• evil_twin said on Oct 15, 2007....

  My all time favorite is 'supposably' instead of 'supposedly'. That one gets me every time. I'm sure I can think of more later, but that one sticks out in my mind. I've got a friend who always says that and it drives me crazy.
   
  -evil_twin LA
  

• uniquely-ironic said on Oct 15, 2007....

  Being a fan of mexican food it always floors me that someone doesn't know the pronounce the "ll" as a "y" sound in words like torilla, quesidilla and such.  Also the n with the "~" over it as a "ny" sound.  I'm not hispanic, but living in california all of my life I find it hard to believe that anyone reasonably old doesn't know how to pronounce those words.
   
   

• confuzzledwife said on Oct 15, 2007....

  'supposably' was the first that came to my mind like evil twin- my ex husband always said 'supposably' and it drove me insane! 'excape' is another one that I hear a lot- 'exspecially' and 'liberry'.. lol.. that's all I can think of right now.. but I'm sure there's lots more!!

• nytquill17 said on Oct 15, 2007....

  "Libary."  When kids say it, it's a motor skill issue and it's cute.  When grownups say it...ugh.  And "sandwidges".  I'm sure there are more but those are the first that come to mind!
  
  These are not so much mispronunciations but I also hate "brung" and "I seen".  I have no problem with an "ain't" from time to time though, I guess because it's a replacement word/phrase rather than just a wrongly-said one. 
  
  I also tend to associate a bit too strongly intelligence with communication.  I guess because for me the rules of language were easy and even fun to learn so on a reactive level I don't get why anyone would get it wrong.  Although I break a lot of those rules myself - sentence fragments, leading with conjunctions, etc.  When I'm writing informally I leave out commas and don't use semicolons sometimes, too.
  

• the_infernal_optimist said on Oct 15, 2007....

  Ugh, I'm sure I irritate people from time to time with that sort of thing, though it's more a product of where I live (and personal laziness) than of not knowing the correct pronunciation.
  
  I cringe even writing this, but my biggest pronunciation gripe is when someone means to say/write "regardless" and it comes out "irregardless" - or when someone says "prolly" for "probably"...it really doesn't take a lot of extra effort to say it right!
  
  Oh, and "axed" in place of "asked" is a big problem around here. *twitch*
  
  ~Infernal
  

• lfbno7 said on Oct 15, 2007....

  Being a native New Yawka, I usedta hang out at toyty toyd shtreet.

• NotSoSinglechick25 said on Oct 15, 2007....

  I get a lot of patients wanting "mammiograms" and "suposably" which I just find amusing.  What I hate is when a person is deliberately mispronoucing something (usually in spanish) to just be mean.  Although I did have my entire office conviced it's "punkins" instead of "pumpkins" one year.  That was pretty funny.

• Eilan said on Oct 15, 2007....

  When kids say "sketti," for spaghetti, it's kinda cute.  When adults say it?  Not so much.
  
  Conversate.  Enough said.
  
  My best friend tends to use "foilage" a lot during this time of year.  She also mentioned that her dad needed skin graphs (she writes that as well).
  
  People who say, "I says," instead of "I said."  I know a PhD who was guilty of this.
  
  Anyone want a sammich?
  
  Edited to add--I think I mentioned this in a comment I made to one of evil_twin's blog entries, but my future sister-in-law got really pissy because the CSR couldn't understand her when she tried to order an ink cartilage for her printer.

• queenparanoia said on Oct 15, 2007....

  oh so many misprounciations that irritate me. although i said some myself... can't help it though eglish is not my first language.

• Twylarants said on Oct 15, 2007....

  I'm guilty of speaking in a lazy manner, not because I can't speak properly, simply because I'm lazy.
  "Heighth" drives me nuts!  I get the "length, width, and depth connection, but it's "height".   Drives me friggin' crazy.  And people who just cannot grasp the usage of "I" vs "me", so they say "myself".  As in "my wife and myself feel strongly about this...".  Some politicians and newsreaders are guilty of taking this easy way out, and it sets what teeth I still have left on edge.
  Gawd, I hate people like me...picky, picky, picky!
   

• Eilan said on Oct 15, 2007....

  The post by Twylarants just reminded me of another annoying mispronunciation: "strenth" for "strength."
  
  This is more of a regional thing than a mispronunciation, I think, but a lot of people around here say "you'uns" or "y'uns," if they're feeling lazy. A woman I used to babysit for would say things like, "There's some Jello in the fridge that y'uns can have after lunch."
  

• minniemouse said on Oct 15, 2007....

  Hmmmm....so many to choose from....a lot are regional "mis-pronuciations"....lol......simUlar instead of similar,,(grrrr), birfday, ('nuff said...lol), "bidness" and the next couple aren't mis-pronuciations, but bug the crap out of me just the same...."ain't" and "don't got no..."  I'm sure there are more....

• CreativeWoman said on Oct 15, 2007....

  I hate when people mispronounce the names of states.  For example, I hate to hear Missourah instead of Missouri and Eye-oh-way instead of Iowa.
  
  Goodness.  Don't get me started on this.  My list of gripes would be longer than my arm.  :-)
  
  CW
  

• TinSoldier said on Oct 15, 2007....

