Is she from eastern Ontario? That pronunciation of tiger (as tagger) is quite common here in the Ottawa valley. Bank also becomes something like “boink” for some unknown reason.
I’ve pronounced Linux with the vowel sounds like sinus for as long as I’ve known the word. I’m not going to change.
It can be that people who pronounce certain words differently from the great majority of the population, do so because of being taught “in tender years” that the pronunciation which they were taught, was correct – regardless of how most people happened to say it.
I’m British: have a friend, of my own age (mid-60s) and own nationality, who happened to spend his adolescence at a grammar school (approx. equivalent to high school); which was for the time (first half of 1960s) unusually, harshly authoritarian about all things. He was also, I feel, an unusually accepting and biddable kid, re what he was taught. It seems that re the English language, my friend’s teachers at this school had a strange notion that English pronunciation vis-a-vis spelling, was much more regularly phonetic, than in real life – in Britain, America, anywhere where English is spoken – truly happens. He pronounces the day-of-the-week mentioned above, “Wed-nes-day”, because that’s how it is spelt – irrespective of almost everyone in the English-speaking world’s calling it “Wends-day” or “Wens-day” (two syllables).
He pronounces many words in a way which would strike most English-speakers, as strange – for his weird teachers and thus for him, " ‘phonetic’, rules: if the great majority agree on pronouncing non-phonetically otherwise, then they’re wrong" – and he will vehemently defend this position.
The ultimate on this, re my friend: the chief ferry port between the islands of Great Britain, and Ireland – the one on the Great Britain side – is called Holyhead. Now, and for centuries past, English-speakers in these islands have universally pronounced the place, “Holly-head”. Perhaps illogically / irrationally / inconsistently, pronunciation-vis-a-vis spelling; but in English re this matter, so much the worse for logic / rationality / consistency.
Except for my (truly) dear friend. He insists on pronouncing the port’s name as “Hoaly-head” (first two syllables as in “holy” = sacred, godly, etc.) – stictly following spelling. I took him to task about this, a couple of years ago: “Virtually everyone in Britain, except for you and those guys who taught you at school, assuming any of them are still alive, pronounces the place, ‘Holly-head’. Are you telling me that in this, everyone else in Britain is wrong, and only you and your teachers – if any survive – are right?”
With the utmost seriousness, he replied, “yes”. I’ve dropped therefrom, getting into any confrontation with my friend, re pronunciation. IMO people of goodwill can be allowed to be batshit insane about at least a couple of, in themselves, harmless issues…
FWIW I pronounce it “Weddensday” and that seems a common enough pronunciation hereabouts.
One day in basic training there was this guy from Oklahoma who argued, quite vehemently, that PEN and PIN are pronounced the same way. Frothing at the mouth and actually turning purple, he declared that The Dictionary was on his side, and informed me I would be wise to make use of it. Coincidentally, this was the same day I decided that I don’t like anyone from Oklahoma, which has proven true thus far.
I knew a local family whose members pronunced “bag” as “beg.” Never heard anyone else pronounce it that way.
IANALinguist, but it seems to be an upper Midwest thing. Or at least the people I know are all Minnesotans, save one childhood friend.
I have a friend who insists on pronouncing “military” with four distinct syllables, rhyming the end with “berry”.
I know that’s normal in the US, but that’s not the standard pronunciation in the UK; we use three syllables: approximately “mil-i-tree”. I don’t think it’s American influence so much as an assumption that everyone pronouncing it the standard way is just being lazy.
For some reason, almost everyone at the CBC (national radio/TV service here in Canada) pronounces “schedule” as “shedule,” even though AFAIK most Canadians pronounce it “skedule.” I know both ways of saying it are correct, but it seems odd to me that CBC people would use a pronunciation different than what most Canadians use.
People in S. Indiana do that too, to the point that when they mean “pen,” they specify “ink pen.” When I first got here, I couldn’t figure out why everyone bothered with what I considered a redundancy.
