Yaaarghh! It's pronounced SUB-SID-I-ARY, goddammit!!

[Crown Prince of Irony]

I just about stabbed my eardrums with a pencil while at work today. In a nearby cube, one of my co-workers was giving some training on one of our back-end sales planning tools which maps account coverage hierarchies.

Now, I know this woman very well, and she's a very sweet person, and normally I get along with her fine. But she is incapable of pronouncing the word "subsidiary" - instead, she pronounces it "subsidirary". Which I've heard her do before - but since I don't sit near her, it hasn't bothered me much. No more so than hearing the stray "ex-cetera" or other mis-pronunciation.

But she was giving the training to someone sitting nearby. And since the training dealt with account hierarchies, it was very heavily focused on mapping subsidiaries. It also seemed to take all. fucking. day.

It bugged me so much I tried to clear my schedule enough to allow me the 30 minutes to get home, just so I wouldn't be subjected to this verbal butchery. But I had calls scattered throughout the day, so I had to sit there clenching my jaw and waiting for it to stop, trying to focus on whatever tasks were on my plate.

So I got to hear "subsidirary" 200 goddamn times.

Seriously, who the fuck looks at that word and sees an extra 'r'?

And the bigger question - after several years of giving these types of trainings, how come none of her teammates have corrected her? She often gives training to dozens of people at a time - hasn't one person piped up, like, ever? And even if not, she must have heard how other people pronounce the word - I can even recall saying the word "subsidiary" in front of her on mroe than one occasion (one time, perhaps even enunciating just a bit too clearly). Is she simply incapable of correcting herself?

And before anyone asks, no, she doesn't have a speech impediment that - this appears to be the only word that she molests with any kind of regularity.

[kaylasdad99]

Reminds me of the chemistry instructor I had back in Naval Nuke Power school back in '81. Kept talking about Cesmium.

[Whack-a-Mole]

Hardly seems Pit worthy.

Don't get me wrong. I have language pet peeves and I imagine hearing someone repeat one over and over would bug me too.

Indeed earlier tonight I was complaining about a friend of mine who seems to not know the difference between to/too/two when writing. Actually I am sure she knows the difference but she gets it wrong nearly every time (and I mean every time so not just the occasional goof which I'll let pass).

But in the scheme of things not worth much fuss. If it was we'd all go mad.

[Harmonious Discord]

Did you correct her? You did expect that others should have already.

[Crown Prince of Irony]

Originally Posted by Harmonious Discord

Did you correct her? You did expect that others should have already.

I've not pulled her aside and said "you're saying subsidiary wrong" - since she's not on my team, I would feel weird about explicitly correcting her.

But as I mentioned, I have said the word itself to her on occasion, and at least once, said it very carefully and perhaps a bit slowly: "Sub-sid-eee-ary". One of her teammates was standing right there, and I could swear I saw him smirk a little as I said it, so I'm pretty sure that it's not just me who notices.

And Whack-a-Mole - yeah, on the grand scale of Pitworthiness, it ranks pretty low. But I had to vent after hearing it all fucking day, and such venting required the use of language that would have precluded MPSIMS.

[Argent Towers]

The incorrect pronunciation of that word that I usually hear is "subsidary."

[Crown Prince of Irony]

Originally Posted by Argent Towers

The incorrect pronunciation of that word that I usually hear is "subsidary."

That I can understand - that damn "i" is so skinny I can see someone carelessly misreading it. In fact, I had to re-read what you typed to find the missing letter. But how does one find an extra letter in "subsidiary"?

[Kimstu]

Originally Posted by Crown Prince of Irony

Seriously, who the fuck looks at that word and sees an extra 'r'?

Maybe the same people who don't see one of the 'r's in "February" and "library"? Hey, we gotta use those 'r's somewhere, ya know.

(And for the militant descriptivists who will come in here at some point breathing fire: Yes, I know that linguistic correctness is ultimately determined by real-world linguistic practice. I was making a joke. Calm down.)