  Heh, I'm with infernal optimist regarding "irregardless". That bugs the heck out of me. There are probably some similar words.
  
  However, I say "sketti" and "sammich" even though I know the correct pronunciations. I'm just weird that way.
  
  I hate the way some people say "Oregon" with a long e and rhyming with "gone". It's "Or uh gun", emphasis on the first syllable and shortened second syllable. Get it right please. Sounds almost like organ.
  
  Either/neither -- I say these words both ways so it's not really a mispronunciation is it? "eether/neether" or "ither/nither"? I don't know. Context I guess.
  

• beyondtheveil said on Oct 15, 2007....

  "pacific" for specific
  
  "I seen" for I saw
  
  "sofmore" for sophomore
  
  "durgible" for dirigible
  
  "infamatesimal", or something similar, for infinitesimal
  
  
  

• D6fer said on Oct 15, 2007....

  expresso.......drives me nuts....being in the industry and hearing other so-called professionals in the same industry call it that.....ugh!   E-S-P-R-E-S-S-O!  get it right gomer!

• hotaka said on Oct 16, 2007....

  Nuclear bugs me, too.
  
  My friends used to make fun of me for saying Chooseday so at a young age I switched to Tuesday with a T.
  
  Ast instead of asked.
  
  S'getti. Yummy.
  
  And really, how does one pronounce alluminium anyway? Are we North Americans so illiterate that we think pronouncing it alluminum is correct? I am guilty of that. But then again, I don't like shedule.
  
  There are others and common grammatical mistakes that bug me too but I can't recall them all now.
  

• lfbno7 said on Oct 16, 2007....

  Eilan, you suggested the word Conversate.  That's one that gets to me too.  I guess it isn't a pronunciation issue, but rather a case of making up a new word, but that one gets me.  What ever happened to the simple word Talk.
  
  For some reason, probably the same reason as Conversate, it irks me when people use the perfectly good word Utilize, when Use would serve just as well.  There's a sports commentator named Mike Goldberg who is always saying Utilize, for the same reason as people use Conversate, to sound fancy.
  

• sweet_cookie01 said on Oct 16, 2007....

  sometimes when i hear mispronouncation of words i can get irritated but then i could be guilty of it too...
   
  but what really really bugs me is when some people here in my country...( i dont know if it happens to english speaking countries too)... there are those who interchanges the sounds of "p" with "f", "s" with "z",  "b" with "v".
   
  our helper pronounces Fudge's name as Buds!!!

• hillbillygirl said on Oct 16, 2007....

  This made me instantly think of my ex husband he used to say ......ideal instead of idea all the time.....it drove me nuts. And I hate to hear someone say he gave me a comment instead of a compliment. Or saying you need to be learned how to do something......thats seriously HILLBILLY there....lol.

• ZsuzsiO said on Oct 16, 2007....

  Wow! this one was a real eye opener for me! I am guilty of bad spelling in general, but also, I love those little wrongly said words cause they make me feel that my English is good enough to use the street English in stead of the book English - if you know what I mean.
  "I ain't gonna" is something I like to use, but people around here usually don't get, so I like to tell them "I know, I speak the American English" =]
  Than there is "ex" in stead of "ask" that I've heard a lot in FL. People say "f" in stead of "th", and yes, I've heard a lot of Choosdays, and Donchooknows (don't you know).
  I used to be a "donchooknow" person myself, but since I started teaching English in Israeli public schools I really worked on clear pronunciation.
  Actually, my close friend here is an English lady, from England, and just being her friend had changed my speach. To amuse her I tell her about the Ebonic street "langua" I used to speak with "my girls back in FL", like "wussup sista', how you is babe" and the rest.

• destinydiva said on Oct 16, 2007....

  you know,  mispronunciations dont bother me at all, being able to pronounce a word right has less of an impression on me about the person than someone who judges intelligence in that manner.
  ( no offense, just my opinion, and it is biast, my ex used to judge intelligence on mispronunications, and I am just as guilty because I automatically judge that as shallow)
  anyways  I know you are far from shallow mr silver :-)
  but  I am ducking out the way before I get a trout smack :-)
  x
  

• redrocks said on Oct 16, 2007....

  I hate the way you say "media" in English.
  It is a latin word, but everyone (also in Italy) pronounce the "e" as the "i" of "video". That's uncorrect. You should pronounce it as an "a"
  Also "viceversa" with the "i" read as if it was "eye"... :((

• Luna.Loveborn said on Oct 16, 2007....

  Which-witch... Really makes me upset.

• Actorguy said on Oct 16, 2007....

  My wife says disorientated for disoriented and it drives me up the wall!