My biggest pronunciation faux pas was when I misheard someone relating a story of the time her house “was on fire,” as her house “wasn’t far.” I didn’t react with any kind of shock, confirming in the mind of the speaker the callousness of New Yorkers; even once we got it straightened out, she thought I was kind of a shmuck, I think, just for not understanding something so serious, or something like that.
Eminem seems to pronounce “pen” as “pin”, but possibly that’s just for rhyming purposes.
They do the same for finance.
We all say figh-nance (rhymes with I dance); but no they have to say fih-nance (rhymes with le dance).
Stoopid broadcasters.
Oh, another one: harassed. EVERYONE says harASSED, but no, they have to say HARassed.
ETA: I guess they teach all this in broadcasting schools, because it’s pervasive.
So it’s a kind of Siege Perilous?
If we’re doing co-worker peeves, my two are “expresso” and “chipoltay” (chipotle, either the pepper or the burrito chain)
Oh, and my Indianian friend that can’t be broken of his habit of pronouncing my home state as Wess-consin.
I spent a few years trying to correct them, then just gave up.
A friend of mine from high school, honor roll student, was a big fan of Elvis. She when she would talk about Elvis Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, she’d say “colonel” phonetically. You’d think being such a fan she’d hear others say it correctly, but she never caught it. I tried to correct her once in the subtlest way possible, but it went over her head. Plus I really don’t know why it’s pronounced one way and spelled another.
Also, another acquaintance in her 50’ still say “brang”. First time I heard it I said, "You meant “brought?” She just rolled her eyes and smirked, waved her hand in a “whatever” motion.
People from Indiana aren’t called “Indianians”; they’re called “Hoosiers.” No one seems to know why, but that’s the word for people from the state. I’m originally a New Yorker, but I’ve spent probably half my life, and maybe more, on and off, in Indiana. I went to high school and college here, and now I’ve been here since 2003. Plus, I was here for a few years in the late 1990s.
Your Hoosier friend is probably not really saying “Wess-consin.” The first vowel is that generic vowel that is in between a short E and a short I, that people in S. Indiana use for “pin” and “pen,” requiring them to specify “ink pen.”
On the subject of Hoosiers, a lot of them think the religious denomination is “Babtist,” and they not only say it, but spell it that way. If you show them the correct spelling in a dictionary, a few of them continue to argue, because they’ve said it that way all their lives. Most are just shocked. When I point out that it comes from the word “baptist” in the bible, well, that just never occurred to them (or, they haven’t read the bible, and don’t want to admit it).
Oohh “bring and take” is a HUGE issue for me. I don’t know why.
The distinction is subtle: you bring something towards you; you take something away from you,
I’ll take that to the office. Correct
Can you take me the report? Obviously incorrect
I’ll bring it to the office. Bzzzzzz Not Correct.
Can you bring me the report? Correct.
Bugs me, it does.
My mother-in-law is Ginni, but she cannot hear the difference between that and Jenny. When someone asks her name she says “Ginni” and they say “spelled J E N N Y?” she’ll say “no, spelled G I N N I.” Then they say “oh! Ginni” and she says “yes, Jenny.” So this is the exact same pin/pen thing.
It looks like I over-generalised (in England in my experience, it’s virtually always “Wends-day” or “Wens-day”). I think I get excessively and unreasonably annoyed at my friend’s oddities of pronunciation, and tempted to thoughts along lines of “nobody else could possibly say things the way he does…”
I’m English, lifelong UK resident; and I pronounce the word in four syllables – rhyming the end more like with “curry”(using the sort of all-purpose “weak” non-vowel). I have the impression that most people I know, pronounce it that way.
A similar widespread British English cutting-out of a syllable (from laziness, or whatever it might be?), is pronouncing “police” as “pleece”. My dogmatic “pronounce as spelt” friend, described above, always says “pleece” – thus seemingly breaking his own rule. I feel disinclined to bother with querying this with him; he always has some reason ready to hand, for why his way is totally and undisputably right.