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Becky had a brilliant post a couple months back on vocab words. She recounted a segment she once heard on Rush Limbaugh where he said a person’s vocabulary stops growing at the age of 25. She also brought up words she discovered she was mispronouncing:
I could fill a month’s worth of posts on how many words I spent many happy years mispronouncing or worrying I was mispronouncing–an invocation of “palimpsest” was heavy on the “limp” until I finally learned either way (i.e. “pal” or “limp”) was okay, and my favorite grammar school vocab years was always “deSULtory.” I find it either takes a good friend or a bad job interview to correct such things.
Well here’s a third method to throw into the pot: loyal Weekend Word Wrappers’ comments. That’s right, I’m calling on all you readers to embarrass family members, friends, cohorts – even yourselves – by sharing with us stories of words mispronounced and how they/you learned to pronounce the word(s) correctly.
I’ll get the shameful ball rolling here with a word I always pronounced wrong, that is, until one day…
Sycophant – What I now understand about this word is that if most people have trouble with it, it’s usually in the definition, not the pronunciation. They think it has something to do with being ill or disgusting, rather than being toady. I never had that problem because I always pronounced it psychophant. That is, until I heard it used by Phoebe on an episode of Friends in the mid 90s. And that’s how I learned how to pronounce it correctly, if you can believe that.
What about you guys? The interactive part of the Wrap starts now!
Check out all past Weekend Word Wraps>>
Comments (68)
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Way back in the day (we’re talking 7th grade and before), I would mispronounce chaos (to me it looked more like chowse than kay-os). It wasn’t until we were reading outloud in class one day and I saw the word and heard my teacher pronounce did the word click in place . . . I knew was chaos was when someone said it before, but never put two and two together until then.
Nowadays when I’m afraid I’m mispronouncing something, I look it up.
posted by nutmeag on 12-21-2007 at 9:44 am
Sea anemones were AH-nuh-mones for me well into my teens. And the first time I heard “zucchini” was when I was asked to spell it in a state spelling bee.
Even now I am haunted by Uranus, which either conjures up liquid waste or one’s posterior portal, depending upon the em-PHA-sis.
posted by Tom on 12-21-2007 at 9:55 am
My dad always has and probably always will order cala-merry at restaurants. We’ve pointed out the correct mispronunciation, but with my dad, pointing things out tends to reinforce the original behavior.
posted by Lindsay on 12-21-2007 at 10:02 am
I’m constantly revising and adding to my vocabulary, despite being on the downhill slope at the ripe old age of 28. I’ve been working towards changing the inflection of the words I pronounce, to rid myself of the dreadful Southern Drawl. Unfortunately, people in general tend to subtract 20% of your IQ when they hear you talk.
At any rate, one of my best friends sometimes says “plascit” instead of “plastic.”
That’s about it.
posted by Tim on 12-21-2007 at 10:02 am
I remember seeing the word “epitome” in a book in my teenage years and thinking it sounded really smart. Soon after, I found a way to use my cool new word, telling my Dad he was the “epitome of rudeness.” Alas, I was pronouncing it how it was spelled with the last syllable “tome” sounding like a synonym for “book.” Instead of the desired effect, he was like “Do you mean ‘ee-pi-toe-me’?” and started laughing. That wouldn’t have been so bad if he wasn’t himself infamous for mispronouncing and misusing English and I was usually the one correcting him.
P.S. I have heard more than one person throw the “psychophant” pronunciation around.
posted by Vanessa on 12-21-2007 at 10:08 am
I second everything nutmeag#1 said. Every word. Exactly. Had/have the exact same incident with the same word. Still look up words obsessively.
