# Pronunciacions that make you seethe with anger! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 27, 2008, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciacions-that-make-you-seethe-with-anger/442978 "2008-03-27T22:06:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciacions-that-make-you-seethe-with-anger/442978/81 "2008-03-28T04:31:39Z")
[QUOTE=kaylasdad99] As long as incorrectly-pronounced Spanish words have been invoked, I’d like to direct some ire at BBC newsreaders who seem to think that “junta” is actually a word in the English language, and is acceptably pronounced with a “dj”-type “j”, and a short “u” such that one might be able to say: _It’s funta runta a hunta and ask him to assassinate the junta._ It’s a _Spanish_ word, Mr. Frost; it is correctly pronounced “ **hoon** -tah”. Or, you could just give it up in favor of _cabal_. [/QUOTE] Aren’t the djuntas the ones who usually do the koop day tot? ---
**Author:** ![billyb0b](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ea924/32.png) [@billyb0b](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billyb0b)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciacions-that-make-you-seethe-with-anger/442978/82 "2008-03-28T04:54:40Z")
My wife says that she is going acsrossed the street. Usually to see if the hot water heater is working. ---
**Author:** ![Charger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df788c/32.png) [@Charger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charger)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciacions-that-make-you-seethe-with-anger/442978/83 "2008-03-28T05:14:13Z")
[QUOTE=lissener] Excape. [/QUOTE] My friend says that and, a few years ago, he bought a Ford Escape, driving everyone around him nuts! _Idiocracy_ makes good use of this when a jailbreak is announced with “Excape! Excape!” That same friend has had discussions with me about \*Smokey and the Bandint. \* Ugh! ---
**Author:** ![Quint](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/76d3ee/32.png) [@Quint](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quint)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciacions-that-make-you-seethe-with-anger/442978/84 "2008-03-28T05:15:33Z")
I formerly had a beef with “supposably”, but then decided to give people the benefit of the doubt. Now I just ask myself "could this person _possibly_ mean ‘is capable of being supposed, is conceivable’? Usually the answer is yes, so I’m happy. I can’t stop myself from saying “deemolition”. Bugs the crap outta one of my friends, but I just can’t stop. ---
**Author:** ![Crown\_Prince\_of\_Irony](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ed655f/32.png) [@Crown\_Prince\_of\_Irony](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crown_Prince_of_Irony)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciacions-that-make-you-seethe-with-anger/442978/85 "2008-03-28T05:41:52Z")
I worked with a guy years ago that not only insisted on calling faxes “facsimiles” but pronounced it “fash-im-il-ee” - as in a fascist fax. Doubly irritating. But much worse, I hear this regularly spoken by someone I work with, rather than et cetera: Eck-setra. Eck-fucking-setra. Eck-_ **motherfucking, corn-holing, teabagging** _-setra! Hearing this is like an icepick straight to the ear for me. And I hear it. All. The. Fucking. Time. And if another motherfucker says “irregardless” I’ll take 'em out at the kneecaps with a Swingline, **regardless** of how they feel about it. Holy hopscotching Buddha, I’m the least educated person (36, with 1 yr of college) in an office full of MBAs. Am I the only one who gets bugged by this shit? And after 7 years, shouldn’t I be able to tune it out? ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciacions-that-make-you-seethe-with-anger/442978/86 "2008-03-28T05:51:45Z")
[QUOTE=Indygrrl] This is kind of different, but my friend at work was using the word “gaudy” to describe her jewelry. I thought it was strange that she’d say that about her own stuff, but it turned out that she thought gaudy meant pretty. :smack: [/QUOTE] Similarly, I’ve heard “droll” used as a negative adjective to describe something that’s either not funny or distasteful. [QUOTE=AudreyK] “whoa is me” “it didn’t phase me” “it’s a mute point” “for all intensive purposes” “that greats on my nerves” “gimme a brake” and my favorite, “splitting hares” [/QUOTE] “Per say.” “Wa la!” ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciacions-that-make-you-seethe-with-anger/442978/87 "2008-03-28T07:02:34Z")
Maniacal as _mane eee akul_. Kill. ---
**Author:** ![Themenin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ee59a6/32.png) [@Themenin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Themenin)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciacions-that-make-you-seethe-with-anger/442978/88 "2008-03-28T08:57:18Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > Ooooh, yes, we have that here too. Even worse, if only because more commonly used, is Nachos pronounced as if it were the plural of nacho - “I’ll have some nachoes please”. Argh. I must be having a high density day, but surely **nachos** _is_ the plural of **nacho**? > [@neutron star](#): > > Similarly, I’ve heard “droll” used as a negative adjective to describe something that’s either not funny or distasteful. Isn’t this the standard usage of droll ? A kind of dry ‘damning with faint praise’ way of responding to weak jokes ? The usage that I find most vexatious is when people employ verbose and pompous locutions in an attempt to garner incremental kudos, and then screw it up. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciacions-that-make-you-seethe-with-anger/442978/89 "2008-03-28T09:26:02Z")
Tom-ay-to it upsets me to the point that I’m considering calling the whole thing off. ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciacions-that-make-you-seethe-with-anger/442978/90 "2008-03-28T09:45:27Z")