• silverwhisper said on Oct 16, 2007....

  e_t: my buddy and i used to say that to each other as a joke after we heard it on friends! :D
  
  u-i: that irritates me too, although honestly, i can forgive that more readily considering they aren't really english words--it's when people who primarily speak english mangle a word in english that really sets my teeth on edge. :>
  
  confuzzled: was that a friends thing for him, maybe? and that "x"/"ks" sound thing drives me up a wall!
  
  nyt: i had a feeling you would see this the way i do. :> as i said, i know it's not a good thing b/c i know some folks who are marvelously inarticulate but pretty darned smart folks. "sandwidges"? OK, that's new on me. [shudders]
  
  infernal: "irregardless" is something i wish were banned from the popular lexicon. [shudders again] i can get past occasional laziness in pronunciation, but as a habitual thing it annoys me, i'll confess.
  
  lbf: OK, i just wanna say that i'm glad i actually know someone who talks like that, just b/c i don't and think that's neat. :>
  
  notsosingle: hey there! bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha...punkins! i love it! :D in college, some of my friends convinced someone that the vegetable is pronounced "brah koe' lie", rather than broccoli. :D
  
  eilan: each of those made my skin crawl, i'll confess. perhaps i can use this blog entry to overcome my distaste for mangled pronunciations through desensitization...although i'll confess, i do use "sammich" from time to time. [looks sheepish]
  
  queen: well, what about in tagalog?
  
  twyla: "heigth" isn't one i encounter often so it always surprises me when i do. and pronoun confusion is kinda annoying, i agree... :D
  
  mm: no, seriously? people say simular?! no. way! although i like birfday cuz i think it sounds kinda cute...
  
  CW: oddly, i understand that folks in missouri pronounce it missourah. ? the iowa thing though, that i've never heard. heh...o, get started, it'll be fun! :D
  
  TS: i'm wondering if "sketti" and "sammich" are a function of having children, to be honest. what do you think?
  
  beyond: dude, you must travel in some rarefied circles that you hear the word "dirigible" at all, never mind how poorly pronounced!
  
  d6: o man, that drives me nuts, too! and that's gotta cheese you off to hear people in the business who oughta know better do it!
  
  hotaka: er, the british spell aluminum with an additional "i", which is the cause of the different pronunciation. :>
  
  lbf: that tendency of some people trying to sound more educated and failing kinda bugs me, b/c i can't help wondering why they don't just express themselves the way they normally would, you know?
  
  sweet cookie: o, i think that we all are guilty of that from time to time. "p" and "f" confusion are common in asian languages i know, but i don't think that's true of most english-speaking cultures. and that's gotta be irritating about your helper! say, speaking of fudge, i think i need to see more pics of him. :D
  
  hbg: o wow, i've never heard someone do either of those, so i don't even know how to respond!
  
  zsuzsio: i don't mean to suggest we should all speak letter-perfect english--i mean, c'mon, i'll cheerfully end a sentence with a preposition and not worry about it, myself. you know, i've often felt that people who learn english as a second language are in better shape than native speakers who often do get sloppy about it. :>
  
  destiny: hey, like i said, it's a flaw. :>
  
  rr: hi! correct me if i'm mistaken, but strictly speaking, in the latin, isn't "vice" pronounce "vee chay"? :>
  
  luna: you know, that's a subtle one that i don't know if i've really heard before!
  
  actorguy: adding new syllables where they don't belong bugs me too!

• nytquill17 said on Oct 16, 2007....

  Actor: I think "disorientated" is an approved form of the word in British and Australian English.  It bugged me too the first few times I heard someone say it, until I realized that every UK or AU personality I saw on TV was saying it that way, and I joined a forum with a lot of UK and AU participants and they all say it, too.  In fact, now I think of it, I never see them say it the other way, "disoriented."
  
  Ed: I've heard it in a few places.  It's not as common as "sammich" (but for some reason sammich doesn't bother me - I guess because it's more of a quickly-pronounced version of the word than a mispronunciation.  Plus I say it a lot to be cute :p )  But there is this one commercial out now in Canada for, I think it's lunch meat, where the voice-over lady keeps saying "sandwidges."  I want to throttle her every time I hear it!
  
  "Heighth" and "axe" are great ones :D
  

• evil_twin said on Oct 16, 2007....

  I remember the supposably thing from Friends! See, this guy I know, he's just like Joey. He saw that episode and he still didn't get the joke. He thinks supposably is correct! And he also uses another form of the word spaghetti and calls it 'basketti'. *sigh*
  
  -evil_twin LA
  

• Trinov said on Oct 16, 2007....

  Hi, I remember being in shock when we came to New York City after a long stay away and heard the announcers on the radio and the television talking a sloppy inaccurate English--we had heard only the BBC here. But I have the family trait of mis-hearing and mis pronouncing some words. My uncle, who had, according to my father, dozens of patents to his name, was a whiz at mispronounciation. And there was a PHD from Columbia that I met on a kibbutz and he barely spoke English--native New Yorker as he was. I think right brain oriented people --if they don't have good spatial skills (letters in a word)--can really screw up a language....and they are often the math people.

• bewaresmoothtalkers said on Oct 16, 2007....

  SW....Saw your post & the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I then decided to read on. I'm not writting this to get into a pissing contest with you, just wanted to ask you a couple of questions. What is your feelings on the promoting of Street Jargon as a legitimate language? How do you feel about teachers that say it's ok for kids to spell words the way they think it should be spelled-(cat-kat), I saw this on a TV special. Thanks SW.  BST 

• grandeur said on Oct 16, 2007....

  I don't really know wether i'm the one who finds people who say "aks" instead of "ask" annoying.They "aksed" instead of "asked"

• GypsyRoseII said on Oct 16, 2007....

  that famous one.... "let me axe you this?"  AXE....
  do i look like i need you to cut me some trees down...haha
  and as a hispanic, we have lots of mispronunciations and slang words....lots
   
  that's all i can think of right now "Y'all".....  ;-)
   
  GR

• quietone said on Oct 16, 2007....