And #3, my dad orders frajitas. Yikes.
posted by Sarah on 12-21-2007 at 10:44 am
Most often, place names are mispronounced. I lived in Boulder, Colorodo close to Westminster and kept wondering why people said “west-min-is-ter”. In Califorina, I would hear Point “Why-Nee-Me” but read signs for Point Hueneme. Took a long time to figure that one out. I did so on my way to O-Hi (Ojai), which is not where Orange Juice (OJ) comes from. Sigh…
posted by CM on 12-21-2007 at 10:47 am
we give my mom endless grief because she “warshes oyschers” when she prepares the oyster stew for new year’s day.
posted by shelly on 12-21-2007 at 10:56 am
Same word as Vanessa, same mispronounciation. I can’t recall when I was set straight on it, but it was around the same time as “minutiae” whereas I was calling it min-u-TAY for some bizarre reason.
posted by Johnny Cat on 12-21-2007 at 11:00 am
My dad says MAR-say-deez to refer to the automobile. It grates on my wife so much, that I love to figure out ways to make him say it.
Me: So I’m thinking about getting a German car, but I don’t like BMW’s
Him: How about a MAR-say-deez?
Wife: Grrrr
posted by Andy on 12-21-2007 at 11:12 am
My sister always pronounces “ubiquitous” yoo-BEEK-wuh-tuss in an effort to sound intelligent. It doesn’t work.
posted by Chris on 12-21-2007 at 11:13 am
I never pronounced Vacuous correctly- I always said vaucus. Sheesh was I a dope.
I’ll never foget in 2nd grade- a kids was reading aloud and prodnounced “Ed” as Eee-Dee. Der.
posted by qt314159265 on 12-21-2007 at 11:17 am
My friend is quite intelligent but cannot seem to wrap her head around the word supposedly – it always comes out ’sta-possedly.’ We’re going on years of pointing this out now as it is one of her more commonly used words.
posted by Annie on 12-21-2007 at 11:26 am
I used to pronounce lobotomy as “low-bo-toe-mee.” Won’t ever do that again.
posted by J. D. Harper on 12-21-2007 at 11:27 am
All the way through college, I had read the word “segue” and had heard it spoken as well. However, without giving it too much thought, I always figured they were two different words with the same meaning (the written word pronounced “seeg” and the other word written “S-E-G-W-A-Y”–and this prior to the two-wheeled machine). I was corrected, to my great chagrin, by a STUDENT in my first year of teaching…while two other, more senior teachers were standing in my classroom.
posted by JL on 12-21-2007 at 11:33 am
A fried of mine pronounced porcelain “PORK-a-lin” and used it in the phrase “praying to the porcelain god”. It totally cracked me up. All I could think of is, exactly what pig-like god are you praying too?
posted by Becky on 12-21-2007 at 11:35 am
meme
posted by GoingLikeSixty on 12-21-2007 at 11:44 am
My family for years has made fun of Mom’s pronunciation of the word breakfast. Something in her formative years has her stuck pronouncing it Brackfust.
We find ourselves, therefore, at odd times wondering where her e went and whether or not her childhood years were devoid of breaks.
posted by Jennifer on 12-21-2007 at 12:01 pm
Being a prolific reader the first half of my life and not a prolific speaker (something that has been amended in due time) I read a lot of words and had a mastery of their meanings and had no idea how to say them aloud. Thus hilarious mispronunciations happened to me regularly.
As a little girl I remember profusely apologising to my Dad for calling him “Ridiculeless” rather than “Rediculous” because at the time, I had no idea what the former meant, but I’m pretty sure I derived the latter from context clues in a Nancy Drew book.
Once, embarrasingly into my adult life, I accused the grand poohbahs of operating under a Fack-Aide of some kind or another.
“You mean Facade?”
“… yes. facade.”
Also I have and probably always will pronouce the word During as Dearing. I think I inhereited that from my mother.
posted by Ashley on 12-21-2007 at 12:03 pm
My sister-in-law ALWAYS says Viet-MA-nese. I don’t have the heart to correct her…
Oh! She also says suppose-a-bly.
posted by kaiser on 12-21-2007 at 12:11 pm
Sioux City gave me fits, as I pronounced it Sye-ox city, instead of Sue City.
Chameleon was cha-meal-e-on, instead of ka.
I had a friend who never knew how to say “segue” properly until she heard me say it.
