So here's a new phenomenon: film (movie) posters that include pronunciation guides.Over on the right you can see part of a poster for the current release Beverly Hills Chihuahua, which helpfully points out that 'chihuahua' should be pronounced chee' WOW wa.
Is the apostrophe indicating stress on the middle syllable? Surely putting 'WOW' in caps is sufficient?
The only other example of this phenomenon I can think of is the poster for the children's animated fim Ratatouille (2007), as shown below.
Here the pronunciation guide is rat-a-too-ee – the syllables are separated by hyphens but this time there's no indication at all as to stress.
So how do you feel about these pronunciation guides – are they an example of dumbing-down and declining standards in education?Personally, I applaud the film-makers for not shying away from using 'difficult' words in the titles of children's films.
And can you think of any other examples? Maybe it's not a new phenomenon at all...