[QUOTE=Themenin] Isn’t this the standard usage of droll ? A kind of dry ‘damning with faint praise’ way of responding to weak jokes ? [/QUOTE] Eh? Not that I’m aware of. Merriam Webster says: > [@](#): > > having a humorous, whimsical, or odd quality [Dictionary.com](http://Dictionary.com) says: > [@](#): > > –adjective 1. amusing in an odd way; whimsically humorous; waggish. And: > [@](#): > > adjective > comical in an odd or whimsical manner; “a droll little man with a quiet tongue-in-cheek kind of humor” It’s also listed as a synonym for “funny” on [thesaurus.com](http://thesaurus.com). I have heard it used sarcastically on more than one occasion. That could be what you were thinking of, but the people I’m talking about have used it in a seriously derisive manner. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciacions-that-make-you-seethe-with-anger/442978/91 "2008-03-28T09:57:17Z")
[QUOTE=kaylasdad99] As long as incorrectly-pronounced Spanish words have been invoked, I’d like to direct some ire at BBC newsreaders who seem to think that “junta” is actually a word in the English language, and is acceptably pronounced with a “dj”-type “j”, and a short “u” such that one might be able to say: _It’s funta runta a hunta and ask him to assassinate the junta._ [/QUOTE] You’re completely incorrect. The word was borrowed into English in the 17th century and Anglicised then. If you’re pronouncing it in a Spanish manner, then you’re using a foreign word where an English word would do i.e. being pretentious. [Cite:](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/junta) > [@](#): > > —Pronunciation note When the word junta was borrowed into English from Spanish in the early 17th century, its pronunciation was thoroughly Anglicized to /ˈdʒʌntə/. The 20th century has seen the emergence and, especially in North America, the gradual predominance of the pronunciation /ˈhʊntə/[hoon-tuh], derived from Spanish /ˈhuntɑ/[hoon-tah] through reassociation with the word’s Spanish origins. A hybrid form /ˈhʌntə/[huhn-tuh] is also heard. So, the BBC have the pronunciation correct, whereas the Spanish pronunciation is a 20th century affectation. ---
**Author:** ![sandra\_nz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciacions-that-make-you-seethe-with-anger/442978/92 "2008-03-28T11:02:46Z")
[QUOTE=amarinth] I always thought “do” and “due” were homophones. How else do you say “due”? “expresso” [/QUOTE] I guess it depends on regional accents, I pronounce them thusly: “do” = doo “due” = jyoo For me, “due” and “dew” are homophones, but “do” is pronounced differently. ---
**Author:** ![RedFury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ec9cab/32.png) [@RedFury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedFury)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciacions-that-make-you-seethe-with-anger/442978/93 "2008-03-28T12:24:12Z")
Two whooshes in one post – **Indygrrl** and **Charger**. Not bad if I may say so myself. FTR, it is true that I really _couldn’t_ care less about this whole RO. ---
**Author:** ![Mellivora\_capensis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mellivora\_capensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mellivora_capensis)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciacions-that-make-you-seethe-with-anger/442978/94 "2008-03-28T13:13:46Z")
[QUOTE=RedFury] Two whooshes in one post – **Indygrrl** and **Charger**. Not bad if I may say so myself. FTR, it is true that I really _couldn’t_ care less about this whole RO. [/QUOTE] Hey, if it weren’t for the RO, someone would be pronouncing you RedFurree, instead of RedFeeuree. One’s roadkill, the other’s an angry commie. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciacions-that-make-you-seethe-with-anger/442978/95 "2008-03-28T13:24:00Z")
That ocean up north is the Ar **c** -tic. There’s a fucking c in the word. It’s not Ar-tic. Drives me up a tree. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciacions-that-make-you-seethe-with-anger/442978/96 "2008-03-28T13:27:31Z")
While I do have my own pet peeves, correctness is more a matter of hitting the proper rhetorical register than actually conforming to some rules as handed down by some omniscient authority. Language is actually quite flexible in terms of actual communication, but one ought to be aware of how certain ideolects are judged by others. **’Axe’ for ‘ask’** - Apparently, some people have more trouble than most pronouncing sounds in certain orders. I don’t have my textbooks with me, but this particular case is a well known phenomenon which in severe cases makes people transform ‘desk’ into ‘deks.’ Well, it sounds severe to me. I had a professor once named Garstka, which has a syllable cluster that apparently slavic speakers can handle with no trouble, but most english speakers unconsciously transformed into the a cluster easier on the english tongue: Gartska. There are probably other unconscious re-ordering phenomena, possibly explaining why so many people who have no trouble saying ‘Vietnam’ will also say ‘Vietmanese.’ **Foreign words and phrases** - How much foreign-ness does one bring over? None tends to sound ignorant, but you can quickly also sound pretentious, and everyone has their own axes to grind. Personally, I like ‘hunta,’ and if I’m feeling whimsical (and I often am) I’ll exagerate the roughness of the ‘h.’ **Nukular** - Sounds very ugly to me, and does come across as ignorant, sometimes willfully so. I read an article once that claimed that George W. Bush used to pronounce the word correctly, but adapted the incorrect pronunciation as he started running for public office in order to sound more folksy. **emPHAsis on the wrong syllAble** - Actually, I find it remarkable and useful that standards vary as little as they do. Generally, I can use my modern english ear to pick out the meter in Chaucer’s english. But differences in stress can lead to differences in pronunciation in modern english, as unaccented vowels tend to be reduced toward the schwa. This is why my students get affect and effect confused – the second syllable has the stress, so the first syllable gets reduced to ‘uh’ in both cases. **Spelling** - Although I’m not the world champion of spelling, I do think more orthodoxy is needed in the written language than in the spoken language. I advise my students that certain spelling errors are particularly telling: ‘lier’ for ‘liar’ or ‘biass’ for ‘biased’ as examples. These tell the reader that they’re dealing with someone who doesn’t actually do a lot of reading, otherwise they would know how these words should look in writing despite how they are pronounced. Fair or not, we make decisions about who is likely to have something intelligent to say based on such observations. **Word Play** - I suspect that some odd pronunciations have their origin in word play and somehow got concretized. I found it amusing for a while to say ‘accrumulate’ until I noticed one day that I was saying it unironically. Now suppose I’d had a child around who didn’t know the difference? They’d catch the meme without any ironic sense at all. I’m all for whimsy in language, but I have to remind myself to stop using a whimsical pronunciation before its whimsey has entirely died. Besides, recently I texted the word “idears” to my wife and now I’m worried that the phone learned the word, since I’ve noticed that if I enter the word ‘that’ followed by an appostrophe, the predictive texting now fills in “That’d be swell.” I suspect it learned that from me. ---
**Author:** ![RedFury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ec9cab/32.png) [@RedFury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedFury)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciacions-that-make-you-seethe-with-anger/442978/97 "2008-03-28T14:06:03Z")
[QUOTE=Mellivora capensis] Hey, if it weren’t for the RO, someone would be pronouncing you RedFurree, instead of RedFeeuree. One’s roadkill, the other’s an angry commie. 😃 [/QUOTE] Who cares? About two in ten Anglos get even close to pronouncing my given name properly – I hardly ever bother to correct them unless asked. But don’t you dare call me late for dinner! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciacions-that-make-you-seethe-with-anger/442978/98 "2008-03-28T14:21:10Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny Angel] **emPHAsis on the wrong syllAble** - Actually, I find it remarkable and useful that standards vary as little as they do. Generally, I can use my modern english ear to pick out the meter in Chaucer’s english. But differences in stress can lead to differences in pronunciation in modern english, as unaccented vowels tend to be reduced toward the schwa. This is why my students get affect and effect confused – the second syllable has the stress, so the first syllable gets reduced to ‘uh’ in both cases. [/QUOTE] Stress is as much a marker of accent as individual phonetic pronunciations. It’s (partly) how you can tell an American from a Brit with the word aluminum (plus the extra syllable the British seem to insist on adding as well 😃 ). ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciacions-that-make-you-seethe-with-anger/442978/99 "2008-03-28T14:26:16Z")
[QUOTE=shimmery] Since I know this a losing battle (please don’t let this spark a debate about popularity of a usage confers “correctness”), I try to aim for a sound that’s about halfway between “heer” and “hare.” I swear, I’m not usually a pedant! [/QUOTE] I don’t want to spark that debate, either, but your comment here reminded me of one that really already is a lost battle…the French word “forte,” which pretty much universally is pronounced “for-tay” by Americans, but is actually properly pronounced “fort” in French, as it does not have an accent over the E. (I didn’t know that until recently, when I read about it, looked it up, and found it was true. You’d think I would have figured it out sooner, having taken 5 years of French and having some rudimentary idea of how to pronounce it, but it never occured to me.) Anyway, if you tried to say it that way, you would certainly be considered to be pronouncing it incorrectly. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciacions-that-make-you-seethe-with-anger/442978/100 "2008-03-28T15:26:14Z")
[QUOTE=Vox Imperatoris] First of all, it sounds horrible, and second, it shows you have no conception of basic grammar. They’re Reese’s, the candies belonging to Reese, not REE-cies! I don’t know if it’s just done in the South (by idiots), but it needs to be eradicated anywhere it is found. [/QUOTE] The pronunciation I hear most often is “Ree-see cups,” without the _s_ at the end. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciacions-that-make-you-seethe-with-anger/442978.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciacions-that-make-you-seethe-with-anger/442978.md?page=6)