I said colonel was colonel, not kernel. I still don’t get that one.
posted by Varuna on 12-21-2007 at 12:12 pm
As a temporary resident of Wichita Kansas there are some pronunciations here taht have been driving me insane for the past couple of years. F’rinstance there is a street here named Greenwich. Newcomers often pronounce it as if they were British (Grenich) but locals insist that its green which.
Then theres the Arkansas river. Locals pronounce the last S instead of leaving it silent like the state. Mind you when they refer to the state the last S becomes silent again.
I was stationed at Ali Al Salem in Kuwait. I asked a Kuwaiti the proper proununciation of the base and was told the last word should be pronounced with a short e (like solemn). I’ve corrected everyone I’ve heard mispronounce it since.
How about all the wonderful people who say “Acrost”?
My ex-wife and I had a long running dispute on how to pronounce tangelo. I emphasized the first part whereas her pronunciation made it sound more like tan jell-o. A friend finally convinced her I was correct by asking about her cousin “an jell-o” (Angelo).
posted by John on 12-21-2007 at 12:29 pm
Completely relate to Ashley. I have an incredible vocabulary when writing, but I tend to not use it when speaking, because I don’t actually know how to say many of the words. I love that m-w.com actually lets you hear the words, because I have no idea what the little pronunciation symbols mean in dictionary definitions.
I’m originally from rural Nebraska and like most rural Nebraskans, had the nasty habit of pronouncing “wash” as “warsh”. This ended in ninth grade when I was rehearsing a speech with my forensics coach and referenced the Smithsonian museum in “Warshington D.C.”. She ended that pretty quickly. I’m grateful–like the Southern guy, people tend to drop your IQ pretty quickly when you say “warsh”. :)
posted by cb on 12-21-2007 at 12:30 pm
Just like Ashley, I was a voracious reader and a very phonetic sounder-outer. Thus lapel was the same as label (except with the p sound – Lay pull). Who even had any idea that ennui wasn’t on-nooey?
posted by Lynnie on 12-21-2007 at 12:35 pm
“Segue” had me for a long long time too, but I discovered my error without embarrassment. When I was nine, I observed to my mother that the mail-lady was very err-ah-tic (which is heard as “erotic”) in her delivery times. My mother found this hilarious.
posted by Jen on 12-21-2007 at 12:39 pm
Sarah #8 reminded me of a friend of mine (Patrick) who shoots from the hip when he sees a new word. He makes no attempt to pronounce foreign or unfamiliar English words correctly.
We were pondering the menu at Taco Bell. He was thinking out loud (and for him this is a loud voice):
Patrick: I think I’ll try a fuh-JI-tuh {That’s a long I.}. Do you know what a fuh-JI-tuh is?
Me: Not so loud, and I believe that it is pronounced fuh-HEE-tuh.
P: No, it says fuh-JI-tuh. It’s an J like Joe or jar or jump, and then an I like I or ice or I.
M: It’s a soft J. Often J in front of I or E sounds like an H. And the I makes an EE sound. Fajita is supposed to look like a Spanish word and be pronounced like Spanish.
P: I thought that Taco Bell was Mexican. Why don’t they pick a Mexican word?
M: They speak Spanish in Mexico.
P: Well I just don’t see why they write it that way if they’re not going pronounce it right. It’s F A J I T A, fuh-JI-tuh.
Of course everyone is staring at us at this point, and we’re at the front of the line:
P: {In the same loud voice} I’d like a fuh-JI-tuh. You want a fuh-JI-ta?
M: No. No, thank you.
P: You sure? Those fuh-JI-tuhs look awfully good. Well, I’ll have one fuh-JI-tah, no make that two fuh-JI-tahs. Does that have goo-ack-coh-moal {guacomole} on it?
Ugh!
posted by Darian on 12-21-2007 at 1:00 pm
I had the same problem as Ashley and Lynnie. When I was a teenager I dropped the word harbinger into a sentence, but I pronounced it as hare bringer. My mom almost choked on her cheerios because she had a mental image of soothsaying rabbits.
posted by Annie on 12-21-2007 at 1:16 pm
My husband told me that when he was in grade school, a boy in his class was reading out loud and had to say “crochet” and pronounced it “KRA-chet” not “crow-SHAY” Oops.
posted by LJ on 12-21-2007 at 1:59 pm
I was student body president in high school and one of my responsibilities was to introduce speakers at assemblies.
