People who insist on mispronouncing words

[mage-girl]

I say “koo-bicle” instead of “cubicle”.

I also sometimes will say I’m “furry-ous” rather than “furious”.

I don’t know how either of those started, and I don’t know how to stop doing it!

I pronounce some other words funny, mainly because I learned them first by reading.

(I have no excuse; I’m a native english speaker.)

[jabiru]

@staili

Having never heard the word pronounced my entire life until recently, I always thought the capital of Australia was pronounced can-BEH-ruh. Then I met someone from Australia, who said he was from “the capital, CAN-bra.” To which, I thought to myself, “But, that’s not the capital, the capital is. . .(long pause). . . oh.”

By the way, is it “CAN-bra” or “CAN-buh-ruh”? It sounded more like he pronounced it as 2 syllables rather than 3, but Merriam-Webster online gives a 3-syllable version…

CAN-bra but the people (if you can call them that) who live there are can-BEH-rans.

[Acsenray]

@vontsira

Thanks ! “Chowki” is the one which had always puzzled me, till now – had no idea what it meant. /

Here are some other words from that Lear poem —

Chaprasi — messenger
Ayah — wetnurse
Mussak — waterskin
Nala — open sewer
Ghoriwallah — horsekeeper (horses lent out for weddings, etcetera.)
Bhisti — water-bearer (presumably, he’d make use of a mussak)
Jampan — sedan chair
Nimak — salt
Kamarband — sash (literally, waist-binding)

[vontsira]

@Acsenray

Here are some other words from that Lear poem —

Chaprasi — messenger
Ayah — wetnurse
Mussak — waterskin
Nala — open sewer
Ghoriwallah — horsekeeper (horses lent out for weddings, etcetera.)
Bhisti — water-bearer (presumably, he’d make use of a mussak)
Jampan — sedan chair
Nimak — salt
Kamarband — sash (literally, waist-binding)

And bhisti (to the regiment) was of course the job of Kipling’s famous Gunga Din.

[Acsenray]

@vontsira

And bhisti (to the regiment) was of course the job of Kipling’s famous Gunga Din.

And “Gunga Din” literally means “give (me) Ganges.”