[fumster]

I was on a bus the other day and about 20 kids from pre-school got on to go to the library. One of them says in a loud voice "We're going to the libery!" and a girl says equally loudly, with hints of Lucy in her voice, "It's li-brar-ee". The whole thing was just too cute.

[needscoffee]

Somebody assaulted me with "simular" tonight.

[Chefguy]

I spent 20+ years in the military. In all that time I never heard a single military training instructor say anything but "incenerary" instead of "incendiary". Nearly drove me mad, it did.

[Walmarticus]

I used to have a statistics teacher who had lived in China most of her life. She would pronounce standard deviation standiwation. Trust me, it was hilarious- or at least it would have been, if dickwad jockos weren't openly making fun of her pronunciation. I was too busy worrying about her feelings to have a quiet chuckle to myself.

[needscoffee]

Is the subsidirary in Tipperary?

[fumster]

Originally Posted by needscoffee

Is the subsidirary in Tipperary?

That's going a long way for a joke.

[Double Foolscap]

A co-worker once started telling me about this great game that he had, Line Age. It took me about ten minutes before I realised he was talking about Lineage. I said, "Oh, Lineage," to which he responded, "Yeah, Line Age."

Luckily we moved on later to the merits of Wii vs PS3. Yeah.

[BigT]

Could it possible come from the British practice of separating vowels with Rs? For example, "I have no idea about that" becomes "I have nor idear about that, instead of the more American "I have no widea 'bout that."

[Nava]

Those of us whose languages measure meter in syllables pronounce it sub-si-dia-ry. Is that ok? No extra letters!

English is a language in which some people add an h to "egg", take out the one in "have" and/or manage to mute Ts (how many Dopers pronounce 20 as "tweeny"? Right). I commiserate with the OP's plight, but I'm afraid that "pronunciations apparently unrelated to spellings" are a well-known characteristic of the English language.

[DragonAsh]

Arrgggh - I absolutely hate it when people throw in random 'r's. Idear. Warshington. It's definitely not a British thing; I've heard it from people that the closest they got to Britain was watching old Benny Hill re-runs...

[BigT]

Originally Posted by Nava

Those of us whose languages measure meter in syllables pronounce it sub-si-dia-ry. Is that ok? No extra letters!

English is a language in which some people add an h to "egg", take out the one in "have" and/or manage to mute Ts (how many Dopers pronounce 20 as "tweeny"? Right). I commiserate with the OP's plight, but I'm afraid that "pronunciations apparently unrelated to spellings" are a well-known characteristic of the English language.

I say it that way, too. The dia is similar to a diphthong, like in the Spanish word hacienda.

[tdn]

One that I've seen in text a lot lately is "shitty grin." Is that actually a term? Shouldn't it be "shit-eating grin"? Although I suppose that one leads to another.

[Fear Itself]

Originally Posted by Chefguy

I spent 20+ years in the military. In all that time I never heard a single military training instructor say anything but "incenerary" instead of "incendiary". Nearly drove me mad, it did.

I heard a retired military expert on the news the other day refer to the "1st Calvary Division".

[Paintcharge]

I had a science teacher who was convinced that "robarts" were going to take over the world.

He also had trouble with "the instresting thing about thinking about emzymes"...

[jjimm]

My boss says "pacifically" all the time. He even read it off a presentation yesterday that said "specifically" right there on the screen. He's not the only one in the company, either. =3

[Machine Elf]

Originally Posted by Crown Prince of Irony

But she is incapable of pronouncing the word "subsidiary" - instead, she pronounces it "subsidirary".

Maybe she's stealing the "r" from another word.

Has she ever mentioned her periphial vision?

[tdn]

Originally Posted by jjimm

My boss says "pacifically" all the time.

What do you want him to say? Atlantically?

[Chefguy]

Originally Posted by Fear Itself

I heard a retired military expert on the news the other day refer to the "1st Calvary Division".

I was in line at a Marine chow hall. Near the end of the line, a young Marine stood with a soup ladle. "What's the soup today, Marine?" I asked. "Mine strone" says he.

