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 ...
That one was pretty much always a lost cause.
Actually, I'm from CT, but after 20+ years, the AF dropped me off in flyover country and I stayed. I guess that means if I'm subjected to flyover country jokes I'm not an innocent victim, since I'm here voluntarily.
As I said...only kidding! :-)
Just can't wipe the Big Wide Grin off my face from seeing this and remembering my grandmother asking me to go to the ack-a-me (four blocks away) to pick something up for her.
She is the one person that I would never "correct" for saying "ack-a-me" not because I feared her but because I loved her and loved to hear her say that. Italians knew there were not enough vowels in the Acme name...
Conversely, my Scottish-descended grandmom added "a" to the beginning of verbsas in, "He's a-goin' to the store."
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