# Pronunciation of 'malady' **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 22, 2006, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-malady/381446 "2006-11-22T18:11:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![A.R.Cane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee7513/32.png) [@A.R.Cane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A.R.Cane)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2006, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-malady/381446/21 "2006-11-22T19:48:39Z")
[QUOTE=FatBaldGuy] Did you check the link in the OP? [/QUOTE] Missed that one. :o ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2006, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-malady/381446/22 "2006-11-22T19:55:53Z")
[QUOTE=Jess] my daughter came home from college feeling that we are MUCH stupider than she is. [/QUOTE] Don’t worry - it can take a while, but most people manage eventually to recover from this malady. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2006, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-malady/381446/23 "2006-11-22T20:37:01Z")
[QUOTE=Sage Rat] Hmm… I’m going to propose an alternate hypothesis. The word that the Professor said was, “m’lady” which is pronounced muh-lay-dee (and perhaps he pronounced it funny, with a british accent or such.) Then, your daughter somewhere didn’t pick up on that he meant “my lady” not “malady” and is slightly misdoing his pronunciation of the former. No idea. [/QUOTE] Beaten to it. I was about to say it’s obvious… _The Female… M’lady_! :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2006, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-malady/381446/24 "2006-11-22T21:18:11Z")
Is it possible your professor is Butterfly McQueen? “‘Mu-_law_-dee, Miz’ Scarlett, Ah don’ know nuthin’ ‘bout birthin’ no babies!” ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2006, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-malady/381446/25 "2006-11-22T21:36:07Z")
[QUOTE=BwanaBob] Rock-star Ian Anderson (of Jethro Tull) used to have large real estate holdings on the Island of Skye in Scotland. One night out on tour,he got into a conversation about Scotland with someone at bar or restaurant. (paraphrased converstaion goes:) Man: Isle of Skye is beautiful, we went all over, climbed Mt. Blaven (saying BLAY-vin). Anderson: Wonderful, but you may not have realized it’s pronounced BLAH-vin. Man: Oh, are you familiar with it? Anderson: Actually, I own it. [/QUOTE] That’s beautiful. 😃 Silly man (and it’s not even called “ **Mount** ” Blaven, cos that would be a a bit tautologous, its Gaelic name being Bla Bheinn, with the “Bheinn” bit meaning mountain. Tee hee hee. Goo old Ian Anderson. As for the O.P, **Jess** , like everyone else apart from the plonker porfessor, I pronounce it as you do. Your daughter will recover soon, I’m sure. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2006, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-malady/381446/26 "2006-11-22T21:44:22Z")
[QUOTE=Jess] So my daughter is home this week. I’m noticing that, in contrast to my son who came home from the Navy feeling that his dad and I were smarter than he had thought we were before he left, my daughter came home from college feeling that we are MUCH stupider than she is. Anyway, she wanted me to check on the status of a book she had ordered for one of her classes – The Female Malady by Elaine Showalter. I pronounced ‘malady’ in the title as I have always [done](http://www.webster.com/dictionary/malady), and was rather condescendingly corrected. Apparently, the _correct_ pronunciation is ‘mu-law-dee.’ I argued a bit, but was told that ‘mu-law-dee’ is how Doe’s professor pronounces it, her professor being, of course, an _educated_ person unlike dumb old me. Now, the only pronunciation I’ve been able to find – in my own dictionaries or online – is the silly, uneducated one I’ve always used. Has any one else heard an alternate pronunciation? [/QUOTE] **WAG** It’s mel-o-dee as in “A Lilting Mel-O-Dee” The Larned Perffesser like you dear daughter is full-o-bull! mal‧a‧dy  /ˈmælədi/Spelled Pronunciation[mal-uh-dee] Stick with the dictionary, not a stuffed shi(r)t. ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2006, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-malady/381446/27 "2006-11-22T21:48:19Z")
[QUOTE=pulykamell] It’s been years since I’ve taken French, but I’m pretty sure no French person says “muh-LAW-dee” (I’m assuming that’s where the accent is falling in this pronunciation). [/QUOTE] I’m a francophone, and you are correct, this is absolutely not how I would pronounce it. (Maybe there are francophones somewhere who would, though, but I think not.) The English word “malady” I would naturally pronounce “MAH-luh-dee”, while the French word “maladie” I pronounce somewhat similarly to “ma-la-d[sub]z[/sub]ee”. (I find it hard to write French pronounciation using English phonetics. The syllable ‘ma’ is similar to the syllable ‘MAH’ in the English word, except unaccented and without the aspiration (‘H’) sound that follows.) ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2006, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-malady/381446/28 "2006-11-22T22:30:37Z")
I have only ever heard it pronounced the way your link pronounces it. ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2006, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-malady/381446/29 "2006-11-22T22:35:16Z")
[Relavent cartoon](http://www.xkcd.com/c148.html) (work safe) ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-malady/381446/30 "2006-11-23T00:38:08Z")
[QUOTE=Jess] …my daughter came home from college feeling that we are MUCH stupider than she is. [/QUOTE] I believe you meant to say “much more stupiderest”. Oh, and correct way to say the word is “pronunskiation”. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-malady/381446/31 "2006-11-23T00:50:23Z")
As severus mentioned, it’s pronounced almost exactly the same way in French (with a bit of a ‘dz’ sound in most of Quebec) as it is in English. ---
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-malady/381446/32 "2006-11-23T01:50:25Z")
Isn’t there a “vocal” dictionary somewhere on the internet where one could type in a word and hear it pronounced? If not, why not? ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-malady/381446/33 "2006-11-23T05:26:33Z")
[QUOTE=Mangosteen] Isn’t there a “vocal” dictionary somewhere on the internet where one could type in a word and hear it pronounced? [/QUOTE] Took me a while, but I came up with this: [http://www.webster.com/dictionary/malady](http://www.webster.com/dictionary/malady) ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-malady/381446/34 "2006-11-23T17:26:19Z")
[QUOTE=Nanoda] Took me a while, but I came up with this: [http://www.webster.com/dictionary/malady](http://www.webster.com/dictionary/malady) [/QUOTE] 😛 ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-malady/381446/35 "2006-11-23T17:43:46Z")
[QUOTE=lissener] I was in a Thai restaurant in New York. My friend ordered a Tsingha. The waitress brought him a Tsing Tao. He said, “I’m sorry, I wanted a Tsingha.” The waitress said, “You mispronounced it,” and walked away. Leaving the Tsing Tao on the table. [/QUOTE] I’m almost on the waitress’s side, since the beer is [Singha](http://www.singhabeer.com/). Putting a deliberate “ts” sound on the front of the word would no doubt make her think “tsing [whatever]” rather than “Singha”. She should still have changed it, mind. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-malady/381446.md?page=1)