[Machine Elf]

Originally Posted by tdn

What do you want him to say? Atlantically?

"Pacific" may refer to the ocean, but it also may refer to simply being peaceful; that was the original meaning of the word, and is in fact why the ocean was named as such.

An antonym of "pacifically" might be "violently."

[Rhythmdvl]

Originally Posted by sh1bu1

That's going a long way for a joke.

Butt hiss hart was rite their!

[WOOKINPANUB]

I'm am super sensitive to (what I consider) mispronunciations but it's been drilled into me on this very board that there are regionalisms, and "no such thing as wrong pronunciation" , blah blah blah, so I, like the poster upthread, try to let it slide as much as I can. But I think the real pisser in the OP is that it's almost an industry term at his company and it does indeed seem moronic that someone, simply by virtue of hearing it all the live long day, could still mispronounce it. I've mentioned my borderline retarded co-worker (not really; she's just form Philly ) and even her stupidity I've come to excuse as "regionalisms". But, thre are some words and names that are not open to interpretation.
It's "Emeril", not "Emerald" and "Conde Nast", not "Connie Nash" you stupid twat.

[Vinyl Turnip]

Originally Posted by Double Foolscap

Luckily we moved on later to the merits of Wii vs PS3.

So, which one won out: the Why-eye or the Piss-three?

[Lute Skywatcher]

Originally Posted by DragonAsh

Arrgggh - I absolutely hate it when people throw in random 'r's. Idear. Warshington. It's definitely not a British thing; I've heard it from people that the closest they got to Britain was watching old Benny Hill re-runs...

Sounds like my dad, on both counts. He's originally from southeastern Wisconsin.

[Sailboat]

Originally Posted by Chefguy

I spent 20+ years in the military. In all that time I never heard a single military training instructor say anything but "incenerary" instead of "incendiary". Nearly drove me mad, it did.

Heh. I worked on military manuals for a defense contractor. We published two separate versions because of ONE word: the Navy and Air Force were fine using the term "align," as in the phrase, "align the arrow on right edge of this chart with the arrow on the left edge of the following chart," but the Army insisted on spelling the word "aline." Even though THAT term is both 1) wrong and 2) easily mispronounced itself (a-leen?), and thus likely to throw off both educated and ignorant users.

I crankily pointed out that the Army has no trouble expecting these same people to memorize hundreds of complex, almost arbitrary abbreviations, and suggested they just tell people ALIGN is an abbreviation ("Never mind WHY it's spelled that way, maggot!"), but apparently it was in the contract that we spell it that way, so my complaint was ignored.

[corkboard]

My division is a subsidiary of our parent company. A guy in our division has a great DJ-type voice and records the outgoing messages for our voicemail. And for years now, callers have been greeted by "Thank you for calling XYZ Company, a subsiderary of ABC Corporation".

Grrrrrrrrrrr.

But I try to ignore all mispronounciations like that, so I don't stab my coworkers who say "aks".

[Thudlow Boink]

Originally Posted by Nava

Those of us whose languages measure meter in syllables pronounce it sub-si-dia-ry. Is that ok? No extra letters!

That looks like a British pronunciation—like how Brits pronounce "secretary" or "ordinary" with three syllables but Americans pronounce them with four.

[Really Not All That Bright]

Originally Posted by Vinyl Turnip

So, which one won out: the Why-eye or the Piss-three?

It's wih-ih, you drooling Philistine.

[Cat Whisperer]

This kind of thing can really get under my skin, exspecially when you have athaletes who suddenly decide to become realators. Ah, what can you do? It's a doggie dog world.

[tdn]

Originally Posted by Cat Whisperer

This kind of thing can really get under my skin, exspecially when you have athaletes who suddenly decide to become realators. Ah, what can you do? It's a doggie dog world.

Yeah, but does it have french benefits?

[Cat Whisperer]

I would ask if you've seriously heard someone say that, but I think I know what the answer is.

