# Pronunciations that make your skin crawl **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 25, 2007, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430 "2007-03-25T16:16:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/101 "2007-03-27T11:22:20Z")
[QUOTE=Secret Volcano Lair] Forgot to add: “Rill”/“Rilly” (real/really) “Fill” (feel), etc. [/QUOTE] I’ve been hearing some newscasters do this in the past few years. I have no idea why, but it’s damn annoying. And by the way, February has no silent letters; it’s pronounced just as it’s spelled. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/102 "2007-03-27T11:55:40Z")
Forgot one: Chevrolet (Shev-row-lay) pronounced as Shiv-a-lay. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/103 "2007-03-27T12:23:37Z")
[QUOTE=fachverwirrt] No, no, no. My aunt (awnt) is my mother’s sister. An ant is something you step on when you find it in the kitchen. Looked at another way, you’ve got _daunt, guant, flaunt, haunt, and taunt_, then _aunt_ is suddenly “ant”? (Incidentally, our kids are going to be terribly confused, as my sister categorically refuses to be called “ant”, and my sister-in-law will not allow “awnt”. So they’ll have one of each.) [/QUOTE] By that logic, _frog_, _cog_, _log_, _hog_, _bog_ should all be said with the same vowel, where suddenly _dog_ comes in with another? Well, where I live that’s exactly how it works. _Dog_ is more like _dawg_. On this topic, I have a friend who was annoyed by the very sequence of sound-alikes being held up as the reason _dog_ should be pronounced with that same vowel. So he changed the way he pronounced all the others so it became frawg, cawg, lawg, hawg (which is really not all that uncommon here), etc. If you really insist on the logic to the “aunt” sequence, try cough, bough, slough, rough, through, and tell me which is the preferred model. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/104 "2007-03-27T12:26:55Z")
Even Frank Sinatra, whose diction and pronunciation were close to exemplars for other singers to emulate, said _strinth_ with no _g_ for _strength_. It’s grating to hear otherwise convincing speakers say strinth, linth, and even heighth. ---
**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 27, 2007, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/105 "2007-03-27T12:31:58Z")
[QUOTE=Zeldar] By that logic, _frog_, _cog_, _log_, _hog_, _bog_ should all be said with the same vowel, where suddenly _dog_ comes in with another? Well, where I live that’s exactly how it works. _Dog_ is more like _dawg_. [/QUOTE] What? Frog, cog, log, hog etc.. are pronounced just like dog. Dawg to me sounds like a specific type of some kind of southern hunting hound. And it is absolutely awnt. Bangor. It’s really pronounced more like BANG-gore. Just barely hit the hard g. The one that really make me flip is “heidth” like length and width. A lot of over-educated carpenters use that one. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/106 "2007-03-27T12:45:55Z")
Jew-ry, joo-la-ree, and jag-wire are my top peeves, but a couple I don’t think have been mentioned: I have a co-worker (originally from New York, I believe) who says “sore” for “saw”, and “pawr” for “paw”. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/107 "2007-03-27T12:51:11Z")
A couple that used to bug me big time, but which I have since gotten over, involve the -ture ending and the word _area_. Both spring from my parents’ pronunciations that I learned later were what seemed to be non-standard. The -ture thing is in words like furniture, temperature, amateur, portraiture, etc. Oddly enough, nature and picture and many other two-syllable -ture words were not problem: it was -cher without an issue. But add a syllable and they became -toor like fur-ni-toor, and timp-ra-toor. And there’s even the Toor-na-ment vs. Turn-a-ment issue. As I say, I have gotten to the point where I don’t wince over these variations, and can keep smiling when I hear the versions I don’t prefer. The AREA thing was a real issue with me for several years. Depending on how much further south and how much further from the city one gets, area quits being err-i-uh and starts morphing into AY-ri-uh, AY-ri-er, AY-ruh, and other fanciful things. For a while in the early 70’s _area_ was the only word to use for region, section, vicinity, location, office, apartment, house, neighborhood, state, county, anything that involved a non-specific place, etc. And it had to be pronounced AY-something. It was a running joke. The startling thing was when I consulted a 1930’s version of Webster’s Collegiate, the **only** pronunciation given was AY-ree-uh. So I realized that between those days and the “now” of the 70’s things had changed and I could quit mocking my parents and everybody in their AREA and learn to accept that it was once the standard. Shit happens. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/108 "2007-03-27T12:51:31Z")
