Markxxx, I think St. Louis was once pronounced “louie”. I’m thinking of the movie “Meet Me In St. Louis” - is that the name of the movie? (Someone please correct me if I’m wrong).
It was a musical with Judy Garland. The song I am thinking of went “Meet me in Saint Louie, Louie, meet me at the fair” (needless to say, the spelling here is phonetic). It referred to the World’s Fair, which was being held in St. Louis in whatever year the movie was set (sorry I’m so bad on the details, but I saw it a long time ago).
Eightth… I may be the only person who goes nuts over this, but since I only see one “t” in “eighth” I think the correct pronunciation is “ayth”, not ayt-th"
Caramel when pronounced “care-a-mel”. I don’t know if that’s correct, but it annoys the crap out of me. “Carml” sounds better.
Eightth… I may be the only person who goes nuts over this, but since I only see one “t” in “eighth” I think the correct pronunciation is “ayth”, not ayt-th"
Caramel when pronounced “care-a-mel”. I don’t know if that’s correct, but it annoys the crap out of me. “Carml” sounds better.
My 5 year old stepson threw a weird one at me a couple of weeks ago. He was referring to something he’d eaten, and he repeatedly used the word “ut.” I finally had to ask what he meant (I knew, but I just wanted to hear his explanation). He said “You know, I put it in my mouth, chewed it, and swallowed it. I UT it.” I do not know where this came from. He was born here in southern lower Michigan, and he’s lived here all of his short life, and “ut” is not part of our dialect. I told him that the proper word to use is “ate,” and he’s been fine ever since.
Main Entry: flac·cid
Pronunciation: ÷’fla-s&d also 'flak-s&d
Looks like Mirriam Webster prefers “flassid” so there
some things that I see online quite often that leave me literally clawing at the screen are “could of” “would of” “should of” etc, “are” instead of “our” “all” instead of “I’ll” and similar things. HOW FREAKING HARD CAN IT BE???
Here’s a pronunciation from a TV commercial (Cecil may blow a fuse at this, because of the entry for this company in * The Straight Dope *, but the commercial disappeared in the early 1960s):
“Franco-American, what do you get
Best spaghet you ever et.”
People sometimes make fun of deaf people so they make up signs, which I assume qualifies as a sort of mis-pronouncing words, so we often say to them, "you just said, Im gay, blow me!’ this shuts them up
A lot of gay people know sign and they, even if they did not, have not made fun of deaf people that I know of. So,its not offensive per se.
Handy:
Are you deaf? I gotta tell ya, I could watch deaf people talk all day long. I think it is so compelling and beautiful! I loved “Children of a Lesser God” JUST because I could sit and watch signing for two hours. It is completely cool.
What little I know about it fascinates me…it is like any other languarge, with its own syntax and grammar. Which makes it even more amazing when there is an interpreter… it seems like it might be rather challenging to do.
Anyway…jsut wanted to say that. (I do know the alphabet, but of course that’s deadly slow. I learned it when I was very young because my sister played Helen keller on stage.)
I like the regional differences, too.
kknick34: Be honest, now. Do you say “WED-nes-day” or just “WENDS-day”?? I thought so.
Now, the one that really gets to me:
suh-POZE-uh-blee for supposedly.
(cringe) There’s no “b” in supposedly!!!
Here are some mispronunciations that I like:
underbrella for umbrella
pidder for pillow
sammidge for sandwich (however, I dislike sa-windge for sandwich)
mispernounciated for mispronounced (used as a retort when someone criticizes your pronunciation, i.e. “I did not mispernounciate it. Baynal is just as acceptable as b’nal. Lookah here in the dicshernary.”
My main peeves in pronunciation are when somebody pronounces foreign words in ways that are incorrect in both English phonetics AND the other language. Case in point: Tycho Brahe, Danish astronomer. Danes call him Took-uh Bra. Phonetically, in English he could be Tike-oh Bra or perhaps Teek-oh Bra. Was informed by math teacher to call him Teek-oh Brow! Where did he dig that one up?
Or when people argue about Moss-cow versus Moss-co for the Russian capital. If it’s not Moskva, it’s just an approximation anyway, so relax.
I have always prounounced the second month of the year as FEBB-roo-err-ee; my younger sister insisted that FEB-yoo-err-ee is “acceptable”; every year on his first weekday newscast of the month, Walter Cronkite would say, “It’s that month again”; my sister would gloat at me when this newscast would come on, and again when he would say at the end, “And thats the way it is, Febuary 1, 19–.
But she herself would say “maskas” for masks,” Souther-un Yams," “PURR-sa-phone” for “Persephone,” and “Pius Ex” for “Pius the Tenth.”