  I guess you guys have it all "cobberd'..so I won't "axe" any more, or add any more either....."probly" woon't madder !!

• exhibit_c said on Oct 16, 2007....

  There is a guy who has been on the radio in NYC for about 20 years who pronounces "a" like the name of the letter instead of "uh" when reading ad copy. That's an error a first grader would make. I can't imagine why the radio station doesn't make him go to school on it.
  
  I can't remember any president who pronounce "nuclear" correctly, but I suppose Jimmy Carter did and does.
  
  There should be some name for pronuncing a word as it's written rather than according to common usage, e.g. "often" with a hard t. I think that lots of place names have been pulled back toward standard pronouciation by the public schools, as in Newark, "Nurk" NJ, but not including Newark, "New Ark", Delaware. Is Warwick, RI pronounced "warrick" or "war wick"?
  
  
  

• Angel_Chicken said on Oct 16, 2007....

  I think my dad has you all topped.
  
  He thinks that I am an "amancapated miner"
  
  I'm 20, and it is EMANCIPATED MINOR.
  

• Zayda said on Oct 16, 2007....

  I think one of the things that drives me the craziest is when people say "warsh" instead of "wash". Or when they say "idear" instead of "idea".
  
  
  Another one that makes me grit my teeth is when people say "brum" for "broom".

• Eilan said on Oct 16, 2007....

  Zayda: Or "ideal" instead of "idea."  I've mostly seen that in writing, but I know a few people who will flub it up when speaking.
  
  I have to admit that my mom and my grandma say "woish" for "wash."  Must be a regional thing.
  
  I pronounce "a" as "uh."  *hangs white-trash head in shame*
  

• exhibit_c said on Oct 16, 2007....

  How about "I did that last jeer", instead of "last year"?

• Zayda said on Oct 16, 2007....

  Eilan: "Woish" for "wash" doesn't bother me so much. It's the addition of the "r" that drives me crazy. And you know, it's funny, but even in all the student papers I read, I have yet to see "ideal" used for "idea".
  
  
  I see and hear many people use "are" for "our", although it's more prevalent for me to see it written than anything.
  
  
  Ohhhh...I thought of another one: "i run" for "iron", as in "I'm going to irun that shirt" or "I need to so some irunning this afternoon".
  
  
  And, in typing that I realized it also really bothers me when people drop the "a" of "another" and say "nuther".

• TinSoldier said on Oct 16, 2007....

  Oh, I got another one that drives me absolutely batty, but it's probably a regional thing and fighting a losing battle:
  
  People who say words with a long 'a' that should have a long 'a' in them: rhyming 'bag' with 'vague' instead of with 'flag'. My kids do that and others around me -- I'm getting better but it still bugs me.
  

• silverwhisper said on Oct 16, 2007....

  nyt: really? how odd, it's like that aluminum/aluminium thing! :>
  
  e_t: o my...dude, i can't think of anything to say!
  
  trinov: heh...maybe the right brain/left brain thing factos into this more than i might've thought.
  
  bst: street language is one thing, and colloquialisms and casual means of expression have always been part of english, i suspect. having said that, i think that such teachers are doing their students a tremendous disservice. knowing how to communicate effectively with other people is crucial: there's little sense in talking if nobody can understand you, i've always felt.
  
  grandeur: welcome to my blog and thanks for visiting! me, i detest the x/sk thing. :>
  
  gypsyrose: hi there, welcome! as you can see, a lot of folks feel the same way you do about that axe thing. :>
  
  quietone: [giggle]
  
  exhibit c: actually, i've always hard the long "a" sound for the article as a legitimate variant. odd, that. and every president pre-bush the younger pronounced it correctly, including former president bush. it's why people mock the current president for it, i always figured. btw: the folks in DE have it right as newark is short for "new ark of the covenant" in both cases, IIRC.
  
  angel chicken: that's wacky!
  
  super z: the warsh thing i always heard as a western PA thing, specifically a pittsburgh-area regionalism, but i've never heard anyone call it "brumming" the floor--odd! heh...i'm glad i know you but one of the downsides of knowing an instructor is seeing so many more examples of horrible things perpetrated on this language!
  
  eilan: i too pronounce the article as "uh".
  
  TS: huh...that's strange re: the long "a" sound!
  
  ed

• Zayda said on Oct 16, 2007....

  Ed--"Warsh" is not just a Western PA thing. My husband, who is not from Western PA, occasionally says "warsh" but not "idear". And my father, who was born and raised in South says "warsh" or "Warshington" regularly.
  
  
  In graduate school, I once had an instructor who talked about regionalisms in dialect. She talked about growing up pronouncing the word "spatula" as "spatoola". (And right now, I cannot remember where she grew up.)

• Zayda said on Oct 16, 2007....

  TS--I wonder if they are pronouncing "bag" like "vague" because it is pronounced like that in the word "bagel". Just a thought.

• Alyss said on Oct 16, 2007....

  Hmm, I can't think of any that bug me specifically right now but since there are a few words I have great difficulty in pronouncing I may be inclined to cut some slack here. ;-)

• TinSoldier said on Oct 16, 2007....