One afternoon we had Canada’s first thalidomide baby come speak to us (he was then in his early 40’s.)
In front of 800 people I struggled for 30 seconds trying to spew out the word thalidomide.
I don’t know if it’s a good defense or not, but I did have braces at the time.
posted by Trevor on 12-21-2007 at 2:02 pm
My roommate pronounced “archives” as “ar-chives”(second syllable sounded like the things people put on baked potatoes). My other roommates and I laughed uproariously at her until the proper pronunciation sunk into her brain.
posted by bryn on 12-21-2007 at 2:03 pm
ROTFL
These are great.
I would be willing to bet that most of the phonetic “sounder outers” here also taught themselves how to read. Just a guess.
I recall saying “oregano” as “or-egg-AH-no,” I thought it sounded..well spicier I guess.
DH’s family is famous for their goofs..
Spatula: In a game of Pictionary, his cousin was trying and failing to draw on his turn. When the time ran out, he protested, “I don’t even know what a spa-tool-la is!!” LOL
And what about the other way around? When your accent and pronunciation cause you to misspell words? I grew up out West, so until my Midwestern cousin corrected me, I thought “puke” was spelled “puick.” haha
posted by mrs.djs on 12-21-2007 at 2:06 pm
Mrs. DJS, your pictionary reminder reminded me of another story. Not a mis-read story, but a good one nonetheless.
We were playing Cranium, and during a heated drawing round, a friend of ours drew a beautiful rice field, some tall grass, some asian faces.
The other girl drawing drew a bottle and some pills.
The word was “Vitamin,” Pae thought it said “Vietnam”
*hehe*
posted by Ashley on 12-21-2007 at 2:19 pm
I had an Algebra II teacher a couple years ago with a REALLY nasally voice (it helped us stay awake) but she pronounced parabola with extra accent on the ‘A’ (par-AAH-bola) so she almost screamed it, and miraculously found a ‘T’ in algebraically (”easy class, just solve this one algebr-AT-icly”). She once asked us if we learned long division in el-em-en-TARE-ee school. we still make fun of her.
My family found out a few years ago that mom pronounces centimeter like saw-na-meter, which she insists is acceptable, but everybody else finds hilarious. We often ask her what a hundredth of a meter is.
posted by Colin on 12-21-2007 at 2:39 pm
It wasn’t until fairly recently that I learned that the dressing I love is bal-SAM-ic vinagrette rather than bal-sum-ick. Whoops!
posted by Chris on 12-21-2007 at 2:41 pm
my 90 year old grandfather pronounces Chicago “she-CAR-go”. cracks me up every time he says it.
posted by Jill on 12-21-2007 at 3:32 pm
I took an LSAT prep course this summer, where our instructor called on us randomly to read sample questions out loud to the class. One girl read an entire reading comp passage mispronoucing the phrase “Nobel laureate” as “noble lor-ay-ut” over and over. No one corrected her, but I definitely got paranoid that she was scoring better than me on the test.
posted by susie on 12-21-2007 at 3:42 pm
My (hyper religious) in-laws pronounce “garnishment” like “gar-SHEE-ment”. The first time I heard them say it I thought I was on one of those hidden camera shows. One day I stumbled on a radio broadcast of “Focus on the Family” and found out that that’s where they learned to pronounce it that way… Making the world more ignorant one listener at a time.
posted by Jennifer on 12-21-2007 at 4:03 pm
Self-taught reader here, and I’ve definitely been set straight a few times. I remember reading Archie comics and thinking “honest” was a term of endearment (I was saying hunn-est). The one I’ve struggled with the most, and have heard from other people, is pronouncing “misled” as “mizzled”.