[QUOTE=Zeldar] By that logic, _frog_, _cog_, _log_, _hog_, _bog_ should all be said with the same vowel, where suddenly _dog_ comes in with another? Well, where I live that’s exactly how it works. _Dog_ is more like _dawg_. On this topic, I have a friend who was annoyed by the very sequence of sound-alikes being held up as the reason _dog_ should be pronounced with that same vowel. So he changed the way he pronounced all the others so it became frawg, cawg, lawg, hawg (which is really not all that uncommon here), etc. If you really insist on the logic to the “aunt” sequence, try cough, bough, slough, rough, through, and tell me which is the preferred model. 😉 [/QUOTE] The point is that _daunt, flaunt haunt…_ are all pronounced identically, with _aunt_ being the sole distinction (unless you pronounce it (ahem) correctly). The “ough” sequence are all different. And I’ve never heard _dog_ fail to rhyme with _frog_. I would use the same argument. The real point, of course, is why would you want to equate your uncle’s wife to a bug? ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/109 "2007-03-27T12:53:08Z")
[QUOTE=fachverwirrt] The real point, of course, is why would you want to equate your uncle’s wife to a bug? [/QUOTE] Have you seen my uncle’s wife? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/110 "2007-03-27T13:00:58Z")
Northerners who complain about the southern “long A” like in bath, path, last, fast and mast - all of which, when spoken by Southerners, sound to them like there was an r after the A, though there isn’t, and I claim to be able to pronounce the difference - must really, really struggle to get past the second word of the Lord’s Prayer. (And something I should have mentioned in the “3 pieces of trivia” thread is that every single spoken language on Earth has this vowel sound - thank you, Guinness Book of Records 1971 edition.) ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/111 "2007-03-27T13:22:32Z")
I hate it when people pronounce Oregon as “ore-eh-GONE” where the last syllable rhymes with “cone” or “loan” (it’s “or-e-gun”) and when people pronounce Nevada as “ne-VAH-da”. I realize that’s the correct Spanish pronounciation, but it’s incorrect nevertheless. I started a thread on this awhile ago, that’s how much this bugs me. Some of these criticisms sound funny depending on where you’re from. I’ve seen British Dopers accuse people who pronounce the first syllable of “pasta” as rhyming with “cost” of being pretentious, but it’s the normal pronounciation for Americans. If I said “pasta” rhyming the first syllable with “last”, people would look at me strangely. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/112 "2007-03-27T17:48:15Z")
OOh, another one that’s occurred to me: Arctic. It has a C in the middle of it, numbnutses. It’s not “Artic”. That’s an abbreivation for “Articulated lorry”. Also applies to Antarctic. Prolly. Some of the other objections above are things I and those around me say over here. > [@DMark](#): > > CHOCK-lut instead of CHALK-let candy bars Not only do I say the CHOCK, but I also say it “CHOCK-lit”. But then I am an Englishman and we do own the language. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Roland\_Orzabal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@Roland\_Orzabal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Orzabal)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/113 "2007-03-27T18:39:06Z")
I have no dawg in most of these fights, but color me confused about the complaints around the word “garage”. I suppose I can fathom a difference between “gar-RAZH” and “gar-AJ”, where the latter has a more clipped consonant at the end…but coming at the end of the word and immediately following an ‘R’, it’s going to come out as the former unless you deliberately bite the shit out of the final ‘G’. I highly doubt I could tell the difference between the two in casual conversation unless someone went out of his way to say an extended “gar-AAAZZZH” or an over-enunciated “gar-AJ!”. Is that what the complaint is about? The only other way I can imagine pronouncing it is “GAIR-age”, rhyming with “carriage”, but I’ve never once heard anyone say that, and I doubt I’d know what they were referring to if they did. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/114 "2007-03-27T18:46:14Z")