  I don't know, Zayda, because we don't use the word "bagel" very often. I remember a friend of mine from high school used to pronounce bag like that.

• bewaresmoothtalkers said on Oct 16, 2007....

  SW....thanks for the reply. BST

• gingersoul said on Oct 16, 2007....

  Ed ..i think i should print this blog and show it to my daughter's teachers....the majority of them seem completely underestimate the importance of spelling....she brings back from school papers graded 100 and when i read them i cringe.....in some of them she kept making the same spelling mistakes over and over...finally i corrected her and she stopped doing it but you would have expected at least a mark under those mistakes, right?

  Nah...anytime she would say that the teachers consider spelling not that crucial. More important is for them teaching concepts....Well, for me concepts walk along with spelling.

  Pronounciation of a word is understading the word itself. 

  Her new Leap English teacher at least is working in a good direction this year: he is teaching them the roots of the words. Lets hope...

  In Italian i dont have any problem of mispronounciation, speaking or writing. In English, naturally, not being my mother language, i have my flaws......but this doesn't make be found less horripilant listening or reading some English speaking people treating their language so poorly sometimes... ...surely they are not helped by their president....:-)

  Btw, yes....vice in the word viceversa (being a Latin word) should be pronounced ''vee-chay"....

• exhibit_c said on Oct 16, 2007....

  I did find this note:
  
  The media made a big deal of Bush using the word, "nuclear - with pronunciation (nū'kyə-lər)" until more even-handed media locate tapes of Clinton, Carter, Johnson, Kennedy, heck even Eisenhower pronouncing it the same way.
  
  here
  
  http://blogs.chron.com/legaltrade/2007/04/hillary_bill_me_memory_lapses_1.html
  
  

• DesertMermaid said on Oct 16, 2007....

  Ed, I increased my vocabulary of incorrect words! Lol :) ... Had no idea they were so many!

  I feel like killing anyone who says Happy 'Budday' instead of birthday... And unfortunately I have heard that enough to make me feel nothing happy about it anymore, now that you said it!

• dyingman said on Oct 16, 2007....

  "Nucular" by far. *DM

• Luna.Loveborn said on Oct 16, 2007....

  Sometimes though there are a few people that really can't say certain words right, I know because there are certain words I trip over. The words that gives me a hard time to pronounce, so I will do the words over and over again to get it right.
  Being raised by my Parent's from the South, I have to admit that in Texas and Florida people do say alot of normal words a certain way that does make normal words sound retarded. So, as I was taught in School mainly in Alaska to say all words the right way. Then I go home and hear my Parents say those words wrong, I never said anything to my Parents about it.
  When it came to putting food away what is truly right the Freezer, my Mother said the Icebox for example.
  Even in games on the internet get short handed which I find slightly irritating but do to the small message box we have no choice but to short hand. In Instant Messaging those same gamers would send me a message the same way or type a few words and push send, which does irritate me alot.
  I though will write correct words and full sentences thanks to my Son watching me trying to answer someone from a game on yahoo or on hotmail, in the same way we write on a on-line games.
  So, now if a guy/guys that writes to me in a I/M with 3 short words or short hand, I tell them if they can write to me in the right way that I will not be talking to them at all. Sure my friend's lists are small, the people that are on my 3 Messaging Accounts do write properly.

• Zayda said on Oct 16, 2007....

  Luna--But using "icebox" rather than "freezer" isn't an issue of pronunciation. It's semiotics--different names (signifiers) for the same thing (signified).
  
  
  Semiotics is the study of "signs" (words but sometimes more than just the words) that are used to represent certain concepts and how those words (signifiers) are often contextually bound.
  
  
  For instance, in English, particularly the United States--the letters S, T, O, P make the word stop, which signifies a particular action that needs to be taken. However, the red octagonal sign has come to represent stop as well. (We would know it means stop without the word stop on it, so the signifier becomes more than just the letters that comprise the word in this case.)
  
  
  But, some objects/concepts (signifieds) have more than one signifier (word) that refers to that concept. Take for instance, soda, soda pop, pop, cola, or coke. All of those words typically refer to some kind of carbonated beverage, and while Coke (or Coca-Cola) is a specific brand name, coke is often used generically to many any kind of soda. Thus, we have several signifiers, which mean the same thing. (It's the same for icebox and freezer. It's two signifiers that refer to the same signified (object). Thus, this isn't a pronunciation issue.)
  
  Back when my parents were young, "dope" also referred to carbonated beverages. But, as times have changed, no one really uses dope in that context. Instead, "dope" has come to mean other things, including drugs, or more specifically, marijuana. Thus, the context of the signifier and what it refers to has changed.

• hotaka said on Oct 17, 2007....

  I once read that scribes used to spell words as they were pronounced regionally. There were no spelling rules and naturally no pronunciation rules. Once the printing press was invented spelling became based on the high society of London's pronunciation. That was over 500 years ago so as language evolves and regional pronunciation changes it is no wonder that spelling and pronunciation don't match.
  
  I have noticed that casual street pronunciation is extremely sloppy and words get chopped and sounds blurred. Often it's not just a question of regional accent but also eductation and articulation. Poor pronunciation to me always sounds like country bumpkin speech. I have become used to speaking clearly so that my students can better understand me. When I go home to Canada now people ask where I am from and guess that I am British. But I am obviously not British either. I think I have invented the non-accent!
  

