We all know of people who frequently mispronounce particular words. President Bush is infamous for “nukular” instead of nuclear; my dad says “mute” point rather than moot point; some people “aks” me questions; etcetera.
We all do this once in a while on accident. But what words do you mispronounce intentionally? Whether it’s to be ironical, or to drive a friend or family member crazy, or just because you’re too lazy to do it correctly.
Why do I ask, you ask? Well, I’m doing it in honor of my new username, Fox Paws, a play on “faux pas.” I also like to mangle oars d’vors (hors d’oeuvres) and chipottle (chipotle, correctly pronounced as “chee-pote-lay”). In fact, I like to mispronunciate (sic) several Spanish words in honor of my father, who is famous for mutilating that language.
What words and phrases do you intentionally garble, and why? Any funny stories associated with your intentionally mispronunciations?
I do this all the time with French words (“faux pas” rhymes with “hawks pass”)—I figure, if they didn’t want them to be pronounced that way, they shouldn’t have spelled them that way.
Any classical music fans here familiar with the Czech composer Smegma, or the old German conductor Fartwiggler?
My ex-husband always did the hors-de-vors (hors d’oeuvres) thing, too.
I ask my SO to bring me a fudgicle (rather than fudgsicle, and I’m still not sure about the spelling) from the freezer, but that’s because I saw it on an episode of “Laverne & Shirley” when I was about 8 and thought it was hilarious. Somehow, the pronunciation stuck with me.
I always pronounce hors d’oeuvres as “horse doovers.” I’ve also been known to say “viola” instead of “voila,” and frequently come up with “absotively, posolutely.”
[ul]
[li]Pasketti (a Fox Vixen favorite)[/li][li]Hypotheoretically[/li][li]Underbrella (my sister used to say this, and it has stuck within our family)[/li][li]Loaf Meat[/li][/ul]
I pronounce “probably” like “probaly” or “prolly” in casual conversation. It’s such a nasty word to pronounce. The correct version I only use when necessary, or when I’m writing/typing, of course.
I often pronounce milk as myuk. Something i picked up from my grandfather, who was born and raised deep in the Smokey Mountains. Althea absolutely hates it when I do this, as the pronunciation drives her crazy.
Of course, courtesy of my grandfather (or Pappy, as I knew him), I also tend to ‘reckon’ and ‘figure’ a lot. That and a southern accent that grows exponentially worse as I drink tends to make me the subject of a lot of jokes up in the land of cheese.
I like to call them shit-take mushrooms. I call my local IGA “igga”.
With one of my friends, the conversation often includes words like “liberry” and “edumacation”. We think it’s amusing. People who overhear us think we’re nuts.
A typo once produced the word “Congrtas”, and now I say it like that sometimes, with people who are in on the joke. Has to be delivered forcefully, in a low manly voice, preferably with an accent like a Russian general or something, for it to have its full effect.
I’ll also put emphasis on the wrong syllable a lot, just to be weird. Especially with people’s names.
My family pretty consistently mispronounces the following when talking amongst themselves (family reunions, etc.) but we say them correctly if talking to someone else (that I’ve observed anyway). Filet Mignon (fill-ET MIG-non), hors d’oeuvres (whores doovers), Pina Colada (Penis Colossus- really just Uncle Dan while he’s drunk on this one), lobster (la-bob-ster)… it’s becoming pretty obvious my family goes out to resaurants when we’re all together, isn’t it?
Not quite on topic, but I have a cousin whose personal term for Crown Royal whiskey and Coca-Cola (I.E Crown’n’Coke) is “RC Cola”. Incidentally, Crown Royal and Royal Crown is one of the more foul mixed drinks and an abuse of whiskey… pretty obvious my family drinks at these restaurants, to, eh?
Despite claims that it’s incorrect, I will continue to pronounce “often” with a hard T (Oft-en) until I die… even if some linguist/pedant finds it offen-sive. I also contract “I imagine” into I’magine… both writing and speaking.
My favorite word to mis-pronounce is “crouton.” I pronounce it “crau-ton” with emphasis on the second syllable. It’s from the episode of “The Cosby Show” when Dr. Huxtable takes Rudy and her little friends to a fancy restaurant.
I’ve been taking my students to pick apples every fall for the past three years. It has been recently brought to my attention that I have a tendency to say “apple orchid” instead of “apple orchard.” Hoo-boy.
