Pronunciation of manufacturers' names

[jandl100]

No, he wasn't a pretentious tit at all. It's just easier to say when you are saying it a lot.

And I feel sure that ARA would have said "S.M.E. my dear chap".

[Marco]

Lol, indeed. He'd have shuddered at the very notion of "Smee"

Best reserved for oiks, me thinks

Marco.

[walpurgis]

'Smee' was Captain Hook's bosun in Peter Pan. So there!!

[Mike Reed]

I've found that hifi dealers often pronounce it as smee.

"Oh yes, I'd recommend a smee 309 for that".

Wasn't 'Smee' a nasty character in 'Peter Pan'?

Edit. Bugger, Geoff got there before me. Amazing how this children's story embeds into one's memory banks.

[Marco]

Geoff beat you to it! See above

Marco.

[Barry]

Well I have always pronounced it S M E, despite the fact that "smee" is easier to say - it just sounds wrong.

(Fans of 'Red Dwarf' will be reminded of the service android Kryten. Owing to him being fitted with a politeness chip, he is incapable of saying anything offensive or insulting; so when he tries to say "smeg" (a frequent four-letter expletive used by Lyster) it comes out as "smeee...").

Just as when I worked for GEC, I and everyone else pronounced it "G E C", and not "Gek". Incidentally the late Sir Arnold Weinstock when referring to the Company always said "The GEC". Since GEC stood for 'General Electric Company', he was correct albeit pedantic - no-one I knew would include the definite article.

But I do pronounce KEF as "Kef" and NAD as "Nad", yet will say "Bang and Olufsen" rather than "B and O".

Nothing like being inconsistent - it shows you are human.

[struth]

your a smee.... im a smee?.... yes, a complete and utter one

[Mike Reed]

Just as when I worked for GEC, I and everyone else pronounced it "G E C"

I'm pretty sure I worked at the G.E.C. (there y'go !) in the sixties; in an office. All I can remember is that it was in or near the City, and all the desks were lined up underneath the many windows on one side. Think it was payroll or sth similar. Can't think I was there that long, though.

[paulf-2007]

Lol... It's just what you're used to, and holidaying somewhere is very different from living there. We've often toyed with the idea of moving abroad, to France or Italy, but when it came down to it, decided against it.

It's still a future possibility, and one way of getting round the 'homesick' thing would be to move to rural Northern France (as we like it out in the sticks), where if necessary, we'd be within a day's ferry trip from the UK, so in effect could get our 'UK hit' that way, whilst enjoying the benefits of a French lifestyle.

It's one to ponder... We'll see what the future brings!

Marco.

Our house is 70 miles from Calais, so back in Blighty in no time at all. Had planned to move lock stock and barrel, but talking French on the telephone is very difficult and various other things make it seem hard going, the wife doesn't drive and has to rely on me to go anywhere yet here she can do her own thing. What made me realise it wasn't going to work for her was when I went shopping in town here and she chats with all the shop staff and couldn't do that in France. She speaks English well enough and her native Thai but is too late in life to be proficient in French. Weather is shite like here in winter and colder.

[paulf-2007]

Or a stroll along Southall Broadway to the sound of whatever horrible noise it is that the Indians regard as music and is usually blaring out from some shop or food place.

Southall Broadway is like beings in India, driven through there many times, lived in Greenford briefly.