[QUOTE=Roland Orzabal] Is that what the complaint is about? The only other way I can imagine pronouncing it is “GAIR-age”, rhyming with “carriage”, but I’ve never once heard anyone say that, and I doubt I’d know what they were referring to if they did. [/QUOTE] Elton John says it in Levon. Er, that _is_ what he’s saying, right? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/115 "2007-03-27T18:58:44Z")
[QUOTE=Roland Orzabal] Is that what the complaint is about? The only other way I can imagine pronouncing it is “GAIR-age”, rhyming with “carriage”, but I’ve never once heard anyone say that, and I doubt I’d know what they were referring to if they did. [/QUOTE] That’s how most of the Brits I know pronounce it. I believe I’ve also heard “GAIR-ahzh.” In Chicago, it’s pronounced something like “grotch” as in “Hey, Stella, couldja grab me da grotchkey from da frunchroom”? (I am, of course, exaggerating slightly, but “grotch” does capture the clipped syllables of the word in a thick Chicago accent pretty well). ---
**Author:** ![Oy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bc8723/32.png) [@Oy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oy)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/116 "2007-03-27T19:22:52Z")
A lot of things mentioned here are pronunciations with which I was simply brought up - no pretension, just the way it was pronounced in my area. Gar-AZH, for example. Never heard it any other way until well into adulthood. Sorry if it annoys - the alternative sounds completely weird to me! Awnt(more like ‘ont’ around here)/ant is a toss-up for me - it was pronounced both ways in both my family and the community in which I was raised. Someone recently told me that ‘ont’ was highly characteristic of inner-city black speech around here, which was odd, as I originated about 25 miles from here in a largely WASP community. I haven’t verified this speech thing myself, as I’ve never happened to find myself in conversation about aunts with anyone black who wasn’t also of foreign origin, which of course isn’t the same. Come to think of it, anyone white either - I’m usually the one who mentions aunts if anyone does at all, as I used to visit mine regularly and would explain where I was going. It isn’t a topic that arises very often among people in their forties and fifties. But one I’ve heard in recent times, even among well-educated people sometimes, is Ek Cetera for Et Cetera. And one that was becoming big in Atlanta around the time I left that area (1987) was ‘suit’ for ‘suite.’ They’re just not right to my ears, and I cringe whenever I hear them. They’re not pretentious - the reverse, if anything, but they’re maddening to me nonetheless. ---
**Author:** ![Flipshod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f19dbf/32.png) [@Flipshod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flipshod)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/117 "2007-03-27T20:13:16Z")
Makes my skin crawl: Int-er-est-ed and Int-er-rest-ing (or worse, in-er-rest-ed and in-er-rest-ing). It is INT-trest-ed with 3 syllables. And INT-rest -ing with 3 syllables. And I hear these spoken by the well-educated, so I’ll probably lose out in the long run. (sigh) ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2007, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/118 "2007-03-28T05:19:09Z")
Along the lines of **Usram** ’s beef about wrongly chosen French vowels, it bothered me that half of the American actors in the recent Marie Antoinette movie pronounced dauphin as “do-faw,” over and over again. Even when some other character would pronounce it correctly. Various others: out of as “atta” - this is a NYC thing however as “high-ever” - a southern US thing film noir as “film no-wahr” whore as “hoo-uh” - CNN’s Larry King says this ---
**Author:** ![sneezy5660](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@sneezy5660](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sneezy5660)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2007, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/119 "2007-03-28T05:26:17Z")
Regarding the whole awnt, ant discussion, try this on for size: When I was growing up in West Texas, we said aint. Aint Betty, Aint Judy, etc. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2007, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430/120 "2007-03-28T05:34:02Z")
Another New Yorkism: a chest of DRAWS. And I’ve even seen it spelled that way. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-that-make-your-skin-crawl/397430.md?page=7)