# I might feel no slight delight if I heard "height" pronounced right.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-might-feel-no-slight-delight-if-i-heard-height-pronounced-right/379447>\
**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:** 3\
**Page:** 6

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**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2006, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-might-feel-no-slight-delight-if-i-heard-height-pronounced-right/379447/101 "2006-11-11T13:40:38Z")

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[QUOTE=GorillaMan]  
You’re starting from the premise of ‘mispronunciation’, rather than coexisting pronunciations, or indeed coexisting synonyms with similar pronunciations or spellings.

[/QUOTE]  
They do not coexist until the first time the new one is used. My point is still valid.

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**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2006, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-might-feel-no-slight-delight-if-i-heard-height-pronounced-right/379447/102 "2006-11-11T13:43:46Z")

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[QUOTE=amarone]  
They do not coexist until the first time the new one is used.  
[/QUOTE]

Either you’re talking about a completely new pronunciation being invented (and are the only one talking about this), or you’re saying that the dialectical variant with the shorter history is the incorrect one. In which case, ‘height’ loses out to ‘heighth’.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2006, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-might-feel-no-slight-delight-if-i-heard-height-pronounced-right/379447/103 "2006-11-11T13:44:53Z")

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(Plus the condescending assumption that pronouncing a word in a different way indicates an inability to spell it.)

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