Yes, that’s what I meant when I was talking about elision or “gliding” into the next word upthread. Wallaby mentions it as well, characterizing it as a mispronunciation and being lazy, which I disagree with.
Sell “thuh” slaves.
Free “thee” slaves.
Hmmm…
Break “thuh” law.
Obey “thee” law.
No.
Well, that’s not how I would pronounce those. It’d be “thuh” in all cases for me.
You occasionally hear people outside of the US say “mute point” instead of “moot point”. It’s kind of funny. An American thinks “moot” is “mute”, as they’re homophones in that accent, and so writes “mute point” in a forum post read by people outside the US who, having never heard the phrase before, now pronounce it “mewt point”.
In other words, they managed to change the pronunciation without ever actually pronouncing it differently.
I’m sorry, but can you please tell me what’s wrong with this?
Oh, wait. Did I get whooshed or misunderstand. You were pointing out that the quoted poster wrote “preceded by a vowel” instead of “when it precedes a vowel sound,” weren’t you? :smack:
I am an American – a Memphian, to be specific – and “moot” & “mute” are not homophonous to me. The former is /mu:t/, the latter /mju:t/. It’s true that for many Americans /ju:/ and /u:/ have merged, but not when there is a minimal pair worth distinguishing, and people who know the word “moot” make that distinction.
Yeah, “moot” and “mute” are not homophonous to me. Nor apparently Ricky Springfield (see: Jesse’s Girl.)
Useless quote marks.
It is funny going through all these hangups people have and wondering “who cares? Let em say it how they want.” Then you come to one of the ones that is like an ice pick in the brain to you. 
People who say greeze, like in Bacon greeze, should be fried in it.
The quotes were in the original. It is still not proper to use quotes for emphasis. Using them in that context comes off as verbal irony–saying the opposite of what you actually mean.
In the cited example, it’s not that big a deal, as only isn’t absolutely necessary. But imagine it said Apples only “10” cents. That would imply they really cost more.
And I also learned the rule for “the” before vowels–in choral music class. It’s often important that everyone in the choir agrees on how a word is pronounced. I also find “thuh apple” harder to say. It comes out more like “thapple.”
Ah, I see. And, looking back, I see how condescending my question looks…
That’s sometimes heard in the UK also; and the associated adjective, which these offenders pronounce “greezy”. Makes me want to scream, too.
Nope, depending on which country you’re in, but either spelling or pronounciation is acceptable.
In fact, in “aluminum” was the name given by the chemist who first isolated the metal and in North America it is the standard English spelling.
LOL, I just remembered a roommate that used to say “pro-nunk- shoo- ey- shen”.
No matter how I tried to convince her, she was adamant that “being of English descent” she spoke the proper English of her parents and teachers. Even more entertaining was that she couldn’t figure out why we found it so hilarious that she was pronouncing “pronunciation” wrong.
So I asked her to write it down and then realized how clueless she was…
PRONUNCTUATION
I’d be more upset by a sign that said: Apples only 0.10 cents each. And I see such things all the time.
But as far as mistakes becoming common, I have no doubt that in the future, “Should of” will have overtaken “Should have”.
Yeah, well, um, you guys drive on the wrong side of the road! Yeah, that’s it!
A Lewis Carroll-type “portmanteau” word – hybrid of pronunciation and punctuation…
Sadly, that would involve more wit than she possessed, I think Shari Lewis was more her speed.
How about “greasy”? Voiced or unvoiced “s”?
“Pro nunc” (“c” pronounced as “k”) suggests a legal term.