I also used to think “vocabulary” was pronounced voc-u-bal-ar-tee, but that’s more a matter of getting impatient and not reading the word all the way through.
posted by Linda on 12-21-2007 at 4:07 pm
Austin is LOADED with names of places/streets that are prounounced oddly…”Burnet” is known as ‘burn-it’…”Koenig” is known as ‘kay-nig’, “Manchaca” is known as ‘man-shack’ (yeah, I know)…”Guadalupe” is known as “GWADA-loop”…you can always tell when someone isn’t from around here, they don’t know how to pronounce our weird words..
the word I have problems with is ‘anonimity’…I have to slow way down to say it, it just doesn’t roll outta my mouth smoothly…
posted by donner on 12-21-2007 at 4:25 pm
These are too funny!
when I was young (also from Archie comics) I used to pronounce one of the characters names Reggie, as R-eggie. My cousins still tease me about that.
I always laugh when someone pronounces a silent “g”. As in Hanger (Hang-ger), like I swear people aren’t even trying.
posted by Allison on 12-21-2007 at 4:40 pm
First, to CM at #7, I grew up in Ventura County and Port Hueneme and Ojai are not mispronounced place names. Those are Chumash words and are pronounced as such. Many places in that area have Chumash names – like Nojoqui Falls (Nuh-hooey).
And, a word that tripped me up until I heard an announcer on the radio was biopic. I always assumed it rhymed with myopic.
posted by Miranda on 12-21-2007 at 5:37 pm
My mil will tell me she’s been to her “jinacologist” for her “mammygram” — no matter how many times I have tried to use those words in conversation with her, hoping she’d catch on. She probably thinks I’m the one who can’t pronounce them correctly! And she’s a retired school teacher!
posted by sandra on 12-21-2007 at 5:43 pm
For a long time, I was unaware of how to say the word “lingerie.” And my sister used to swear that pint rhymed with hint.
posted by Julia on 12-21-2007 at 5:44 pm
1.Here in St. Louis, the word mostaccioli is invariably pronounced “musk-a-choli”. It doesn’t matter whether or not the speaker knows how it SHOULD be pronounced, that is just the St. Louis way of saying it. I have always found this slightly off-putting despite being a native.
2. My boyfriend and I were talking about Sophia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, which he referred to as a “Bi-opic” (rhymes with philanthropic). He didn’t belive me when I corrected him that it’s BIOpic (as in biographical pic). We had to go to webster.com and listen to the recorded voice.
3. I do not pronounce the t in “often”, and refuse to.
posted by Elizabeth on 12-21-2007 at 5:48 pm
I, too, had some weird disconnects between words I would read on paper and those same words spoken out loud. It took me a while to realize that “superfluous” was not pronounced “super-flOW-us”, emphasis on the OW. I had heard the word spoken and understood its meaning, but didn’t seem to get it written down.
Another local quirky pronunciation: my mother lives in a small town called Cairo, which I always pronounce like the city in Egypt. This makes her cringe every time since locals there pronounce it “KAY-roh”. But I still do it to bug her. :)
posted by Erin S. on 12-21-2007 at 6:08 pm
I am another one of those who read the word and knew what it meant from context, but didn’t ever look up the pronunciation. I think “onomatopoeia” was my most memorable one–I thought it was oh-nuh-muh-toe-pea-uh instead of on-uh-mot-tuh-pea-uh. It wasn’t until I was in college and said it to my English major roommate that I was corrected. She got a big kick out of that.
I had a professor once from Boston who added Rs on the ends of words and took them off the ends of others. It cracked me up every time, especially when he said something like “alphar is a scala” when he meant that “alpha is a scalar.”
Other common mispronunciations that drive me nuts that various family members of mine are prone to:
“clift” for cliff
“mis-chee-vee-us” for mischievous (there’s no I in the last syllable!)
“noo-kyoo-lar” for nuclear
“warsh” for wash
posted by Amber on 12-21-2007 at 6:52 pm
My friend John’s father had been reading about prehistoric animals but had never talked about them until one day at the dinner table when he mystified everyone by referring to DIN-ah-sours.
posted by Karl Weber on 12-21-2007 at 9:07 pm
Sonorous messed me up. I always, always, ALWAYS thought it was SON-or-us. Kind of like sonar. Now that I know it’s suh-NOR-us the word’s- er, well, it’s no longer sonorous to me. It’s… nasty and soporific. Like Nyquil.
posted by Aemi on 12-21-2007 at 11:03 pm
I think it’s hilarious to see that others learned to read from Archie comic books. I thought I was the only one! My first memory of public mispronounciation is in 1st grade when I read the word sew with an “ew” sound at the end – not like so.
