this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2024
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[–] [email protected] 104 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Wait until he notices the C's in “Pacific Ocean”.

[–] [email protected] 61 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I never did understand how an ocean can contain multiple seas.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Did you recently become a father? Because that was one of the better dad jokes.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago

I earned my dad joke card in 1985 when I came around the corner carrying a joke book and like 7 kids groaned.

is old

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That's why I prefer the Dead Sea.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

In terms of geography, seas are smaller than oceans and are usually located where the land and ocean meet. Typically, seas are partially enclosed by land. Seas are found on the margins of the ocean and are partially enclosed by land.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

Give me more of these!

[–] [email protected] 86 points 1 week ago (5 children)

It's the same in German: /mɛʁˈt͡seːdəs/

Despite what other commentators say who are evil and eager to spread lies about the German language

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 week ago (2 children)

However, in Spanish, which is the name's language of origin despite being a German car, they're the same. All e as in red. Mercedes.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

True, it's a common female name, or was idk. Iirc the car is named after the daughter of the inventor. The German pronunciation is the butchered version of the Spanish first name so I'm on no moral high ground

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Iirc the car is named after the daughter of the inventor.

Not the inventor and it's a bit more complicated. Emil Jellinek was selling Daimler cars, and had them participate in races for publicity. His daughter was called Mercédès Adrienne Ramona Jellinek. The historical record is a bit unclear, either he used her name as a pseudonym for a racer, or he christened one of the cars after her. In any case they won that race, gaining the name some notority which he and the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft used for further marketing later on.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 week ago
[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

On a phonetic level, some specialist will be able to discern the different E-sounds, but they're still very similar. It's definitely not like the English pronunciation where it's completely different sounds.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

It's basically the three E sounds we have in German (short, long and "unstressed") but I see that to the untrained ear, this isn't obvious

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago

E is super flexible in German

e, ae, oe, ue, eu, ie, ei, ee all make distinct consistent sounds

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago (4 children)

The difference is so narrow that I wouldn't notice any difference apart from the length, the first and last e are very slightly shorter than the middle e. And of course you have the usual going-down-with-your-voice-at-the-end-of-the-word

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 week ago (4 children)

not true in German, there all Es sound exactly the same

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 week ago

When I, as a German speaker, pronounce Mercedes, every e is slightly different.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

At this point this thread is just making fun of English having no phonetical uniformity at all.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago

The first E in Mercedes sounds slightly different from the other two in German, mostly because the rhotic sound [r] modifies the tongue placement for the preceding E, forcing you to say it as either an open-mid front unrounded vowel [ɛ], or a mid near-front unrounded [ɛ̽]. The [r] prevents the vowel from being a Close-mid front unrounded vowel [e] like the 2nd and 3rd occurrences of E.

Or more simply, the first e sounds more like "bed" while the second and third sound more like "may", assuming you're reading this with a standard American dialect.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Me as a kid, having just learned english, listening to Janis Joplin: "What the fuck is a mercy dispense!?"

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

When you pray for the lord to have mercy, they have to dispense it somehow. That part made sense to me as a kid.

However why would God have to buy one? And from whom? Who manufactures these mercy dispensers for God? Why wouldn't God just make them into existence?

When I learned that it was Mercedes Benz I came to understand that even God needs to abide by trademark law.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 week ago (9 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

Same in Poland.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 week ago (6 children)

But only in English. In the original German, all three e's are actually the same.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

Diese Kommentarsektion ist nun Eigentum der Bundesrepublik Deutschland

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 week ago

What the hell, it's originally Spanish where all the Es sound the same, then it got popularized by a German brand, where all the Es sound the same, how did it become Merceydees in English?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago
[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Not if you pronounce it the way Germans do

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago

If you add Benz you get a 4th E sound

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago

mercedeez nuts lmao gottem

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

Abraham is another

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I’m fighting an urge right now…

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

In Spanish the e's are pronounced the same way, and the same applies for German! It's only in English that the e's are all pronounced differently! English is such a weird language, I love it but it's things like this which are hilarious to me.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

this confused me, I speak too many languages

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