# I might feel no slight delight if I heard "height" pronounced right. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 7, 2006, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-might-feel-no-slight-delight-if-i-heard-height-pronounced-right/379447 "2006-11-07T17:20:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![StuffLikeThatThere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc8723/32.png) [@StuffLikeThatThere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StuffLikeThatThere)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-might-feel-no-slight-delight-if-i-heard-height-pronounced-right/379447/41 "2006-11-08T03:46:45Z")
Sometimes I wish I could exscape from bad pronunciations. When my husband sold them, his co-worker said Exscape all the time, and it made me insane. Thankfully, he no longer sells Fords, or at least not new ones. No one, so far, messes up Torrent or Vibe, and I can stop gritting my teeth. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-might-feel-no-slight-delight-if-i-heard-height-pronounced-right/379447/42 "2006-11-08T03:58:22Z")
[QUOTE=vivalostwages] What’s even worse is the use of “pacific” when the speaker means to say “specific.” “Could you be more pacific?” :rolleyes: [/QUOTE] I learned just a few months ago that you could indeed be more pacific, given it means “peaceful.” Who knew? I too have never heard height with a “th” ending. I also rarely hear “I seen” rather than “I’ve seen.” New Englanders just mangle our words in other ways entirely, such as pronouncing “or/re” as “ah.” “Shut the do-ah over they-ah near the stay-ahs.” ---
**Author:** ![zagloba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/977dab/32.png) [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-might-feel-no-slight-delight-if-i-heard-height-pronounced-right/379447/43 "2006-11-08T04:43:04Z")
[QUOTE=Ice Machine] IMy wife and I were reviewing a childbrth video to refresh ourselves and the two nurses teaching the course both continually pronounced centimetre with the cent pronounced as in saunter. [/QUOTE] This seems to be very common in the medical community. [QUOTE=StuffLikeThatThere] When my husband sold them, his co-worker said Exscape all the time, and it made me insane. [/QUOTE] I think it was intended to be pronounced Exscape to go along with Explorer, Expedition, and Excursion. I’ve heard heighth quite frequently among my Nebraska and Minnesota relatives. ---
**Author:** ![FilmGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@FilmGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FilmGeek)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-might-feel-no-slight-delight-if-i-heard-height-pronounced-right/379447/44 "2006-11-08T04:45:23Z")
[QUOTE=StuffLikeThatThere] Sometimes I wish I could exscape from bad pronunciations. When my husband sold them, his co-worker said Exscape all the time, and it made me insane. Thankfully, he no longer sells Fords, or at least not new ones. No one, so far, messes up Torrent or Vibe, and I can stop gritting my teeth. [/QUOTE] Ahh, the vee-bay. Does it come in silver? ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-might-feel-no-slight-delight-if-i-heard-height-pronounced-right/379447/45 "2006-11-08T05:58:50Z")
If you hate fractured English do yourself a favor and never, ever visit Pennsylvania. Particularly avoid Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-might-feel-no-slight-delight-if-i-heard-height-pronounced-right/379447/46 "2006-11-08T06:27:22Z")
That’s as bad as “thights.”\* \*A garment worn by women on their thighs (and the rest of their legs too, but obviously the focus is on the thighs, if the common misspelling is any evidence). ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-might-feel-no-slight-delight-if-i-heard-height-pronounced-right/379447/47 "2006-11-08T06:36:06Z")
My personal term that I just shirek inside when I hear is “libary”. God, around here, it is always libary. It’s fucking librrrrrrrrary you ignorant hicks 😛 I always laugh inside thinking of Lisa Simpson getting her prying bar so she can go down to the “libary and rent us some movies”. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Purl_McKnittington)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-might-feel-no-slight-delight-if-i-heard-height-pronounced-right/379447/48 "2006-11-08T07:07:47Z")
Hey, gang, superior much? I will say this slowly and soothingly for those of you too high on your horses to catch it: Groups of people pronounce things differently than other groups. It is no reflection of their intelligence or mental capacity, nor is pronouncing things in the same manner as someone with a college education proof of intelligence. What is a mispronounciation to you is perfectly acceptable to another group. There is no correct or incorrect; there is only more acceptable for the situation. Liberry? Nukular? Totally acceptable. I don’t say liberry, because that’s not how people around me said it when I acquired language, but I’d bite my tongue before I said nukleer. Sometimes I say melk instead of milk. My dog burries things, but there’s always a bare-ial at a funeral. And, dammit, I enjoy drinking pop. Language variation: it’s a thing of beauty. Deal. Jesus, people, I copy edit. I get paid to be pedantic and neurotic about language. I could not care less about how people say things, as long as I can understand what they’re getting at. There is no room for intellectual superiority when it comes to spoken language, and damned little when it comes to written language. Any surge of triumphal pride you feel at pronouncing something “correctly” is the thinnest veneer of bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![shizaru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@shizaru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shizaru)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-might-feel-no-slight-delight-if-i-heard-height-pronounced-right/379447/49 "2006-11-08T07:23:59Z")
Anyone got Fiddy cents? ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-might-feel-no-slight-delight-if-i-heard-height-pronounced-right/379447/50 "2006-11-08T07:48:25Z")
[QUOTE=shizaru] Anyone got Fiddy cents? [/QUOTE] Sheesh, that’s ignorant. It’s “Anyone get fiddy cent?” No “s”. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-might-feel-no-slight-delight-if-i-heard-height-pronounced-right/379447/51 "2006-11-08T12:00:44Z")