Today, I still have trouble with the word peripheral. I have to say it super slow. I am especially embarassed about mispronounciations since I am a schoolteacher, and like to set a good example. On the flip side, it has made me more tolerant when I listen to the kids out loud.
By the way, I live in Illinois, and I know you’re from out of state if you pronounce the “s” at the end (Ill-i-noys). Rookie mistake.
posted by Jill on 12-22-2007 at 3:03 am
My boss always says “per-IFF-eal” for peripheral. But so do a lot of other people. However, she has a, well, unique way of pronouncing “subliminal” or “subliminally” as “sublime-al” and “sumlime-a-ly”.
And her husband often says “man light years”. I’m guessing he heard “million light years” from someone who said it very quickly and that’s how he heard it!
posted by John on 12-22-2007 at 6:55 am
My dear mother…if I sat and thought a bit I’m sure I could come up with more (or even just had a conversation with her now!) but two biggies that come to mind are aloonium foil and that weather anomoly, El Mimo! She never fails to crack me up! Love ya’ Mom!
posted by HunBun on 12-22-2007 at 7:57 am
I, too, am a reader who has learned words from books that are rarely heard aloud and boy do I come up with clunkers, sometimes. I used to say oh-pew-lent instead of op-u-lent, and con-sort-ee-um instead of con-sore-shum. A well read friend of mine said ga-no-me in her head until she heard it pronounced nome. I had no idea for many years that ma-choor is correctly pronounced ma-toor and it still sounds odd. As pointed out in earlier posts, off-ten and mis-cheeve-ee-us stand my hair on end! I’ll end with a few infestations of long vowels that I beg not be said any more. To wit, sem-eye-colon, ant-eye-freeze and dem-eye-mund. Are people soon to begin saying hem-eye-sfeer? Oh, oh, I forgot another baddie, sim-you-lar.
posted by Alice on 12-22-2007 at 10:16 am
I used to thing facade was pronounced fa-kade and that the fa-sahd pronunciation was a different word meaning the same thing. I found out in high school when we were reading something out loud that had it. As I heard it, something clicked and I felt embarrassed that I hadn’t realized it was the same word.
posted by Sally on 12-22-2007 at 10:19 am
I thought ‘chaos’ was ‘cha-owse’ until 4th grade, when I was telling my mom about the book “Absolutely Normal Chaos” and said “cha-owse”, which prompted her to stare at me and say “kay-oss?” and me to say “no, cha-owse” and spell it for her, which led to her correcting me.
I also thought chasm was pronounced with the ‘ch’ and not ‘kas-um’.
And the name Sean– I know that it’s pronounced Shawn. Despite that, whenever I see it written down, I think ‘Seen’.
posted by sporkk on 12-22-2007 at 11:34 am
So many of these are familiar. I too, taught myself most of my vocabulary from reading. For the longest time I pronounced phoenix “fonix”.
And I thought chaos was “cha-hoes”
posted by KR on 12-22-2007 at 12:49 pm
As a native Texas, I’ve heard things pronounced improperly a lot.
Some of my favorites:
chain-change
credit-credick
escape-exscape
extension(this is one of my favorites) – extinction
Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not making fun of the people who speak this way. I had five years of speach therapy in elementary school or I’d do the same thing. I mean, after all, I grew up listening to my dad talk about the Muffets (Muppets).
My great gaffes:
non-sequitur – non se KWEE chur
Titleist (I think they make sporting equipment or something) – TIT liste.
There are many others, but the last one I listed was particularly embarassing.
posted by Lisa on 12-22-2007 at 7:03 pm
It’s related to mispronounciation I suppose. I always believed that the HAZCHEM signs were pronounced Has-Shem as I mistakenly thought it was “Warning” in German.