• hotaka said on Oct 17, 2007....

  By the way, I know about the different spelling of alluminium. Why did North Americans change the spelling? We didn't change the spelling of squirrel even though we pronounce it "squirl".

• minniemouse said on Oct 17, 2007....

  Yes silver...I come across "simular" more than I care to acknowledge!!  The worst was in a 2 hour training class....the instructor kept using the word, over and over....it was brutal!!  And yes, I think "birfday" is cute too....when my 4 year old says it, not when my 60+ year old mother uses it and doesn't realize she is pronouncing it wrong!!!!  LOL  :-p  Minnie

• silverwhisper said on Oct 17, 2007....

  super z: i knew as i was typing that response that you were going to have a counter-example. :> that's odd about your instructor re: spatoola. ?! btw: your response to luna was most impressive, to quote vader. :>
  
  alyss: i somehow doubt that the words you mispronounce are words that roll trippingly off the tongues of most. :>
  
  bst: you're quite welcome.
  
  GS: i'm surprised by your daughter's teacher--how old is she? and i suspect the pronunciation rules in italian are considerably more consistent than in english (e.g., "gli"). and do feel free to print this out, if you like. :>
  
  exhibit c: um...i don't believe that's the link you intended, as it appears to focus on the use of "i do not recall" in legal testimony. ? while i don't doubt you, i'd like to see more about this.
  
  desert mermaid: "budday"? seriously? that's one i've never heard!
  
  dyingman: you know, i haven't heard it in a while so other things are cropping up more often, such as the aforementioned "eye-talian".
  
  luna: honestly, while i dislike shorthand such as one encounters in texts or even some online comomunications, i've grown to appreciate the economy they afford, although i'll confess, on the very rare occasion that i text someone, i do type things out properly...
  
  hotaka: good point about the way pronunciation drifts over time. about spellings/pronunciation, we largely have samuel johnson to thank for that, i think. without him, there would be no standardization of spelling, nor indeed, any attendant standardization of pronuncation as a result, i would think. hyper-enunciation, esp as you probably must use as you instruct your students, is likely perceived by most speakers to suggest something different or foreign. hm...that would be an interesting experiment... :D
  
  mm: heh...well, cute to me is often so dependent upon context, you know? :> and that instructor would have made me want to shove pens in my ears to rupture the eardrums!
  
  ed

• Zayda said on Oct 17, 2007....

  Silver: My response to Luna was my serious geek-out moment of the day yesterday. :)

• silverwhisper said on Oct 17, 2007....

  somehow, my friend, i sincerely doubt it was your only one... :D
  
  ed

• hotaka said on Oct 17, 2007....

  Totally off topic, I see Springsteen has a new song. You must be thrilled. :)

• cakebottom said on Oct 18, 2007....

  More than mispronunciations, it irritates me when I know I have an answer but can't for the life of me remember it. 
  
  Ooh, ooh, "a whole nother" rather than "an whole other." BLAGH
  

• hotaka said on Oct 18, 2007....

  Hyper-enunciation? I imagine myself speaking like those spoofs of the old Chinese Kung-Fu movies with the exaggerated mouth movements that don't match the actual speech.

  I just call it clear enunciation without flattening the vowels like many North Americans do. It has also been noted that I speak without using much slang and often with manners. Even K and I say, "Could you please..." when requesting something from one another. Don't think dirty now.

• silverwhisper said on Oct 18, 2007....

  hotaka: he's got a new album, actually. :>
  
  cakebottom: hey, i have a crappy memory, that happens to me all the time! :>
  
  hotaka: don't think dirty? c'mon, what are you suggesting? :D
  
  ed

• Alyss said on Oct 18, 2007....

   ed, anemone would be one of them.

• silverwhisper said on Oct 19, 2007....

  that simply isn't a word i hear often enough to think of...hm...while i'll confess i think it run to mispronounce it for entertainment purposes, unwittingly providing such entertainment can be pretty annoying, i agree.
  
  ed

• harriedpsychmajor said on Oct 19, 2007....

  library = lie-berry
  especially = expecially
  picture = pix-ture
  
  Oh, and a Philly favorite: Yo, lemme axe you a question!
  

• hotaka said on Oct 20, 2007....

  How do you correctly pronounce anemone? My friends always told me it was a-ne-mo-ne - four sylables with the last pronounced like ni, as in the Knights Who Say "Ni". But I have also heard adults call it an a-ne-mone with the last sylable rhyming with phone. I guess I could check a dictionary.

  Another word I was never sure of where to put the accent is vehemently. That would probably be in the dictionary too.

  Just noticing the comment above, how about Febury for February?

• silverwhisper said on Oct 20, 2007....

  harried: o, that isn't just philly, dude--promise! :> although i've never heard someone pronounce it expecially before. yuck.
  
  hotaka: um...you've also heard the president of the US pronounce the word "nucular", too. what's that tell you? :D
  
  ed

• flytimes said on Oct 20, 2007....

  I'm guilty of much of the above:( Good to see you still around Silver;)

• silverwhisper said on Oct 21, 2007....

  ft, it's been a long time, good to see you again! :>
  
  ed

• hotaka said on Oct 21, 2007....

