Posted on 11/18/2016 12:35:53 PM PST by EveningStar
Fred Astaire drew laughs back in the Thirties with his song "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" in which the lovers can't agree on the pronunciation of words like either, neither, and tomato.
On a personal level, I cringe when I hear someone sound the "t" in often or pronounce pecan with a short "a," but I have to acknowledge that both these pronunciations are widely accepted alternate pronunciations that can be justified by the spelling.
Alternate pronunciations, however, are a different matter from out-and-out mispronunciations. The latter, no matter how common, are incorrect, either because of the spelling that indicates another pronunciation, or because of what is widely agreed upon to be conventional usage. Word of caution: I'm writing from an American perspective.
Here are 50 frequently mispronounced words. The list is by no means exhaustive, but provides a good start.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailywritingtips.com ...
So, which is it?
PeCAN or PeKAHN?............
You got to pundit / pendant before me. That one drives me crazy!
Being from Boston, I grew up with “sure” being 2 syllables— “shu-wa”.
Nothing excapes you EveningStar! My walking little LIBARY, thesaurus, encyclopedia, exedra, exedra...
:)
I axe you why?
I have to agree with you-MrT5 went TDY several times to Louisiana-he said the Cajun French dialect many there speak as a 2nd language is not just like the Quebecois he spoke as a 2nd language, but he could converse with them in French better than in English...
The Norteno Spanish I learned as a 2nd language-like most people in SW Texas-is just that-spoken only in border US states and Northern Mexico-like English in the US, there are as many dialects as we have-maybe more...
Our liberal public schools have failed us. So many of their graduates have no ability to spell, write or think.
UHMbrella, or umBRELLA?
INsurance, or inSURance?
Growing up 12 miles west of NYC, it was “worter”, not “wa-ter”.
My mother always said “sangwich” for “sandwich”. We joked about that when I got older, as she was exempt in English in the 8th grade. She would say sangwich on purpose, and I would say “And you were exempt in English?” and laugh.
My mother-in-law would say “lit-ill met-ill bot-ill” for “little metal bottle”. Became a running family joke.
I have said “mun-in-ci-pal” instead of “Mun-is-i-pal” and “chas-sis” for “chas-see”.
Flammable and inflammable really gets me hot under the collar though.
I’m not sure what you were saying about those nuts native to Georgia. But I submit that I took Army Basic at Ft. Gordon, and bivouaced under the trees with local guys from Valdosta, etc. They called them
pee-cans; not pee-cahns.
Found a couple of my pet peeves. Especially - athlete – The word has two syllables, not three. Say /ATH-LETE/, not /ath-uh-lete/.
That's an almost correct sounding, if by "E" you mean "ee" as in "wheel."
I believe the correct pronunciation is "Pah' kee stahn" with the accent on the "Pah," and that only slight.
A person is considered more learned, erudite, and cosmopolitan if he/she pronounces words of a foreign language as a native would.
Of course, a true ignorant rube will mock one for doing so, and get a laugh from pals for it.
No, it needs TO BE washed or it needs PAINTING. The verb “to need” is transitive; it requires an object. And an object, by definition, cannot be an adjective.
How’s that for grammar nazism?
Ja, ja... that is like a big, blinking "ERROR" warning when I see it, too. The Brits do something similar when they someone who has been injured is "In Hospital". I suppose, though, that it's their language to mangle however they see fit. ;-)
You should find some of that language history in David Hackett Fischer’s “Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America”
It intrigued me to see that the figures of speech that I grew up with trace back to the Cavalier and the Scots-Irish roots in my family tree. It evolved into one type of American Southern dialect.
PeCAN or PeKAHN?............
PuhKAHN.
Do you pronounce both Ts in cotton? That’d be worse than a fart in church.
Ping to buy this book for son.
dictionary.com says it’s OK. Common usage eventually becomes acceptable usage, whether we like it or not. There was a time, I imagine, when people pronounced the “k” and the “gh” in “knight”. Then they stopped.
All this talk about pecans has made me hungry for some pecan pie!....................with whipped cream!..............
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