# Saying it wrong on porpoise **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 18, 2011, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saying-it-wrong-on-porpoise/593166 "2011-08-18T14:31:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saying-it-wrong-on-porpoise/593166/1 "2011-08-18T14:31:51Z")
(Yes, I stole the title; which will be seen.) There’s a commercial playing on NWCN, for an animal park. The commercial features a ‘country’-sounding guy singing about what you will see there, and he sings the word ‘animule’. I was going to ask the origin of that mispronunciation in GQ, but ‘GIYF’ and all that. I turned up [Saying It Wrong On Porpoise](http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/005524.html), which posted a summary of an article from _American Speech_ that had been sent to a mailing list. > [@](#): > > Margaret Reed (1932), “Intentional Mispronunciations”. _American Speech_ 7: 192-99. > > This covers what Reed took to be a fad among the “light-hearted youth” of Central Westerners (she’s writing from Nebraska) to circulate…well, intentional mispronunciations. (She’s following up on a paper by Louise Pound from 10 years earlier in Dialect Notes.) Her categories include everything from adding or subtracting syllables and restressing (antique as “an-tee-cue”, “champeen”, “the-'ater”), tensing lax vowels (“genu-wine”), borrowing of “vulgar” pronunciations (“agin”, “extry”, “who’d-a thunk it”, “varmint”), “Al Smith” English [a.k.a. Brooklynese, not a moniker Reed herself applies] (“boid”, “noives”, “toity-toid street”, “winegar woiks”), the “extremely annoying” affectation of children’s speech (“sojer”, “sword” [with /w/, as we’ve been discussing recently], “Injun”, “ax” for ‘ask’ [!-- she does add ‘also archaic’ for this], “itty bitty”), Yiddishisms (“epple”, “darlink”, “dun’t esk”), various other dialect borrowings (“enyhoo”, “pitcher” [for ‘picture’], “divil”), blends and folk etymological forms (“bumbershoot”, “brass-ear”, “animule”, “absotively”), misdivisions (“a tall”, “a norange”, but not “a whole nother”), spelling pronunciations (“k-nife”, “g-nat”, “X-mas”), and so on. She ends with the wistful hope that while “human nature” may be responsible for perpetuating this fad (or these fads–unclear how many causal factors are involved), “surely, in its fullest and most extreme form, the phenomenon is now passing its peak”. ‘Bumbershoot’ surprised me. I’d always assumed it was a Britishism, but [World Wide Words](http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-bum2.htm) says it is of American origin, and first appeared in print in 1896. ‘It seems to have been yet another of those gloriously facetious bits of wordplay so characteristic of America in the nineteenth century.’ (Incidentally, Seattle’s Music and Arts Festival, called [Bumbershoot](http://bumbershoot.org/), is starting in a couple of weeks.) ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saying-it-wrong-on-porpoise/593166/2 "2011-08-18T15:10:12Z")
Hmm…I wonder if they have the full text of that article available at the liberry. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saying-it-wrong-on-porpoise/593166/3 "2011-08-18T15:20:07Z")
I’ve never heard the word bumbershoot before: what a maroon. ---
**Author:** ![curious11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ac91a4/32.png) [@curious11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curious11)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saying-it-wrong-on-porpoise/593166/4 "2011-08-18T16:40:55Z")
I always say “supposably” just like Joey said it! ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saying-it-wrong-on-porpoise/593166/5 "2011-08-18T17:07:59Z")
My favorite is ‘‘no apparent raisin.’’ It’s from Futurama. ---
**Author:** ![Feyrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/fbc32d/32.png) [@Feyrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Feyrat)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saying-it-wrong-on-porpoise/593166/6 "2011-08-18T17:19:24Z")
> [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > My favorite is ‘‘no apparent raisin.’’ It’s from Futurama. Oh my gosh me too! My husband and I have a running gag where when one of us does something incomprehensible to the other, we sort of yell “FOR NO RAISIN!” and then laugh like loons. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saying-it-wrong-on-porpoise/593166/7 "2011-08-18T17:27:31Z")
We used to say we were “swave and do-bone-yer” to prove we were “classy” and spoke fluent French-like. We would say this while nibbling on horse do-vers. ---
