To what extent is "cavalry" pronounced "calvary" in the US?

I’ve noticed it a few times and was wondering how widespread that pronunciation was. I noticed it in a museum in Cleveland and on a few tv shows including Pawn Stars. The main guy in Pawn Stars refers to the “7th Calvary”. What’s the SD? Is “calvary” the standard pronunciation in the US?

More or less. I’m occaisionally run across someone using the old pronunciation, but only in period-peice movies and the like.

Certainly not. I’ve heard it the other way round, though.

I don’t know for sure, but I’m going to WAG that this is nothing more than somebody confusing the two words with one another. I would have guessed that the opposite mispronunciation would be more common: pronouncing “Calvary” as “cavalry”.

I myself had these two words confused many years ago, until one day I happened to notice that one of them wasn’t spelled the way I thought it was. It wasn’t that I was confused about which word was which. Rather, I didn’t even realize there were two distinct words there.

(Kinda like that thread last week, on the confusion of “predominate” vs. “predominant”.)

Even though I know the difference between these two words, I have to pronounce them carefully or I will sometimes substitute one for the other.

Not quite a GQ. I’ve moved it to IMHO.
samclem

Calvary for cavalry sounds somewhat common for a mispronunciation. It’s the kind of thing that gets self-reinforced if you make the mistake too often. I don’t know of it being a regional thing, but I’ve met people who seemed to inherit mispronunciatons from their family life. But in this case it’s also a minor slip of the tongue, could happen to anyone.

I’ll defer to your better judgement. Maybe I should have asked is “calvary” the standard pronunciation for “cavalry” in the US.

No way. Just a small variation.

Not at all. It is a fairly common mispronunciation, though.

In my experience it’s almost always pronounced calvary. I say it correctly but I had to learn that on my own.

No it’s not; never underestimate the power of ignorance.

Most of the dictionaries I checked only list the standard, “cav-al-ry” pronunciation, but Merriam-Webster, after giving that pronunciation, also has the “cal-va-ry” pronunciation with what looks like a “divided by” symbol in front of it. Does anyone know what they mean by that symbol? does it indicate a legitimate alternative pronunciation, or a common incorrect pronunciation?

Is it a regional pronunciation in Northeast Ohio?

From the M-W FAQ:

“The obelus, or division sign, is placed before a pronunciation variant that occurs in educated speech but that is considered by some to be questionable or unacceptable.”

Having the crucifixion on cavalry would have made it more exciting. It’s a bit like the yummy Biblical toffee so many Americans seem to enjoy.

It certainly shouldn’t be. They have Cavaliers there.

Thanks!

Maybe I’m not paying enough attention, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone say “Calvary” for “cavalry”. Of course, the word cavalry doesn’t come up that much in conversation.

Yeah it’s rare I hear it but in approx. 50% of instances I’ve heard an American using the term they’ve said “calvary” but then there’s far less reason for an Irish person to use the term so maybe it really is just a mistake rather than an alternate pronunciation and a similar amount of Irish folk would pronounce it “Calvary”.

I struggle with those two words. My wife pointed out that I pronounced them both as “Calvary.”

Now I very consciously say “ca-val-ry” in a very slow and certain way, like I am trying to teach it to a child. People think I am strange.