[QUOTE=yojimbo] As a kid I was always confused that only in America could you find aluminum. What was this mystical think they made sidings from. I didn’t have a clue what sidings where either but that was the lesser of the two from my POV. I was disapointed to find out it was just aluminium. [/QUOTE] It’s one of the few cases where UK english is more similar to Spanish than US English - the US pronunciation tries to give me brain reboots. When my US coworkers laugh at me for saying it with all the proper letters I threaten with speaking to them in Spanish, shuts 'em up right fast 😛 ---
**Author:** ![StuffLikeThatThere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc8723/32.png) [@StuffLikeThatThere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StuffLikeThatThere)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-might-feel-no-slight-delight-if-i-heard-height-pronounced-right/379447/52 "2006-11-08T14:42:42Z")
[QUOTE=zagloba] This seems to be very common in the medical community.I think it was intended to be pronounced Exscape to go along with Explorer, Expedition, and Excursion. [/QUOTE] Then they should have spelled it with an X. Besides, when my husband said to someone, “It drives my wife crazy that people say that ‘Exscape.’” the man said with a chortle, “Yeah, but I bet they want to exscape when they hear the price!” He thought the car was pronounced without the x, but the actual word was pronounced with. _sigh_ > [@filmgeek](#): > > Ahh, the vee-bay. Does it come in silver? SHHHH! You’re giving them ideas! > [@Miss Purl McKnittington](#): > > Hey, gang, superior much? Well, in fairness, this is the Pit. I don’t scream at people in real life when they pronounce words differently than me, or even visibly flinch. It’s a pet peeve. Am I not allowed to have them? ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-might-feel-no-slight-delight-if-i-heard-height-pronounced-right/379447/53 "2006-11-08T15:01:33Z")
[QUOTE=Miss Purl McKnittington] Groups of people pronounce things differently than other groups. [/QUOTE] And some are correct and some are incorrect. One has simply to look at the spelling of a word in order to figure out its pronoucination. There is no such word as nukular. Period. The one that drives me nuts is wal (rhymes with pal or gal). As in “I can’t come over right now, I’ll be over in a little wal.” My brother and sister say this. I don’t. Their kids don’t. Our parents don’t. So I have no idear where they got it from. ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-might-feel-no-slight-delight-if-i-heard-height-pronounced-right/379447/54 "2006-11-08T15:22:21Z")
[QUOTE=Miss Purl McKnittington] There is no correct or incorrect; there is only more acceptable for the situation. [/QUOTE] Wrong. That’s the argument made by people who are too ignorant to learn the correct pronunciation of the word. [QUOTE=Miss Purl McKnittington] Liberry? Nukular? Totally acceptable. [/QUOTE] Wrong again. [QUOTE=Miss Purl McKnittington] Language variation: it’s a thing of beauty. Deal. [/QUOTE] True, but it doesn’t make them right. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-might-feel-no-slight-delight-if-i-heard-height-pronounced-right/379447/55 "2006-11-08T15:42:45Z")
[QUOTE=McNew] Wrong. That’s the argument made by people who are too ignorant to learn the correct pronunciation of the word. [/QUOTE] Much in the same way that people who claim that the purpose of language is to communicate ideas and not to follow some arbitrary rules are usually the same people who tpye somethnigo thtayucant mk heds ortalesuv ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-might-feel-no-slight-delight-if-i-heard-height-pronounced-right/379447/56 "2006-11-08T17:09:27Z")
This is the zillionth “pronunciation” thread in which I have participated and I’m definitely on the side of those who believe in correct pronunciation. Yes I pronounce words correctly. (NOO-KLEE-AR, LIB **R** ARY, ESCAPE, etc). Would you trust a doctor’s skill when he tells you he is going to slice into your “cramiun”? Would you want your computer repaired by someone who talks about “capacitators”? Then again, now that I think about it, this entire board (including myself) is snobby and snooty. Why is “Internet speak” frowned upon here? Y can’t we talk 2 each other in a style that seems 2 B very popular 4 other message boards? It would be gr8 2 B able 2 do that. B4 people get upset with Internet §p3@k, remember there R others that use it and why R we so arbitray in thinking R judgment is the only correct 1? ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-might-feel-no-slight-delight-if-i-heard-height-pronounced-right/379447/57 "2006-11-08T17:42:11Z")
[QUOTE=wolf\_meister] This is the zillionth “pronunciation” thread in which I have participated and I’m definitely on the side of those who believe in correct pronunciation. Yes I pronounce words correctly. (NOO-KLEE-AR, LIB **R** ARY, ESCAPE, etc). [/QUOTE] So is ‘nyoo-klee-ar’ incorrect, too? ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-might-feel-no-slight-delight-if-i-heard-height-pronounced-right/379447/58 "2006-11-08T17:53:19Z")
**GorillaMan** - oh no, ‘nyoo-klee-ar’ is perfectly acceptable too. The important thing is that it keeps the letters in their proper order. As a matter of fact, that pronunciation appeals to my snooty, stuck-up mentality. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Amok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f17d59/32.png) [@Amok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amok)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-might-feel-no-slight-delight-if-i-heard-height-pronounced-right/379447/59 "2006-11-08T19:38:06Z")
I hate people who don’t pronouce the ‘k’ in ‘knife’ or the ‘b’ at the end of ‘comb’. Those aren’t invisible letters, people, you can’t just gloss over them! And don’t get me started on ‘colonel’ and ‘wednesday’. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-might-feel-no-slight-delight-if-i-heard-height-pronounced-right/379447/60 "2006-11-08T22:06:55Z")
“Knife” is to be pronounced kuh-NEE-fay. It may not be correcter, but it’s gooder! 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-might-feel-no-slight-delight-if-i-heard-height-pronounced-right/379447.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-might-feel-no-slight-delight-if-i-heard-height-pronounced-right/379447.md?page=4)