. She also likes to plan routes using freeways and major roads, and, I suppose, gets quite frustated with me when I use local knowledge and go the easiest way. I like to get her to plan a route even when I well know where I am going just to see what she comes up with. My wife was quite amused at "take the rotary" for a roundabout.

[Lotz-A-Landies]

I just want NavWoman to get the message when I tell her she doesn't know what she's talking about, or even to just shut up when I tell her i know where I'm going and she can come back later. But she keeps going on with her "make a U turn when able" stuff! :D

At least she's got over the "take second exit" bizzo at over-a-bouts, now she says "at the roundabout continue straight"

Diana ;)

[Bigbjorn]

I just want NavWoman to get the message when I tell her she doesn't know what she's talking about, or even to just shut up when I tell her i know where I'm going and she can come back later. But she keeps going on with her "make a U turn when able" stuff! :D

At least she's got over the "take second exit" bizzo at over-a-bouts, now she says "at the roundabout continue straight"

Diana ;)

"take the rotary, second exit"

"you are going the wrong way. Turn around where possible"

I take this second to mean "make an illegal u-turn across eight lanes and the median strip of the freeway".

[Lotz-A-Landies]

Last night's effort. Cleveland Street = "cle-eee-vlind". :D

[Bigbjorn]

"Eye-pswich" was amusing. Toowoomba was something unintelligible. I wonder what she would make of Wooloongabba or Bungeworgorai?

[Lotz-A-Landies]

... I wonder what she would make of Wooloongabba or Bungeworgorai?It would be worth making the trips just the hear them! :D

[Bigbjorn]

Last night's effort. Cleveland Street = "cle-eee-vlind". :D

Obviously not a Sydney resident or she would have said "Clevo". Does she say Red-fern or the local pronunciation "Redfrn".

[fclandy]

Car I hired from Brisbane on a trip to the Gold Coast to see the Cats show Ablett he wasn't needed had a GPS. Kept telling me to turn left from an over pass onto the road several metres below me. Arriving at the Coast, it wanted me to turn right across a median, when I refused it kept telling me to do a U-turn despite the 'no U-turn' signs at every intersection.

[Lotz-A-Landies]

Obviously not a Sydney resident or she would have said "Clevo". Does she say Red-fern or the local pronunciation "Redfrn".She's resident in Sydney a lot of the time but spends most of her working life travelling. ;)

She's also not taken to mentioning suburbs/towns or cities and seems to focus mainly on street names and other street architecture (I think she is a little obsessive that way), although that said it often takes her fancy to mention place names if someone puts them on the large green road signs. :D

Talking about being obsessive, when I switch to "map" and don't tell her where I want to go, she disappears in a huff and won't say anything. I can never keep her happy it seems! :) :o :D ;) :p

[PhilipA]

Should say "Minno" if Sydney GPS.
Regards Philip A