# Another pronunciation pitting

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-pronunciation-pitting/468180>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [October 16, 2008, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-pronunciation-pitting/468180 "2008-10-16T12:03:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 11

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**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-pronunciation-pitting/468180/201 "2008-10-30T06:08:29Z")

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> [@BwanaBob](#):
>
> You say “bank” to both because the same spelling is used for both no-one pronounces the word differently depending on its context.

Spelling is based on pronunciation, not the other way around.

> [@BwanaBob](#):
>
> But now with mass media, telephony, internet, it is easy to expose a “mispronunciation” to millions of potential spreaders. Snoop Dawg says “Be-otch” for bitch and a million of his fans use it and make it common place. If he were just a street bum in 1875, someone would have told him to shut up and pronounce it correctly. End of be-otch. Today, Prescriptivists have too big a task of stopping such things from catching on; like putting your fingers in the dyke, the flood still comes.

“Beyotch” (as I’ve seen it spelled more commonly) is not a mispronunciation, it is a totally different word with a subtly different meaning. Or do you suggest that you would get the same reaction by calling your girlfriend one or the other?

Also, it is nobody’s job to police the language and make it conform to your tastes.

> [@BwanaBob](#):
>
> Consider this: in the past, before we had such a massive communications infrastructure, a “mispronunciation” had to really be natural in order to catch on enough to become widespread or common. If it were bothersome it would probably be suppressed in its tracks by the local educators. It would not spread.

OK, really, you’re just making shit up. Why do you think that’s equivalent in validity to the consensus in the field of linguistics?

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