  I usually don't listen to Bush over here but I have read his comments from time to time. The best one I saw recently was when he said that he wouldn't want to be known as a president of war. Uh... Georgie? Almost since you first stepped into office there have been American troops overseas shooting others and getting shot at by those same others. Seems a bit like war to me.

• kelly said on Oct 21, 2007....

  These aren't neccesarily mispronunciations--more akin to malaprops--but nevertheless they get under my skin.  In addition to silver's irritations add these:
  
  
  tenant instead of tenet
  preventative instead of preventive
  taunt instead of taut
  
  

• muckpar said on Oct 21, 2007....

  tournament  and Missouri    

• Lioness said on Oct 21, 2007....

  LOl, this made me laugh! Yes, mispronounced words can be irritating indeed ed! There are lecturers who pronounce debris with an "s", and say "audien", thinking that "audience" is plural. Duh..

• silverwhisper said on Oct 22, 2007....

  hotaka: the less said of the current president, the better, i say. history will be a far harsher judge of him than his apologists seem to think.
  
  kelly: i've never heard someone mispronounce taut before, but the other 2 are particularly good examples! thank you, the comments to this blog entry have yielded a veritable treasure trove of crimes against vocabulary!
  
  muckpar: i've never heard anyone mispronounce either, i don't believe. ?
  
  lioness: OK, debris i think i've seen mispronounced that way, but audience?!
  
  ed

• beyondtheveil said on Oct 23, 2007....

  Ed- Ha, I hadn't thought about how unusual it might be to talk about "durgibles".
  
  Well, first, there is the Albuquerque hot air balloon festival which is a big thing. Then there are a number of "blimps" that appear in the sky on occasion. You might be surprised at how many people (from here and elsewhere) refer to both as "durgibles". Although they are generally older dudes who do so.
  

• silverwhisper said on Oct 23, 2007....

  you know, while i think that's a bit weird, i like that a word i always thought of as somewhat anachronistic is enjoying currency somewhere. :>
  
  ed

• Twylarants said on Oct 23, 2007....

  A bookstore customer asked for two titles.  I said I didn't have either, which I pronounced "eye-ther".  He corrected me!  What the hell kind of adult corrects another adult?  So I said, " I 'nye-ther' care how you pronounce 'eye-ther', nor do I appreciate your assumption that I need a grammar lesson!", or something hoity-toity like that.
  I don't know if this fits in this post, but I thought I'd mention it.   

• kelly said on Oct 24, 2007....

  "Which-witch... Really makes me upset."
  
  
  I know.  I always lost at that game, too.

• hotaka said on Oct 24, 2007....

  Twylarants, I once heard an American English teacher in Japan sternly corrected his students who pronounced "been" as it is spelled and told them the correct pronunciation is "bin." I say both are correct. It depends on where you live.

• silverwhisper said on Oct 24, 2007....

  twyla: that's pretty damned rude, i agree! and i always thought both pronunciations are acceptable, myself.
  
  hotaka: i agree both are correct, too, although i think the long "e" in been is less common.
  
  ed

• Tink11464 said on Oct 25, 2007....

  I'm right there with "the_infernal_optimist - - the first ones that came to my mind were aks for ask and probly for probably.   

  We have some local words/phrases - we have wooder for water and yous guys for you  guys.

  I hear bidness for business, and the ever popular nucular for nuclear.

   

• silverwhisper said on Oct 25, 2007....

  tink: wooder/water and yous guys...i gotta ask, where are you from?
  
  ed

• Tink11464 said on Oct 26, 2007....

  Silverwhisper - Blue Bell, PA - about 15 minutes or so outside of Philadelphia. And you?

• silverwhisper said on Oct 26, 2007....

  i attended school in berks county and my siblings attended school in the philly area. so i have some idea of where that is. hm...i always thought the "wooder" thing was more a pittsburgh-area thing!
  
  ed

• Tink11464 said on Oct 26, 2007....

  Montgomery County here - - yup  - -  we say wooder,
  yous guys.
   
  I wish I could remember all of the stupid things I hear
  us say wrong :o)
   
  We are near King of Prussia (love that shopping!).
   
  My sister lives in Berks County - Birdsboro / Reading
  area - hubby works out of Reading as well.

• silverwhisper said on Oct 26, 2007....

  tink: man, you think wooder is bad? every talk with a dutchie? that's just weird stuff!
  
  king of prussia mall is mind-boggling. i love that mall. and i love california pizza kitchen...[sighs happily]
  
  ed

• Fallyn said on Oct 26, 2007....

  my mother says dinasar  .....rhymes with bar.....instead of dinosaur.
  
  drives me batty....
  
  my grandpa...who happens to BE italian....says eye talian........but it's from him...so it's okay..*grin* i love the way my grandpa talks. he says sang gwiches instead of sandwiches, and potaetle chips for potato chips.  and olbe darned.
  it's comforting....cause he has a nice voice.
  

• silverwhisper said on Oct 27, 2007....

  it's amazing how someone's strength of personality makes things we might otherwise not enjoy endearing, isn't it? :>
  
  ed

• Fallyn said on Oct 27, 2007....

  very much so. ...despite the way he pronounces things he is very well respected. he is the 11th of 12 kids.....when his brothers were alive they even came to him for advice......some of them even 20 years older than him.