If I’d known what it really meant I wouldn’t have been standing quite so close to the doors that the signs were screwed to.
posted by m0le on 12-22-2007 at 8:50 pm
Self taught reader as well.
My worst mispronunciation was hors devours. It sort of still is, as I hear it in my head the wrong way when I read it. Worst part was I knew what they were, but could never understand what eating horses had to do with pre-meal snacks…
Wasn’t till I was in my 20s that I was finally corrected.
posted by Alli on 12-22-2007 at 10:05 pm
My wife and I share a laugh still today over a former girlfriend of mine. She was in a class with my wife before we (my wife and I) ever met. They were reading Catcher in the Rye, and my old gf kept referring to a Foe-be in an oral report on the book. Unfortunately, she obviously meant Phoebe, much to her dismay but to the delight of the rest of the class.
I also have an incredibly smart friend who continues to insist on pronouncing vehemently as va-he-ment-ly. I’m too embarassed that I’ve never corrected it to do so now.
Finally, I cannot count the numbers of people I’ve heard pronounce the word available as Uh-vate-ah-bull. It makes my skin crawl just like New-cue-lar…
posted by Dan on 12-22-2007 at 11:16 pm
When I was little for some reason I thought opinion and onion were the same word. It took me a while to realize the difference.
And Alli (#58), in my family we always call hors devours “horse doovers.” It’s an old family thing my grandma always did, so my mom and her sisters and brothers do it too. My cousin, who was in high school at the time, once got asked what he liked to eat for Thanksgiving. He said, “Horse doovers,” not realizing that was not what they were called. Poor guy. He got made fun of for that.
posted by Janel on 12-22-2007 at 11:30 pm
I also taught myself to ready and pronounced exacerbate as ex-cab-er-ate for years. Just reading too fast.
Many years ago, it seemed that all of the news reporters simultaneously began pronouncing the noun “ally” as “ah-lie,” accent on lie. I believe that one of the big ones, Jennings or someone, misspoke one day and everyone was suddenly stricken at the thought that they had been mispronouncing it all along. Silly reporters.
posted by thebrokedown on 12-23-2007 at 9:57 am
I recently moved to the pacific northwest and there are many references here to Lewis and Clark and their pal Sacagawea. My mother-in-law always calls her “Sack-a-WAH-gee-uh”. It drives me nuts!!!
posted by Sandy on 12-23-2007 at 12:18 pm
I often hear people pronounce “debacle” incorrectly, saying DE-ba-cle. The correct pronounciation de-BA-cle.
posted by evelyn on 12-23-2007 at 1:33 pm
I have a friend who pronounces the word “emphasis” with the emphasis on the pha. I should probably correct him, but it’s too hilarious.
posted by Nina on 12-23-2007 at 4:00 pm
I just learned a few years ago that endeavor is not pronounced en-DEE-ver. Also, that respite should be res-pit, not re-spite.
I had a friend that liked the way I said off-ten, so much that she started saying it that way herself.
posted by jenbe on 12-23-2007 at 4:01 pm
I was the sort of kid who read books like Oliver Twist at the ripe age of eleven. My life was full of phoenetic mispronunciations.
i.e. Around the age of twelve, I once found a water filled glass jar that was growing a floating colony of something and proudly exclaimed to a friend’s mother, ” Look! I found an orgasm in a bottle!” I had meant organism. Very humiliating.
Also,living in Eastern Montana there are many accent related mispronunciations.
crick > creek
rut > root
ruff > roof
beg > bag
lol my mom also claims that she is verbally dick-clek-sick (dyslexic)
posted by Bobbie on 12-24-2007 at 3:15 am
I’ve always been a prolific reader too. There was a lightbulb moment when I realized that ciao was “chow” I thought they were different words.
posted by Yonit de Metz on 12-24-2007 at 9:01 am
My secretary pronounces sundry like sun-dry instead of sun-dree.
Also, I have to cringe when people insist on pronouncing asphalt as if it was ash-phalt (it should be pronounced ass-phalt). Drives me nuts when people put an x in espresso.
posted by Ranger J on 7-28-2009 at 11:34 am