**Author:** ![Dogzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saying-it-wrong-on-porpoise/593166/8 "2011-08-18T17:34:17Z")
I always say “liberry” just to piss off any librarians who happen to be nearby. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saying-it-wrong-on-porpoise/593166/9 "2011-08-18T17:45:28Z")
I’m cornfused. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saying-it-wrong-on-porpoise/593166/10 "2011-08-18T17:52:55Z")
> [@Feyrat](#): > > Oh my gosh me too! My husband and I have a running gag where when one of us does something incomprehensible to the other, we sort of yell “FOR NO RAISIN!” and then laugh like loons. I have to admit a lot of our conversations involve randomly shouting Futurama quotes while others look on in bewilderment. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saying-it-wrong-on-porpoise/593166/11 "2011-08-18T18:07:31Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > We would say this while nibbling on horse do-vers. Or whore’s ovaries, as dad would say. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saying-it-wrong-on-porpoise/593166/12 "2011-08-18T18:13:27Z")
My dad in his late 50’s does this all the time. He thinks it’s hilarious. Sometimes it is and sometimes it’s not. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saying-it-wrong-on-porpoise/593166/13 "2011-08-18T18:20:41Z")
Fillit Mig Non is a famous one. I don’t know where it came from, but I decided to now and forever pronounce Baked Potato as _Borked! Potato!_ around my house, preferably with an obnoxiously loud and exaggerated russian accent. You have to add a certain trill at the end of ‘Borked!’ to achieve maximum potential. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saying-it-wrong-on-porpoise/593166/14 "2011-08-18T18:23:49Z")
I also like to request a ‘sodie-pop’. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saying-it-wrong-on-porpoise/593166/15 "2011-08-18T18:30:45Z")
We use various combinations of swah-VAY and de-boner as the mood strikes. We also eat sketti and sammiches even though we have no kids. On mornings when the cloud banks hang low, or on very humid evenings, I am frequently heard to remark on how froggy it is outside. ---
**Author:** ![antonio107](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ea924/32.png) [@antonio107](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antonio107)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saying-it-wrong-on-porpoise/593166/16 "2011-08-18T18:38:17Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Hmm…I wonder if they have the full text of that article available at the liberry. Lol. I said Li-Barry for the longest time, and “Stragedy” as opposed to “Strategy.” It caused endless ridicule as a child. ☹ Anyhoo, old issues of “American Speech” are a hoot. That’s where I learned everything I ever wanted to know about “Schmaltz,” and other hip happening Jazz slang from the 30s! ETA: You can find them on JSTOR, if you’re actually interested. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![leftfield6](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leftfield6/32/18780_2.png) [@leftfield6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leftfield6)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saying-it-wrong-on-porpoise/593166/17 "2011-08-18T18:50:15Z")
I always say difficulty like this. [About 2:18 seconds in.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAAiSHSPk_w) My wife does it too. Once you start saying it like this, it’s hard to stop. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saying-it-wrong-on-porpoise/593166/18 "2011-08-18T18:56:40Z")
> [@Scarlett67](#): > > We also eat sketti and sammiches even though we have no kids. It’s not sammiches, Silly! It’s sangiches! ---
**Author:** ![Bumbershoot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbershoot/32/3428_2.png) [@Bumbershoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbershoot)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saying-it-wrong-on-porpoise/593166/19 "2011-08-18T18:58:58Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > I’ve never heard the word bumbershoot before: what a maroon. Yes, it’s a very silly word. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saying-it-wrong-on-porpoise/593166/20 "2011-08-18T19:00:08Z")
> [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > My favorite is ‘‘no apparent raisin.’’ It’s from Futurama. Nobody axed you. My dad says “Do me a flavor” every single time, as long as I can remember. Joe [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saying-it-wrong-on-porpoise/593166.md?page=2)