• silverwhisper said on Oct 27, 2007....

  that's really, really cool, fallyn. :>
  
  ed

• harriedpsychmajor said on Oct 29, 2007....

  Tink: Aw, I forgot about "wooder" and "youse guys!" I'm glad someone else here from southeast Pennsylvania is adding to the list... there are just so many. But dude... I can't believe I forgot those two.
  
  Oh, and I was always a fan of "sammitch" for sandwich.
  

• Fallyn said on Oct 29, 2007....

  what's wooder?

• harriedpsychmajor said on Oct 29, 2007....

  Wooder is a really bad mispronunciation of "water." For some reason lots of people from the Philly/Southeast Pennsylvania region pronounce it like that. Out-of-towners love making fun of us for it.
  

• Fallyn said on Oct 29, 2007....

  ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. *laughing* now i get it. :p

• Zayda said on Oct 29, 2007....

  I was wandering through the deli at the grocery the other day, and I kid you not, there is a company marketing pre-made deli sandwiches for lunches. The name on the product is Sammich.
  
  
  Sammich doesn't bother me as mispronunciation so much. But I did find it funny that there was a pre-made deli sandwich labeled as a sammich. I was so tempted to buy it and send you the packaging, Ed. :)

• harriedpsychmajor said on Oct 29, 2007....

  Z: Where can I find that? I think "sammitch" is probably the funniest mispronunciation I've heard!
  

• Zayda said on Oct 29, 2007....

  Harried--Well, I don't think Sammich was the brand name. So, I'm not sure where you would find it. It was a a deli at a local grocery here. But, you might check the deli's at a Super Wal-mart or a Super Target just to see if they would have them.

• silverwhisper said on Oct 29, 2007....

  super z, you are a complete kick-ass friend. have i told you that lately? :D
  
  ed

• Zayda said on Oct 29, 2007....

  Silver--Not lately. ;P I swear the next time I am in the store, I am picking one of those sandwiches up, eating the sandwich, and then sending you the wrapper/packaging. I would send you the sandwich, but it would probably be gross by the time it got there. :)

• silverwhisper said on Oct 29, 2007....

  only true friends would send friends rotting food, i say!
  
  ed

• inspiration2jms said on Nov 11, 2007....

  This is now a pet peave of mine.  The people that live here say deers instead of just deer and Ill i Noise for Ill i noy!,  Come on people, it is an Iroqouis Indian word and although the English spelling rules put an s in both, the Iroquois did not have an 's' sound in the vocabulary!

• silverwhisper said on Nov 11, 2007....

  "deers" really annoys me. i've never heard someone say "illinoise" without meaning to sound like an uneducated buffoon, to be honest--egads!
  
  ed

• inspiration2jms said on Nov 17, 2007....

  Ed, I had to add to this;  Although this was cute, not irritating.
  
  My niece, Alex, was here the other day and she is afraid that, like her mother, nana and granny, she will be fat.  (She is only 10)  It is something that really bothers her.  She is a niece by marriage and her uncle (the ex) was here as well.  He told her, "Well Alex, I'm not fat!  Aunt Janet says I'm a scrawny squirrel." 
  
  Alex, "Yeah but your the only boy in the family."
  Ex, "You don't have to be fat like everyone else."
  Alex, "Uncle Charlie!  You have a high POTABALISIUM though!"
  Ex, "A What?"
  Alex, "You know, POTTYABOLISIUM!"
  
  (HAHAHAHA)
  
  When my son was young, (Oh God, My Baby Is 27!) he thought he hated mayonnaise.  At every meal he would ask what each dish was, if he had had it before and if he liked it.  Then he would cock his head, squint his eyes like he could judge if I was lying and ask, "Does it have any of that dreaded MAYOGASE   in it?"
  
  You should have heard him when he learned that I used mayonesa to cook with.
  
  

• silverwhisper said on Nov 17, 2007....

  those are really adorable, janet! :>
  
  ed

• ToddPeak said on Aug 01, 2008....

  Ha, I love mispronouncing words. My favorite is "twiced" instead of "twice." Start saying it, I bet people around you will start using it. I guess that's why I like it. I like to watch my mispronunciations float around in the local vernacular. Another I am particularly fond of is "bofum" instead of "both of them." If'n I felt like it, I could talk right. Ha, but I'd rather amuse myself. Call Fords Fards, and Toyotas Toyolas. If it bothers people, then it makes it even funnier. It's probably the best case when someone corrects my intentional mispronunciation. I guess it makes them feel smarter than me. I will admit, however, that calling Target Tar-jay, really gets my goat. So it's not like I am totally immune to what I'm causing in other people.

• silverwhisper said on Aug 01, 2008....

  hi, todd, welcome to my blog & thanks for visiting! i've deliberately mispronounced things too and yeah, it can be loads of fun. the target/tar-jay thing is just something i find funny though, in all honesty. :>
  
  ed

• one_wired_kitty said on Feb 25, 2009....

  N-U-C-L-E-A-R ... NOT NUCULAR ...

   

  there/their/they're

  You ASK a question .... you don't axe it.

  OHMYGOD ...

• silverwhisper said on Feb 26, 2009....

  i sometimes wonder what you're looking at that you find these really old blog entries, 1WK. :>
  
  ed

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