[Napkin Sandwich]

Originally Posted by Cat Whisperer

This kind of thing can really get under my skin, exspecially when you have athaletes who suddenly decide to become realators. Ah, what can you do? It's a doggie dog world.

After they've been athaletes they may also choose to become mothers, and during labor the cervix can either dialate or even sometimes dilatate. (I heard both of those from different medical professionals).

[Wheelz]

Just yesterday I sat through a meeting featuring at least three uses of the word "satistics."
Anybody seen a missing t lying around anywhere?

[gotpasswords]

Where I am, the word "expedite" is used a lot.

It's rarely spelled or pronounced correctly.

[WhyNot]

Originally Posted by jjimm

My boss says "pacifically" all the time. He even read it off a presentation yesterday that said "specifically" right there on the screen. He's not the only one in the company, either. =3

I have a teacher right now who does this one. Like nails on a chalkboard, it is. She mangles a lot of other words, too, but this is the specific one that makes me want to stab my own brain with my pen.

And why is it that people who say "pacifically" seem to use the word so very often? Twenty times a class, she'll have to be pacific and pacifically use the word, when I swear "specifically" comes up in my vocabulary twice a week.

[elmwood]

I know the Brits have some rather odd pronunciations by American standards; leftenant, Ah Kuyeeda, terminal Rs like "the city of Chacager in Americer", and the like. BBC America, and the growth in public and community radio stations, with BBC World Service filling in some of the airtime, are bringing more of those oddball pronunciations to the forefront.

One I heard a few days ago: "dik-ahhd". The context: "In this, the second dikahhd of the 21st century ..." Earlier, I heard one of the days of the week pronounced as "Wed-niss-day".

[jjimm]

Originally Posted by elmwood

One I heard a few days ago: "dik-ahhd". The context: "In this, the second dikahhd of the 21st century ..."

I've lived here most of my life and have never heard this pronunciation. ETA: could be Kiwi maybe?

If you really want to hurt your American ears, try listening to us saying "vehicle". ("Veiu-kul")

[Wheelz]

Originally Posted by jjimm

If you really want to hurt your American ears, try listening to us saying "vehicle". ("Veiu-kul")

Heh. Reminds me of the time I took a tour of the Kennedy Space Center. A highlight of the tour was the famous Vehicle Assembly Building. Due to the tour guide's extremely thick southern/African American pronunciation, however, the name of this structure was forever burned into my brain as the "Vickle Semmy Building".

[Yllaria]

My Mom adds Rs and performs other gymnastics. It's really noticable with the street names that she mispronounces. Drove one of my sons nuts, but as he got older, he joined the rest of us in being philosophical about it.

It seems to happen more often with new names, rather than general words. Once a mispronunciation has gotten into her head and been reinforced by saying the word out loud, nothing can make her say it any other way. The neural pathways have been set and will not reform. Covell Street will always be Corvell. Nintendo will always be Intendo.

[MLS]

I used to have a co-worker who said "in-term" for interim.

Some years back one of my fellow Mensa members submitted an article for our newsletter that included the phrase "for all intensive purposes." She readily accepted the correction, but I couldn't help think, "Goodness, woman, have you never seen that in writing?"

[Jackmannii]

All you people need to stop hyperventilating about mispronunciations or you'll have an arrest and they'll need to call Respitory Services for you.

Yes, I hear this constantly over the hospital intercom.

"Res-pi-tory Services, to the emergency department!"

Another favorite is the labeling of sentinel lymph node specimens from Surgery (these are nodes sent for special pathologic evaluation before a full axillary node dissection is done). Various misspellings of "sentinel" are in vogue, my favorite of which is "centennial" nodes.

If only this happened just every 100 years.

[california jobcase]

I taught high school science for 26.5 years.
It still amazes me how many of my colleagues mispronounce meiosis, pumice, zoology, and Punnet square.

Don't get me started on the Food Network and plantains.

[jasonh300]

Originally Posted by gotpasswords

Where I am, the word "expedite" is used a lot.

It's rarely spelled or pronounced correctly.

What's wrong with expedite?