When I was in Delaware it was wood-er, as opposed to wah-ter. It was all quite strange, but I resisted the urge to grab their mouths with one hand, forcing them to make a nice wide “O” with their mouths, and repeat “wah wah wah ter ter ter” over and over again. 
But surely we have to allow for regional differences. I’ve heard some things in Texas that would make your skin crawl…
I hear “heighth” quite a bit. I think people think it’s more correct. You know, length, width, heighth… :rolleyes:
Some other Balti-moron ones you forgot:
Awl. As in, "I have to change the "awl’ in my car every 3,000 miles.
Warsh. What you do to the dishes when they’re dirty.
Zink. That place where you warsh the dishes. With wooh-der.
basketti instead of spaghetti
The ol’ cross between frustrated and flustered (Flustrated). God, I HATE that one.
I have a friend who calls sequins “Sequences.” I swear t’ gawd.
And another one who calls them “seecrins.”
Oh, well, if we’re going to get into Bawlmerese, that’s a whole udder langwich. I remember when the SciFi channel started showing Farscape, I thought, “Ah gots one o’ doase otsode mah winner, in case dere’s a far!”
“physical” year when they mean “fiscal” year.
Note to self: Avoid Baltimore.
Being in real estate, I cringe when I hear “real-a-tor.” Some people even spell it that way. It’s REAL-TOR. Two syllables.
I always say “pacific” instead of “specific.” I cannot say “specific.” That is one impossible to pronounce word.
Oh, c’mon, Dung Beetle, it isn’t that bad. Come visit. We can go ‘downey oshin’ and get crabs.
Only JuanitaTech and Eve know what I’m talking about.
Am I being whooshed here? Who the heck says “veh-jan”?
Hey hey, I know too, and don’t want to give up a chance for crabs. Make sure you drop me a line, hon. I’ll bring the Natty Boh.
Incidentally, check out Mary Prankster for some good Bawmer tongue-in-cheek fun.
Either I haven’t heard anyone say awl or I did but had no clue what they were saying.
Dung Beetle, you don’t have to avoid Baltimore. Just don’t talk to anyone when you visit. It’s what I do!
Downey Oshin - band name!
I’ll come up and give y’all a dose of my Southern drawl!
No one except me, dammit, but they should.
Eve, your issue is not with the speakers but with the word itself. G always has the hard sound when followed by A. You want the word to be “vegen.”
“Lie-berry” drives me crazy too. I was a Library Technology major at one point and one of my fellow classmates used to say it this way. ::cringe:: Of course she was also the usual “really annoying person” that there seems to be in every class, so she was always talking.
um, excuse me, hon? I’ll have you know I spent my formative years in Parkville, with weekly visits to my grandmother in East Balmer, not only helping her rench out the zink after she warshed the dishes, but I helped her scrub her marble steps…
But I don’t have the accent. I can’t even do the Balmer “o” when I try.
As to the topic, heighth gets me screaming at the TV or radio every time. And one I only heard one person say - a former boss pronounced the second month as “febby-airy”
Eve! I say veh-jan too! Saying “veeeeee-gan” makes me think they’re talking about some being from a planet orbiting the star Vega.
Warsh… where the hell is the R coming from?
Pellow… it has an I in it. PILL-ow.
Jewelry and jewellery are both correct.
The mispronunciation that drives me mad is LAIR-nix for larynx. PHAIR-nix for pharynx. I’ve had laryngitis and had a doctor say, “You have laryngitis, an inflammation of your LAIR-nix.” GAH!
Not that I’m guilty of it, but I can almost reason it out. The original “ah” sound is not very far at all from “ar.” It’s really the same vocalization, just with an extra little restricting the back of the throat at the very end.
Similarly, Monday can become Mondee by not stretching the mouth enough to get the proper vowel. Feels like water turns to wooder in much the same way.
True Baltimorons (my dad’s entire family foremost among them :p) are just lazy speakers, I guess.