Pronunciation of 'malady'

[A.R.Cane]

@FatBaldGuy

Did you check the link in the OP?

Missed that one. :o

[Xema]

@Jess

my daughter came home from college feeling that we are MUCH stupider than she is.

Don’t worry - it can take a while, but most people manage eventually to recover from this malady.

[Colophon]

@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.

Beaten to it. I was about to say it’s obvious… The Female… M’lady! :dubious:

[Eve]

Is it possible your professor is Butterfly McQueen? “‘Mu-law-dee, Miz’ Scarlett, Ah don’ know nuthin’ ‘bout birthin’ no babies!”

[Celyn]

@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.

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.

[spingears]

@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, 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?

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.

[Hypnagogic_Jerk]

@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).

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.)

[Khadaji]

I have only ever heard it pronounced the way your link pronounces it.

[Kevbo]

Relavent cartoon (work safe)

[Chefguy]

@Jess

…my daughter came home from college feeling that we are MUCH stupider than she is.

I believe you meant to say “much more stupiderest”. Oh, and correct way to say the word is “pronunskiation”.

[Cat_Fight]

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.

[Mangosteen]

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?

[Nanoda]

@Mangosteen

Isn’t there a “vocal” dictionary somewhere on the internet where one could type in a word and hear it pronounced?

Took me a while, but I came up with this: http://www.webster.com/dictionary/malady

[Colophon]

@Nanoda

Took me a while, but I came up with this: http://www.webster.com/dictionary/malady

[jjimm]

@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.

I’m almost on the waitress’s side, since the beer is Singha. 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.